Wise and Webster Finally Visit Victory Lane at Ocala Speedway
by Dave Westerman
After a season of being frustrated at every turn, Ocala drivers E.J. Wise and Doug Webster both got their first feature wins of the year Friday night at Ocala Speedway in their respective Super Late Model and Street Stock Classes.
Herb Hoeffler had the pole for the 50-lap Steven A. Bagen Super Late Model Feature and led the first two circuits before Wise put his car into the top position followed closely by fast qualifier Patrick Williams who was showing off some new skin on his Armstrong Homes/Dave's Towing Chevy.
Wise and Williams raced nose to tail until the first caution of the race was displayed for a turn one tangle between Tim Shull and Gig Smith.
As the race resumed, Williams really began to apply the pressure and he moved past Wise for the lead going into turn one on lap 32. However, before the field could complete another lap, Shull spun in turn four to bring out the caution. The restart order reverted to the last completed lap, placing Wise back in front of Williams for the restart.
Wise, admittedly battling a "loose" race car and a balky carburetor as well, was doing a great job of holding the low line while Williams was looking both high and low for racing room while running Wise clean every lap.
Williams looked poised to grab the top spot again, only to be thwarted by yet another caution flag as Gig Smith looped his mount on lap 42. By this time only four cars, Wise, Williams, Hoeffler and Dave Schwendenman, were on the lead lap.
Wise continued to keep Williams at bay following the restart as Hoeffler began to show signs of a deflating right rear tire as Schwendenman moved by for third spot on lap 46. Two laps later, Hoeffler got loose and spun in turn two to bring out the final yellow and a two lap dash to the checker.
Wise would not be denied as he claimed his first win of 2003 in his Wise Auto Sales/Sunrise Paint & Body Monte Carlo despite consistent finishes that have him in the SLM point lead. It was the first win ever for Wise in a Super Late Model as well.
Williams was right on Wise's bumper as the checker fell while Schwendenman had his best career finish here taking third place money back home to Clearwater. Hoeffler was able to stay on track despite his flat tire and take fourth spot while John Buzinec took fifth, a lap behind the leaders.
For Doug Webster, the 2002 K-Country Street Stock champion was wondering if he'd every see victory circle again. After leading the points through consistent top five finishes, two bad weeks had seen Webster fall to fourth in points, but all of his bad luck would change to good this week.
Luck of the draw put Webster on the pole for the 20 lap feature as he led a strong field of 24 to the green. Almost immediately, Kenny Abney began to pressure Webster as the rest of the field began to slice and dice behind them with the fans needing more than one set of eyes to follow all the action.
Things got a bit heated on lap six as Abney drove hard into turn one and tapped Webster with Webster spinning. Track officials ruled Abney at fault and placed Webster back at the point while a none-too-happy Abney retired to the pits rather than restart from the tail. At the resumption of the race, Webster now had his mirror full of 17-year-old Kyle Maynard, a three-time winner this season, who began applying pressure to the race leader. However, Maynard could never really build up any momentum as caution flag after caution flag was displayed for minor altercations.
The time limit had expired just before caution flew for the final time on lap 15 and Webster was flagged the winner. Maynard was second with point leader Mark Mitchell third. Tommy Roberts held on for fourth and benefited from the race ending early as his engine was about to let go and he'd already been black-flagged twice before the final caution was displayed. One more lap, and Roberts' car would not have been scored if he had remained on the track. David Chastain grabbed fifth spot while Estle Morrow did the passing job of the night coming from 19th to sixth, this despite a crash in his heat race and an earlier incident in the feature that saw Morrow ride up on the turn four wall "Joie Chitwood style."
Tom Fralish, Jason Holbrook (making his first start of the year), Mike Fiddia and Mike Rosa rounded out the top ten.
Street Stock heats were won by Mitchell, Maynard and Holbrook. Brian Gingras led all the way to win the Open Wheel Lite feature race in his Suzuki powered car out of Winter Haven. Jacksonville's Rick Lundeen ran second the entire distance but never seriously challenged Gingras. Jimmy Wagner nabbed third spot just in front of Bill Burback and Bob Quick.
Open Wheel Lite heat races were won by Wagner and Dan Berry. Larry Goolsby was back to his winning ways in the Mini Stocks driving his Maguire's Racing machine to his fourth win of the year. Marlon Durbin led the opening lap before Rick Sirmans took over the lead driving a car borrowed from Joe Irwin.
