Cooler temperatures greeted the fans and drivers who made their way to Ocala Speedway for another Friday night of racing, but the racing on the track was anything but cooler and the competition was closer than ever. And Friday marked the return of two popular drivers who had been off the track for some time, which excited the fans and increased the competition.
Mark Mitchell, nicknamed "The Grim Reaper," returned with a new Street Stock car and performed well in his feature race, while Melissa Hunley made her return to the 4 Cylinder Stocks with a new race car as well. Both looked as if they had never taken time off and put on a great show for the fans. And the night got another boost when Chaplain Bill Ross provided the invocation and sang the National Anthem before the heat races began.
The Street Stocks began the feature races with Jeff Stalnaker Jr. on the pole and the 86 car of Pete Close obviously missing. The 86 was suffering transmission issues so Hall Robertson loaned his 91 car to Close for the race, before a lap could be completed the 91 spun with Close at the wheel and suffered a flat tire ruining his chances to race from the rear to another win.
Jeff Stalnaker faced a challenge from Shelby Mather in the 17 car, but managed to hold him off in order to get the win. Mather was forced to settle for a respectable second place finish while Mike Stalnaker raced from the rear to third place.
As the checkerd flag flew on the frontstretch there was a collision on the backstretch that hurt the finishing positions for three contenders. Don Woosley, Steve Grandstaff, and Mark Trexler, were all involved in the accident which actually occurred after the checkers had flown for the leaders, thus ending the race.
The biggest round of applause from the fans came when Mark Mitchell's 71 was announced during the heat races. Mitchell has always been a popular driver with the fans, and so have his creatively painted race cars.
Matt Schell put a new engine in his race car during the week and tested it briefly during open practice on Tuesday night, but rains came and shortened the practice session cutting into Schell's time to break in the new motor.
By the time the heat races were over and the V8 Pure Stock feature race began, it was obvious that Matt Schell's car was definitely the car to beat. He dominated the heat race plus the feature event taking the win by a large margin over Josh Brown who finished second. Jessie Corbett raced from the rear of the starting grid to go home with the third place trophy.
Shelton Bowers was the winner in last week's Sportsman feature, so he found himself relegated to the rear as Greg Young led the rest of the field to the green flag. Bowers was not going to give up and raced to the front three within six laps.
His charge to the front went sour at that point as he spun in turn 4 and drove over a tire in the infield. Again Bowers found himself in the rear with almost half of the laps gone, but he managed to charge forward finally winding up with a second place finish.
While Shelton Bowers was driving through the field for the second time, things up front were getting heated. Greg Young began the race from the pole and had the lead when Tim Shull passed him in turn 2. There was some slight contact between the two that was repeated on the backstretch, and the second time resulted in a double spin. While Tim Shull was able to continue the race, Greg Young's car suffered some nasty driver's side damage and had to retire from the race. That put the 24 of Donnie Roberts out in front, but he spun on the final lap and relinquish the lead to Jim Higginbotham in the 76 car.
Higginbotham raced to the front after making an unplanned "adjustment" to the car on lap 5 using the frontstretch wall. Higginbotham said the car handled better after bouncing off the wall.
The final lap caution brought out by Roberts' spin forced a one lap sprint to the finish, and Higginbotham held off Shelton Bowers for the win. While Bowers settled for second, Shane Nichols managed to maneuver his car to take third place from Rick Bass and Bill Stalnaker.
Everyone enjoys seeing an eager youngster collect his first win, and the V8 Thunder Stock race saw a 14 year old driver collect a well deserved trip to the winner's circle. Michael Valdez earned the pole position and led the field to the green, but as the race progressed there were a couple of lead changes before Guy Bacelo Jr. finally took control.
Wade Brown was the first driver to storm into the lead, but he was forced to the pits on lap 5 by some mechanical gremlins. At that point Guy Bacelo Jr. stormed up front and held on to grab the win, followed by Donnie Buckner in second place and Michael Valdez in third place.
