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| Citrus Looks for Heavy Late Model Field in Triple 50's | by Larry MacMillan
(Inverness, Fl. 9/1/04) With one eye on hurricane Frances Citrus County Speedway is keeping their fingers crossed that the third Florida hurricane in a month won’t delay their first attempt at putting on an unusual Super Late Model Card. For the first time ever Citrus County Speedway will attempt to put on three, back to back, 50 lap Late Model features with an escalating purse for each race.
The first Twin 50 which had to made up because of rain attracted 28 Super Lates and they put on a terrific show. Herb Neumann Jr. and Brock Oglesby shared the wins over the very talented field. Many of last week’s Florida Pro racers are expected to return to give it a shot. That race was a make up that got rained out on the 31st of June. There were a couple of other Late Model races around the state that quite a few of the racers had already committed to so they couldn’t make the show. Wayne Anderson came off a race in Pensacola Friday night, towed back a damaged race car, repaired it and won with it in the Florida Pro 100 last week. Anderson pulled off a second place finish in the second 50 lap race on July 10th and he feels comfortable at the race track where he grew up. If the weather holds out you can bank on a barn burner this Saturday night at the Action Attraction.
Figure 8’s will spice up the schedule in their first of the month special. They have become a traveling series and put the hammer down on the first Saturday of every month at Citrus. Twenty one cars registered last month but only 16 were able to take the green flag. Robbie Hage made his first appearance of the year and managed to be the only other driver other than Ron Schreifels to make it to Victory Lane this season. Schreifels had to borrow a car to protect his point lead due to an earlier mechanical failure on his regular ride. Dwayne Fults ran a solid second in his first appearance of the year while Ken Crews had a third place finish. Despite a bad finish last time out Robbie Aaron picked up six points on the leader while Neil Herne closed in on the top two.
The Sportsman division is back Saturday night and are now chasing point leader Johnny Sanders who slipped past Richie Smith with a two point edge on a second place finish last time out. David White has made consistency pay off by starting and finishing every race this year and holds out in third. Dwight Pinner was a no show last time out and John Smith closed the gap in the race for fourth with a third place finish. Twenty six Sportsman have made it to the point ladder this season on the basis of once a month racing for 40 laps. Sixteen of those made the race last month. They will time trial for starting positions Saturday night.
Mini Stocks get back to business after running the Lenny Brown Memorial Mini Stock Challenge last week with a 34 car field. Jim Curry continues to hold the top spot in the point race with George Neumann on his heals looking for his 4th Championship. Neumann has a new motor in the wings that he has been super tuning since the beginning of the season. Apparently he is saving it for the final push. Chris Hooker has had his share of bad luck over the past couple of months but holds a solid third in the running. Jason Reynolds and Richard Stroup round out the top five over the 38 Mini Stocks that have earned points this season.
Thirty six Hobby Stocks took on the 3/8ths mile last week in a pair of features due to the heavy traffic load. Tommy Smith and Rusty Bremer shared the feature wins and Smith now has a 13 point lead over Bobby Taylor who was looking for his second win of the season. Alvin Williamson holds out in third after coming off his third win of the season a week ago. Bill Ryan and Neil Herne are locked in a real tight battle for fourth. The Hobbies will be back on the scene Saturday night to continue their battle for the crown.
Thunder Stocks are still chasing Jerry Hoover for the Championship Crown. Rick Badessa trails by 58 points and has a 144 point lead on Steven Stinedurf. Louie Cioe has been using a borrowed racer for the past two weeks to stay in the chase and sits in fourth, 68 points up on Victor Shahid. Fourteen year old D.J. Macklin who drives the #14 sits in 14th spot in the point’s race after winning his very first feature race ever last week. Maybe this plateau will start this youngster right up the ladder.
Balancing out the race card Saturday night will be the 4 Cylinder Bombers in another session of Saturday night live at Citrus County Speedway. Weather permitting the Super Late Models will go for 150 laps in the Citrus County Speedway Triple 50’s. The speedway is located 2 miles south of Inverness on U.S. 41 at the fairgrounds. Pit gates open at 2, grandstand gates open at 4, time trials start at 5:30 and the first race takes the green at 6 p.m.
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