IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

April 6, 2008 Most Citrus Features Lose to Mother Nature Saturday by Larry MacMillan The weather man wasn’t exactly promising great racing conditions for Saturday night action. With the sea breezes colliding over Citrus County much of the late afternoon intermittent showers caused a couple of interruptions in the practice session. Speedway management gave the drivers the option of running an all feature show but they opted for heats and features and unfortunately Mother Nature won that battle. The schedule called for 6 local divisions and 2 traveling divisions which totaled 14 heat races. The 4 Cylinder Bombers kicked off the heavy schedule with three heats and a total of 24 cars. Defending champion Jeff Eberly made a last lap pass on the front runners for his third heat win of the season. Rookie Nathan Florian took a flag to flag win in the second heat for his first of the season and newcomer Mike Ogren came off the pole to take wins in both his heat and locking down a flag to flag win in the 20 lap feature for his first of the year. Bryson Ward battled with Phil Edwards in the race for second for most of the race with Ward making the pass on lap 18 for a second place finish only to lose it in post race inspection. Edwards moved up to second followed by Tim Scalise, Richard Kuhn and Travis Hoefler rounding out the top five. The V8 Thunder Stock Rookies were the only other regular division that got their feature in before the final down pour of the evening cut off any further action for the night. Terry Sharrone took over the ride in the #59 car, started in 14th position and drove through traffic by lap 15 for the win. Jon Brown started 7th and locked on to a second place finish only to lose it in post race inspection. Alex Wilder inherited 2nd by virtue of the D.Q. followed by Anthony Eckeman, Chris Fisher, and Cory Swanston. The Rookies do not run heat races. The visiting Florida Open Wheel Lites came to town with 15 race cars from all over Florida and were able to get their heats and a rain shortened 17 lap feature in. Billy Gise towed in from Auburndale and had the hot rod that showed the rest of the field home in both his heat and the feature before a crash that brought out the caution flag in lap 17 and then the checkers when the rains came. Sarasota’s John Bailey started third and managed to hold off the rest of the field for a second place finish. Rick Lundeen out of Jacksonville held out for third followed by Jeff Wolfe out of Myakka City. Phil Krauthoff out of Stuart took the win in the second heat. FOWL are scheduled to make at least two more races at Citrus this season. Eighteen Super Late Models came ready to race and unfortunately about all they were able to get in was practice and a pair of heat races. Matt Bowers was the man to beat in the first heat jumping to the point from the outside pole and Troy Robinson put on a good chase for the 8 lap run but got penalized two spots for jumping on the start giving 7th starter Herb Neumann Jr. the 2nd place finish over Raymond Lovelady, Robinson and John Gerstner. The Late Model feature make up has been set for Saturday, April 26th. All of the Twin 50 L.M. races have been cancelled and they will run regular 35 lap features on their regular race dates. Only 10 Sportsman made the race running two 5 car heat races. Bobby Ervein shot from 3rd to first when the green flag flew in the first heat and set the pace to the checkers. Mike Veltman worked his way from 5th to second followed by JoJo Viverito, Tom Posavec and Dalton Nelson. Pole sitter Clint Foley held off Ernie Reed in the run for the checkers in the second heat. D.J. Macklin, Sal DeFranco and David White round out the top five. No date has been set for their feature make up. Richie Powers had his way with the 8 car field in a photo finish with Todd Haught who led the whole race until they hit the start finish line in the first Mini Stock heat. James Ellis out ran Clint Foley for third. Foley started 8th moved to the front and got caught up in an early spin sending him to the rear at the half way point. Steve Griffin showed his defending championship skills taking the point on the green flag and winning the second heat over Kevin Harrod, Mike Lawhorn, David Mothershed and Ron Armillie. A make up date is being worked on for the Mini Stock Feature. Pure Stocks ran three heats for their 27 car field with Wild Bill Ryan starting 8th and continuing his winning ways with his 3rd heat win of the year over the 9 car field over Victor Shahid, Rick Shahid, Tom Potts, and Ricky Shahid. Another heavy hitter Jesse Veltman started 7th and worked his way through traffic winning the second heat over 8th starter Eric Sharrone. Rounding out the top five were Chad Markland, Rick Henick and Matt Schell. Tim Wilson shot to the point early in the third heat and went on to win 3rd of the season. John Drye came from 6th to 2nd followed by Dustin Swearingen who just moved up from the V8 Thunder Stock Rookie division this week after winning 3 features in the division. Their make up feature is also being set up. The Outlaw Mini Modifieds had their hot rods ready for action and unfortunately only got their 2 heats in with wins going to Marty Niekens and Cliff Steinmann. They will run a double feature on their return Open Wheel Modifieds and the Fantastic Figure 8’s will be joined by the Mini Stocks, Street Stocks, Pure Stocks, V8 Thunder Stocks, Mini Cup Cars and Florida Pro Mini Trucks next Saturday night for the 7th race of the 2008 season. The Central Florida Sprints will make their debut at Citrus on Saturday night April 19th. Racing continues every Saturday night at Citrus County Speedway through November 8th. Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! or Email KARNACto send a letter to the editor!