(Inverness, Fl. 9/20/03) With seven divisions taking on the 3/8ths mile action attraction Saturday night horsepower and driving skill got the two big time winners at Citrus County Speedway back into Victory Lane. The two most populated divisions every week put on one heck of a show and proved that no matter where they start Pat Quick and Sport Wilson are the drivers to beat in the Thunder Stock and Hobby Stock divisions.
Quick started dead last in the 22 car Thunder Stock Field and again used the third groove to work her way to the front four by mid race in their 20 lap main event. When she took the point in lap 15, it was all over but the shouting and the picture taking in Victory Lane for feature win #11 and more cushion in her point lead. Jerry Hoover led the first 15 laps and had his best finish of the season in second. Perennial runner up Lee Keller just couldn’t make the pass on Hoover and pulled up in third when the checkers flew followed by Rick Badessa who was back in his own car for the first time in several weeks. Victor Shahid locked in a fifth place finish. Heat wins went to Tim Wilson and Lee Keller.
Sport Wilson took a couple of weeks off from the racing scene but when he returned, he came on with a vengeance. Starting 13th was not unlucky for him and early in the race he had moved to fifth for the restart on the first caution flag. From there he took off in the second and third groove to move to the point by lap ten and never looked back to score his 10th win of the season. Victor Stanley put up a battle with him before he relinquished the lead to Sport and had to settle for second. Curtis Neumann logged his 16th top five finish, in third followed by Roy Perkins and pole sitter Butch Patz who had his best finish of the year. Stanley and Sport logged heat wins on top of their one two finishes.
Street Stocks faced a double feature program to make it an 8 feature night at Citrus Saturday night. The 11 o’clock curfew postponed last week’s feature and they kicked off the evening with qualifiers from last week being the only cars able to run the first race. Young Daniel Webster popped off his outside pole position and set the pace right to the checkers for his third win of the year. His win wasn’t without heat from point leader Ernie Reed who kept the young driver honest right to the checkers. Danny Cretty held out for third over Joe Viverito and Mickey Burns. Heat winners were Webster and James Green last Saturday night.
In their second race of the night Travis Nichols moved rapidly from his 9th starting spot and scored his 8th win of 2003 over Mickey Burns, James Hendrickson, pole sitter Melvin Farmer and Jo Jo Viverito. Fifteen cars took the green with Daniel Webster and Ernie Reed starting in the rear of the field and both suffering mechanical problems ending Reeds night early and putting Webster down several laps before getting back into the race temporarily before having to head back for the pits. Heat wins went to Owen Leigh and Travis Nichols.
Only twelve Late Models showed up for their return to the point challenge and Rickey Carlton cashed in on the short field to become the only 4 time winner in the division and pull to within 11 points of leader Mike Bresnahan. Scott Grossenbacher was the only driver who had anything for Carlton and followed in his tire tracks for a second place finish. Herb Neumann JR. made his way from fifth to third when the checkers flew in their 30 lap main event. Danny Johnson was running for Mike Bresnahan’s points to help out in Bresnahan’s absence and managed a fourth place finish to keep Mike in the point lead. Jim Smith feel back to third after holding second for quite a few weeks before going into a tie for the position with Carlton last time out. Smith came up with a heat win along with Herb Neumann Jr. This race was a prelude to the 75 lap point race that has been rescheduled for next week marking a change in the original schedule for October 11th. Win purse for this one will be $3,000 and should bring the field back up to twenty cars plus going after the big money.
Only ten cars made the show for the Sportsman division with Johnny Sanders and Bill Oesterreicher having to pull out after rebuilding their cars and engines after their last race two weeks ago. Both cars lost oil pressure before even getting started. Mike Veltman had his way with the remaining eight cars and made it back to the Winner’s Circle after a long dry spell for the heat win and his fourth win of the season. Mike Bell continues to hold the point lead with a second place finish. Bill Ryan and Terry Cater had a match race to the flag for third and fourth respectively. Kyle Bookmiller salvaged a fifth after winning two weeks ago.
George Neumann was able to hold off the 13 car Mini Stock field for his third win of the season. Robbie Yoakam came from the back end of the field to give Neumann all he could handle to hold on the win right to the flag. Chris Hooker had a slow start off the outside pole but came back to salvage a third place finish to hold on to his point lead in the division. Steve Griffin and Dustin DesChamps round out the top five. Heat wins went to Neumann and Yoakam.
Wrapping up the show seventeen of nineteen registered Figure 8’s took on the intersection and had a tough time getting the race underway with three caution flags before the first lap was completed. The pole sitters brought out the first flag as the green flag came out trying to take the point. The restart saw 72 year old Carlo Davidson lose a wheel in his second race ever. The third restart got another pair in trouble at the intersection. When the mayhem was all over and they got a good single file restart things settled down a little. When they completed the 20 laps of wild intersection action 17th starter Rodney Davidson had worked his way to the front and took the win over Robert Aaron, Thunder? (won’t give his name), Storming Norman (another driver going by an alias) and Dave Ross were the only five cars to take the checkered flag. The rest of the field wound up in the pits due to mechanical problems and the bumping and grinding.
Next Saturday night will show a full race card featuring the rescheduled Late Model 75 for points for the local drivers and $3,000 to the winner. Sportsman, Street Stocks, Mini Stocks, Hobby Stocks and Thunder Cars continue their run for points with only six weeks left in the point’s season.
