OCALA, FL-  After a few weeks off to rest and allow nature to rain itself out, race fans returned to Florida’s oldest speedway and witnessed 95 cars in four divisions challenge the toughest 3/8ths mile in the southeast.  The Colortyme Modifieds headlined the night with a $1000 to win race that featured a $500 bounty on Jeff Mathews, who has won all but one race in that division in 2010 at Ocala Speedway.  Plus the Amsoil V8 Thunder Stocks, the Mini Stocks, and the Gladiators, were all racing for double points on the night, which made those races doubly important as the 2010 racing season moves into fall and an eventual end.

Ocala Speedway owner Mike Peters has taken note that Jeff Mathews has been less than cooperative about sharing celebration time in Ocala’s victory lane, so with the Colortyme Modifieds lining up for a scheduled $1000 to win race, he added a $500 incentive for someone else to step up and pose for pictures while holding a checkered flag.  That incentive was enough to attract over 30 top modifieds to Ocala, plus prompt some late model heavy hitters to borrow modifieds and get a piece of the action.  Even the area legend, Buzzy Reutimann, could not resist the temptation to come to Ocala and get involved in what could be a $1500 payoff.

Dale Murray held the pole position for the start, but a tangle in turn four on the first lap involved several machines and sent Murray to the pits, which moved Jeff Mathews to the pole position for the second try at getting underway.  But the bounty on Mathews was an excellent motivator, as “The Locomotive” Johnny Collins blasted his way out front along with Kyle Bronson.  And as Mathews tried to reign in those two hot shots, he was forced to contend with a hungry pack of wolves salivating at his back bumper, including Buzzy Reutimann and Jamie Carter.

Ocala Speedway has earned the moniker of the toughest 3/8ths mile in the southeast for a reason, and that reason was more than evident on Friday night.  While the racers were more aggressive thanks to Mike Peters’ $500 bounty on Mathews and the $1000 winner’s check, the track was equally unsportsmanlike to the racers and many wound up leaving on a hook.  Gary Sexton got the worst of it during a spectacular backstretch tangle that rolled his machine against the wall and red flagged the race.  Sexton would walk away to race another day, but his relatively new car will need some serious rehab.  Attrition spread throughout the field, and in the end even Jeff Mathews would fall victim to the rugged racing and fail to finish, which nullified the $500 bounty offer. 

Kyle Bronson was the toughest of the tough, not only surviving the race but finishing in front of everyone else for the $1000 win, while Jamie Carter also survived a tough outing, but came home in second place behind Bronson.  Third place went to Wayne Hammond, who was still running strong with one side of his machine totally ripped away, and who had to fight his way from the rear of the field to the top three.  Mark Whitener claimed the fourth spot, and Buzzy Reutimann finished fifth.

The Amsoil V8 Thunder Stocks have run tough races all season, and Michael Stalnaker has had his ups and downs through it all.  But as the season begins to wind down Stalnaker has returned to top form, and found himself in a heated battle for the top spot in Friday’s feature with David Kinsey.  Their tussle was the highlight of another rugged race that saw as many cars drop out as finished, and that featured the night’s other spectacular crash.

The last time that Glenn Vincent raced at Ocala Speedway, his 28 machine ended the night on its roof in front of the grandstand.  Vincent walked away from that exciting crash and repaired his battered car, then returned to the site of his misfortune to test the toughness of the track once more.  And for the second outing in a row, the tough 3/8ths mile won as Vincent suffered an ugly barrel roll in turn 2, this time trashing the car to where repairs are probably impossible.  But once again Glenn Vincent walked away from the mayhem, thanks to good luck plus the use of top quality safety equipment.

In the end, the Amsoil V8 Thunder Stock feature became less about who won and more about who did not, as heavy hitters like Scott Mooers and Chris Fontaine were sidelined by accidents on the track, and a disqualification took the win away from David Kinsey.  So Michael Stalnaker was awarded the victory with Chris Shea placing second and Michael Valdez moving up to the third spot.  Harold Erickson picked his way through the field and survived more than a couple of brushes with the wall to finish fourth, and Gordon Cade rounded out the top five.

The Mini Stocks have survived a season where the division came close to going into extinction on dirt tracks in Florida and where drama off the track has played out to where the division is as strong as ever at this point in the season.  Nineteen Mini Stocks were on hand on Friday night and the racing was some of the best of the season as Keith Briggs suffered a coolant leak that left him on the rear of the field for the start of the feature race.  And as one might expect, Briggs was not about to be a follower.

While Briggs was busy fighting his way through heavy traffic, there was plenty of action up front thanks to Charlie Staats, Johnny Zackery, and Rob Underwood.  Zackery’s night would not go his way as he was involved in two accidents, the second of which ended his run, but Staats and Underwood ran strong throughout the race, as did Nick Kerr and Paul Combast.  In fact, Combast had a starting position that had him mired in traffic for a good portion of the race, but he climbed to the top three and was the second car to take the checkers.

