(Inverness, FL; 7/8/2000) Citrus County Speedway watched Mother Nature do her thing all over their parade Saturday night. The rainy season has begun and unfortunately it has chosen Saturday nights to do a lot of recovering from the dry conditions central Florida has experienced over the past 8 months. We need the rain, but not on Saturday nights.

The long anticipated Country Fox 96.3 FM "Great American Lawn Mower Challenge" will be rescheduled for a later time in the season. It will give more contestants a better opportunity to 'SuperTune' their lawnmowers to go after the trophies and cash that are on the line for this 6th annual event.

Also scheduled to appear is a 100 mph lawnmower, which is based in Fort Lauderdale. This guy has his mower equipped with a Chevrolet Camaro rear end and a few other trick parts,which he runs on the pro lawn mower circuit.

Our challenge race is for the homegrown and commercial lawn mowers locally, and the rules have changed a bit from the previous races. There will be an obstacle course for those who want to run for skill, and a racecourse for those who want to go for speed.

Saturday night will see the return of the wild and crazy Figure-8's in double feature action in the intersection. The first race will be a make-up from the rainout on June 17th, and the second will be the regularly scheduled race. Now the entire field will be chasing defending champion Robert Aaron, who moved back into first place two weeks ago as a result of Gary Swing's first DNF for the season.

Aaron has one win and six top five finishes out of seven races run. Swing holds out in second with four wins and two top five finishes. Ken Crews, Larry Harris, T.J. Sharrone, Charlie Meyer, and Peanut Higgenbotham, round out the top seven in the points chase and are still looking for their first wins. The only other winner in the top ten is Scott Knight who won the last outing; he is in the eighth spot at mid-season. Phillip Rook and Al Barber take the balance of the top ten.

Points races continue in the five other regular divisions as Citrus County Speedway enters the second half of its 45th Anniversary year. Mike Bresnahan has a handy 130-point lead on defending Late Model champ, Dan Johnson. Fred Stoner, Al Lawrence, Robert Elting, Brad Atkin, Herb Neumann Jr., Perry Lovelady, Tate Pierce, and Bruce Smith hold the balance of the top ten spots.

Mike Veltman has a 64-point lead over Johnny Gann in the Limited Sportsman division. Travis Nichols, David Dollar, Rex Struble, Jim Smith, Mark Dominique, Johnny Sanders, Bill Ostreicher, and Mike Holm complete the lineup in their top ten race. Mark Dominique signed on to sponsor three more Limited Sportsman 40-Lap specials over the balance of the season.

Sport Wilson has a slim 8-point lead over his brother, Wes, in the Street Stock race for the crown. Ernie Reed, Jr., Otis Hamilton, Harley Wilson, Sr., Don Teague, Victor Stanley, Scott Hendrickson, Dean Lawyer, and Wayne Lewis are still very much in the running for the top spot with 39 other drivers also in the chase.

George Neumann is still top shoe in Mini-Stock action with an 18-point edge over Mark Sowell, who is coming on strong with four feature wins for the season. Kevin Harrod, Don Faunce, Frank Coleman, Mike Moore, Rick Coleman, Billy Smith, and rookie Jake Garver hold the top ten spots over the 29 competitors who have collected points thus far this season.

Chris Hooker continues to hold the top spot in Hobby Stocks with J.D. Goff trailing by 67 points. Both drivers have scored 5 feature wins for the season. Richie Smith has four checkered flags in his rookie season and holds out in third just 19 points behind Goff. Defending champion Roy Perkins is still in the hunt in fourth place followed by Mike Ruff, Jimmy Peters, Jeff Sharp, Allen Jacobson, Mickey Burns, and James Teague rounding out the top ten.

Saturday night, July 15, will see all five regular divisions running in heat and feature action plus Figure-8 double features, the Street Legal Junkers, and fan participation races.

-Larry MacMillan-

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