So with Miller and Wells in pieces in the pits, one might think that Dean Jarvis might take control and go the distance.  But on a night when attrition was becoming as important as anything else in the division, fans and racers should never assume anything.  Just three laps from the finish Jarvis slowed as a tire began deflating and that opened the door for Ronald Lentz in second place and Tim Hughes in third.  Lentz tried to pass Jarvis low as Jarvis attempted to go in the same direction to get out of harm’s way, and that allowwed Hughes to rocket around the top of turn 3 and into the lead.  From there it was all Tim Hughes as he claimed the victory plus another $100 bonus from Astor Recycling, and Ronald Lentz settled for second place.  Heath Walker hung on and grabbed the third spot while Tommy Ausburn ventured off of the pavement again and finished fourth.  Dean Jarvis limped home on the flat tire and finished in the fifth spot.

The Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants Thunder Stocks are known for fender banging action at Ocala Speedway, and there was plenty of that to go around.  Jesse Corbitt and Chris Fontaine were among the racers who were near the front when they were involved in altercations and were penalized to the rear, while others were forced to exit due to damage and call it a night.  But while the liberal use of fenders and bumpers went on throughout most of the field, Scott Mooers shot to the lead and found that the going was much safer if one simply outruns all of the animosity behind them.

Mooers’ main threat came from Jason Gamble, who managed to stay close to the 10 car thanks to some hard nosed driving and some caution flags, but was never able to catch and pass the leader.  Meanwhile Michael Stalnaker was just outside of the top five and struggling as his ride seemed to be down on power after last weekend’s top to bottom teardown that resulted in a victory.  In the end Mooers was simply too tough to tame as he notched the win and Jason Gamble followed for second place.  Michael Valdez had another impressive run with a third place finish, holding off Chris Shea who came in fourth.  and Chris Fontaine fought back from the rear of the field to salvage fifth place on the night.

The fireworks were equally spectacular with Ocala’s Mini Stock Division, as some early contact between two cars erupted into a big mess exiting turn 1.  Buddy Pope and Dan Kerr swapped some paint and caused a caution on the first lap, and both were relegated to the rear for the restart.  And as the green waved Dan Kerr’s attempt for some retaliation resulted in his 73 car slamming the frontstretch wall hard, demolishing the machine while Pope suffers only some minor damage and drove away. The incident not only sent Dan Kerr’s car home in a wad, but it also earned him a conduct disqualification.

From that point on it was the Keith Briggs show, as “Hot Shot” rocketed to the lead and ran away from everyone else.  Belleview’s Steve Mooers took a turn in the 73U and was fast, but not as fast as Briggs.  Keith Briggs got his fourth consecutive Mini Stock win while Steve Mooers finished second and Buddy Pope battled back to third place.  Johnny Zackery was the fourth place finisher and Dean Kinsey claimed fifth.

Ocala’s Gladiator Division features the closest points battle of the season and has seen a list of racers occupy the top spot and then lose it, so it was no surprise when some contenders had their struggles on Friday night wile others were ready to take advantage of the situation.  Casey Feaster got caught up in someone else’s’ fight in his heat race, but found himself on the pole as the green flag waved for the feature.  Feaster was focused and determined to win, and went three wide at the start before wrestling control away from Robert Graham and David Ladrie.

The wildest show on wheels comes to Ocala Speedway on Friday, September 24th, as Car Warz brings a nationally known brand of demolition derby, stunt driving, and racing, to the southeast’s toughest 3/8ths mile.  The show will feature multiple wacky races including a boat and trailer race, flag pole racing, plus a big money four cylinder enduro event.  There will also be an RV demolition derby, plus spectacular mid air t-bone crashing, ATV and motorcycle stunt competition, and more.  Gates will open at 5PM on Friday night and all seating is first come, first served.  For more information, please visit www.OcalaSpeedway.com.

1- 40B Kyle Bronson
2- 33 Jeff Mathews

Tee Pee Tire Hobby Stock

1- 54 Tim Hughes
2- 96 Ronald Lentz
3- 55 Heath Walker
4- 69 Tommy Ausburn
5- 37J Dean Jarvis
6- 08E William Edwards
7- 11W Jody Wells
8- 99 Daniel Miller Jr.

Amsoil V8 Thunder Stock

1- 10 Scott Mooers
2- 5W Jason Gamble
3- 15 Michael Valdez
4- 76 Chris Shea
5- 84 Chris Fontaine
6- 29 Thomas Hughes
7- 8 Michael Stalnaker
8- 114 John Thorpe
9- 326 Gordon Cade
10- 12D Joe Boyd
11- 19 Brian Shea
12- 3D Jesse Corbitt
13- 36 Austin Stamper
14- 64 Jonathan Gillette
15- 14M Tim Mathieu

1- 19T Keith Briggs
2- 73U Steve Mooers
3- 81 Buddy Pope
4- 47 Johnny Zackery
5- 3D Dean Kinsey
6- 9 Ryan Babcock
7-75 Nick Kerr
8- 68 Sean Babcock
DNS- 09 Travis Staats
DNS- 21 Ray Ethridge
DNS- 9AR Charlie Staats
DNS- 11Z Pat Terrell
DQ- (conduct) 73 Dan Kerr

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.

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

Amsoil V8 Thunder Stock

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

Mini Stock

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

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