Buchanan Tops Street Stock Special, Goolsby Two for Two, Anderson Drives an "Anderson" to SLM Wn Sunday at Ocala
by Dave Westerman
Perfect weather greeted fans Sunday afternoon at Ocala Speedway following the soggy conditions that forced postponement of scheduled action on Friday night. The big race of the day was for the K-Country Street Stocks as they ran their 50-lapper postponed from the previous week.
Mike Fiddia led the race for the first four laps after starting on the pole before Tom Fralish took over the point. Fralish was looking strong, but his car began to suffer fuel pick-up problems and he lost the lead to sixth-starter Frank Buchanan on lap 18.
Buchanan, who set fast time the week before, set sail and led the rest of the way in his Southside Builders Camaro. The only serious incident of the race took place on lap 24 when Don Maynard took a hard shot into the turn four wall. For the upteenth time, the wall ended up in much better shape that the race car, but Maynard was fine. Point leader Doug Webster took over second spot on lap 29 and stayed with Buchanan, but could never mount a pass for the lead. Mark Mitchell took third spot followed by Kyle Maynard and "Ocala" Paul Fletcher.
The Street Stocks were scheduled for another 15-lap feature later in the program, but with so many cars in the pits, track officials opted to split the field and run two features much to the delight of the fans.
These races almost became the "Paul Fletcher Twin Wins" as the two drivers who race at the track that are both named Paul Fletcher had their respective pole positions for each race.
"Zephyrhills" Paul Fletcher grabbed the early lead in feature #1 and held the point until getting together with Mark Mitchell on lap ten. Fletcher had to retire from the race with a flat tire while Tom Fralish, whose crew had solved the fuel problem that cost him victory in the 50-lapper, inherited the lead and never looked back as he claimed the win in his Tobby's Transmissions/Dick Wilson Tractor Service/Dade City Sod and Landscaping Camaro, his second of the season.
Doc Batson battled with his daughter Krystal for the better part of the race and claimed second money over Dave Danielson, who debuted his new Monte Carlo with a solid third-place finish. David Chastain drove the racecarcity.com Camaro to fourth place while Krystal Batson held on for fifth.
"Ocala" Paul Fletcher had the pole for feature #2 and he made no mistakes in this one despite constant pressure from his good buddy Doug Webster, who was happy to claim his second second-place finish of the day and add to his point lead.
It was the first win for Fletcher in his new Auto Zone sponsored Camaro and needless to say, there was quite a victory lane celebration. Checkering third was Frank Buchanan followed by Estle Morrow and Mike Fiddia.
Wayne Anderson set fast time for the Steven A. Bagen Super Late Models, but it was poppa Dick Anderson who stole the show in the 50-lap feature ending a six-month self-imposed "retirement." Anderson, driving a car for the first time with a chassis of his own design with sponsorship from Great Clips and Country Joe Homes, grabbed the lead from Patrick Williams on lap 20 and breezed to the victory. Son Wayne Anderson got up to second, but had nothing for the "old man" on this afternoon.
Williams crossed the line in third just ahead of E.J. Wise and Robbie Smith.
David Baxley set fast time then dominated the 20-lap Wind-FM Open Wheel Modified run in flag to flag fashion Driving his Heat Treating Inc. special.
There were no cautions, but the red flag was displayed on lap 15 as the engine let go in Tom Bailey's car with a small fire erupting. the flames were quickly contained but it took the track crews several minutes to clean up all the oil left on the racing surface. Alan McCafferty gave chase over the final five laps but Baxley was on a rail and took the win. Jeremy Gerstner, Jared Allison, and John Foerg rounded out the top five.
Williston's Larry Goolsby had quite an afternoon. He made his debut in the new Maguire's Racing Super Late Model, finishing a respectable ninth, then won both 15-lap Mini Stock races. Goolsby took the lead at the drop of the green in the Mini Stock race held over from last week and staved off a late charge from Rick Sirmans to get the win as the race ran green to checker.
Marlon Durbin, Don Stroshal, and Pedie Allison trailed Goolsby and Sirmans to the line.
Just as he did in the first race, Goolsby made a quick charge from third starting spot to the lead on lap one of the regularly scheduled Mini Stock feature, only to find Sirmans in his rear-view mirror. Sirmans threw everything but the kitchen sink at Goolsby, but Goolsby held his ground and took his second win of the day and praised his Maguire's racing crew for a great car. "Man, we haven't touched this car all day...
only took the hood off to check the oil and the water, that's it. You couldn't ask for a better race car," said Goolsby.
Following the Goolsby/Sirmans tandem to the checker in race two were Jeff Stalnaker, Sr., Clint Foley and Marlon Durbin.
Six caution flags helped cut the scheduled 20-lap Diamond H Air & Heat Sportsman feature to 14 laps as the time limit ran out. Getting the worst of the bumping and grinding was point leader Patrick Mennenga who took a hard shot into the backstretch wall. Mennenga attempted to return to the track, but ultimately dropped out for a 14th place finish.
Kathy Ray led the first two laps but it was Wally "The Wall" Schneider grabbing the lead on lap three and keeping it between the fences and in the lead the remainder of the way for his first win of the year.
Arthur Conquest made his first Sportsman start of the year and hounded Schneider over the last few laps but had to settle for second over Roger Damron, Frank Buchanan, and Robbie Cooper.
Steve Gallagher had the pole for the Four Cylinder Bomber feature and had everyone looking at the tailpipes of his "Flying Tomato" Volkswagen the entire distance.
