(Inverness, Fl. 09/06/03) The weather wasn’t pretty but Citrus County Speedway was able to get a full program in Saturday night despite a few light showers interrupting the race card. The damp weather also caused a slippery race track that all the competitors had to adjust to and the fans needed an umbrella or foul weather gear to make it through the 23rd race of the season. This was the 12th race of the year where weather played a part in the turn out of racers and fans. Both were in short supply Saturday night but the hard core race fan made the trip.
Fifteen Late Models made the show and Ricky Carlton logged his third win of the season on a green to checkered flag 30 lap main event picking up 185 points and $1,500 for his nights work. Carlton pulled to within one point of Jim Smith for second in the race for second in the point race. Young gun Brock Oglesby chased Carlton for the entire race for a second place finish followed by point leader Mike Bresnahan, Rich Pratt and Smith when the checkers flew. Herb Neumann Jr. and Danny Johnson picked up the heat wins.
Ten Sportsmen took the green and this race was anything but pretty. A caution came out on the start when Mike Veltman got taken out at the start finish line. A tough return for Veltman after laying off for a four week suspension that ended Saturday night. Lap one saw another caution when Johnny Sanders got caught up in a traffic jam that put him into the front straight wall that wiped out both ends of Sanders car and required two wreckers to remove his racer from the track. Sanders operates his race car with hand controls due to being paralyzed from the waste down and he had to be removed from the car before it could be taken back to the pits. He was O.K. On the restart Stephen Anderson got caught up with Johnny Gann and Bill Oesterreicher, reducing the field to five cars for the next restart. Leader Mike Bell overheated during the caution laps and went to the pits with four laps under green. Kyle Maynard lost a right rear wheel by lap five, further reducing the field to 3 cars. For the second time this season Kyle Bookmiller stayed out of trouble and picked up his second win followed by Terry Cater and Stephen Anderson finishing the final fifteen laps under green in that order at the checkers. Mike Bell took the heat win.
Fourteen Mini Stocks chased Tom Giddings for all 20 laps as Giddings scored his first feature win of the season. Steve Griffin continues to run well and moved from fifth to second at the checkered flag followed by ninth starter Rob Wheatley who is back in action for his second week after recovering from surgery. Phillip Joyner came from 12th to fourth with last week’s winner Dustin DesChamps moving from fourteenth to fifth. Giddings and George Neumann won the heats.
Victor Stanley moved from 12th to the point scoring his first win of the season after a midseason return to racing in Hobby Stock action. Curtis Neumann continues to hold down his top five streak with a second place finish from his 10th starting spot. New comer Doug Webster moved from 16th to third at the checkers followed by Dean Lawyer and Richie Smith who started dead last in the 23 car field. Stanley and Jeff Teague picked up the heat wins.
Travis Nichols scored his seventh win of the season in Street Stock action. Nichols has been making the trip to other venues and is not racing every week at Citrus and is not interested in a championship this season. Point leader Ernie Reed put some more cushion in his lead over Danny Cretty with a second place finish while Danny had to settle for a sixth place finish behind Joe Viverito, Frank Buchanan and Mickey Burns who finished in that order. Owen Leigh and Travis Nichols won the heat races.
Pat Quick again moved from the back of the 19 car Thunder Stock main to score her tenth win of the season and move to the top of the win column for all divisions at Citrus. Pat moved around the traffic in five laps to the point and never looked back. Lee Keller had a tougher time making it through all the traffic and finished well back in second. Steve Stinedurf had his best finish of the year holding off early leader John Donahue and Rick Badessa in the run for third. Donahue and Keller won the heat races.
Next Saturday night the TBARA Winged Sprint Cars wrap up a two night North Central Florida double header at Citrus after a Friday night race at Ocala Speedway. Street Stocks, Mini Stocks, Hobby Stocks and Thunder Stocks join the 750 horsepower rockets for a full night of racing.
