IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

April 15, 2007 Nine Feature Races Highlight Action Packed Citrus Race Night by Larry MacMillan It was an action packed night featuring seven local divisions and the visiting Kids and Pro FAST Truck series at Citrus County Speedway. Ideal weather and 149 race cars and trucks packed the pits at the 3/8ths mile bull ring and the fans got their money’s worth with heat races and 220 laps of feature races featuring nine divisions. The Mod Squad showed up 19 cars strong and Teddy Nelson flexed his horsepower off the pole to outrun defending champion Kyle Bookmiller for a flag to flag, 2nd win of the season and putting some cushion in his points lead in the division. Car owner Dennis Webb has taken over the driving chores for injured Tommy Schnader and put his race car in third at the checkered flag followed by Jimmy Houle and Adam May. Heat winners were Stephen Harbuck, Lee Collins and Kyle Bookmiller. Eighteen Sportsmen took the green flag in their 20 lap main and watched 8th starter Mike Veltman use the second groove to take his second consecutive win proving “Magic Mike” is back and a contender for another Championship. Bobby Taylor was on his game putting the pressure on from his 10th starting spot right to the flag followed by Ernie Reed, pole sitter Maloy Kelly and Phillip Rook. Kelly took the win in the first heat and Bobby Taylor locked on to the win in the second heat. Clint Foley is a man on a mission as he launched his Mini Stock out of his 8th starting spot and made short work of the front seven to take his second win of the season in their 20 lap, 16 car feature run. Mark Powers had his best finish of his career riding on Foley’s rear bumper when the checkers flew. Jesse Henley managed a 3rd place finish in a borrowed race car followed by last week’s winner Phillip Joyner who moved from 12th to 4th at the finish line. Rounding out the top five was point leader Steve Griffin. Heat wins went to Don Faunce and Dan Smith. Curtis Flanagan started 10th, worked the outside groove and outran Ernie Reed in a late pass to take his first win of the season in the 24 car Street Stock feature. Pole Sitter Bob Becker was able to avoid all of the multiple crashes in the race to salvage a third place finish over 16th starter Tim Alexander. Wayne Heater finished in the top five for the second week in a row and hopefully has gotten the “Bad Luck Monkey” off his back. Heat winners were Tim Quick, Flanagan and Don Teague. Twenty three Pure Stocks raced in their 20 lap main and “Rapid” Bobby Taylor started 18th and locked onto his second win in row in only his second week in the division. He was chased to the flag by his New York visiting brother Ted Taylor. Bill Ryan started 17th and moved to a third place finish over Mike Dubbs and Kyle Peters. Heat wins went to Victor Shahid, Rick Shahid and Bobby Taylor. Taylor would have run in three divisions if his Modified was running after winning his first Mod race two weeks ago. This guy just loves to race even though he has only been actively racing for four years. Twelve Rookie Thunder V8 drivers chased 7th starter Chad Markland to the flag with Brian Villeneuve and Ricky Shahid in a fierce battle for second. The runners up were D.Q.’d in tech moving Eddie Rosasco, John Brown, Chad Fairbanks and Cotee Clark up the finish ladder to round out the top five. They ran a feature only. It was a wild 20 car Figure 8 feature that saw six cars pull out after two laps and only half the field taking the checkered flag. Stephen Anderson started 6th and took the early lead with a traffic jam behind him trying to win it in the