Gallagher easily pulled away from the field despite several restarts and outran the Toyotas of Ric Fort and Rick Kuhn to the checker. Joey Durbin and Michael Stalnaker completed the top five. Next week fans will be treated to a visit by the National Late Model Sportsman Series Dirt Late Models, running on the "hard stuff" at Ocala for the first time ever.
OFFICIAL RESULTS - OCALA SPEEDWAY - 4/27/03
STEVEN A. BAGEN SUPER LATE MODELS (50 Laps):
1) Dick Anderson #92 2) Wayne Anderson #19R 3) Patrick Williams #57 4) E.J. Wise #7 5) Robbie Smith #01 6) Troy Robinson #0B 7) Herb Hoefler #22 8) Jared Allison #18 9) Larry Goolsby #19M 10) James Findley #89 11) Gig Smith #23 12) Tim Shull #8 13) Rich Pratt #0
WIND-FM MODIFIEDS (20 Laps):
1) David Baxley #64 2) Alan McCafferty #32 3) Jeremy Gerstner #70 4) Jared Allison #18 5) John Foerg #1 6) Bobby Valeo #8 7) Glen Ervin #0 8) Tom Bailey #24 9) Johnnie Newsome #31 10) Wayne Kissam #7 DNS Jamie Tinkham #98
DIAMOND H AIR & HEAT SPORTSMAN (14 Laps - time limit):
1) Wally Schneider #57 2) Arthur Conquest #78 3) Roger Damron #76D 4) Frank Buchanan #07 5) Robbie Cooper #98 6) William Edwards #08 7) Charles Hornbeak #67 8) Tom Posavec #01 9) Kathy Ray #63 10) Michael Jordan, Jr. #7 11) Jim Higginbotham #76 12) Leroy Donaldson #82 13) Tommy Carter #86 14) Patrick Mennenga #16 15) Bryson Ryker #48 16) Eddie Kilbury #71
K-COUNTRY STREET STOCKS (50 Laps - held over from 4/18/03):
1) Frank Buchanan #0 2) Doug Webster #72 3) Mark Mitchell #71 4) Kyle Maynard #07 5) Paul Fletcher #94 6) Bobby Taylor #66 7) Tommy Roberts #44 8) Doc Batson #X 9) David Chastain #17 10) Harry Brown #38 11) Mike Fiddia #41 12) Krystal Batson #B4 13) Rick Bass #21 14) Tom Fralish #1 15) Sid Mosbrucker #62 16) Jimmy Wagner #81 17) William O'Quinn #09 18) Bobby Carter #99 19) Paul Fletcher #28 20) Rick Hart #13 21) Don Maynard #15 22) Estle Morrow #02 23) Travis Wofford #29 24) Mike Oglesby #00 25) Shirley Johnson #29 Jamie Dunn and Todd Roberts were qualified for the race but did not show
K-COUNTRY STREET STOCKS (15 Laps - Split Field Race #1):
1) Tom Fralish #1 2) Doc Batson #X 3) Dave Danielson #70 4) David Chastain #17 5) Krystal Batson #B4 6) Mark Mitchell #71 7) Jimmy Wagner #81 8) Bobby Carter #99 9) Travis Wofford #29 10) Paul Fletcher #28 11) Rick Hart #13 12) Mike Oglesby #00 DNS Don Maynard #15 DNS Jimmy Todd #75
K-COUNTRY STREET STOCKS (15 Laps - Split Field Race #2):
1) Paul Fletcher #94 2) Doug Webster #72 3) Frank Buchanan #0 4) Estle Morrow #02 5) Mike Fiddia #41 6) Tommy Roberts #44 7) Kyle Maynard #07 8) Bobby Taylor #66 9) Rick Bass #21 10) William O'Quinn #09 11) Nevin Gainey #0R 12) Sid Mosbrucker #62 13) Harold Edwards #65 14) Dot Kelly #38 15) Shirley Johnson #79
MINI-STOCKS (15 Laps - make up race from 4/18/03):
1) Larry Goolsby #27 2) Rick Sirmans #05 3) Marlon Durbin #72 4) Don Stroshal #15 5) Pedie Allison #5 6) Jake Garver #10R 7) A.J. Schreier #98 8) Jeff Stalnaker, Sr. #10B
MINI-STOCKS (15 Laps):
1) Larry Goolsby #27 2) Rick Sirmans #05 3) Jeff Stalnaker, Sr. #10B 4) Clint Foley #7 5) Marlon Durbin #72 6) Don Stroshal #15 7) Pedie Allison #5 8) A.J. Schreier #98 9) Joey Brinson #26 10) Jamie White #21 11) Jake Garver #10R
FOUR CYLINDER STOCKS (15 Laps):
1) Steve Gallagher #39 2) Ric Fort #2 3) Rick Kuhn #47 4) Joey Durbin #7X 5) Michael Stalnaker #8 6) Dan Sanderson #7 7) Tom Ellis #31 8) Harold Barup #3 9) Jeff Oglesby #88 10) Justin Durbin #34 11) Joel Byall #40 12) Harry Drier #61 13) Kurtis Mitchell #00 14) Jeff Pittsley #20 15) Clark Pittsley #64 16) Chris Antis #57 17) Heather Stalker #78 18) Chris Noce #99 19) Steve Moulton #41 DNS Brooke Driggers #25 5)
