Chastain Wins one for his boy - Practice is perfect for Anderson at Ocala
by Dave Westerman
Emotions were running high Friday night at Ocala Speedway in more ways than one, but the biggest moment of the night belonged to K-Country Street Stock driver David Chastain.
Chastain's son, home on leave from the military, lost his life along with a friend in a car crash just before Christmas last year and the Leesburg driver has been working on his race car as a way to keep his mind off things.
Starting from the outside pole, Chastain wasted little time in taking the lead. With only two caution flags slowing the 27 car field, drivers had to do their catching up under green and Tom Fralish made a few moves to get by Chastain, but was unable to make a pass. Tommy Roberts saw his two race win streak come to an end as he finished in third spot while Doug Webster had another good run for fourth with Kyle Maynard fifth.
"My boy was with me out there tonight," said Chastain. "This means even more to me with everything going on with our military overseas too," he said.
Street Stock heats were won by Todd Roberts, Mark Mitchell, and Kenny Abney.
Wildwood's Wayne Anderson had a new Steven A. Bagen Super Late Model ride for Friday's action, but the result was the same as opening night as he led every lap of the 50-lap race.
Young Ocala driver Brock Oglesby set quick time at 15.137 seconds. A new twist was added to the program this week as the top eight cars in qualifying ran an eight-lap "pursuit" race with fast qualifier Oglesby starting eighth and getting $50 for every car he could pass in the race. The race would also determine the starting lineup for the feature as well.
Oglesby's car suffered a problem at the start and he quickly headed for the pits. Patrick Williams got the jump on Wayne Anderson and won the race to earn the pole for the feature.
Anderson was ready at the start of the 50-lapper and got the jump on Williams. Just three laps in, Bob Hughes spun to bring out the caution. Anderson maintained the top spot on the restart as the race ran under green to lap 23 when Roger Shinholser spun. Green flag conditions continued to play into Anderson's hands as he would pull away as it was lap 36 before the third caution flew for Liquid Lee McCullough's spin in turn four.
On lap 44, Brad Atkins and Troy Fowler tangled with both cars hitting the turn four wall a ton. Both drivers were OK, but their machines went off on the hook. The incident continued to heat up in the pits, but "cooler heads" eventually prevailed.
Only a Tim Shull spin with three laps to go slowed Anderson's final march to the checker as he put Larry Calabrese's Airframe International Chevy Monte Carlo into victory lane, a car he will drive in the Florida Pro Series for 2003.
Williams held off a late charge from Scott Grossenbacher for second with E.J. Wise and Rusty Dixon rounding out the top five. Fast qualifier Brock Oglesby got shuffled back and had to claw his way back to sixth just in front of Mark Emberson, Gig Smith, Louis Beldock, and Lee McCullough.
Emotions of a different kind filled the air in victory lane following the Four Cylinder Stock feature. This one would see the typical wild action and caution flags that are normally seen, but the only thing that will probably be remembered is the final lap.
Dan Sanderson led the first two laps in his Toyota truck, but got shuffled back as Tom Ellis took the point until Justin Durbin zipped by to take the lead on lap eight.
Durbin looked to be on his way to his second straight win until, on the final lap, Ellis made a banzai charge going into turn three, eventually bumping his way past Durbin for an apparent victory. A none-to-happy Durbin, joined by his brother Joey, the apparent third-place finisher, expressed his displeasure rather vocally in victory lane.
Once again, fisticuffs were avoided while track officials decided to penalize Ellis one position for "unsportsmanlike" driving. Confusion then ensued in tech as it was originally announced that both Durbin brothers had been disqualified. However, once all the T's were crossed and the I's dotted, only Joey Durbin's car was actually DQ'd for being light across the scales.
The official rundown found Joey Durbin getting his second win in a row with Ellis second and Rick Kuhn third. Rick Fort and Nick Gebben completed the top five.
The three heats needed for the Four Cylinder Stocks were won by Ellis, Fort, and Justin Durbin.
Clermont's Alan McCafferty tuned up for next week's UPM Modified tour event here by dominating the WIND-FM Modified 20-lap feature. MaCafferty started off by setting fast time of 15.497 seconds then drew the outside pole starting position McCafferty got the jump on polesitter Johnny "The Rat" Newsome and set sail never to be headed despite four cautions for minor spins that slowed the action. David Baxley worked his way to second early on, but had nothing for McCafferty who claimed an easy victory.
Mike Batten provided a big scare for the fans as he torpedoed the turn four wall on the final lap. Thankfully, despite the severe hit, Batten was OK. Following McCafferty and Baxley to the checker were John Gerstner, Jeremy Gerstner and Newsome.
