IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

November 5, 2007 Tricks and Treats are Better Late than Never at Ocala By BJ Cavin Photos By Ricky Ellison Tricks and treats were slightly delayed by weather at Ocala Speedway this season, but as the racers and fans discovered on Friday night, anticipation can make the treats far better and the tricks more exciting. It was a double points night for all divisions, with only one more week of divisional contests remaining in 2007. And for the open wheel modified and figure 8 drivers, Friday was the final night of action and the last chance to claim the season championships. Just after the heat races were completed several open wheel modified drivers took to the track in a 20 lap make up for a race that was rained out weeks ago. Not all drivers returned for the postponed event, but those that did put on quite a show. Curtis Neumann started from the pole and led throughout, holding off Robbie Cooper to take the win. And as Neumann said in his post race interview, keeping Robbie Cooper behind him was the real feat. Cooper wound up with the second place trophy while Don Strosahl Jr rounded out the top three. The kids took over the frontstretch for some trick or treating with the race teams following the OWM make up feature while the adults watched and enjoyed the show. Once that ended the V8 Pure Stock teams donned their safety gear and got ready for their feature event of the night. Bobby Taylor had given a sneak peek of his car's speed during the heat races earlier, and that earned him the pole position for the main event. And Taylor was not shy about it either, immediately showing he had the car to beat as soon as the green was displayed. The only car that seemed to have something to say about it was the 21 of James Sealey, but that car suffered a mechanical failure on lap 5 and headed to the pits. The 82 of Aaron Welter mounted a challenge to Taylor's dominance later in the race, but was forced to settle for finishing behind the 77 car. And in the end, Welter's 82 machine fail ed in tech, thus earning him a DQ and moving the 66 of James Erickson up to second place. Larry Welter Sr climbed to a respectable third place finish, while James Sullivan and Jessie Corbett finished 4th and 5th. Justyn Elwood came into the 4 cylinder stock feature race as the current points leader, and his performance in the earlier heat race earned him the pole. One might think that would seal the deal for a guy who has managed to run so well all season, but being treated to a great start does not protect you from tricks that crop up during a race. And as other drivers found out later, tricks that appear for one driver can have a major impact on others too, and the tricks wasted no time in beginning as the 17 car spun in turn 4 and others were forced to take split second evasive action. Melissa Hunley chose to go high as did John Hagen and Richard Kuhn. Hunley collected Hagen and Kuhn and all three slammed into the turn 4 wall, ending the night for Hagen and Kuhn while Hunley's car was crumpled, but still able to race. Kuhn had been poised in the second position in points behind Justyn Elwood, so the wrecked race car was especially tough on him. After the wreckage was cleared away the race restarted, John Layerd wasted no time in making some moves on the race leader, Justyn Elwood. Layerd blasted his 02 racer to the front and put the pressure on Elwood for several laps, finally making a gutsy pass on lap 12 to earn the lead. Meanwhile it was Brandon Elwood who was making moves of his own, and by lap 15 he had passed Karl Born for the 3rd spot. But before Brandon could challenge his cousin for second, Justyn's car suddenly slowed and coasted to the pits with a mechanical problem, ending his night. That left John Layerd with a comfortable lead that sealed his deal for the first place hardware. Brandon Elwood left with the second place trophy and Karl Born raced to the third place spot. Melissa Hunley recovered from the earlier wreck to place 4th, while Shawn Evans rounded out the top five. After the last street stock race at Ocala where retaliation and rampant DQ's for bad conduct overshadowed the racing, the drivers were warned very sternly in the driver's meeting that no shenanigans would be tolerated, and that the officials would have a hare trigger with the black flag. Meanwhile David Foster quietly listened, and pondered his mission for the night, which was finally collecting his first street stock feature win. Foster was in second place in the points, just behind Pete Close after