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| Spencer and Booth tied for Points Lead as Classics Heat to JAX | by Dave Westerman
The Classic Auto Racing Series heads to the lightning fast dirt of JAX Raceways for the first time this season with a deadlock at the top of the point standings.
Palm Harbor's Bud Spencer used last week's win at Ocala Speedway to move into a tie with Deland's Ben Booth for the Series point lead after six events. Daryl Grief of Deland is nine points behind the top duo in third spot and 15 points ahead of fourth place Joey Strehle. Greg Helton is fifth in points. Booth, Strehle, and Helton are also 1-2-3 in the Door Operating Systems Rookie of the Year standings.
George Hall, Jr., and E.B. Carr are tied for sixth, while Al "Hot Rod" Hagan and George Hall III are eighth and ninth. Florida State Senator Bill Posey has moved into tenth despite some horrible luck this year.
Spencer and Grief will have their work cut out for them Saturday night as they'll have to start at the rear of the feature field after their 1-2 finish at Ocala last week. If either can win the feature, they'll pick up the Frank's Sandblasting "Worst to First" award of $100.
Some changes are being made to the 2003 CARS schedule. The June 7th date at Orlando Speedworld has been dropped because of the previous night's "Crasharama" at the speedway. Track GM Dick Westfall apologized, but said it was a scheduling oversight. "After a night of School Bus Figure Eights, Camper Trailer races and Demo Derbies, there's just no way we can have the track race ready the following night. We'll attempt to reschedule the event for the first Saturday in October," he said.
Discussions are also ongoing with East Bay Raceway near Tampa to add
one, or possibly two more dates after the Classics were well received there last month. CARS drivers were also highly complimentary of the East Bay management and track officials.
POINT STANDINGS AS OF 5/16/03:
1) Bud Spencer, Palm Harbor #7 294 (2 wins)
Ben Booth (R), Deland #12 294
3) Daryl Grief, Deland #1 285 (1 win)
4) Joey Strehle (R), Lake Mack #42 270
5) Greg Helton (R), Orange City #3 259
6) George Hall, Jr., St. Petersburg #32 241
E.B. Carr, Okeechobee #90 241
8) Al Hagan, Merritt Island #6 236
9) George Hall III, St. Petersburg #9 232
10) Bill Posey (R), Rockledge #00 216
11) Jim Rahman, Clermont #5 212 (2 wins)
12) Patrick Sanders, Winter Garden #8 210
13) Simeon Spagnuolo, Vero Beach #21 204
14) Frank Conrad, Ft. Pierce #11 202 (1 win)
15) Harvey Ewing, Brooksville #17 170
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