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| Citrus Street Stocks Go for Fifty Lap Special | by Larry MacMillan
(Inverness, Fl. 4/16/03) Citrus County Speedway will have the Easter Bunny to greet the kids at the front gate with tickets that may win them driver donated Easter baskets at intermission. The Easter Bunny will also be busy hiding Easter eggs for the big Easter egg hunt being put on by Donna Oestreicher of Stitches by Witches and the parent volunteers that are assisting her. Prizes will be awarded to the three age groups for the most eggs found, and the gold and silver egg that will be hidden behind the grandstand. The Easter egg hunt is scheduled to start at 7:30 P.M.
Racing action will highlighted by the Street Stocks in a 50 lap special with time trials starting at 5:30 immediately following warm ups. MBR Chassis and Development is putting up $100 for fast qualifier. Twenty-four cars have earned points after six races and several top ten contenders are still looking for their first trip to Victory Lane. Danny Cretty made his first trip to the winner’s circle last Saturday night and combined five previous top five finishes to take over the point lead. Joe Viverito slipped to second, trailing by 24 points followed by Ernie Reed, 31 points behind the leader. Daniel Webster and Mickey Burns are showing some muscle to round out the top five but they are also looking for that first win. The extra laps will pay extra money and certainly will give the winner bragging rights. Others in the top ten will be looking to climb the ladder and close the gap on the leader. Owen Leigh, James Hendrickson, Travis Nichols with two wins, Brett Flag and Jason Cannon would like to put this trophy in their trophy case and take home the bragging rights that will go along with it.
Mike Bresnahan comes into week three for the Late Models with two top five finishes and the point lead, dropping Jim Smith to second by four points. Rex Struble holds on to third trailing Smith by sixteen while Daniel Keene jumped up from fourteenth to fourth after his win last week and is just 38 points behind the leader. Herb Neumann Jr. moved from tenth to fifth and is 64 points out of the lead. Late Models are scheduled to go in heats and a 30-lap feature.
Mike Veltman still has a lock on the Sportsman lead but Bill Oestreicher gave notice that he is after the crown, claiming his second win of the season last week. Johnny Gann also has a pair of back to back wins and was shooting for three in a row last week but lost a little ground with a sixth place finish. Johnny Sanders continues to hold out in fourth just six points up on rookie Mike Bell. Sportsman will see heats and 20-lap feature this week
Richie Smith’s dominance of the Hobby Stock division over the past two years may be coming to an end as there are fifteen drivers out of 39 registrants that have come to make a run for the crown. Second year driver Curtis Neumann trails the perennial leader by 19 points and despite 6 top five finishes is still looking for the winner’s circle. Dean Lawyer holds out in third, 53 points behind the leader with former champion Roy Perkins chasing him. Curtis Yoamans jumped from eighth the fifth after last week’s meeting. They will take on the 3/8ths mile circuit in heat and feature action.
Thunder Stocks saw Pat Quick turn up the heat from the back end of the field to take her second win of the season and she has a lock on the point lead for the second week in a row. Boy Blotz young son got the opportunity to celebrate his birthday, pinch hitting for his dad and kept the fenders on the #3 racer, holding out for an eighth place finish keeping Roy in second on the point ladder. Lee Keller closed the gap, moving to within six points of Blotz with a second place finish last week. Larry Triana held out in fourth while John Donahue moved ahead of Louie Cioe by ten to hang on to fifth. Thunders are looking at heat and feature action this weekend.
Chris Thornton has parlayed five top five finishes with his feature win last week to maintain a 29 point lead over Phillip Joyner in Mini Stock action. Joyner and Chris Hooker moved around Rob Wheatley to move up the ladder. Dustin DesChamp holds on to fifth eleven points behind Wheatley. The Mini Stocks have the week off.
Added to the Easter line up will be the Figure 8’s for their first outing in the 2003 season.
Citrus County Speedway is located 2 miles south of Inverness on U.S. 41 at the Citrus County Fairgrounds. Grandstand gates open 3 and time trials take the green flag 5:30 and heat races start at 6 p.m.
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