Close's DQ the previous race. But as Foster would say before the race, the points were not his concern. Getting that elusive win was his focus and the rest was icing on the cake. Jeff Stalnaker Sr climbed into the 8 car and earned the pole for the race, but Foster replaced him in front before the first green flag lap was completed. Foster never looked back while the night went awry for a number of others behind him. Yellow flags became the rule for the race, but thankfully the black flag stayed furled in the flagstand. Pete Close started in the rear thanks to his previous DQ, but wasted no time making his way forward. Meanwhile Shelby Mather found himself wadded up in an backstretch incident that briefly stopped the race and made a mess out of the nose of his car. Mather finished the race in third place, racing the final 5 laps with the nose of his car dragging the pavement. Jeff Stalnaker Jr took his number 10 machine from deep in the starting grid to a well deserved second place finish, while his dad settled for a finish just outside of the top five. Pete Close climbed to 4th spot in the end, followed by Mark Mitchell in 5th. But the happiest driver on the track was first time winner David Foster, who never lost his focus on his true goal and went home with the first place trophy. Doug Morgan was happy to find himself starting from the pole in the V8 Thunder Stock race and made the most of the situation to earn a win on the night. Donnie Buckner was poised to overtake Guy Bacelo Jr in the points standings, and an early mistake by the 14 year old rookie opened the door for him to do just that. While running in the second spot behind Morgan in lap 7, Bacelo got a little over zealous and took an excursion through the infield grass that left him well behind the leaders. Buckner gladly took advantage of the situation and raced to a second place finish behind Morgan, while Brian Brogan earned another third place trophy. Bacelo had to settle for a 5th place finish a lap down to everyone else. Shawn Bailey came home in the 4th spot. Jim Higginbotham had just gotten his sportsman car repaired after the violent crash that ended his night in the last sportsman race at Ocala, so he was none too happy to find himself in a serious case of deja vous almost as soon as the green flag dropped this week. Once again it was the 76 car going around in turn 2, only this time everyone avoided hitting it and Higginbotham was able to continue, all be it from the rear on the restart. --Advertisement-- Kyle Maynard began the race from the pole and led flag to flag, while Matt Blum wound up placing second behind him. Defending points champion, and current points leader, William Edwards, raced from the rear of the field to the front once again, earning a third place finish and remaining on top in the hunt for the championship. Meanwhile Tim Shull suffered some misfortune and had to come from the rear late in the race to salvage a 7th place finish, and Jim Higginbotham recovered from his earlier mishap to place in the 5th spot, once again gaining ground in the points battle to take the second spot from Shull. Bill Stalnaker finished the race 4th in front of Higginbotham. The fans in the grandstand got a surprise as the open wheel modifieds returned to the track for their regularly scheduled feature race. A new, black and rust colored number 86 machine started the race with none other than Pete Close at the controls. Close ran a good race, managing to finish in the third spot before suffering a DQ in post race tech. Another surprise was the return of Jeremy Gerstner who returned with his modified after a long absence. Gerstner started from the pole, but immediately lose the lead to Curtis Neumann on the opening lap. Neumann would again be the dominant factor much as he was in the earlier race until disaster struck on lap 18. Neumann was out in front and being pursued by Troy Robinson and Jeremy Gerstner when the 20 car of David Costello slowed on the backstretch and moved to the outside against the wall. With Costello well out of the racing groove against the outside wall, racing continued for the moment because Costello's car seemed to be making it's way to the pits and staying out of harm's way. As Neumann rocketed down the backstretch under green and Costello eased along the wall entering turn 3, Costello's 20 machine suddenly and inexplicably turned left, directly in front of the speeding 01 car. The resulting impact was as spectacular as it was frightening, but both drivers managed to walk away from the carnage. Unfortunately for