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| Lre Models are Back at Citrus County Speedway | by Larry MacMillan
(Inverness, Fl. 04/09/03) With only one race under their seat belts, the Late Models take another crack at Citrus County Speedway’s 3/8ths mile and will work on week two in their race for the 2003 Late Model crown. Second year driver Jim Smith kicked off the season back on March 1st with the first local win of the season and holds the top spot over the 18 cars that participated in their first outing. Mike Bresnahan will be back gunning for him, trailing by ten to take over the top spot. Rex Struble has a new ride that he will defend his 2002 championship, eighteen points down on the leader board. Richie Smith is coming on strong and will be doing double duty with his Hobby Stock in the running to retain his two-time championship crown. Scott Grossenbacher, Perry Lovelady, Ricky Carlton, Rich Pratt, Danny Johnson and Herb Neumann Jr. round out the top ten.
Mike Veltman’s strangle hold on the Sportsman point lead is rapidly diminishing with Johnny Gann taking back to back wins, moving into second just 6 points behind the four time champion. Mike Bell is looking for his first Sportsman win after moving up from his Street Stock championship and holds third up ahead of Johnny Sanders who almost took his second feature of the season last week. Bill Oestreicher trails Sanders by one so that race should prove to be interesting.
Chris Thornton has held the lead in the Mini Stock race for the second week in a row and moves into week six with a 20-point margin over Rob Wheatley. Wheatley lost out to two-time winner Robbie Yoakam in the run for the checkers last week while Thornton had to settle for fourth behind George Neumann who has found a home in Steve Griffins racer. Phillip Joyner holds out in third after a fifth place run last week. Chris Hooker and Dustin DesChamps are locked in a battle for fourth with just a seven-point separation.
Only one of the top five in the Street Stock point race finished in the top five last week. Joe Viverito slipped from the lead to sixth and went right back up to the top after his second win last week. Travis Nichols tried to make it three in a row but had to settle for second but moved into the top ten with that finish. Danny Cretty slipped to second with Scott Guthman substituting for him keeping him in the hunt with a fourth place finish. Ernie Reed finished third last week and holds out in third in the point race. Mickey Burns and Daniel Webster round out the top five. As they enter week six of their season they will be getting prepared for their fifty lap special scheduled for next week
The Wilson brothers finished one, two in the Hobby Stock Division last week with Sport moving into the top ten, scoring his second win of the season. Wes has gotten off to a slow start and is fifteenth in the thirty-eight car division. Richie Smith is seeing a whole lot of Curtis Neumann in his rear view mirror who is just two points behind the current point leader. Dean Lawyer finished right behind Neumann in last week’s 25 lap main and is 24 points behind in the race for second. Roy Perkins has a three-point edge on Curtis Yoamans in the race for fourth.
Pat Quick took over the Hobby Stock point lead with her second place finish last week. Roy Blotz slipped to second in his back up car after his primary car was bought under the buy out rule. Blotz managed a tenth place finish. Lee Keller holds out in third over Larry Triana and Louie Cioe.
All six divisions will run in heats and feature races Saturday night. This will be the first regular race night since the opening bell back in February. Citrus has had a special division on the schedule for all five nights that they have run. The hot shoes are beginning to flex their muscles for the long haul until the November 8th, 2003 finale.
Citrus County Speedway is located 2 miles south of Inverness on U.S. 41 at the Citrus County Fairgrounds. Grandstand gates open at three and the first heat takes the green flag at 6 p.m. The family special will get 2 adults and 2 children under 12 in for $12.
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