| Mike Fritts Captures Powell Memorial | By Larry MacMillan
Forty-four Late Model hot shoes showed up for practice on Friday night in preparation for the 7th Annual Powell Memorial with thirty-three registering for time trials Saturday afternoon.
With a full house in the grandstands only thirty-one were able to make the two lap run for the top sixteen starting spots with Dickie Anderson dropping an engine during his first run. Defending track champion Herb Neumann Jr. had a mechanical problem that kept him out of the running for the entire night.
Friday night practice was showing most of the drivers running in the mid to high 13s on a cooler racetrack. Mike Bresnahan was the only dirver able to get into the 13s when it counted with a 13.918 second run paying him a $1,000 bonus for fast qualifier.
Ricky Carlton picked up an extra $200 as runner up and Mike Franklin Jr. held out for $100 as third fast qualifier. The top 16 were not that far off with 16th qualifier James Powell III turning a 14.278.
The balance of the field was decided on the basis of Consi race that put the top six finishers in the main event with Jason Boyd taking the win in his first ride in this racecar.
A fifteen lap B main had eleven cars scheduled to start but only 8 made the green flag and it was former track champion Danny Johnson taking the wire to wire win.
In lieu of accepting the $1,000 win purse he elected to accept the 25th starting spot in the main event. The two promoter choices were Billy Bigley Jr. and Johnny Kay.
In interviews with each of the drivers before the green flew for the 125 lap Powell Memorial most of the drivers expressed their feelings for the race and for the most part they felt the respect for James Powell and the loss he suffered when his family was lost in an airplane accident was their primary reason for running in this race.
The money certainly was an incentive as well but to quote two-time winner Wayne Anderson he felt "the most important incentive for running this race was the Memorial that has been held for the 7th year on behalf of the Powell family". As he said, he would "race in this event even if the money wasnt there as an incentive".
When the green flew, it was a drag race to turn one by pole sitters Dave Pletcher and Wayne Anderson, with Pletcher winning and setting the pace for the first 19 laps before giving up the lead to Anderson.
Five caution flags came out during the first 50 laps with only 3 laps counting during each caution for a total of 15 laps. The final 75 laps were all run under green and Anderson maintained the lead until lap 107 despite five more cautions that reduced the field to 19 cars.
Eleventh starter Mike Fritts made his way through some heavy traffic to second by lap 96 and then made the pass on Anderson on lap 107. The final caution came out in lap 108 with two restarts in that lap taking out 2 more cars before it was over and sent two other front runners to the rear of the field for the second restart with damage to Mike Bresnahan, Freddy Query and David Rogers who lost the whole drivers side of his racer.
The final seven laps saw Mike Fritts outrun Wayne Anderson to the checkers and picking up the $10,000 win purse. Anderson took home $5,000 while fourth starter Ricky Carlton banked $4,000, fifteenth starter Freddy Query held out for fourth and $3,000 in a Chevy Monte Carlo.
David Rogers was able to come through with a lot of body damage to hold out for a fifth place finish after starting 12th and picking up a $2,000 payday.
James Powell came up with a sixth place finish from his 16th starting spot and from his restart from the rear in lap 108 to finish sixth. The balance of the top ten were Scott Grossenbacher, Mike Bresnahan, Jeff Sloan and Daniel Keene Jr.
In accepting the $10,000 check from Promoters Billy Hooker and Jimmy Ware, Mike Fritts expressed his love for James Powell and thanked the Citrus County Speedway promoters for carrying on the Powell Memorial Tradition.
Five other divisions rounded out the full night of racing at Citrus with Mark Dominique winning his second feature of the season and improving his point position in the Sportsman division.
Corky Miley logged his second feature win over a 21 car Street Stock division. Tommy Smith locked on to his sixth win over brother Richie in the 19 car Hobby Stock 25 lapper. Shawn Conner won his first ever Thunder Stock feature in the first of two 15-lap runs. Todd Downs wrapped up the night with his second win in Thunder II.
7th Annual Powell Memorial Results
Finish-Car#-Driver - Starting Position
1. 27 Mike Fritts 11th
2. 84 Wayne Anderson 2nd
3. 34 Ricky Carlton 4th
4. 31 Freddy Query 15th
5. 11 David Rogers 12th
6. 37 James Powell 16th
7 09 Scott Grossenbacher 7th
8. 3X Mike Bresnahan (Fast Qualifier) 5th
9. 31 Jeff Sloan 18th
10.5K Daniel Keene Jr. 21st
11.25 Jason Boyd 17th
12. 3 Rex Struble 9th
13.12x Sam Coghill 20th
14. 2 Wayne Bowman 19th
15.131 Bobby Beauchman (DNF) 5th
16.12 Billy Bigley Jr. (DNF) 23rd
17 34 Teddy Nelson (DNF) 22nd
18.75 Dave Pletcher (DNF) 1st
19 16 Tommy McCann (DNF) 13th
20.22 Herb Hoefler (DNF) 14th
21.96 Danny Johnson (DNF) 25th
22.137 Mike Franklin Jr. (DNF) 3rd
23. 6 Mac Johnson (DNF) 6th
24. 14 Aric Ariolla (DNF) 8th
25. 77 Johnny Kay (DNF)
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