Pete Close took the checkered in hotly contested Street Stock feature Friday night.
After two consecutive rainouts nature granted a reprieve to the fans and drivers at Ocala Speedway. That brought out a solid field of racers and a large crowd in the grandstand for a great night of racing action, and some fun too. It was a night off for the 4 Cylinder Stocks and the Late Models, but the divisions that raced put on quite a show.
Feature racing began with the V8 Pure Stock division and Don Welter on the pole. But the car to beat was the 57 of Matt Schell and no one seemed to have any answers as to how to stop it. Schell powered his way to the front and took the lead on lap 7 for good, never looking back after that.
Bobby Taylor stayed close to Schell but never was able to pass him, so Taylor went home with the second place trophy while James Erickson battled to a third place finish. The race had one nasty incident where Jessie Corbett found himself facing sideways in turn 4. Corbett's car was stopped in the middle of the turn, leaving Tommy Roberts with nowhere to go. Roberts hit Corbett hard in the door but both drivers were alright afterward.
Tim Shull earned the pole position for the Sportsman feature, which many drivers were using as a tune up for the 50 lap. $1000 to win, Sportsman race scheduled for the following Friday. Shull took the green and lead flag to flag, but behind him there was quite a bit of carnage and two major delays.
Todd Kelly had a hard meeting with the backstretch wall on lap 9, causing a red flag situation while crews tried to clean up the mess. Then as soon as that mess was cleared and the race restarted, more cars had contact coming out of turn 2 as the engine on Rick Bass' car expired and again forced a lengthy cleanup.
By the time that was over the timer had expired, so the racers were shown a green/white/checker finish. The race ended up only totalling 11 laps and Tim Shull led the entire way. Mike Veltman came from Citrus County Speedway with his #94 machine and performed well, earning a second place finish. And defending Sportsman champion, William Edwards, drove his car to a hard earned third place finish.
Ocala's rookie division, The Thunder Stocks, saw a first time racer hit the track and hold his own for 15 laps to earn a respectable third place finish.
Brian Brogan is the grandson of Bill Thomas who races in the V8 Pure Stock division, so Thomas put Brian in his car and turned him loose.
Guy Bacelo Jr once again impressed the crowd with some awesome passing moves to earn a second place trophy while Jason Henry sped away and won the first place prize.
Patrick Menninga took the wheel of the #10 Street Stock car and led 21 others to the green. Menninga led for most of the race, but an incident between himself and Pete Close took him out of the lead. Close was attempting to pass Mennenga on the outside coming out of turn 4, when Menninga trapped Close against the wall.
Close would bounce off the wall and hit Menninga's car, sending it sideways down the frontstretch. Patrick Menninga would be relegated to the rear after that incident, and without too many laps to recover he ended up finishing in the 13th position. Pete Close would go on to win, followed by David Baxley and David Chastain.
Robbie Cooper usually finds himself near the front when the Open Wheel Modified cars are racing at Ocala, but this time he was firmly planted in the middle of the mix. That turned out to be only a very minor setback for him as he raced his way to the front.
Cooper used patience and skills to pass his way to second place, and would assume the lead on lap 15 after another awesome pass in turns 3 and 4. Pole sitter, Don Stroshal Jr, would finish second to Cooper, while David Castello would end up in third place.
The night was topped off by a 15 lap Figure 8 race that saw Justin Durbin jump out to an early lead. Durbin looked as if he might drive away from everyone else until he was forced to use the breaks in the crossroad.
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That allowed both Larry Welter Jr. and Rick Hart to pass him, and from there Welter finished the race in the next time zone. Hart and Durbin would fight it out for the remainder of the race to finish second and third.
Next week the Ocala fans will be treated to a 50 lap, $1000 to win Sportsman feature race. Included in the evening will be more kids' bike races, plus the Late Models and 4 Cylinder Stock cars will return after some time off.
Ocala Speedway Results for 9/7/07
V8 Pure Stock 1- 57 Matt Schell 2- 127 Bobby Taylor 3- 66 James Erickson 4- 07 Scotty Anderson 5- 67 Josh Brown 6- 85 Larry Welter Sr. 7- 3D Jessie Corbitt 8- 14 James Sullivan 9- 63 Bill Thomas 10- 82 Jim Kruse 11- 18W Chris Watson 12- 00 Chris Oliveri 13- 28 Don Welter 14- 44 Tommy Roberts 15- 60 Greg Valdez
Sportsman 1- 8 Tim Shull 2- 94 Mike Veltman 3- 08 William Edwards 4- 65 Shane Nichols 5- 61 Bill Stalnaker 6- 02 Mike Bates 7- 76 Jim Higginbotham 8- 121 Gordon Cade 9- 1 Matt Blum 10- 39 Rick Bass 11- 42 Gary Miller 12- 38 Todd Kelly
V8 Thunder Stock 1- 196 Jason Henry 2- 25 Guy Bacelo Jr. 3- 63 Brian Brogan 4- 79 Wade Brown 5- 18B Shawn Bailey 6- 00 Mike Valdez 7- 18W Dawn Lavan
Street Stock 1- 86 Pete Close Jr. 2- 1 David Baxley 3- 00C David Chastain 4- 71 Mark Mitchell 5- 4 David Foster 6- 44 Mike Wilson 7- 97 Brent Cooper 8- 8 Jeff Stalnaker Jr. 9- 83 Joe Boyd 10- 91 Hall Robertson 11- 12 Justin Durbin 12- 14 John Buzinec 13- 10 Patrick Mennenga 14- 09 Carl Carr 15- 6 Leonard Arnold 16- 00D Terry Dunbar 17- 3X Butch Dillon 18- 17 Shelby Mather 19- 12G Steve Grindstaff 20- 48 Joey Durbin DNS- 39 Rick Bass
Open Wheel Modified 1- 98C Robbie Cooper 2- 15 Don Strosahl Jr. 3- 20 David Castello 4- 17 Jimmy Wagner 5- 0 Troy Robinson 6- 8 Mike Stalnaker 7- 5.0 Mike Batten 8- 24 Donnie Roberts 9- 27 Eric Sauer 10- 06 Brian Hutchenson 11- 31 Johnny Newsome 12- 25 Curtis Perrett 13- 98Y Mark Rider
Figure 8 1- 58 Larry Welter Jr. 2- 13 Rick Hart 3- 12 Justin Durbin 4- 58X Larry Welter Sr. 5- 83 Joe Boyd 6- 18W Randy Glick 7- 82 Jim Kruse 8- 00C David Chastain 9- 13X Jonathon Appleby 10- 00D Terry Dunbar 11- 07 Scotty Anderson 12- 18B Shawn Bailey
Next Week: 50 Lap/ $1000 to win Sportsman Race Kid's Bike Races 4 Cylinder V8 Pure Stock V8 Thunder Stock Street Stock Late Model
Ocala's rookie division, The Thunder Stocks, saw a first time racer hit the track and hold his own for 15 laps to earn a respectable third place finish. 
