{"id":8866,"date":"2011-10-17T18:23:10","date_gmt":"2011-10-17T18:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/?p=8866"},"modified":"2011-10-17T18:23:10","modified_gmt":"2011-10-17T18:23:10","slug":"a-championship-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/front-page-news\/a-championship-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"A Championship Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>If any fan, driver, or car owner needed a reminder of why Herb Neumann Jr. is a 4 time Super Late Model Champion, he left no doubt in their minds after Saturday night. Neumann headed into Saturday nights season finale for the Super Late Model points season, with a 30 point lead over 2nd<\/sup> place Scott Grossenbacher. Neumann would only need to finish 16th<\/sup> or better to secure his 5th<\/sup> championship, but a lap 4 multi-car wreck, would send his racer to the pits and endanger that opportunity.<\/p>\n

Another strong field of 22 Super Late Models turned out to take a shot at victory in the last points paying race of the season. After the fan voted 6 row inversion, Richie Smith (4) and Keith Zavrel (47) would lead the field to green. Smith would jump to the lead from his pole position, and set the pace early. Smith had taken his Sportsman car owned by Jay Witfoth and converted it to a Super Late Model for the rest of the 2011 season. This involved changing the tires, adding a 4 barrel carburetor, changing the clutch, and taking 150lbs of weight out of the car. The field would be slowed for it\u2019s 1st<\/sup> of 7 cautions at lap 4 when Ray Hester (177) and Brian Dorer (197) got together in turn 1. This sent cars spinning everywhere to avoid the wreck. The cars of Talon Craft (10), Cody Lane (27), newlywed Cliff Bifaro (12), and point leader Herb Neumann Jr. (98) all received damage. Lane would continue, but all others would head to the pits for repairs, including point leader Neumann. Neumann would return just before the restart at lap 4, and take the rear of the 18 cars left in the race. Smith would pull away from 2nd<\/sup> place Randy Plantz (14) and 3rd<\/sup> place Zavrel on the restart, running some impressive lap times. Lap 12 saw Grossenbacher go for a spin off the front bumper of Danny Maddox (82), Maddox would take blame, and tag the rear for the restart. Several mid race short cautions would allow Neumann to inch his way to the front one car at a time. By a lap 25 restart, he had worked his way up to the 5th<\/sup> position. He would make moves to pass Grossenbacher for 4th<\/sup>, then Zavrel for 3rd, and then Plantz to move into the 2nd<\/sup> position with only 5 laps left. Smith had run an outstanding race in his 1st<\/sup> Super Late Model race in at least 5 years, but now he had Neumann to deal with. Smith would give it everything his underpowered machine had, but Neumann would prove to be to strong, and make a tough outside pass with just 2 laps remaining in the 35 lap feature. Neumann would go on to take an amazing come from behind victory, and prove why he deserves to be the 2011 Super Late Model champion. Smith would come home in the 2nd<\/sup> position, with Grossenbacher rallying for 3rd<\/sup> at the finish line. Neumann was very excited in victory lane and wanted to make sure to thank his crew for the year of hard work and dedication. Heat race winners were Grossenbacher and Dale Sanders (1)<\/p>\n

Kyle Peters (53) would take advantage of his pole position to drive away with the 20 lap Street Stock feature, his 4th<\/sup> of the season. Bubba Martone battled hard with Jesse Veltman (55) before he grabbed control of the runner up spot in the middle part of the event. Points leader Curtis Flanagan would start shotgun on the field, and managed to make it to the 3rd<\/sup> position at the end of this caution free race, just ahead of Veltman. Flanagan still holds a 140 point lead over Martone in the championship race, and seems to be headed to the division title. Heat race winners were Flanagan and Martone.<\/p>\n

13 Taylor Made Homes Pure Stocks took the green for their 20 lap feature with Arden Franklin (7) and Chris Ickes (20) on the front row. Franklin would jump out to and early lead, and survive a few early race cautions to hold the lead. Franklin would soon feel pressure in the form of point leader David Walls (35) and front runner Sheri Makula (27). Walls would make the move for the lead and bring Makula and Tyler Stickler (9) with him. Walls and Stickler would wage a tight battle for the lead from lap 5 to 13. Lap 13 saw Walls enter turn 3 just a little to wide and give Stickler the hole he was looking for on the bottom. Stickler would make the winning pass and go on to take his 3rd<\/sup> feature win of the year, and 2nd<\/sup> in a row. Walls came home 2nd<\/sup> with Makula in 3rd<\/sup>. Walls holds the largest point lead at the speedway with a 281 point lead over 2nd<\/sup> place Glen Colyer, and seems to be headed to his 2nd<\/sup> straight championship. Walls and 15 year old Karlin Ray (72) were the heat races winners.<\/p>\n

A short 7 car Modified Mini Stock field took the green for their 20 lap feature. At the end of the race, it was a familiar trio at the front. Jesse Henley (18) would jump out front and lead till lap 12, when Clint Foley (7) would make an inside pass off of turn 2 for the lead. Foley would drive away for his 7th<\/sup> feature win of the year, and extend his points lead to 18 with only 1 race left in the season. Chris Allen (33) was able to find a way around Henley in the closing laps for the 2nd<\/sup> position, with Henley coming home 3rd<\/sup>. Allen now trails Foley by 18 points headed into the last race on November 5th<\/sup>. Foley was also your heat race winner.<\/p>\n

Wallace Jones (81) would take the lead early from his pole position in the SS\/PS F8 feature race, behind him a points battle raged. Point leader Eric Sharrone (62) was buried deep in the field while the man chasing him, Ronnie Schrefiels was pressuring Jones for the lead. Schrefiels would make contact with Jones in turn 3 around the half way mark of the race, sending both cars sliding up the track. This would open the door for 3rd<\/sup> running Thomas Peet (35), who took advantage of the miscue, and moved to the lead. Schrefiels would get by Jones in the action for 2nd<\/sup>, while Sharrone was stuck in traffic. Peet would go on to take the victory with Schrefiels 2nd<\/sup>, and Jones in 3rd<\/sup>. Sharrone drove a smart race, and came home in the 7th<\/sup> position, securing the 2011 SS\/PS F8 championship.<\/p>\n

This Saturday night is one you won\u2019t want to miss, it\u2019s the 3rd<\/sup> annual Eddie Brann Open Wheel Modified 75 lap memorial race. This race has been the premier event for the Open Wheel Modified division over the last 3 years, bringing between 35 and 45 cars each time. There will be special raffle prizes and other items for the fans to take a chance at winning. Joining the Modifieds will be the Sportsman, Street Stocks, Taylor Made Homes Pure Stocks, Mini Stocks, and the Southeast Champ Karts Series. Gates open at 4pm and racing starts at 6pm sharp. Please visit www.citruscountyspeedway.com<\/a><\/span> for complete details, or call the track office at 352-726-9339. See you at the races!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If any fan, driver, or car owner needed a reminder of why Herb Neumann Jr. is a 4 time Super Late Model Champion, he left […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,22,3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-citrus-county-speedway","category-featured","category-front-page-news","category-race-results"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8866"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8869,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8866\/revisions\/8869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}