Grossenbacher Survives Wild Start to Take Ocala Speedway SLM Win
by Dave Westerman
Scott Grossenbacher of nearby San Antonio, making just his third regular season start of the year, slipped by an opening lap crash that ultimately claimed the top three cars in points and sped to his first Steven A. Bagen Super Late Model win at Ocala Speedway Friday night.
After easily winning his heat race, Grossenbacher lined up fifth on the grid for the 30-lap feature while Rich Pratt started fourth after also dominating his heat while looking for his third consecutive win here.
Point leader E.J. Wise had the pole for the start, but as the green flag flew, outside pole sitter Keith Zavrel slipped badly and turned into Wise coming off turn four. Wise's car turned right and slammed into the wall just before the flag stand. Pratt couldn't avoid Wise's machine and rode up and over it, sliding to a stop in a shower of sparks in turn one.
Despite the hard lick, Wise was OK while Pratt also emerged from his car unscathed. However the crash had eliminated the top two drivers in the point chase with just one race to go.
Rookie SLM driver Gale Grayer had the pole for the restart and took an early lead only to see caution out at the completion of lap one for a tangle between Phillip Rook and Tim Shull.
Grayer continued to lead with Zavrel doing all he could to hold off Grossenbacher for second. Only two laps could be made before the yellow flag was out again as John Buzinec and Gig Smith got tangled up.
During the yellow flag period, track officials noticed water on the speedway and determined it was coming from Zavrel's car, apparently caused by his involvement in the opening lap tangle. Zavrel, the third place driver in points, headed for the pits and was done for the night.
Grayer was doing a great job on the restart, but Grossenbacher had his car dialed in and was just biding his time looking for an opening. That opening came on lap ten as Grossenbacher dove low into turn three and took over the top spot. From that point, Grossenbacher was in a class by himself, rocketing to a big lead as the remainder of the race was run under green.
Grossenbacher, who has quite a few Modified wins here, took his first in Super Late Model competition with Grayer getting his best career finish in second. Troy Robinson had a steady run for third holding off a late charge from Paul Combast. Phillip Rook was fifth, a lap down to the high-flying Grossenbacher.
Not a bumper was left un-bent in the Diamond H Air & Heat Sportsman feature as the fans were treated to a wild race that also got started off on a rough note.
Outside pole sitter Kyle Maynard was trying to get back into the low groove behind leader Patrick Mennenga, but was tapped by William Edwards in turn three. Maynard's car slid backwards, ending up on top of the turn four wall while Edwards somehow managed to keep his machine out of the fence.
Once track crews got Maynard's car off the wall, Mennenga took over the top spot and survived five more caution flags and the relentless pressure of Frank Buchanan to score his fourth win of the year but his first since late June.
Buchanan did everything but climb into the back seat of Mennenga's car, but could not keep Mennenga for scoring a popular win. Buchanan settled for second while Edwards was third despite a balky car over the final few laps. Tommy Brakeman was fourth and Jim Higginbotham fifth.
Sportsman heats were won by Edwards and Dusty Bouchard. A new tire being used by the Open Wheel Lite cars proved to be the downfall for Tennessee visitor Doug Carrigan.
Carrigan topped his heat race while Jacksonville's Ron Towles took the other OWL heat.
Although Carrigan started fifth in the feature, he had already taken the lead as the field completed lap one. Bob Quick spun his ride at that point to bring out what would be the only yellow flag of the race.
Carrigan was waving goodbye to the field as Brian Gingras and Rick Lundeen were in a great battle for second. With just a few laps remaining, Carrigan's car began to slip badly in the turns, a victim of a badly blistered right rear tire. Gingras caught Carrigan and took the lead with two laps to go as the New Smyrna Beach driver sped to the win. Carrigan was able to hold on for second just ahead of Lundeen while Towles and Quick completed the top five.
Belleview's Tommy Roberts passed Mark Mitchell on the fourth lap of the K-Country Street Stock feature and never looked back in scoring his fifth win of the year.
This was another wild affair that saw point leader Paul "Tweety" Fletcher out early with a broken axle and a nearly 20 minute delay to clean up the track after Mike Rosa's transmission exploded going into turn one.
