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| Citrus Points Season Down to Final Four Weeks | by Larry MacMillan
(Inverness, Fl. 10/01/03) The Citrus County points season is getting down to the nitty gritty now and making every race and finishing are first and foremost on every drivers mind. With the end of the season in sight making it to the top ten will take all the talent and horsepower they can muster up.
Late Models are back this weekend with just three races left on their schedule. The UPM Modifieds will fill in for them on Saturday, October 11th. Mike Bresnahan has a slim 18 point lead over Ricky Carlton going into the final three races and Ricky is determined to go for his first division title at the track where his racing career all got started. On the other hand Bresnahan would like to be a repeat performer where his career started as a teenage rookie Bomber Champion. Second year driver Jim Smith slipped from second where he has been for the best part of the season but is still in the hunt. Herb Neumann Jr. would like to make it two crowns in a row and must make up 154 points to move from fourth to first. Dale Sanders has a pretty solid hold on fifth place as they go into heat and feature action this weekend.
Mike Bell continues to pull away from Bill Oesterreicher in the race for the Sportsman crown. Oesterreicher had Mike Veltman as a substitute racing for his points since he lost a motor two weeks ago and stayed within shooting distance but still trails by 199 points with a sick race car in the garage. Bill Ryan is still looking for his first win but consistency has put him into a solid third place position. Johnny Sanders is 300 points behind Ryan and Veltman has apparently given up getting back into the lead after his four week suspension set him back to fifth after leading the division and had his fifth consecutive championship put to bed.
Ernie Reed has taken control of the Street Stock lead but still has Danny Cretty in pursuit after seesawing in and out of the lead. Joe Viverito is still in the hunt and needs to continue his top five consistencies to close the gap. Daniel Webster has turned his second year in a race car into a success and is right on Viverito’s heels just four points out of fourth spot.
Chris Hooker and Chris Thornton have spent the second half of the season sharing the Mini Stock lead and the final weeks of the season will be a battle royal right to the final flag. Phillip Joyner is still in the hunt. George Neumann has logged four feature wins and 8 heat wins with 9 top five finishes and yet the former champion is having a tough time keeping the young hot shoes under control. His fourth spot is in jeopardy with Mike Lawhorn just four points behind.
Richie Smith has proven again to be the dominant force in Hobby Stocks and looks like he is determined to pick up his third consecutive championship crown. Second year driver Curtis Neumann has definitely picked up a lot of experience from his racing family and continues to keep Smith honest. Dean Lawyer has come on real strong in the second half of the season and comes off his fourth win of the season in third. Former champion Roy Perkins is still in the running with team mate Alvin Williamson right behind him in the race for fourth.
And the spotlight continues to shine on Pat Quick who has a knack of finding her way to the winner’s circle no matter where she starts in the 20 car Thunder Stock field. After logging her 12th win of the season, she sits on top of the most win column for all divisions at the speedway this season and has just about a lock to capture the crown barring a total breakdown in the race team. Lee Keller did everything possible to put up a fight and is still not giving up. They will still go at it right down to the last checkered flag drops on October 25th. Louie Cioe continues his battle to hold off Larry Triana and Tim Wilson in his challenge to hold on to third in the race.
All six divisions will turn it on at 6 p.m. Saturday night. Grandstand gates open at 4. Citrus County Speedway is located 2 miles south of S.R. 44 on U.S. 41 in Inverness. Action continues until November 8th 2003.
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