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| Pro Modifieds Highlight Citrus Race Card Saturday | by Larry MacMillan
(Inverness, Fl. 7/14/04) The Pro Modified Series makes a return trip to Citrus County Speedway this Saturday night. Wayne Jefferson loves Citrus 3/8ths mile and returns to attempt a third straight win in Pro Modified Series races run in August of 2003 and February of 2004. Jefferson has made a good showing in some of the semi monthly races for the mod squad as well. Nineteen cars chased him to the finish line when the Pro Mods went for their 50 lap feature in February. John Gerstner, Alan McCafferty, Harold Cannon, J.F. McClellan, Chris Fadling, Chet Senokossoff, Lee Collins and John Grimm took the balance of the top ten spots when the checkers flew. Most are expected back with some of the regulars here to defend their home track status to include point leader Billy Bechtelheimer leading the way locally.
Super stocks will be chasing point leader Joe Viverito this weekend. Viverito has 7 top five finishes but has yet to find Victory Lane. His consistency has given him a 172 point lead over James Hendrickson who is also winless at the halfway point in the season. Stephen Anderson is just four points out of second and has two feature wins on his resume with Richie Smith breathing down his tail pipe just 19 points out. Ernie Reed rounds out the top five with two feature wins but has only raced occasionally this season.
The Mini Stock car count has picked up in recent weeks. Jim Curry continues to hold the point lead finishing in the top ten 12 out of 13 races and making his first trip to Victory Lane several weeks ago. George Neumann has moved into second just 106 points behind the leader and seeking his fourth Mini Stock Championship of his career. Chris Hooker has slipped to third after holding the early point lead in the division having several weeks of bad luck and misfortune. Rounding out the top five are Richard Stroup and Jason Reynolds.
Tommy Smith moved back into sole position of the Hobby Stock point lead after sharing the position with Bobby Taylor last week. Smith with 5 wins and 5 top five finishes matched up against no wins and 11 top fives for Taylor. This battle is far from over with 16 point races still on the schedule. Neil Herne, Dean Lawyer and Bill Ryan are locked in a battle for third with Hearne just 24 points up on Lawyer and 128 points up on Ryan.
Jerry Hoover took his third checkered flag last week in the controversial chicane race and moved into the Thunder Stock point lead by 8 points over Rick Badessa. Louie Cioe has a 5 point lead on Steve Stinedurf and 15 points up on Lee Keller in the race for third. That one will go right down to the wire as the division returns to the oval this week, MAYBE? The change in the race course is an attempt at keeping the beginner division from getting so refined that the beginners can’t afford to race and be competitive. It is supposed to be an economy, learning division and it is impossible to inspect the entire division every week to keep the cars within the limits allowed. The cars are supposed to be as close to stock as possible allowing for safety modifications only and should be able to make right and left hand turns unless they have been set up with springs, shocks and camber for left hand turns only.
The 4 Cylinder Bombers are still having growing pains. Clark Pittsley has an unbelievable point lead. Justin Durbin has been the dominant force in the division recently with five wins and trails Pittsley by 1210 points. John DeGeorge will probably drop out of third after this week’s race since he is not racing in the division any longer. Rusty Adams and Rick Fort will probably move up over the next two weeks and Harold Barup will pull into fifth if he comes back to race.
Citrus County Speedway is located 2 miles south of Inverness on US 41 at the Citrus County Fairgrounds next to the Inverness Airport. Pit gates open at 2, grandstand gates at 4 and Modified time trials will go at 5:30. The first heat will take the green flag at 6.
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