Andersons 1-2 in Powell Memorial at Ocala Speedway
by Dave Westerman
Some drivers seem to rise to the occasion for certain races, and for Wildwood's Wayne Anderson, the Powell Memorial at Ocala Speedway is one of those races. For the third time in its eight-year history, Anderson topped a stellar field in Friday evening's Powell Memorial 125 for the Steven A. Bagen Super Late Models. No other driver has won the event more than once.
To make the victory even sweeter, Anderson was trailed at the checker by his dad Dick Anderson. It's the second time the son-father duo has finished one-two in this race.
Wayne Anderson started the evening off in style as he came on the track as the last car to qualify and set quick time of 14.815 seconds, eclipsing the 14.866 run by Rick Carlton who went on the track just before Anderson. Herb Neumann, Jr. was third fast at 15.041 seconds.
The only thing Anderson couldn't do right on this night was draw pills. He drew a seven pill for the top seven in time trials to re-draw for starting positions, then drew number seven starting position as well.
Archer's Patrick Williams, driving a new car, drew the pole after qualifying seventh quick with Carlton getting the outside pole slot. Williams jumped to the lead at the drop of the green with Carlton and James Powell III in tow, but caution flew right at the end of lap one as Justin Drawdy looped his mount in turn four. Once the green flew, caution was out just a lap later as Davey Kinsey spun coming out of turn four.
As the green reappeared, Carlton really began to apply the pressure to Williams. Lap after lap they ran nose to tail until Carlton got into Williams in turn four on lap 22 and got him sideways. The two raced side by side into turn one where Carlton dove a bit too low and got into the dirt, spinning and bringing out caution number three. An unhappy Carlton was sent to the rear of the field for the restart as James Powell III now found himself in second spot.
Williams seemed to have everything in control following the restart as he began to pull away from Powell. Meanwhile, Wayne and Dick Anderson were on the move taking over third and fourth positions on lap 34.
Lap 46 proved disastrous for Herb Neumann, Jr. as he apparently got into some fluid spilled by a lapped car and pounded the turn three wall ending a strong run.
The restart had Williams out front followed by Powell, Wayne and Dick Anderson and E.J. Wise. Basically it would become a follow the leader affair although the Andersons scooted by Powell just past the halfway mark but were having difficulty catching the fleet Williams. Fans were treated to 33 laps of green flag racing before Rich Pratt brought out caution number five when he had a tire go down and he stopped in turn four on lap 79.
On the restart, Williams' car wasn't quite what it was before the caution came out and Wayne Anderson took advantage, diving underneath for the lead in turn two bringing poppa right with him as Williams settled into third.
It was obvious that Dick Anderson had nothing for his boy as Wayne zipped out to a healthy advantage as Williams began to close on the elder Anderson again.
Fifth place became the hot spot as first Jonny Kay took over on lap 93 only to give up the position to a high-flying Dwayne Dempsey on lap 102.
The final caution of the race came out on lap 104 as Paul Combast spun in turn two. Wayne Anderson had his Airframe International Chevy Monte Carlo glued to the race track as he pulled away. Meanwhile, fourth-running Powell lost the handle and slipped all the way back to eighth on lap 115.
Wayne Anderson cruised to the win, about five car lengths in front of Dick Anderson who had Williams on his bumper at the stripe. Dempsey came from 11th on the starting grid to fourth with Kay up from 13th to fifth. E.J. Wise, Powell, Justin Drawdy, Mike Bresnehan and Carlton rounded out the top five, all on the lead lap. Rich Pratt's crew did a fantastic job getting him back on the track after his flat tire episode and he was one of the fastest cars on the track at race's end taking 11th, the first car a lap down.
For his efforts, Wayne Anderson picked up a $5,000 first place prize while his old man didn't do badly taking place money of $3,000 with the show spot paying Williams $2,000.
In other action, point leader Tom Posavec took his first win of the season in the Diamond H Air and Heat Sportsman class.
Posavec led the opening 11 laps from his pole starting spot only to be passed by a high-flying Roger Damron. However, Damron saw his chances of a fourth win on the year go up in smoke as his engine blew going into turn three on the final lap.
Second running Posavec got into the oil but somehow manage to keep from hitting anything. Fifth place driver Frank Buchanan wasn't so lucky as he got caught in the oil slick and crashed hard into Damron's machine. Both cars were out but thankfully neither driver was hurt.
The green and the white flag were displayed for a one lap dash to the checker but Posavec was not to be denied as he picked up the win closely followed by Bob Masciarelli in second. Patrick Mennenga made a late pass to grab third spot from Charles Hornbeak while Kyle Maynard made his debut in the Sportsman class with a strong fifth place finish.