first lap. Anderson lost the lead late in the race while they were running three deep through the intersection when he was able to take advantage of the confusion and regain the lead and the win for his first of the season. Point leader Joey Catterelli managed to move from his 17th starting spot to take a solid second place finish. Curtis Youmans held onto a third place finish where he ran most of the race. John Thomas came back from a wreck that put him up on the turn 1 and 2 wall to lock down a 4th place finish over Wayne Calkins. A late addition the race card came with the Kids and Pro FAST Truck Series. Six 12 to 16 year olds took the green for their 20 lap main event and Seth Greco managed to get around Casey Cadill, who led most of the race before they got together late in the race, with Cadill having to restart in the rear while Greco went on to take the win. Max Bennett, Stephen Nasse, Kevin Blum and Cadill rounded out the top five. Ten Pro Trucks took the green in their 35 lap feature event and when the checkers flew it was local driver James Green taking the point and his first win at his home track in his fourth race of the season. Inverness driver John Kidwell caught Green when a late caution closed up the big lead that Green had built but didn’t have enough to make the pass and settled for second ahead of point leader Mike Powers out of Hialeah, Dustin Henderson from St. Cloud and Jessica Green from Lakeland. Next Saturday night sees the return of the Super Late Models, plus Sportsman, Mini Stocks, Street Stocks Pure Stocks, V8 Thunder Stocks and 4 Cylinder Bombers with an all local race card. Citrus County Speedway Results 4/14/07 Open Wheel Modified Feature – 30 Laps – 19 Cars 1. #34 Teddy Nelson – 2nd Season Win 2. #03 Kyle Bookmiller 3. #19 Dennis Webb 4. #80 Jimmy Houle 5. #37 Adam May 1st Heat Winner – #09 Stephen Harbuck 2nd Heat Winner - #89 Lee Collins 3rd Heat Winner - #03 Kyle Bookmiller Sportsman Feature – 20 Laps – 18 Cars 1. #94 Mike Veltman – 2nd Season Win 2. #66 Bobby Taylor 3. #55 Ernie Reed 4. #92 Maloy Kelly 5. #97 Phillip Rook 1st Heat Winner - #92 Maloy Kelly 2nd Heat Winner - #66 Bobby Taylor Mini Stock Feature – 20 Laps – 16 Cars 1. # 7 Clint Foley – 2nd Season Win 2. #29 Mark Powers 3. #23/9 Jesse Henley 4. #86 Phillip Joyner 5. # 3 Steve Griffin 1st Heat Winner - #2 Don Faunce 2nd Heat Winner – #82 Dan Smith Street Stock Feature – 20 Laps – 24 Cars 1. #3 Curtis Flanagan – 1st Season Win 2. #04 Ernie Reed 3. #17 Bob Becker 4. #63 Tim Alexander 5. #71 Wayne Heater 1st Heat Winner - #97 Tim Quick 2nd Heat Winner - #3 Curtis Flanagan 3rd Heat Winner - # 2 Don Teague Pure Stock Feature – 20 Laps – 23 Cars 1. #127 Bobby Taylor – 2nd Season Win 2. #77 Ted Taylor 3. #33 Bill Ryan 4. #36 Mike Dubbs 5. #14 Kyle Peters 1st Heat Winner - #8 Victor Shahid 2nd Heat Winner - # 3 Rick Shahid 3rd Heat Winner - #127 Bobby Taylor V8 Thunder Stock Rookies Feature – 20 Laps – 12 Cars 1. #34 Chad Markland – 1st Season Win 2. #10 Eddie Rosasco 3. #57 John Brown 4. #37 Chad Fairbanks 5. #39 Cotee Clark Figure 8 Feature - 20 Laps – 20 Cars 1. #48 Stephen Anderson – 1st Season Win 2. #15 Joey Catterelli 3. #27 Curtis Youmans 4. #77 John Thomas 5. #14 Wayne Calkins Kids FAST Trucks – 20 Laps – 6 Trucks Pro FAST Trucks – 35 Laps – 10 Trucks 1. #74 Seth Greco 1. #53 James Green – Inverness 2. #1X Max Bennett – Zephyrhills 2. #7NY John Kidwell – Inverness 3. #69 Stephen Nasse-Pinellas Park 3. #05 Mike Powers-Hialeah 4. #31 Kevin Blum- 4. #18 Dustin Henderson 5. #33 Casey Cadill –Port Orange 5. #40 Jessica Green Have an opinion on this story? 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