Ocala Speedway Crowns Second Half Champs as Regular Season Ends
by Dave Westerman
Ocala Speedway closed out its 51st regular season of racing in style on a Halloween Friday night which included trick-or-treat for the kids going car to car during intermission and a surprising end to the second half points championship in the Steven A. Bagen Super Late Models.
Best Friends Scott Grossenbacher and Rich Pratt, who both live within shouting distance of the track, topped their respective heat races and the battle lines were drawn for the 30-lap Super Late Model feature.
Grossenbacher had the outside pole for the main event with Pratt lined up fifth. E.J. Wise, the point leader coming into the evening's festivities, was in a car borrowed from Roger Shinholser after his own mount was destroyed in a front stretch crash two weeks ago. Wise lined up directly behind Pratt, who came into the season-closer five points behind Wise, so all Wise basically had to do was keep Pratt in sight to add the second half championship to his first half title.
Grossenbacher wasted little time getting to the front and set sail with just two minor caution flags bringing the field back to him in the first nine laps.
From that point there were twenty laps of green flag racing which saw Grossenbacher move out to a substantial advantage while Pratt eventually got around a stubborn Brad Heath to move into second. Pratt was driving as hard as he could, but was no match for Grossenbacher's superior handling car while Wise was driving a calculated race, moving into the top five and beginning to look like he would sweep the season point championships.
John Buzinec and Phillip Rook tangled just as the field was given the white flag to bring out the caution and set up a one lap dash to the checker.
Grossenbacher and Pratt pulled away from the field as things got very hectic behind them. Grossenbacher took the checker with Pratt in tow. However, Wise lost his brakes going into turn three, slid high and spun out in turn four with the checkered flag and the championship in sight.
Wise eventually recovered to finish tenth, but Pratt earned enough points to capture the second half points title, his first ever championship at his home track.
"Scott Grossenbacher and I have been friends for years," said Pratt. "He won a Modified championship a few years ago, but this is my first here and it just doesn't get any better than this and really gives us some momentum with all the big races coming up in November," he said.
Grossenbacher won his second Super Late Model race in a row and will certainly be one of the favorites for the twin-100's at the Fall Festival here in two weeks.
A stunned Brock Oglesby drove through the last lap mayhem to take third spot after starting the race dead last. Oglesby got to the track late, then had the power steering fail during the final warm-up session causing him to miss his heat race.
Driving a car with a set-up already on it for the opening Triple Crown race at Bronson Speedway, Oglesby made the right moves at the right time to finish in the show position while Paul Combast came home fourth just in front of Brad Heath. Gale Grayer, Keith Zavrel, Phillip Rook, Troy Robinson and Wise rounded out the top ten.
A controversial call following a tangle between leaders Dusty Bouchard and Kyle Maynard saw Maynard streak to his second straight win in the Diamond H Air & Heat Sportsman division.
The two young drivers got together on lap six with Bouchard being ruled at fault and sent to the rear. Maynard held off the hard charging pack the rest of the way despite two more cautions and one red flag after hard luck driver Big John Smith blew his eighth engine of the year on lap eleven.
William Edwards chased Maynard to the checker while Frank Buchanan took third and claimed the second half Sportsman championship. Patrick Mennenga was fourth and Bouchard kept his composure and drove back to fifth place.
Sportsman heats were won by Maynard and Bob Masciarelli.
Six caution flags spiced things up for the K-Country Street Stocks, but there were no major incidents as Doug Webster drove his "Big Bird" Monte Carlo to a hard-fought win, his third of the season.
Tommy Roberts was on the charge and trying to win his third race in a row, even getting up alongside Webster on two occasions, but Webster was up to the challenge and took a popular win.
Roberts' second place finish earned him the second half points title which he dedicated to his late nephew Keith Roberts.
Paul "Tweety Bird" Fletcher came home in third place trailed by Estle Morrow and Bobby Taylor.
Three heats were needed to sort out the Street Stock field and they were won by Webster, David Chastain and A.J. Schreier.
After being passed for the lead on the last lap of the race last week, Michael Stalnaker was not to be denied this week as he led every lap of the Four Cylinder Stock feature to claim his fifth win of the year.
Joel Byall kept the pressure on Stalnaker, but the young driver held off all challenges with his quick Nissan. Byall finished second with Ric Fort coming home in third spot. Justin Durbin was fourth while Rick Kuhn rounded out the top five and claimed the second half points championship.
Four Cylinder heats were taken by Stalnaker and Tom Ellis.
Dan Tremblay led all the way to get third win of the year in the V-8 Stocks. Laura Fletcher took the checkered flag in second and that was good enough for her to earn the first-ever points title for the new class. Hall Robertson, Steve King and Shelby Mather completed the top five.
RESULTS - OCALA SPEEDWAY - 10/31/03:
STEVEN A. BAGEN SUPER LATE MODELS (30 Laps):
1) Scott Grossenbacher #09 2) Rich Pratt #0 3) Brock Oglesby #88 4) Paul Combast #90 5) Brad Heath #28 6) Gale Grayer #87 7) Keith Zavrel #47 8) Phillip Rook #28X 9) Troy Robinson #0B 10) E.J. Wise #26 11) John Buzinec #08 12) Gig Smith #23 13) Kevyn Terry #X 14) Jeremy Farenbach #26B
DIAMOND H AIR & HEAT SPORTSMAN (20 Laps):
1) Kyle Maynard #27 2) William Edwards #08 3) Frank Buchanan #07 4) Patrick Mennenga #16 5) Dusty Bouchard #47 6) Bob Masciarelli #72 7) Wally Schneider #X 8) Charles Hornbeak #67 9) Tommy Brakeman #20 10) Tom Posavec #01 11) Jason Garver #27X 12) Jim Higginbotham #76 13) Jeremy Finegan #22 14) Lamar Smith #77 15) Eddie Kilbury #71 16) Big John Smith #31
K-COUNTRY STREET STOCKS (20 Laps):
1) Doug Webster #72 2) Tommy Roberts #96 3) Paul Fletcher #94 4) Estle Morrow #02 5) Bobby Taylor #66 6) Mike Mennenga #91 7) Mike Rosa #76 8) Terry Cater #2 9) James Morgan #55 10) Paul Gladdin #9 11) David Chastain #17 12) A.J. Schreier #98 13) Mike Fiddia #41 14) Rick Bass #39 15) Sid Mosbrucker #62 16) Ken Asbell #89 17) Keith Walker #55P 18) Eugene Deaton #83 19) Mike Brown #79 20) Mark Mitchell #71 21) Pete Close, Jr. #4T 22) Dave Danielson #70
FOUR CYLINDER STOCKS (20 Laps):
1) Michael Stalnaker #8 2) Joel Byall #40 3) Ric Fort #2 4) Justin Durbin #33 5) Rick Kuhn #47 6) Harold Barup #3 7) Terry Dunbar #72 8) Festus Barup #69 9) Tom Ellis #31 10) Kurtis Mitchell #00 11) Joey Durbin #5 12) Donnie Pitts #24 DNS Steve Visneski #42
V-8 STOCKS (15 Laps):
1) Dan Tremblay #40 2) Laura Fletcher #21 3) Hall Robertson #22 4) Steve King #99 5) Shelby Mather #17