Roger Damron had the pole for the Diamond H Air and Heat Sportsman feature and led all the way for his first win of the season. Being out front was the place to be in this one as Damron avoided a big multi-car crash involving Patrick Mennenga, Pete Close, Jr., Tom Posavec, and Kathy Ray at the start of the race. That was after Doug Levesque got a "piece of the turn four rock" on the original start. On lap four, Mennenga and Steve Seymour collided on the front straight sending both cars in for quick repairs.
Damron led the next ten laps of green flag racing until Charles Kopach spun out of fifth place to set up a one-lap dash to the checker.
Damron easily sped away to the win, but the battle for second spot turned ugly as Robbie Cooper spun Big John Smith out of second place in turn four. Cooper crossed the line second but was set back to 12th as the last car on the lead lap on the official finish for rough driving. Smith was still fuming as he left the race track feeling he should have been placed second, but instead was scored 11th.
Pete Close, Jr. drove back from two early-race altercations to claim the second spot followed by Michael Jordan who was later DQ'd in tech. Thus Wally Schneider was moved up to third with Charles Hornbeak getting fourth and Mennenga driving his "well used" Camaro back up to fifth.
Heat race winners were Close and Mennenga.
Next week it's round three of the United Promoter's Modified tour at Ocala Speedway with around 30 of the open-wheel speedsters expected.
OFFICIAL FINISHES - OCALA SPEEDWAY - 3/21/03:
STEVEN A. BAGEN SUPER LATE MODELS (50 Laps):
1) Wayne Anderson #14 2) Patrick Williams #57 3) Scott Grossenbacher #09 4) E.J. Wise #7 5) Rusty Dixon #97 6) Brock Oglesby #88 7) Mark Emberson #30 8) Gig Smith #23 9) Louis Beldock #05 10) Lee McCullough #H20 11) Roger Shinholser #26 12) Tim Shull #8 13) Troy Robinson #0 14) Brad Atkins #X 15) Troy Fowler #1 16) Bob Hughes #13
WIND FM MODIFIEDS (20 Laps):
1) Alan McCafferty #32 2) David Baxley #64 3) John Gerstner #77 4) Jeremy Gerstner #70 5) Johnny Hewsome #31 6) John Foerg #1 7) Jamie Tinkham #98 8) Greg Nordstrom #06 9) Timmie Hunley #03 10) Glen Ervin #0 11) Paul Combast #90 12) Mike Batten #5.0 13) Jon Compagnone, Sr. #5 14) Raymond Vann #99 15) Gary Southard #39
DIAMOND H AIR & HEAT SPORTSMAN (15 Laps):
1) Roger Damron #76D 2) Pete Close, Jr. #86 3) Wally Schneider #57 4) Charles Hornbeak #67 5) Patrick Mennenga #16 6) Kathy Ray #63 7) Steve Seymour #88 8) Jim Higginbotham #76 9) Charles Kopach #53 10) Tom Posavec #01 11) Big John Smith #31 12) Robbie Cooper #98 13) Frank Buchanan #07 14) Eddie Kilbury #71 15) doug Levesque #27 DQ - Michael Jordan #7
K-COUNTRY STREET STOCKS (15 Laps):
1) David Chastain #17 2) Tom Fralish #1 3) Tommy Roberts #44 4) Doug Webster #72 5) Kyle Maynard #07 6) Mark Mitchell #71 7) Todd Roberts #44T 8) Estle Morrow #02 9) Bobby Taylor #66 10) Jamie Dunn #24 11) Chuck Stewart #8Ball 12) Harry Brown #38 13) Ken Asbell #89 14) Gordon Cade #21X 15) Mike Fiddia #41 16) Rick Hart #13 17) Bobby Carter #99 18) Shirley Johnson #79 19) Sid Mosbrucker #62 20) Rick Bass #21 21) Mike Rosa #76 22) Donnie Pitts #57 23) William O'Quinn #09 24) Kenny Abney #6X DNS - Don Teague #2X DNS - Jeff Teague #8
FOUR CYLINDER STOCKS (15 Laps):
1) Justin Durbin #34 2) Tom Ellis #38 3) Rick Kuhn #47 4) Rick Fort #2 5) Nick Gebben #39 6) Harold Barup #3 7) Michael Stalnaker #8 8) Joel Byall #40 9) Dan Sanderson #7 10) Harry Drier #61 11) Chris Noce #99 12) Randy Futch #9-11 13) Kurtis Mitchell #00 14) Robert Antis #5 15) Charles Mishow #57 16) Clark Pittsley #64 17) Jeff pittsley #20 18) Steve Moulton #41 DQ - Joey Durbin DQ - Dennis Harden