Keith Briggs fought hard through the pain of a bad back to make his way to the point and claim a victory as Combast followed, but Combast’s night would go south from there.  A protest was made on Combast’s 19C machine but Combast refused a teardown, automatically resulting in a disqualification under the rules.  That moved Rob Underwood up to second place and Charlie Staats up to third, while Nick Kerr and Ray Ethridge were fourth and fifth.

By the time that the Gladiators made their way out for their feature race, they found that the other three divisions had left them with a rough race track that was going to be every bit as challenging as the other competitors in their division, but Casey Feaster was up to the task.  Jordan Myers led early but Jerry Taylor fought his way into the top spot by lap 7.  That is when Casey Feaster began working on the 31 car in his quest to win, eventually getting the better of Taylor and making another visit to Ocala’s victory lane.  Taylor finished behind Feaster, but earned a disqualication after racing ended, which moved up the rest of the field.  Matt Shea went home with the second place trophy, while third place went to Devin Walker.  Steven Johnson finally had a good night and finished fourth, and Jordan Myers hung on to finish in fifth place.

Ocala Speedway returns to action this Friday, September 10th, with the annual Tribute to 9-11 Heroes Night.  In appreciation for all of our heroes, all emergency responders and active military will be admitted free of charge with proper ID, and will see action from the Late Models, Tee Pee Tire Hobby Stocks, Amsoil V8 Thunder Stocks, and the Gladiators.  For more info, or to see more info on the exciting events still to come in 2010, please visit www.OcalaSpeedway.com.

Ocala Speedway Results for 9/3/10

Colortyme Modified (30 laps/$1000 to win)

1- 40B Kyle Bronson
2- 75 Jamie Carter
3- 66H Wayne Hammond
4- 8M Mark Whitener
5- 00 Buzzie Reutimann
6- 9 Roger Crouse
7- 44 Tim Powers
8- 7 Kent Corbin
9- 0 Dakotah Stephens
10- 11 Chuck Gustafson Jr.
11- 8 Rick Scott
12- 33 Jeff Mathews
13- 54 Johnny Collins
14- 75C Len O’Neil
15- 410J P.J. Wiggins

16- 67 Garrett Stewart
17- 54B Kevin Bryant
18- 66 Dale Murray
19- 8B Shane Burrows
20- 7S Ronnie Chance
21- 40 James Smith
22- Z Tim Zackery
23- 1G Gary Sexton
24- 8S Steve Whitener
25- 2D Devin Dixon
26- 10 Don Depew Jr.

Amsoil V8 Thunder Stock

1- 8 Michael Stalnaker
2- 76 Chris Shea
3- 15 Michael Valdez
4- 66 Harold Erickson

5- 326 Gordon Cade
6- 12D Justin Durbin
7- 3D Jesse Corbitt
8- 54 Mike McDonald
9- 96L Eddie Lentz
10- 31 Frank Ziesmer
11- 5W Jason Gamble
12- 55 Joey Durbin
13- 64 Jonathan Gillette
14- 17K Eddie Kilbury Jr

15- 19 Brian Shea
16- 69A Jonathan Appleby
17- 28 Glenn Vincent

18- 4W Mark Trexler
19- 10 Scott Mooers
20- 84 Chris Fontaine
21- 3W Vaughn Woodall
22- 55W Donald Winne
DNS- 77 Jeff Stalnaker Sr.
DNS- 40J Danny James
DQ- 58 David Kinsey

Mini Stock

1- 19T Keith Briggs
2- 73U Rob Underwood
3- 9AR Charlie Staats
4- 75K Nick Kerr
5- 21 Ray Ethridge

6- 44 Jamie Tinkham
7- 81 Buddy Pope

8- 73 Dan Kerr
9- 12B Jimbo Bird
10- 9 Ryan Babcock
11- 1 Terry Dunbar
12- 3D Dean Kinsey
13- 47 Pat Terrell
14- 75H Stephen Hollbaugh
15- 11Z Johnny Zackery
16- 09 Travis Staats
17- 69 Sean Babcock
DNS- 40 George Christenson Jr

DQ- 19C Paul Combast

Gladiator

1- 20 Casey Feaster
2- 96 Matt Shea
3- 55JR Devin Walker
4- 81 Steven Johnson
5- 72 Jordan Myers

6- 11 David Ladrie
7- 3G Brice Gilbert
8- 23 Rebecca Paugh
9- 83 Kody Fisher
10- 3H Brandon Haseleu
11- 82 Kyle Morse

12- 10 Larry Nelson
13- 76 Ken McCloud

14- 57 James McDonald
15- 77 Matthew Kramer
16- 42 Dalton Strehle
DNS- 83M Kathie Fisher
DQ- 31 Jerry Taylor