IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

November 15, 2008 Kenny Adams Rockets to Victory at Ocala by BJ Cavin Ocala Speedway rocketed into a night of exceptional racing with a full grandstand, a bright moon rising over the scoreboard, and the ASCS Rebel Region Sprint cars in the pits ready to race. But before all of that could happen the crowd was wowed as everyone witnessed a picture prefect launch of space shuttle Endeavour. The well timed event drew cheers, applause, and even tears from the crowd, as the National Anthem played and the shuttle glowed brightly in the night sky over turn two and the backstretch. Later some fans commented that it was the most moving and inspirational presentation of our National Anthem that they had ever witnessed and many were quite sad that they were not equipped to catch the moment in pictures or on video. The feature event of the night was the ASCS Rebel Region, and between four heat races and two B Main events, they provided a great night of action before they even began the 25 lap feature race. Over 30 sprint cars showed up at Ocala for the race, so 10 were whittled away through the process of elimination to get the final field of 20 set. Kenny Adams of Malabar, Florida, started from the pole position, and despite some valiant attempts by Terry Gray get past him, he rocketed to a victory and put a huge portion of the field a lap down in the process. Terry Gray, of Bartlett, Tennessee, finished behind Adams to take second place. Gray was followed by Danny Martin Jr. of Sarasota who left the track with the third place trophy. The always exciting Gene Lasker raced strong for a fourth place finish while Daytona's Matt Tiffany wound up in the fifth spot. The points championship for 2008 may have been a done deal for the Market of Marion Mini Sprints, but somebody forgot to give the memo to Keith Briggs. Briggs may have had the championship wrapped up, but he still had something to prove on the night, and he did by coming from the final row at the start, racing to the front, and driving away from everyone else to claim a huge victory. Joining Briggs in the rear of the field was the winner of the last three Mini Stock races at Ocala, Paul Combast. Combast would have more problems than Briggs in making his way forward through the field, and that may have destroyed his chances of catching and passing the points champion on the night. But Combast came home with a respectable second place, followed by Arnold Perkins in the third spot. Johnny Zackery and William Stalnaker rounded out the top five. The points race in the Gladiator division has been close, with Guy Bacelo Jr. maintaining a narrow advantage over Paul Hahn. But for the second week in a row, it was a newcomer to Ocala that stole the show and kept the points leaders at bay. Steven Cox drove his number 88 machine to a well deserved victory as Guy Bacelo Jr. wound up a distant second. Larry Langston would claim the third spot and Eddie Lentz would wind up fourth. Paul Hahn's chase to catch and pass Guy Bacelo in the points chase fell short on the night as he settled for a fifth place finish. The Amsoil V8 Thunder Stocks were the last race of the night, following the sprint cars, but that took nothing away from the excitement that they have generated throughout 2008. This race was just as exciting as any, as a bunch of guys who used to race on pavement at Ocala showed that they are far more entertaining on dirt. Donald Winne had the pole position to begin the race, but James Erickson drove past him to claim the lead early on. Erickson's night would go wrong a lap later as contact between he and Donald Winne would result in a hard hit on the frontstretch. Erickson walked away from that incident but his car was done for the night. Winne continued to attempt to race but his car was never competitive after the collision. From that point the race belonged to Jeff Stalnaker Jr. Stalnaker gained the lead and held it while being chased by a hard charging Chris Fountaine. Fountaine had a line of eager competitors behind him, including Jessie Corbitt, Michael Stalnaker, and Harold Erickson, all within reach of gaining the top spot. But on the final lap Fountaine's car wound up a victim of the notorious turn four wall, and that propelled Jeff Stalnaker Jr to the win, followed by Jessie Corbitt in second place. Michael Stlanaker raced hard but never found a route around Corbitt, thus finishing in the third position. Harold Erickson would place fourth, while Terry Dunbar would race to a fifth place finish. The Late Models will return to Ocala Speedway for a double points race to close out their season for 2008, on Friday, November 21st. In addition to a full field of Late Models expected to race for the points championship, the Hobby Stocks will go at it for 30 laps and the winner will walk away $1000 richer for it, thanks to Dr. B's of Ocala. Also racing their final races of the season will be the Amsoil V8 Thunder Stocks, the Market of Marion Mini Stocks, and the Gladiators. ASCS Rebel Region Sprints 1- 4A Kenny Adams 2-10 Terry Gray 3- 00 Danny Martin Jr. 4- 02 Gene Lasker 5- 19T Matt Tiffany 6- 2B Frank Beck 7- 25 Aaron Ott 8- 11 T J Winegardner 9- 1A Robbie Smith 10- 17 Samantha Taylor 11- 92 Matt Krutz 12- 67 Brian Thomas 13- 88 Shane Kreidler 14- 83 Bob Auld 15- 29 Gavin Thomas 16- 3 Greg Leonard 17- 71 RJ Johnson 18- 4C Tyler Godwin 19- 2 Red Stauffer DQ- (equipment) 15 Keith Butler Mini Stock 1- 19T Keith Briggs 2- 19C Paul Combast 3- 55 Arnold Perkins 4-11Z Johnny Zackery 5- 59 William Stalnaker 6- 40M David Miller 7- 26 Christopher Prouty 8- 14 Frank Prouty Gladiator 1- 88 Steven Cox 2- 2B Guy Bacelo Jr. 3- 94 Larry Langston 4- 96 Eddie Lentz 5- 78 Paul Hahn 6- 63 Brian Brogan 7- 91 Tonya Lewis 8- 66 Dennis White 9- 83 Cody Fisher V8 Thunder Stock 1- 9 Jeff Stalnaker Jr. 2- 3D Jessie Corbitt 3- 19 Michael Stalnaker 4- 4E Harold Erickson 5- 72 Terry Dunbar 6- 66 Dale Durbin 7- 73 Jeff Eisenhower 8- 40J Danny James II 9- 05 Donald Winne 10- 47 Chris Fountaine 11- 54 Karla Phipps 12- 81 Courtney Eubanks 13- 69 Jason Blackmer 14- 14 James Sullivan III 15- 123 Timothy Eisenhower 16- 10 Billy Newhouse 17- 1 Doc Batson 18- 71 Jonathan Appleby 19- 7E James Erickson DNS- 19A Jacob Antis Have an opinion on this story? 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