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| Six Division Program Means Plenty of Racing for fans Friday at Ocala | by Dave Westerman
For the first time since opening night, all six of Ocala Speedway's regular racing classes will be in action this Friday night.
The Steven A. Bagen Super Late Models will be chomping at the bit following two weeks of inactivity. Only two regular season point races have been run so far and Wildwood's Wayne Anderson is perfect with two wins in two tries... in two different cars. Anderson hopes to run as many Fridays as possible at Ocala, but probably will not be in the hunt for the overall point championship since he hopes to run for both Florida Pro and Sunbelt points and also recently picked up a ride for selected ARCA events.
Ocala's E.J. Wise is five points behind Anderson in second and just a point ahead of Brock Oglesby who, in turn, is just a point ahead of Patrick Williams while Louis Beldock is currently fifth.
Consistent high finishes continue to keep Anthony's David Baxley at the top of the WIND-FM Open Wheel Modified points heap. Baxley has his Heat Treating, Inc. sponsored car up by four points over Tampa drivers Johnnie "The Rat" Newsome and Jeremy Gerstner who are tied for second. Jamie Tinkham and John Foerg are fourth and fifth in points.
Williston's Larry Goolsby continues to head the Modified Mini Stock points parade by eight markers over Marlon Durbin. Durbin is just one point ahead of Wayne Wells. Despite his wild roll-over last week, Jake Garver holds on to the fourth spot while rookie A.J. Schreier is fifth.
Ocala's Doug Webster and Anthony's Mark Mitchell are proving consistency pays in the K-Country Street Stock class. Neither has won a feature, but they have been finishing in the top ten each week which is not easy to do in a class that averages 25-30 cars a night.
Webster holds a five point advantage over Mitchell while Tommy Roberts is close behind in third. Last Friday's winner Kyle Maynard moves to fourth in points while Estle Morrow continues to put up some good finishes and is fifth in the standings.
Summerfield's Tom Ellis has the biggest advantage of any point leader going into this week's action holding an 18 point advantage over Rick Kuhn in the Four Cylinder Stocks. Ellis took advantage of apparent winner Ric Fort's DQ in tech last week to get his second win of the season while Fort dropped to 10th in the standings. Weird Harold Barup moved up to third in points just ahead of Joel Byall and Dan Sanderson.
OCALA SPEEDWAY NOTES:
K-Country Street Stock point leader Doug Webster of Ocala had his worst finish of the year last Friday after a broken spark plug dropped him to seventh in the rundown. Still he maintains a five point advantage over his good friend Mark Mitchell.
It's amazing that Webster can even afford to race considering that he and his wife Barbara have eight kids to feed: Justin, Jessica, Dougie, Eric, Brittany, Taylor, Cody and Carson. "I couldn't do it without the help of my sponsors," says Webster, who works as a truck driver during the week.
Helping on Webster's Chevy Monte Carlo are Corrugated Concepts of Ocala, Diecast Deals (check them out at diecastdeals.com), Oglesby Drywall of Ocala, Roberts Cleaning in Summerfield, Victory Transmission in Ocala, Batson Chiropractic in Inverness, Damron Refrigeration out of Chiefland, and Heat Treating, Inc. of Ocala.
Webster began his racing career at the age of 15 in Ohio where he raced at at total of eight different tracks early in his career, and, although he's been at it for quite awhile, his championship in the Street Stock class last season was his first. At least with all the kids he's got, putting together a pit crewshould be easy.
Clermont's John Foerg continues to try and dial in his WIND-FM Open Wheel Modified to the tricky Ocala surface and has been consistent enough to hold fifth in the current point standings and he's also run well in the new UPM Modified Tour.
Foerg, who won the Modified season point title last year at Orlando Speedworld, actually thought he was without a ride for 2003 as Chuck Burkhalter was planning to come out of retirement to drive the car for owner Don Emberson. However, when Burkhalter was hired by the Richard Petty Driving Experience, the ride became available again for Foerg and he's made the most of it.
Originally from Wisconsin, the home of many top notch racers like Dick Trickle and Dave Marcis, Foerg pays the bills as a pipe fitter. He and wife LeeAnne have two children, daughters Kristen and Laurel.
Sponsorship on Foerg's car is provided by Don's Paint and Body of Minneola and Ken Golby Custom Construction of Clermont.
Mini Stock point leader Larry Goolsby is crediting his new sponsor, Maguire's Racing out of Williston, for his early season good fortune.
"I just have a lot more confidence that something won't go wrong mechanically," says Goolsby. "When you know the car is capable of winning and making it to the finish line week in and week out mechanically, then the only pressure is on myself to get the job done," he says.
Goolsby is coming off a strong weekend performance finishing runner-up to Rick Sirmans at Ocala Friday night then taking his second win of the year Saturday at Bronson Motor Speedway.
Rumor has Goolsby in a Super Late Model soon. Could it be the former Dick Anderson car that Mike Wieczoreck ran out of Maguire's shop last year?
Four Cylinder Stock driver Randy Futch of Dunnellon doesn't want anyone to forget the events of 9/11/01 and that's why his car carries the number 9-11, and if you look closely at the 11 on the side of the car, it's actually a painting of the Twin Towers in New York City.
Futch is a firefighter/paramedic and everyone on his crew is as well.
He also has an interesting sponsor in Ocala Power Wash, a company that does "pressureless" roof cleaning.
Futch is married to Cheri and has three kids, Renae, Taylor, and Landon. Kenny Markwich, another firefighter/paramedic is crew chief on the car. It's Futch's rookie season in racing and he hopes to move up to Mini Stock in a year or two.
Another Four Cylinder Stock driver who has been much improved in his second year of racing is Harold Barup. Known as "Weird Harold," Barup had his best career finish last week taking third spot and also moved to third in points.
A carpenter by trade, Barup and wife Theresa have four kids and three grandkids already. Originally from Vermont, Barup also enjoys playing the guitar when not working on his race car. Sponsorship comes from MXM Enterprises, Kalfe's Crane, and Garrett Tool Fastners.
With thirty K-Country Street stocks in the pits Friday night, drivers actually had to qualify for the feature for the first time through three heats and a B-Main. A B-Main will be run every time there are 26 or more cars says track GM Tim Christman, "And the way things are going now, it looks like that will be every week," he says.
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