IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

June 21, 2008 No Rain Means Hot Action at Ocala Speedway by BJ Cavin On a night when thunderstorms rumbled nearby and the skies grew threatening, a sizable crowd came to Ocala Speedway and witnessed a tough night of racing, featuring Late Models, Hobby Stocks, Gladiators, and a $1000 to win V8 Thunder Stock race. Although the storm clouds loomed within a few miles of the speedway, there were plenty of cars in the pits and the racing was action packed. After a rainout on June 13th, the V8 Thunder Stocks got their chance to race 30 laps for $1000 one week later than originally planned. Donald Winne led the field to the green flag but was soon working his way in the wrong direction through the field. James Sealey took the lead early but found that Michael Stalnaker had the car to beat. Stalnaker passed Sealey just after the first caution of the race on lap 2 and never looked back. Sealey would make a race of it, staying within reach and making Stalnaker work for most of the race, but Sealey would spin on lap 25 and not be able to recover. In the end it was Micheal Stalnaker who drove to a convincing victory, followed by Tommy Roberts for second place and Harold Erickson in the third spot. Doc Batson and Zachery Perry rounded out the top five finishers. Fifteen late models took the green flag in their feature race with Greg Bedenbaugh on the pole. But as things got going the car to watch turned out to be the white 21 car which was using the outside to pass at will, and moving forward through the field on every lap. Ivedent Lloyd would make exciting outside passes in turn 2 on consecutive laps to take the lead by lap 12, while Shane Williams would give chase from second place. Lloyd would wind up the eventual winner, while Shane Williams settled for second. Shan Smith would have a solid showing with a third place finish, while Rich Pratt took fourth and Mike Bedenbaugh would finish fifth. The Hobby Stocks were using the night to size things up for the next Pepsi Six Pack Challenge race, which comes next week. Grady Christian has been the dominant Hobby Stock driver for the last few weeks, but David Miller Jr was unimpressed. Miller would drive his 21 car past Christian twice in the race in order to take the win. Grady Christian would wind up the second place finaiher followed by Michael Tovett in the third spot. Bubba Christian and Marlon Durbin were fourth and fifth. The Gladiator feature race may have been the shortest race ever run at Ocala Speedway, as all three competitors wound up in heap at the bottom of turn 2 on the first lap. The 19 of Roy Taylor got the worst of it, hitting a tractor tire hard and forcing that machine to leave on a hook. The 78 of Paul Hahn would drive away from the pile up, but turned into the pit area and failed to come back out, while Guy Bacelo Jr stayed on the track until the cleanup was complete. When Hahn failed to return, Bacelo was given the green and checkered flags together and awarded the win. June 27th sees the return of the Open Wheel Modifieds to Ocala Speedway,a swell as the 4th race in the Pepsi Six Pack Hobby Stock Challenge Series, with $1000 going to the winner. Also scheduled to race on the 27th are the Thunder Stocks and the Gladiators. Ocala Speedway will be closed on Friday, July 4th. Ocala Speedway Results for 6/20/08 V8 Thunder Stock (30 lap/$1000 to win) 1- 19 Michael Stalnaker 2- 44 Tommy Roberts 3- 4E Harold Erickson 4- 10 Doc Batson 5- 5W Zachery Perry 6- 66E James Erickson 7- 72 Joey Durbin 8- 86 Aaron Welter 9- 00 Eddie Lake 10- 81 Courtney Eubanks 11- 66 James Sealey 12- 1S Jeff Stalnaker Jr. 13- 1 Jeff Barrett 14- 14 James Sullivan III 15- 85 Larry Welter Sr. 16- 56 John West 17- 69 George Whitell 18- 15 Luke Sadler 19- 05 Donald Winne 20- 04J Danny James III 21- 3D Jessie Corbitt 22- 40 Homer Bryant 23- 04 Jon Layerd 24- 40C Curtis Clark Hobby Stock (20 lap) 1- 21 David Miller Jr. 2- 36 Grady Christian 3- 4B Michael Tovett 4- 04 Bubba Christian 5- 72 Marlon Durbin 6- 28 Brandon Elwood 7- 57 Wally Scheider 8- 56 Kevin Durden 9- 08 William Edwards 10- 10 Dean Jarvis 11- 1 Alan McCafferty 12- OOT Eddie Tovett 13- 2JR Shelton Kinser 14- 58 David Kinsey 15- XXX1 Shane Williams 16- 0 Dalton Lanich Late Model (25 lap) 1- 21 Ivedent Lloyd Jr. 2- 7W Shane Williams 3- 17SS Shan Smith 4- 0 Rich Pratt 5- 66 Mike Bresnahan 6- 26 Mike Bedenbaugh 7- J17 Joe Kump 8- 18 Mike Eubanks 9- 16 Wayne Shugart 10- 53 John Rankin 11- 51 Bobby Clark 12- 74 Chuck Adams 13- 4 Al Larson 14- 61 Eddie Rosier 15- 32B Robbie Barris Gladiator 1- 2B Guy Bacelo Jr. DNS- 19 Roy Taylor DNS- 78 Paul Hahn Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! or Email KARNACto send a letter to the editor!