Although Mitchell stayed close, Roberts took a relatively easy win while apparent third place finisher A.J. Schreier was disqualified in tech for having a limited-slip rear end in his car which is not allowed in the class.
David Chastain moved up to third in the final finishing order with Bobby Taylor and Estle Morrow rounding out the top five.
Heats for Street Stocks were won by Fletcher and Doug Webster.
The Four Cylinder Stocks had the biggest field of cars, but were the only class to run their feature green to checker without a caution. Tom Ellis was making his Mustang as wide as he could for 16 laps but couldn't hold off the charge of Ric Fort who got by for the lead and drove his Toyota to his eighth win of the season, the most for any driver at Ocala Speedway this year.
Justin Durbin also got by Ellis for second with Ellis holding on for third spot. Joel Byall and Terry Dunbar were fourth and fifth. Three heats were needed in the Four Cylinders and they were won by Fort, Durbin and Ellis.
"Mrs. Tweety," Laura Fletcher notched her fifth win in the new V-8 Stock class leading wire to wire over Dan Tremblay, Jared Kessler, Shelby Mather and Hall Robertson.
RESULTS - OCALA SPEEDWAY - 10/17/03:
STEVEN A. BAGEN SUPER LATE MODELS (30 Laps):
1) Scott Grossenbacher #09 2) Gale Grayer #87 3) Troy Robinson #0B 4) Paul Combast #90 5) Phillip Rook #28 6) John Buzinec #08 7) Gig Smith #23 8) Tim Shull #8 9) Keith Zavrel #47 10) E.J. Wise #7 11) Rich Pratt #0 DIAMOND H AIR & HEAT SPORTSMAN (20 Laps):
1) Patrick Mennenga #16 2) Frank Buchanan #07 3) William Edwards #08 4) Tommy Brakeman #20 5) Jim Higginbotham #76 6) Pete Close, Jr. #82 7) Tom Posavec #8B 8) Wally Schneider #X 9) Dusty Bouchard #47 10) Kyle Maynard #27 11) Jeremy Finegan #22 DQ Roger Damron #76D K-COUNTRY STREET STOCKS (20 Laps):
1) Tommy Roberts #96 2) Mark Mitchell #71 3) David Chastain #17 4) Bobby Taylor #66 5) Estle Morrow #02 6) Mike Fiddia #41 7) Doug Webster #72 8) Michael Mennenga #91 9) Jay Morgan #55 10) Sid Mosbrucker #62 11) Rick Bass #39 12) Dave Danielson #70 13) Mike Rosa #76 14) Paul Fletcher #94 15) Danny Fletcher #6X DNS Dot Kelly #38 DQ A.J. Schreier #98 OPEN WHEEL LITES (20 Laps):
1) Brian Gingras #09 2) Doug Carrigan #8 3) Rick Lundeen #04 4) Ron Towles #01 5) Bob Quick #21 6) Erik Powell #28 7) Kevin Baxter #69 8) Wayne DeClerck #96 9) Jim Biglin #07 10) Bill See #54 11) John Sproul #72 12) Becky Davis #6 13) Buford Matthew #02 DNS Harvey Johnson #7J FOUR CYLINDER STOCKS (20 Laps):
1) Ric Fort #2 2) Justin Durbin #33 3) Tom Ellis #31 4) Joel Byall #40 5) Terry Dunbar #72 6) Rick Kuhn #47 7) Harold Barup #3 8) Festus Barup #69 9) Chris Noce #99 10) Steve Moulton #41 11) Kurtis Mitchell #00 12) Greg Young #69X 13) Joey Brinson #13 14) Jeff Pittsley #20 15) Adam Hayes #78 16) Steve Visneski #42 17) Clark Pittsley #64 DNS Donnie Pitts #24 DNS Michael Stalnaker #8 V-8 STOCKS (15 Laps):
1) Laura Fletcher #21 2) Dan Tremblay #40 3) Jared Kessler #61 4) Shelby Mather #17 5) Hall Robertson #22