Goolsby had his car handling perfectly and he passed Sirmans for the top spot on lap seven with Marlon Durbin following. One lap later, Durbin and Sirmans tangled in turn one sending both to the rear for the restart. Three laps later, the two would come together again in turn three and go to the back once again. The final four laps would run under green as Goolsby took an easy win with Jeff Stalnaker, Sr. (in son Jeff, Jr's car) a solid second. Sirmans blasted back through the field to get the show spot followed by Greg Valdez and A.J. Schreier.
Stalnaker, Sr. and Sirmans won the heats Ric Fort ended up on the pole for the Four Cylinder Stock feature after original polesitter Chris Noce crashed on the initial try at starting the race.
Fort made the best of his luck as he led every lap to claim his second feature win in a row. Steve Gallagher and his "Flying Tomato" VW Scirocco pressed Fort's Toyota Celica the entire distance but he had to settle for second. Rick Kuhn made a late race pass on Joel Byall for third spot while point leader Tom Ellis was a close fifth. Four Cylinder Stock heat races were topped by Gallagher and Kuhn. It's a huge week next week at Ocala Speedway. Friday night it's the Powell Memorial featuring 125 laps for the Steven A. Bagen Super Late Models then Saturday and Sunday it's Monster Truck action and more as the "Monster Jam" show comes to Ocala Speedway for two shows on Saturday and an afternoon show on Sunday.
STEVEN A. BAGEN SUPER LATE MODEL (50 Laps):
1) E.J. Wise #7 2) Patrick Williams #57 3) Dave Schwendenman #23Y 4) Herb Hoeffler #22 5) Roger Shinholser #26 6) Gig Smith #23R 7) John Buzinec #08 8) Tim Shull #8 9) James Findley #89
OPEN WHEEL LITES (20 Laps):
1) Brian Gingras #09 2) Rick Lundeen #04 3) Jimmy Wagner #17 4) Bill Burback #77 5) Bob Quick #06 6) Dan Berry #44 7) Wayne Declerk #96 8) Jim Biglin #07 9) Erik Powell #71 10) John Sproul #72 11) Bill Molenaar #0 12) Bill See #54 13) Becky Davis #6 14) John Burchinal #48J 15) Jerry Davis #02 16) Nick Shadid #68 DNS Ron Towles #01
MINI STOCKS (15 Laps):
1) Larry Goolsby #27 2) Jeff Stalnaker, Sr. #8 3) Rick Sirmans #45 4) Greg Valdez #60 5) A.J. Schreier #98 6) Marlon Durbin #72 7) Alan Buker #5 8) Gill Wiede #59 9) Joey Brinson #26 10) Morris Richardson #30 11) Ryan Nagele #9 DQ Jake Garver #10 (weight)
K-COUNTRY STREET STOCKS (20 Laps - cut to 15 Laps - Time Limit):
1) Doug Webster #72 2) Kyle Maynard #07 3) Mark Mitchell #71 4) Tommy Roberts #44 5) David Chastain #17G 6) Estle Morrow #02 7) Tom Fralish #1 8) Jason Holbrook #17 9) Mike Fiddia #41 10) Mike Rosa #76 11) Dave Danielson #70 12) Bobby Taylor #66 13) Sid Mosbrucker #62 14) Pete Close, Jr. #08 15) Jamie Dunn #24 16) Roger Brass #81 17) Paul Fletcher #28 18) Dot Kelly #38 19) Bobby Carter #99 20) Rick Bass #21 21) Shirley Johnson #79 22) Don Teague #2X 23) Kenny Abney #6X 24) Paul Fletcher #94 DNS Rick Hart #13 DNS #91
FOUR CYLINDER STOCK (15 Laps):
1) Rick Fort #2 2) Steve Gallagher #39 3) Rick Kuhn #47 4) Joel Byall #40 5) Tom Ellis #31 6) Justin Durbin #34 7) Dan Sanderson #7 8) Harry Drier #61 9) Kyle Helt #M 10) Jeff Pittsley #20 11) Steve Moulton #41 12) Kurtis Mitchell #00 13) Harold Barup #3 14) Clark Pittsley #64 15) Chris Noce #99 DNS Heather Stalker #78
