IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

July 28, 2007 Double Excitement At Ocala Speedway By BJ Cavin For the first time in many days not one drop of rain fell on Ocala Speedway during the afternoon and evening hours, and a good crowd endured hot and humid weather to see some awesome racing action. The night featured two open wheel modified feature races that were a make up event from an earlier rainout, and the continuation of a four race series that began over a month earlier at Citrus County Speedway. To add to the excitement, $1000 was up for grabs for the driver that ran all four races and accumulated the most points. Coming into Friday's races at Ocala the three top contenders for the bonus cash were Curtis Neumann, Robbie Cooper, and Wayne Anderson. Anderson failed to show up at Ocala with a modifed to race and Robbie Cooper found himself mired in traffic in the night's second feature race. That made it Curtis Neumann's money to lose and he made it a point not to lose it. Neumann finished third in the first race and fourth in the second one to claim the prize and go home $1000 richer. In the first modified feature race Robbie Cooper overtook Troy Robinson early and held him off in order to earn the win. Robinson constantly challenged Cooper, but could not regain the lead and settled for second while Curtis Neumann finished a solid third. After that race was completed the cars were led into the infield by the pace car and parked there for ten minutes, allowing the pit crews to refuel them and make some adjustments. However, the drivers were informed that any tire changes would result in that car being relegated to the rear to begin the second feature, and no cars changed even one tire. --Advertisement-- Before the second feature race the field of lead lap cars was inverted, putting the race leaders in the rear, and by the end of the second race it became apparent that this was the kiss of death for some while it only served as a temporary obstacle to others. The second 25 lap feature race for the modifieds did not go as smoothly as the first. Troy Robinson was forced to park his car early on and various tangles and bouts of lousy luck served to aggravate many other contenders. Patrick Mennenga found himself mired in traffic during the first race, but he was near the front for the second race and used that to his advantage. Mennenga took the lead 6 laps in and held it for the duration of the race, winning the second feature race. Teddy Nelson also benefited from starting near the front as he managed a second place finish, and Alan McCafferty battled from near the rear to the front to claim the third spot. While Curtis Neumann, Alan McCafferty, Michael Stalnaker, and Kurt Jett were able to come from deep in the field to finish near the front, some drivers like Robbie Cooper and Jimmy Wagner could not make their way through traffic to reclaim front positions. The other regular divisions at Ocala Speedway saw plenty of action as well, and it was the V8 Pure Stocks that began the night with James Sullivan out in front in the pole position. Sullivan had hoped this would pay off for him 20 laps later, but by the sixth lap Larry Welter Sr. had stolen the lead and was obviously determined to win. Jessie Corbett had something to say about that as he picked his way through the field from a dismal starting position to eventually take the lead and win the race. Larry Welter Sr. settlee for second place while Josh Brown managed a top 3 finish for the second week in a row after his move up from the Thunder Stock class. The Sportsman division race was dominated by Michael Mennenga who started from the pole and never looked back, but in the end the tech man would have the final say and another strong driver would fall victim to over zealousness as Shelton Bowers claimed another first place trophy. John Mamph had yet another strong night and wound up second while Rick Bass clawed his way to what turned out to be a third place finish. The award for sheer determination had to go to Jim Higginbotham as he blew the engine in his primary