|
| Florida Pro 100 Returns for Citrus Make-up Race | by Larry MacMillan
(Inverness, Fl. 8/25/04) Florida’s best Super Late Models will try one more time to get it on at Citrus County Speedway this Saturday night. After being rained out midway through the show on July 31st the Super Lattés are anxious to try on the super fast 3/8ths mile that allows for two and three deep racing in their 100 lap special. Nineteen drivers have already qualified for starting positions and there will possibly be more entrants Saturday night who will have to start at the rear of the starting field without any qualifying.
Series point leader Rich Pratt ran fast qualifying time for the race followed by Herb Neumann Jr. who won the last Florida Pro Race at Citrus earlier this year. Third fast qualifier was another local driver Jim Smith who is currently running second in the series points and has dedicated this year to being the series Rookie of the Year and would love to come away with the points crown as well. Wayne Anderson is always a threat at any race track he runs at and in any series he participates in, turning the fourth fastest time in qualifying at the race track where he started his successful racing career. Kevin Finney locked in fifth fast time over the initial 19 car field.
Saturday night’s race program will also feature the Open Wheel Lites for their return after being rained out on July 24th. This is not a make up race. These 3/8ths scale 30’s and 40’s coupes and sedans take the race fans back to the early days of short track racing. Ron Towels tows in from Jacksonville after winning the OWL race in May followed by Rick Lundeen, also from Jacksonville, who has three second place finishes in a row at Citrus. He did win here last November. James Biglin out of Port Orange is looking to better his third place finish at their last outing. These wild men put the hammer down and don’t lift until the checkers fly.
Joe Viverito continues to lead the Super Stocks after their twin features last week. He had problems in the first race and came back to finish fourth in the second with a total of 26 cars in the field for the night. Richie Smith moved up to second with a pair of good finishes last week. Stephen Anderson slipped to third in the point’s race while Ernie Reed closed the gap with a 4th and 2nd place finish last week. John Makula moved from 7th to 5th in the race for the crown. They will be back this week in a division that began the season rather soft with race cars and now have 43 racers who have earned points in this division for the season.
Mini Stocks are back to points racing this weekend after running the Lenny Brown Memorial Mini Stock Challenge race last week. A first time Challenge winner of the race Dustin DesChamp is splitting his time between running Mini Stocks and breaking into Late Models. Jim Curry will be out to maintain his local point lead over George Neumann, Chris Hooker, Jason Reynolds and Richard Stroup plus 32 other contenders for the 2004 crown.
Tommy Smith extended his Hobby Stock point lead from 3 to 13 after last week’s 26 car battle royal. Bobby Taylor came from the back of the pack to finish fifth and hold on to a solid second in the point’s race. Dean Lawyer locks in third over last week’s winner Alvin Williamson and Bill Ryan. Williamson notched his third win of the season last week and will have to start at the rear of the field this week.
Thunder Stock point leader Jerry Hoover managed another top 10 finish last week over some heavy traffic that is beginning to show the ability to stay out of trouble and away from the caution flags. Gary Johnson, a man who sits 21st in the standings proved to be a winner last week for his first of the 2004 season. Rick Badessa lost some ground last week to Hoover but continues to hang on to a comfortable second place in the race for the crown. Steve Stinedurf is closing the gap with a sixth place finish last week while Louie Coie had to borrow a ride that didn’t work out to well for him last week and saw Victor Shahid close the gap in the race for fourth with a fifth place finish. They will be back at it Saturday in this action packed division.
Four cylinder Bombers just can't seem to pick up the car count they need to make for an interesting race. Rick Fort picked up his third win of the season last week and is third in the division point’s race closing on Rusty Adams who is in second by just 8 points. Despite being lapped by Fort, Adams finished second in the race while point leader Clark Pittsley pulled out of the race and still finished third.
Seven divisions will be taking the green flag to go racing at 6 Saturday night at Citrus County Speedway, 2 miles South of Inverness on U.S. 41 at the Citrus County Fairgrounds. Pit gates open at 2 and the grandstand gates open at 4 p.m.
Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board!
or send a letter to the editor!
|