Neumann it ended what looked like another sure victory and left both drivers to contemplate what had happened as the remains of the their cars were cleaned up. With Curtis Neumann's car in pieces and the race restarting, Troy Robinson assumed the lead and held it for the final two laps to earn the win. Jeremy Gerstner took home the hardware for the second spot, while Michael Stalnaker raced to a third place finish. Robbie Cooper wound up taking 4th place, followed by Don Strosahl Jr in 5th place. The 4th place finish was good enough for Robbie Cooper, who assured his place as the points champion in the division for 2007. The final race of the night featured the always popular figure 8 cars, and they certainly did not disappoint the fans. The race produced a collision in the X very early as the 48 of Joey Durbin and the 0 of Geoff Danielson failed to yield. The 48 attempted to continue, but wound up in the path of the 58 of Larry Welter Jr in the crossing just 2 laps later, thus creating yet another hard impact. The 58 never slowed down and sent the 48 car into the dirt pile in the infield, prompting a red flag to remove the disabled car and check on the driver. When the race restarted Justin Durbin started in the lead and left everyone else behind, extending to a huge margin of victory at the finish. Larry Welter Jr raced neck and neck with his father throughout the contest, winding up in the second place spot, while Larry Welter Sr rounded out the top three. And when the smoke cleared it was Larry Welter Jr. who emerged as the 2007 points champion for the figure 8 cars. Next week is the final night of divisonal racing at Ocala Speedway for the 2007 season, as the 4 cylinder stocks, V8 thunder stocks, V8 pure stocks, street stocks, and sportsman racers, all race to settle the points battles in those classes. Also adding to the excitement will be the final 2007 visit to Ocala for the TBARA Winged Sprints, and a final powder puff race to wind up the season. And according to the dirt going around the pits after racing this week, there may also be a big, possibly surprising announcement concerning Ocala Speedway's future in 2008. Ocala Speedway Results for 11/2/07 Open Wheel Modified (make up race) 1- 01 Curtis Neumann 2- 98C Robbie Cooper 3- 15 Don Strosahl Jr. 4- 8 Michael Stalnaker 5- 20 David Costello 6- 98Y Mark Ryder 7- 27 Eric Sauer DNS- 50 Mike Batten DNS- 31 Johnny Newsome DNS- 06 Brian Hutchinson V8 Pure Stock 1- 77 Bobby Taylor 2- 66 James Erickson 3- 85 Larry Welter Sr. 4- 14 James Sullivan 5- 3D Jessie Corbett 6- 69 Mike Smith 7- 28 Don Welter 8- 57 Matt Schell 9- 196 Jason Henry 10- 07 Scott Anderson 11- 67 Josh Brown 12- 60 Greg Valdez 13- 96 Bruce Pernitza 14- 21 James Sealey 15- 18 Randy Glick DNS- 3K Chris Oliveri DQ (tech) 82 Aaron Welter 4 Cylinder Stock 1- 02 John Layerd 2- 28 Brandon Elwood 3- 06 Karl Born 4- 18 Melissa Hunley 5- 46 Shawn Evans 6- 75 Nick Kerr 7- 17 Justyn Elwood 8- 23 John Hagens 9- 47 Richard Kuhn Street Stock 1- 4 David Foster 2- 10 Jeff Stalnaker Jr. 3- 17 Shelby Mather 4- 86 Pete Close Jr. 5- 71 Mark Mitchell 6- 8 Michael Stalnaker 7- 14 John Buzinec 8- 0 Neal Durbin 9- 12 Tater Stalnaker 10- 09 Carl Carr 11- 39 Rick Bass 12- 6 Leonard Arnold 13- 81 Don Woosley 14- 91 Hall Robertson 15- 3X Mark Trexler 16- 48 Mike Ogelsby 17- 37 Anthony Abney 18- 00 Terry Dunbar V8 Thunder Stock 1- 69 Doug Morgan 2- 98 Donnie Buckner 3- 63 Brian Brogan 4- 18 Shawn Bailey 5- 25 Guy Bacelo Jr. DNS- 21 John Bakalars Sportsman 1- 07 Kyle Maynard 2- 1 Matt Blum 3- 08 William Edwards 4- 61W Bill Stalnaker 5- 76 Jim Higginbotham 6- 69 Don Milam 7- 8 Tim Shull 8- 39 Rick Bass 9- 3 Harold Barup 10- 2 David Myer 11- 32 Shelton Bowers 12- 61 Jacob Leeson 13- 38 Todd Kelly 14- 9 Michael Mennenga Open Wheel Modified (regularly scheduled feature) 1- 0 Troy Robinson 2- 70 Jeremy Gerstner 3- 8 Michael Stalnaker 4- 98C Robbie Cooper 5- 15 Don Strosahl Jr. 6- 61 Tony Cavreno 7- 01 Curtis Neumann 8- 20 David Costello 9- 98Y Mark Ryder 10- 24 Donnie Roberts DNS- 27 Eric Sauer DQ (tech) 86 Pete Close Jr. Figure 8 1- 12 Justin Durbin 2- 58 Larry Welter Jr. 3- 58X Larry Welter Sr. 4- 82 Aaron Welter 5- 13 Rick Hart 6- 0 James Sealey 7- 0D Geoff Danielson 8- 18 Shawn Bailey 9- 48 Joey Durbin 10- 07 Scott Anderson Next Week: TBARA Winged Sprints! Street Stock rainout make up race Powder Puff Race 4 Cylinder Stock V8 Thunder Stock V8 Pure Stock Street Stock Sportsman Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on The Real Racin USA Florida Fan Message Board! or Email KARNACto send a letter to the editor!