Although early afternoon rains threatened to cause a replay of the last time the FMSC racers came to Citrus County, Mother Nature was kind and ended the rains early, allowing the show to go on. The racers of the Mini Stock Challenge Series have been looking forward to returning to the track at Citrus County, as the racing is always exciting.
In qualifications, Chris Thornton ran the fastest lap, in the Gulf to Bay Enterprises entry, at 15.170 seconds. Second fast, in the Lynn Blair Interiors/Pro Image entry, Cody Blair ran a lap of 15.296 seconds. After the fast qualifiers cleared tech inspection, Thornton pulled a 3 for the inversion, placing James Ellis on the pole position.
The 50 Lap Feature race lined up with Ellis and Blair on the front row, followed by Thornton and Jim Smith in the second row. The third row was filled by Robbie Storer and Jonathan Camp, followed by Brian Dorer, Chris Zimmerman, Chris Hooker, and Chris Allen filling the top ten starting positions.
As the field of racers took the green from flagman Derek Molloy, James Ellis powered to the front, with Thornton and Storer right behind, leaving Blair hung on the outside, looking for an opening to get to the bottom of the track. The first caution was displayed as the 33 of Chris Allen spun exiting turn 4.
The field was quickly reset, with Ellis continuing to lead, followed by Thornton, Storer, Smith and Camp in the top 5 positions. When the field took the green flag to restart the race, Thornton turned up the pressure on Ellis, and after a short battle, was able to take the lead, with Storer following to grab second position.
The battled for position continued through out the field, with cars passing and re-passing, creating some very exciting racing. Lap 17 sees Smith making a pass on Ellis to grab 3rd position, and begin to chase down the leaders.
The caution was again displayed on lap 25 as the cars of Camp and Zimmerman made contact, with Zimmerman spinning. The field was reset with Thornton, Storer, Smith, Ellis, and Blair in the top 5 positions, while Camp and Zimmerman were restarting from the rear of the field.
Lap 27 has Smith making the pass on Storer to grab second position, while Ellis and Blair stayed right on the bumpers of the lead pack. As the laps wound down toward the finish, Smith started to make a run at the leader, but Thornton was strong enough to hold off the charge and take the win.
After the top finishers cleared tech inspection, the results were declared official.
FINAL RESULTS Florida Mini Stock Challenge. 50 Laps Citrus County Speedway
