David Steele Charges to 1st 2007 TBARA Win at Citrus
By Larry MacMillan
Citrus County Speedway turned up the speed and rocked the grandstands with the opening season race for the TBARA Winged Sprint Cars and week two of the 2007 race for the championship point’s crown for 5 of the 8 regular weekly divisions Saturday night.
The TBARA racers traditionally open their new season at Citrus County Speedway and this weekend they opened with a high speed 29 car field that saw 23 Florida drivers and 6 visitors from Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio down to run during Speedweeks. Shane Butler, Doug Berryman out of Freemont, Ohio and Larry J. Brazil Jr. out powered the field in the three qualifying heats. Ben Fritz blitzed the field in the 13 car B Main to qualify the final 6 cars for the 24 car 30 lap Main.
When the green fell for the big one they put the hammer down and David Steele and pole sitter Keith Butler ran side by side through turns one and two and then Steele broke away while the rest of the field spent the rest of the evening chasing Keith Butler in a race for second. Despite 5 caution flags no one had anything for Steele who unofficially ran laps of 11.92, 11.94 and 11.96 seconds on the 3.8ths mile oval. The fans had to hang on to their seats with the air circulation these 800 horse power rockets stirred up during their 30 lap main event.
When the checkers flew 16 of the 24 starters completed the 30 laps with Keith Butler, just outrunning Shane Butler in the race for second and rounding out the top five were Gary Gimmler and Troy DeCaire. Four cars finished 29 laps and four cars ended the night with DNF’s. Steele confessed that he was using a borrowed motor to even get into the race during the post race interview and owner Lenny Puglio may just want to consider buying this one after the performance that David put on.
Twenty three Sportsmen took the green flag in their 20 lap feature run and Tom Posavec exercised patience from his 5th starting spot and moved through traffic to take the point and set the pace right to the checkered flag for his first win of the season. Arthur Conquest came from 13th to ride to the start finish line right on Posavec’s rear bumper for a second place finish followed by Maloy Kelly who had the early lead before Posavec took advantage of his push to the outside and taking the lead away from him. Rounding out the top five were John Zuidema III and Jim Altobelli. Altobelli was protested, torn down and was found to be legal. Heat wins went to Posavec, Jeff Rook and Scott Hendrickson.
Twenty four cars went to war in the Pure Stock battle and again the winner was decided in post race in section. Steve Stinedurf came off the outside pole and set the pace from flag to flag while Bill Ryan drove his way from 17th to finish second followed by 3rd starter Glen Colyer. Suspension modifications apparently got the top three finishers in trouble in tech dropping Stinedurf, Ryan and Colyer right out of the picture and Gary Johnson inherited the win over Jack Pate, Richard Henick, Jesse Mullis and Mike Dubbs. Heat wins went to Victor Shahid and Richard Henick by virtue of the D.Q’s and Mike Walsh took the win in the second heat without any help from tech inspection.
It was a 20 car Mini Stock field that put on quite a show despite numerous caution flags. Mike Curry looked like the man to beat coming off the pole to set the early pace in their 20 lap main event. He looped it early in the race leaving the door open for Clint Foley to move from his 5th starting spot to capture the win followed by last week’s winner Steve Griffin who moved from 13th to hold out for second. George Neumann locked down a third place finish from his 11th starting spot followed by Johnathon Camp and Mark Powers. Heat wins went to Mike Curry, Johnathon Camp and Phillip Joyner.
Again the top three in the 4 Cylinder Bomber feature ran into a very observant Tech Inspector in post race inspection and lost their spots for suspension illegalities. Jon Doucette, John DeGeorge and Donnie Guy lost their top three finishing spots and left Jeff Eberly in Victory Lane for his first ever win. Travis Hoefler came from the back of the 17 car pack to take second followed by Tim Nocella, Patric Conner and Joshua Fairchild. Heat wins went to Fairchild and Eberly.
Steve Hise made it two in a row in the Rookie V8 Thunder Stock feature from his 8th starting spot battling with Chad Markland right to the checkered flag. Markland was D.Q.’d in tech and Jeff Eisenhower inherited the 2nd place finish. John Brown made his first trip to the speedway payoff with a third place finish followed by Eddie Rosasco and Ricky Shahid.
Next Saturday night will see the third week of the season with an 8 division race card featuring the Open Wheel Modifieds, Sportsman, Mini Stocks, Street Stocks, Pure Stocks, V8 Thunder Stocks, 4 Cylinder Bombers and the Wild and Fantastic Figure 8’s in intersection action.
TBARA Winged Sprint Feature – 24 Cars – 30 Laps FEATURE 1) 91 David Steele; 2) 19 Keith Butler; 3) 41 Shane Butler; 4) 29 Gary Gimmler; 5) 68 Troy DeCaire; 6) 51 Mark Gimmler; 7) 21B Larry Brazil Jr.; 8) 99 Cameron Dodson; 9) 98F Kevin Feeney; 10) 66 Kipp Beard; 11) 18 Stan Butler; 12) 21 Jim Alvis; 13) 0 Dude Teate; 14) 9X Michael Smith; 15) 55 Tommy Nichols; 16) 47 Richard Waddell; 17) 14 Hank Lower; 18) 7 John Gilbert Jr.; 19) 39 Charles Ladner; 20) 5W Randy Woodall (DNF); 21) 88 Frank Neill (DNF); 22) 55R Doug Berryman (DNF); 23) 16 Ben Fritz (DNF); 24) 56 Ryan Myers (DNF)
HEAT 1 1) 41 Shane Butler 2) 68 Troy DeCaire 3) 29 Gary Gimmler 4) 91 David Steele 5) 66 Kipp Beard 6) 21 Jim Alvis 7) 16 Ben Fritz 8) 0 Dude Teate 9) 14 Hank Lower 10) 19T Matt Tiffany
HEAT 2 1) 55R Doug Berryman 2) 47 Richard Waddell 3) 9X Michael Smith 4) 98 Kevin Feeney 5) 39 Charles Ladner 6) 55 Tommy Nichols 7) 56 Ryan Myers 8) 80 Wendy Mathis 9) 15 D.J. Hoelzle 10) 75 Curtis Sutton
HEAT 3 1) 21B Larry Brazil Jr. 2) 51 Mark Gimmler 3) 99 Cameron Dodson 4) 19 Keith Butler 5) 18 Stan Butler 6) 5W Randy Woodall 7) 88 Frank Neill 8) 7 John Gilbert Jr. 9) 1 Steven Bradley
B-MAIN 1) 16 Ben Fritz; 2) 56 Ryan Myers; 3) 0 Dude Teate; 4) Frank Neill; 5) 80 Wendy Mathis; 6) 14 Hank Lower; 7) 7 John Gilbert Jr. ; 8) 15 D.J. Hoelzle; 9) 75 Curtis Sutton
The 19T of Matt Tiffany and the 1 of Steven Bradley did not start the B-main. After the finish, the 80 was unable to start the A main and so the 7 car transferred to the A-main feature race.