car in hot laps early on, then went home and gathered up his secondary car that had not raced in over a year. Higginbotham returned to the track in time to start the feature race in the backup car and blew the cobwebs out of it on the way to a respectable eighth place finish. Brandon Elwood started from the pole and never looked back in the 4 Cylinder Stock race, but had he chanced a glance he would have seen Justyn Elwood trying everything in his power to make a pass and take the lead. Brandon held on for the win while Justyn settled for second and Karl Born battled to a third place finish. Sixteen Street Stocks took the green flag behind pole sitter Joe Boyd, and it was not long before Shelby Mather was challenging Boyd for the lead. Mather may have been a tad too aggressive and ended up tangled up with Boyd on the backstretch. Boyd spun and was able to continue while Mather was sent to the rear and had to battle his way back up font. Meanwhile it was Pete Close who continually fought hard to gain positions and wound up in the top three, eventually taking the lead on lap 13 and holding on for a win. Justin Durbin had a solid second place finish and Joe Boyd hung on to claim third place. The night was capped off by a crowd favorite, the Figure 8 cars. Larry Welter Jr. took control of the race from the pole and literally drove away from everyone else while Justin Durbin fought for a second place finish and Rick Hart managed to claim third prize. Next week Ocala Speedway welcomes the late models back for another long awaited feature race, along with the 4 Cylinder Stocks, V8 Stocks, Street Stocks, Sportsman. The Thunder Stocks will also be back after a week off. And added to the program will be a powder puff race, featuring wives, daughters, and even one of the speedway owners as well, plus a kidney bean race featuring V8 Pure Stock cars. Results From Ocala Speedway for 7/27/07 Winner of the $1000 OWM Point Bonus- 01 Curtis Neumann Open Wheel Modified- First Feature 1- 98 Robbie Cooper 2- 0 Troy Robinson 3- 01 Curtis Neumann 4- 32 Alan McCafferty 5- Kurt Jett 6- 8 Michael Stalnaker 7- 17 Jimmy Wagner 8- 34- Teddy Nelson 9- 27 Eric Sauers 10- 20 David Castello 11- 15 Don Stroshal 12- 16 Patrick Mennenga 13- 29 Daniel Webster 14- 5.0 Mike Batten 15- 31 Johnny Newsome 16- 39 Gary Southard 17- 70 Jeremy Gerstner 18- 121 John Carter Open Wheel Modified- Second Feature 1- 16 Patrick Mennenga 2- 34 Teddy Nelson 3- 32 Alan McCafferty 4- 01 Curtis Neumann 5- 9 Kurt Jett 6- 70 Jeremy Gerstner 7- 8 Michael Stalnaker 8- 50 Mike Batten 9- 27 Eric Sauers 10- 98 Robbie Cooper 11- 20 David Castello 12- 17 Jimmy Wagner 13- 39 Gary Southard 14- 29 Daniel Webster 15- 31 Johnny Newsome 16- 15 Don Strosahl 17- 0 Troy Robinson DNS- 121 John Carter V8 Pure Stock 1- 3D Jessie Corbett 2- 85 Larry Welter Sr. 3- 67 Josh Brown 4- 98 ??? 5- 28 Don Welter 6- 82 Aaron Welter 7- 14 James Sullivan 8- 57 Matt Schell DQ (tech)- 18w Randy Glick Sportsman 1- 32 Shelton Bowers 2- 8M John Mamph 3- 39 Rick Bass 4- 11 Harold Edwards 5- 61 Bill Stalnaker 6- 23 Greg Young 7- 02 Mike Bates 8- 76B Jim Higginbotham 9- 08 William Edwards 10- 38 Todd Kelly 11- 29 Leroy Donaldson DNS- 1 Matt Blum DQ (tech)- 9 Michael Mennenga DQ (conduct)- 8R Tim Shull 4 Cylinder Stock 1- 28 Brandon Elwood 2- 17 Justyn Elwood 3- 06 Karl Born 4- 46 Richard Kuhn 5- 02 John Layerd 6- 43 Mike Taylor 7- 83 John Fortner 8- 23 John Hagans Street Stock 1- 86 Pete Close Jr. 2- 12 Justin Durbin 3- 83 Joe Boyd 4- 4 David Foster 5- 97 Brent Cooper 6- 17 Shelby Mather 7- 91 Hall Robertson 8- 14 John Buzinec 9- 39 Rick Bass 10- 69 Tommy Ausburn 11- 6 Leonard Arnold 12- 81 Don Woosley 13- 09 Karl Carr 14- 12G Steve Grindstaff 15- 7E James Erickson DNS- 00 Terry Dunbar Figure 8 1- 58 Larry Welter Jr. 2- 12 Justin Durbin 3- 13 Rick Hart 4- 82 Aaron Welter 5- 85 Larry Welter Sr. 6- 14 John Buzinec 7- 18 Chris Watson Next Week: Late Model 4 Cylinder Stock V8 Pure Stock Thunder Stock Street Stock Sportsman Kidney Bean Race Powder Puff Race Have an opinion on this story? 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