IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

June 27, 2009 A Surprise Winner of $1000 at Ocala by BJ Cavin ZUBER, FL- Surprises were the matter of business as race fans and racers hit the clay at Ocala Speedway on Friday night. First, on a day when nary a drop of rain fell at Ocala Speedway and virtually nothing showed within 50 miles of the track on radar, a sudden downpour hit the track during hot laps that caused a major delay in the racing action and sent the staff into a quickly arranged Plan B. But the biggest surprise came at the end of the night as the winner of the $1000 race was totally unexpected, even to the driver that won it. The shower that hit Ocala Speedway sprang up literally out of the blue and sent everyone scattering for cover, and it dumped quite a bit of heavy rain on the clay just after the crew had finished watering the surface. But instead of giving up, Ocala speedway's staff sprang into action and recruited the racers in an all out effort to get the surface back into shape. After about an hour's delay, heat racing began for the Open Wheel Mods and The Amsoil V8 Thunder Stocks. Due to the delay, the Hobby Stocks, Mini Stocks, and Gladiators were forced to forego their heats and were lined up for their features by pill draw. The big race of the night was the 30 lap, $1000 to win, Amsoil V8 Thunder Stock feature. And as expected, the $1000 cash carrot made racers go for broke in order to get to the front, but Jessie Corbitt took control and mostly managed to stay out front despite a couple of miscues along the way. As usual, Jason Gamble made his way to the front and got past Corbitt, but ended up needing to pit to fix a flat, relegating him to the rear. From there he came back toward the front yet again, but ran out of laps as the race exceeded the allotted time and was shortened to 20 laps. At the checkers it was Jessie Corbitt in front, with William Martin finishing second, and Courtney Eubanks third, but those who failed to hang around until the end missed the biggest surprise of the evening. The tech man always has the final say, and after both the first and second place cars failed post race inspection, Courtney Eubanks claimed the $1000 payday. Courtney got her Victory Lane celebration late in the evening, and even shed a couple of tears of joy at managing the win. She also got the biggest cheer of the night from the crowd as she was announced as the race winner. Jason Gamble moved up to second after the DQ's of the front two, followed by Mike Dubbs, Glenn Vincent, and Wally Douglas. The Open Wheel Modifieds had an equally tough race, but Jason Davis showed no concern to those who followed him. He took the lead at the start and held it through several restarts to take the win, followed by Gary Sexton for second place. Kyle Owen recovered from a rather nasty encounter with the wall in an earlier heat race to claim the third spot. and Jeff Mathews followed in fourth. Ronnie Chance rounded out the top five. Donnie Reed has raced at Ocala Speedway in the past and has seen a measure of success, but a less than perfect surface seemed to be absolutely perfect for him, as he bested the field of Hobby Stocks in their feature race. Reed was challenged early but proved he had his car right for the conditions with a solid victory. In fact, his only mistake was getting stuck in the mud on the low side of the front stretch when he parked for his winner's interview and celebration. Paul Combast was back in winning form with the Mini Stocks on the night, dominating their 20 lap feature. Combast blasted out front and drove away despite challenging track conditions, sealing a convincing win. Travis Staats placed second after battling earlier with Charlie Staats, who ended up in the third spot behind him. Calvin Christian finished forth, while Greg Bonynge placed fifth. The Gladiators rounded out the evening with a 12 lap feature, and it was dominated flag to flag by Brad Dover. Austin Gamble fought his way to a second place finish, followed by Eddie Lentz, Paul Hahn, and Rich Smith. Ocala Speedway will take the 4th of July weekend off to celebrate our nation's independence with friends and family. Racing will return to Ocala Speedway on July 11th as the late models will be in action. For more info on upcoming events at Ocala speedway, please visit www.OcalaSpeedway.com. Ocala Speedway Results for 6/26/09 V8 Thunder Stock ($1000 to win) 1- 81 Courtney Eubanks 2- 17 Jason Gamble 3- 36 Mike Dubbs 4- 28 Glenn Vincent 5- 6 Wally Douglas 6- 54 Glenn Baum 7- 7 Charles Howard 8- 89 Kenny Asbell 9- 03 Curtis Clark 10- 07 Ryan Lasik 11- 40J Danny James 12- 35 David Walls 13- 69A Jonathan Appleby 14- XX Augie Burttram 15- 12 Jarred Bennett 16- 66 Harold Erickson 17- 42 Don Milam 18- 5A Chris Waldron 19- 118 Chris Watson 20- 73 Jeff Eisenhower 21- 00 Edward England 22- 5W Robin Martin Open Wheel Modified 1- 145 Jason Davis 2- 41 Gary Sexton 3- 2 Kyle Owen 4- 33 Jeff Mathews 5- 73 Ronnie Chance 6- 410J PJ Wiggins 7- 12 Chip Owen 8- 95 James Edgely 9- Z06 Larry Mott 10- 0 Richard Dickinson 11- F90 Allen Thomas 12- Z Tim Zackery 13- 90 Mark Buie 14- 27 John Bradley 15- 7E James Erickson 16- 75 Mark Ryder 17- 00 Jeremy Dowler 18- 49 Justin Tilton Hobby Stock 1- 07 Donnie Reed 2- 27S Mike Scranton 3- 04 Bubba Christian 4- 18 Mike Eubanks 5- 36 Grady Christian 6- 08 William Edwards 7- 00 Marty Butcher 8- 59 William Stalnaker 9- 81 Don Woosley 10- 55 Heath Walker 11- 11 Jody Wells 12- 83 Joe Boyd 13- 27K David Kinsey Mini Stock 1- 19 Paul Combast 2- 1AR Travis Staats 3- 9AR Charlie Staats 4- 63 Calvin Christian 5- 44 Greg Bonynge 6- 9B Sean Babcock 7- 18 Jason Intoppa 8- 59 William Stalnaker 9- 11Z Johnny Zackery 10- 66 Scott Burgess 11- 40M David Miller 12- 81 Buddy Pope 13- 02 John Layerd Gladiator 1- 63 Brad Dover 2- 23 Austin Gamble 3- 69 Eddie Lentz 4- 78 Paul Hahn 5- 57 Rich Smith 6- 83 Kody Fisher Have an opinion on this story? 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