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| Super Stock Saturday at Citrus County Speedway | by Larry MacMillan
(Inverness, Fl. 10/29/03) With the end of the point season culminating in some wild racing for point positions last week, it should be a fun week of racing this week. The race card will feature Super Stock Saturday with Street Stocks and Hobby Stocks going in fifty lap features. Mini Stocks and Thunder Stocks will match up in thirty lap main events. Added to the program will be the Open Wheel Lites in their final run for 2003.
Wrapping up the regular season for 2003 will be the second leg of the Super Late Model Triple Crown. This will bring in all the heavy hitters from the state of Florida and possibly some visitors from Georgia and Alabama. Three race tracks, with three different configurations, playing host to the best hot shoes they have to offer will provide plenty of competition for an overall winner of the series. An additional race card will be added from the local racers in their last opportunity to race for the season.
After all the points were tallied after last week’s finale all six division leaders were able to hold on to their championship crown. Late Models worked a limited schedule for the season with 18 races scheduled and only 16 taking the checkered flag. Mike Bresnahan made consistency pay off with only one point win and 10 top ten finishes on his resume to win his second Late Model Crown. Herb Neumann Jr. scored his fourth win of the season and combined 5 top fives, 6 top tens and 5 heat wins to move into second when the checkered dropped last week. Jim Smith had a rare DNF after holding down second in the standings for much of the season holding out for third on his record of 3 features, 7 top fives, 2 top tens and a pair of heat wins. Ricky Carlton had a shot at the crown with his 4 feature wins but a no show took him out of the running despite a very consistent 7 top fives, 2 top tens and 4 heat wins. Dale Sanders scored a fifth place finish in the point’s race. Rounding out the top ten are Billy Bechtelheimer, Danny Johnson, Rex Struble, Harold Cannon and Richie Smith. Fifty four different Late Model drivers earned track points for the year.
2002 Street Stock Champion Michael Bell put together one heck of a rookie Sportsman season closing it out with his fourth win of the season plus 14 top five’s, 7 top tens and 3 heat wins to take home the final Sportsman crown at Citrus County Speedway. The Sportsman ran their final race last week and will either move up to Late Models or integrate with the new Super Street Stocks. Bill Oesterreicher made every effort to give Bell a run for his money but it just wasn’t meant to be despite his record of 4-9 & 4 and five heat wins. Rounding out the top five were Bill Ryan, Johnny Sanders and defending champion Mike Veltman.
Ernie Reed went to his first championship of his racing career taking the Street Stock division by overcoming some major mechanical problems that cropped up throughout the season. Danny Cretty held the lead for a good part of the season and began to fade at the end but maintained a second place finish ahead of Joe Viverito, Mickey Burns and Daniel Webster.
Chris Hooker won the see saw battle between he and Chris Thornton for the Mini Stock 2003 crown. Coming into his rookie year he took the smaller race cars after a few weeks and shared the lead with Thornton for most of the season. Thornton had to settle for a very solid second over Phillip Joyner, former three time champion George Neumann and Mike Lawhorn.
Richie Smith was able to hold on to the slim lead he had going into the final race for his third consecutive Hobby Stock crown. Second year driver Curtis Neumann learned a lot during the year from his dad, grandfather and uncle to give Smith a battle right down to the final flag and just about pulled it off after a final lap incident that could have put the outcome in jeopardy for Smith. Dean Lawyer, Roy Perkins and Sport Wilson held out for the top five positions.
It was a banner year for Pat Quick, the winningest driver at Citrus with fourteen checkered flags out of 30 races. She added eleven top fives, two top tens and four heat wins to her resume. She became the first woman to win a division championship at the speedway in its 48 year history. Lee Keller finished a solid second ahead of Larry Triana, Tim Wilson and Louie Cioe.
All the hard work in the point’s races will culminate at the Annual Awards Banquet which will be held on Friday December 19th at the Citrus County Auditorium right next to the race track. Awards and point money will be handed out while the drivers, pit crews, employees and fans celebrate with a catered meal and dancing. Banquet tickets are on sale at the pit office and those who want to attend should get their tickets in advance because there will be no tickets sold at the door due to making plans for the total number expected to attend.
The final race of 2003 will be the Winter Spectacular Super Late Model 150 on December 13th wrapping up the 48th year of action at Citrus County Speedway.
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