Maynard backed up his good "rookie" run in the Sportsman with a wire to wire win in the K-Country Street Stocks, his fourth of the year. Several caution flags for spins, stalled cars and "Zephyrhills" Paul Fletcher's blown engine kept the field on Maynard's bumper the entire distance but the 17-year-old kept his Southside Builders Chevy Nova out front all the way after starting on the outside pole.
Point leader Mark Mitchell gave Maynard all he could handle but had to settle for second. Pete Close, Jr. and Bobby Taylor collided while battling for third spot on the final lap handing the show position to Doug Webster with "Ocala" Paul Fletcher and Tommy Roberts completing the top five.
Only one caution flag slowed the action early in the Mini Stock feature as A.J. Shreier took a hard hit into the turn four wall ending his night.
Clint Foley led the first three laps only to have mechanical problems strike again forcing him off the pace. Rick Sirmans took over at that point and ran uncontested to the checker for his fourth win of the year.
Larry Goolsby came from last starting spot up to second but was well behind the fleet Sirmans at the finish. Marlon Durbin crossed the stripe in third followed by Jeff Stalnaker, Sr. and Greg Valdez. It was Toyota power in the Four Cylinder Bombers as the Celicas of Ric Fort and Rick Kuhn ran one-two with Fort picking up his third win in a row. Point leader Tom Ellis brought his Mustang home third over the pick-up trucks of John Naber and Dan Sanderson.
Next week the United Promoters Modified Tour returns to Ocala Speedway for 50 laps of action.
RESULTS FOR 6/6/03 - OCALA SPEEDWAY:
STEVEN A. BAGEN SUPER LATE MODELS - POWELL MEMORIAL (125 Laps):
1) Wayne Anderson #84 2) Dick Anderson #92 3) Patrick Williams #57 4) Dwayne Dempsey #24 5) Jonny Kay #77 6) E.J. Wise #7 7) James Powell III #37 8) Justin Drawdy #12 9) Mike Bresnehan #3 10) Rick Carlton #3X 11) Rich Pratt #0 12) Paul Combast #90 13) Brock Oglesby #88 14) Robert Yoho #00 15) Marc Mitchell #17 16) Herb Neumann, Jr. #98 17) Aric Almirola #14 18) Gig Smith #23 19) Davey Kinsey #64 20) Roger Shinholser #26 21) Kiki Thomas #84X DNS Tim Shull #8
DIAMOND H AIR AND HEAT SPORTSMAN (20 Laps):
1) Tom Posavec #01 2) Bob Masciarelli #72 3) Patrick Mennenga #16 4) Charles Hornbeak #67 5) Kyle Maynard #0 6) Dusty Bouchard #47 7) Doc Batson #4 8) Wally Schneider #57 9) Bryson Ryker #48 10) Jim Higginbotham #76 11) Kathy Ray #63 12) Big John Smith #31 13) Frank Buchanan #07 14) Tommy Brakeman #20 15) Roger Damron #76D 16) William Edwards #08 17) John Carter #86 18) Doug Levesque #27 DNS Ray Wheeler #74 DNS Rob Cooper #98
K-COUNTRY STREET STOCKS (20 Laps):
1) Kyle Maynard #07 2) Mark Mitchell #71 3) Doug Webster #72 4) Paul Fletcher #94 5) Tommy Roberts #44 6) Mike Rosa #76 7) David Chastain #17 8) Mike Fiddia #41 9) Rick Bass #21 10) Krystal Batson #B4 11) Harold Edwards #65 12) David Trembley #0 13) Tom Fralish #1 14) Jack Camplesi #91 15) Shirley Johnson #79 16) Pete Close, Jr. #08 17) Bobby Taylor #66 18) Dot Kelly #38 19) Kenny Abney #6X 20) Bobby Carter #99 21) Sid Mosbrucker #62 22) Gordon Cade #21X 23) Paul Fletcher #28 DNS Doc Batson #X
MINI STOCKS (15 Laps):
1) Rick Sirmans #05 2) Larry Goolsby #27 3) Marlon Durbin #72 4) Jeff Stalnaker, Sr. #8 5) Greg Valdez #60 6) Morris Richardson #30 7) Alan Buker #5 8) Jake Garver #10 9) Randy Futch #11 10) Clint Foley #7 11) A.J. Schreier #98
FOUR CYLINDER STOCKS (20 Laps):
1) Ric Fort #2 2) Rick Kuhn #47 3) Tom Ellis #31 4) John Naber #3Y 5) Dan Sanderson #7 6) Harold Barup #3B 7) Joel Byall #40 8) Jeff Pittsley #20 9) Steve Moulton #41 10) John DeGeorge #11 11) Michael Stalnaker #8 12) Clark Pittsley #64 13) Kurtis Mitchell #00 14) Steve Gallagher #39 15) Justin Durbin #34 16) Jeff Stalnaker, Jr. #8X
