Early in the afternoon showers fell on Ocala Speedway, but by the time the grandstand gate was opened at 5PM the sun had returned and the track had dried. Because of the rain the crowd was a little delayed in arriving, but by the time the Sportsman cars began qualifying at 7PM a solid crowd of fans had found their seats and were ready for some racing. And racing is exactly what they got, as several divisions had some of their more competitive races of the season thus far.
In the first feature race Josh Brown led a 15 car field of V8 Pure Stocks to the green flag, and although he fought to retain his lead, Brown eventually was passed by Bobby Taylor. Taylor went on to win the race, and Larry Welter Sr, James Erickson, and Kyle Peters, rounded out the top five finishers.
Thanks to two rain outs and a scheduled week off, the 4 Cylinder Stocks had not had a chance to race in quite a while. Justin Durbin had the pole but could not hold the lead and Justyn Elwood, Brandon Elwood, Richard Kuhn, and Shawn Evans all battled for the top spots. After many position changes and some awesome side by side racing, Richard Kuhn picked up a hard earned win, while Justyn Elwood took second place and Brandon Elwood settled for third.
The most anticipated race of the night came in the middle of the features as the Sportsman cars hit the track for a 50 lap, $1000 to win, feature race. Rick Bass started from the pole but faded fast once the green flag fell. Wayne Morris charged to the front and managed to finish first, but later in tech his car was disqualified. And while Morris led most of the race, Mike Veltman raced him hard, but clean, and was awarded the win.
Tim Shull took home the second place trophy and Don Milam raced to the third spot. The race was marred by a couple of nasty incidents, one of which played out right in front of the main grandstands. In that incident Bill Stalnaker found himself facing traffic on the front stretch, and a couple of other cars could not avoid him. Jim Higginbotham made hard contact with Stalnaker's disabled car, but went on the finish the race, while the 13 of Aaron Williamson ended up in the infield grass and left on a hook.
Jason Henry has demonstrated more than once that he does not have to begin a race up front in order to win it, and on this night it was no different. Shawn Bailey led the field to the green but was quickly overtaken by several other racers. As a few cars battled for the lead, Henry moved to the outside and hit the gas, eventually landing in front of all of the others and never had to look back. Donnie Buckner Jr earned a second place finish while Dawn Lavan was third.
As is usually the case, a strong field of Street Stocks hit the track with Carl Carr on the pole and several fast cars relegated to the middle of the pack. Jeff Stalnaker grabbed the lead on the first lap and held on for the win, followed by Mike Wilson and Mike Stalnaker, who also had to race from deep in the field. Pete Close raced his way into the fifth from the last starting position, and David Baxley also gained many positions but ultimately fell short of making it into the top five.
Edward Allen traveled from Adel, Georgia, to race at Ocala Speedway, and he earned the pole position and led everyone to the green flag. From that point on it was Scott Grosenbacher who had the car to beat as he stole the lead on the first lap and drove away from the field. An early incident on the track left Kurt Jett with a damaged race car, but he refused to give in and managed to fight off the competition for the second spot. Jim Smith drove Daniel Webster's number 33 car to the third place spot while Webster in his number 3 car ended up in the rear and had to fight his way forward to salvage a fifth place finish.
Next Friday night the open wheel modifieds are back for another hotly contested battle. Other divisions running include the 4 Cylinder Stocks, Thunder Stocks, V8 Pure Stocks, and Street Stocks.
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Ocala Speedway Results for 9/14/07
Sportsman (50 lap/$1000 to win)
1 - 94 Mike Veltman 2 - 8 Tim Shull 3 - 0 Don Milam 4 - 65 Shane Nichols 5 - 08 William Edwards 6 - 76 Jim Higginbotham 7 - 61E Eric Sauers 8 - 38 Todd Kelly 9 - 121 Gordon Cade 10 - 32 Shelton Bowers 11 - 9 Michael Mennenga 12 - 61B Bill Stalnaker 13 - 3 Harold Barup 14 - 23 Edward Allen 15 - 13 Aaron Williamson 16 - 29 Leroy Donaldson 17 - 39 Rick Bass DQ (tech)- 56 Wayne Morris DQ (conduct)- 16 Patrick Mennenga DNS- 147 John Zuidema
V8 Pure Stock
1 - 77 Bobby Taylor 2 - 67 Josh Brown 3 - 85 Larry Welter Sr. 4 - 66 James Erickson 5 - 4 Kyle Peters 6 - 3D Jessie Corbett 7 - 15 Joey Durbin 8 - 79 Norm Brown 9 - 69 Michael Smith 10 - 14 James Sullivan 11 - 47 John Zuidema Jr. 12 - 18W Chris Watson 13 - 63 Bill Thomas 14 - 96 Bruce Pernitza 15 - 82 Jim Kruse
4 Cylinder Stock
1 - 47 Richard Kuhn 2 - 17 Justyn Elwood 3 - 28 Brandon Elwood 4 - 02 John Layerd 5 - 31 Justin Durbin 6 - 97 Jacob Leeson 7 - 46 Shawn Evans 8 - 92 Rick Heath 9 - 23 John Hagens
V8 Thunder Stock
1 - 196 Jason Henry 2 - 98 Don Buckner Jr. 3 - 18W Dawn Lavan 4 - 25 Guy Bacelo Jr. 5 - 47 James Zuidema 6 - 7 Don Buckner Sr. 7 - 18B Shawn Bailey
Street Stock
1 - 10 Jeff Stalnaker Jr. 2 - 44 Mike Wilson 3 - 8 Mike Stalnaker 4 - 58 Larry Welter Jr. 5 - 86 Pete Close Jr. 6 - 97 Brent Cooper 7 - 1 David Baxley 8 - 12 Justin Durbin 9 - 4 David Foster 10 - 17 Shelby Mather 11 - 91 Hall Robertson 12 - 75 Phillip Rook 13 - 71 Marc Mitchell 14 - 14 John Buzinec 15 - 09 Carl Carr 16 - 39 Rick Bass 17 - 6 Leonard Arnold
Late Model (incomplete results)
1 - 09 Scott Grossenbacher 2 - 9 Kurt Jett 3 - 33 Jim Smith 4 - 01 Robbie Smith 5 - 3 Daniel Webster