A strong field of late models hit the track as some drivers used this night at Ocala as a sort of tune up for the Cecil Williams Memorial Race at Columbia Motorsports Park in just over a week. Jason Rendell began the race on the pole but was forced outside on the first lap and passed by several cars. Kurt Jett forced his way to the front and stayed there, actually distancing himself from the rest of the field for a time until Tim Shull spun in turn 1, bringing out the caution flag. That allowed the rest of the field to close the gap, and when the race restarted Daniel Webster was looking for a passing route in order to take the lead.
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Again the race was halted by a mess in turn 1, which sent the 01 of Robbie Smith, the 127 of Kyle Maynard, and the 09 of Scott Grosenbacher, to the pits for the remainder of the night. Grossenbacher returned and attempted to finish, but his car was not competitive and he again pulled off the track.
Once that mess was cleared and the race restarted, Daniel Webster quickly overpowered Kurt Jett for the lead on lap 12 and never looked back, taking a definitive win. Jett finished in the second spot followed by Keith Zavrel in third place.
The final feature race of the night began with Melissa Hunley leading the field to the green, but her cousin, Brandon Elwood, wrestled the lead from her by the third lap and remained out front for the win. Although Melissa had been off of the track for some time, she fought hard to keep her position and raced clean, but was eventually passed by both Richard Kuhn and Jon Layerd. She came home in fourth place, while second place went to Kuhn and third place to Layerd.
Ocala Speedway welcomes the Gulf Coast Modifieds on Friday, August 24th, plus the Florida Mini Cup cars and four regular divisions. Teams are forming now for the 3rd Annual Ocala Speedway Outhouse race, which will run on August 31st.
Ocala Speedway Results for 8/17/07 * indicates heat race winners
Street Stock
1- 10 Jeff Stalnaker Jr. 2- 17 Shelby Mather 3- 8 Mike Stalnaker* 4- 4 David Foster 5- 1 David Baxley* 6- 39 Rick Bass 7- 71 Mark Mitchell 8- 14 John Buzinec 9- 69 Tommy Ausborn 10- 3X Mark Trexler 11- 81 Donald Woosley 12- 83 Carl Carr 13- 12G Steve Grandstaff 14- 91 Pete Close Jr. DNS- 97 Brent Cooper DNS- 86 Hall Robertson
V8 Pure Stock
1- 57 Matt Schell* 2- 67 Josh Brown 3- 3D Jessie Corbett 4- 14 James Sullivan 5- 18W Chris Watson DQ (tech)- 66 James Erickson DNS- 96 Bruce Pernitza DNS- 196 Jason Henry
Sportsman
1- 76 Jim Higginbotham 2- 32 Shelton Bowers 3- 65 Shane Nichols 4- 39 Rick Bass 5- 61 Bill Stalnaker 6- 38 Todd Kelly 7- 24 Donnie Roberts 8- 8 Tim Shull 9- 08 William Edwards 10- 23 Greg Young* 11- 34 John Duggan DNS- 11X Harold Edwards
V8 Thunder Stock
1- 25 Guy Bacelo Jr.* 2- 98 Donnie Buckner 3- 00 Michael Valdez 4- 79 Wade Brown
Late Model
1- 3 Daniel Webster* 2- 9 Kurt Jett 3- 47 Keith Zavrel 4- 77 James Powell 5- 8 Tim Shull 6- 94 Jason Rendell 7- 44P Don Paugh 8- 09 Scott Grosenbacher* 9- 01 Robbie Smith 10- 127 Kyle Maynard 11- 44A Tony Altiere
4 Cylinder Stock
1- 28 Brandon Elwood* 2- 47 Richard Kuhn 3- 02 Jon Layerd 4- 18 Melissa Hunley 5- 17 Justyn Elwood 6- 23 John Hagins
Next Week:
Gulf Coast Modifieds Florida Mini Cups 4 Cylinder Stock V8 Thunder Stock V8 Pure Stock Street Stock
