Williams, Gerstner, Sirmans, Mennenga, Fletcher and Byall get Ocala Wins
by Dave Westerman
Ocala Speedway finished up the first half of the 2003 point season in style Friday night and a good crowd was on hand and stayed despite a brief rain shower that delayed action for about an hour just as the features were getting under way.
New car owners and new sponsorship from Augie's Signs and Dave's Towing didn't slow down Patrick Williams one bit as he dominated the Steven A. Bagen Super Late Model feature flag to flag for his third win of the season.
Luck of the draw put Williams on the pole and that was all she wrote for the rest of the field. Young Brock Oglesby was back in action and took second spot from Paul Combast on lap five just before the only caution of the race came out on lap six for Tim Shull's spin in turn four.
Oglesby was able to close within a car length in lapped traffic later in the race, but once Williams got back in the clear, he pulled away to an easy win. Oglesby, still searching for that elusive first SLM win, came in a strong second followed by E.J. Wise, Dave Schwendeman, and Combast.
Super Late Model heat wins went to Williams and Wise. Jeremy Gerstner also was a flag to flag winner in the WIND-FM Modified division, his second of 2003. Gerstner had the outside pole slot and took the lead from Dan Hammerbeck at the drop of the green and held off David Baxley all the way for the victory.
Again, this race was interrupted by just one yellow flag period. Hammerbeck, running fifth at the time, got into the back of fourth place Johnnie Newsome in turn three on lap 17 with Newsome going for a spin.
Both cars went to the rear and the two drivers had a few choice words after the race was done.
Jamie Tinkham came home third with Mike Batten making a return to the speedway with a solid fourth place effort. Rookie Bobby Valeo was fifth.
Modified heats were taken by Tinkham and John Foerg. Rick Sirmans dominated the Mini Stock feature for his sixth win of the year, but all the excitement was well behind him as Donnie Stroshal nipped Marlon Durbin at the line for second spot after a good five lap duel between the two.
Jeff Stalnaker, Sr. and Greg Valdez were fourth and fifth. Sirmans also won the heat.
It was yet another hard fought race in the Diamond H Air & Heat Sportsman class as Belleview's Patrick Mennenga emerged with his third win of the year.
Three caution flags were needed in this one including one for hard luck Doug Levesque who blew his engine in turn one. Mennenga started third but slipped into the lead on the opening lap. Roger Damron, again using Rob Cooper's car, gave Mennenga all he could handle but had to settle for the runner-up slot. Dusty Bouchard took the show spot while Frank Buchanan was fourth and last-starting William Edwards, who had gotten up to third place at one point, finishing fifth after a penalty for passing cars too early on a restart.
Bouchard and Kyle Maynard won the Sportsman heats. The K-Country Street Stocks were out in force as usual but nobody had much of anything for "Ocala" Paul Fletcher as he raced to a convincing win, his second of the year.
Kenny Abney had the pole position and set the pace through two early caution flag periods, then a red flag on lap six for the rain shower that held up proceedings for just about an hour.
Once racing resumed, Abney did his best to hold off Fletcher, but Fletcher put his "Tweety Bird" Camaro out front for good on lap ten and never looked back.
Abney began to fade back as David Chastain took up the chase but he would be second best on this night as Fletcher raced to a comfortable win. Chastain took second followed by Mike Wilson, Mark Mitchell, and Doug Webster.
Heat wins for the Street Stocks were taken by Fletcher, Wilson, and Mitchell.
The Toyota stranglehold and Ric Fort's four race win streak came to a halt in Four Cylinder Stock action as Joel Byall passed early leader Tom Ellis on lap three and raced to his second win of the year. Ellis held on for second spot just in front of Joey Durbin who was then set back to fifth for also passing cars before the green flag came out following a brief caution.
Fort was placed in third spot in the running order while Michael Stalnaker was fourth.
Four Cylinder heat wins went to Durbin and Fort. Next week, Ocala Speedway is in action Wednesday evening with the Victory Junction 150 for the NASCAR Kodak Southeast Series Late Models along with racing in the Diamond H Air & Heat Sportsman, K-Country Street Stocks, and Four Cylinder Stocks.
NASCAR Winston Cup drivers Kyle Petty and Christian Fittipaldi will also be on hand to meet fans and sign autographs. Advance tickets at five dollars off can still be purchased on line by logging on to ocalaspeedway.com.
RESULTS - OCALA SPEEDWAY - 6/27/03:
STEVEN A. BAGEN SUPER LATE MODELS (30 Laps):
1) Patrick Williams #58 2) Brock Oglesby #88 3) E.J. Wise #7 4) Dave Schwendeman #23Y 5) Paul Combast #90 6) Herb Hoeffler #22 7) John Buzinec #08 8) Gig Smith #23 9) Tim Shull #8 10) John Kennedy #0 11) James Findley #89 12) Keith Zavrel #47
WIND-FM MODIFIEDS (20 Laps):
1) Jeremy Gerstner #70 2) David Baxley #64 3) Jamie Tinkham #98 4) Mike Batten #5.0 5) Bobby Valeo #8 6) Glen Ervin #0 7) Johnnie Newsome #31 8) Dan Hammerbeck #30 9) Tom Bailey #24 10) Wayne Kissam #7 11) John Foerg #1 DNS Mark Emberson #34
MINI STOCKS (15 Laps):
1) Rick Sirmans #05 2) Don Stroshal, Jr. #84 3) Marlon Durbin #72 4) Jeff Stalnaker, Sr. #8 5) Greg Valdez #60 6) Jake Garver #10 7) Larry Goolsby #27 8) A.J. Schreier #88 9) Barry Knoght #31
DIAMOND H AIR & HEAT SPORTSMAN (20 Laps):
1) Patrick Mennenga #16 2) Roger Damron #98 3) Dusty Bouchard #47 4) Frank Buchanan #07 5) William Edwards #08 6) Tom Posavec #01 7) Kathy Ray #63 8) Kyle Maynard #0 9) Jim Higginbotham #76 10) Big John Smith #31 11) Doug Levesque #27 12) Charles Hornbeak #67 13) Tommy Brakeman #20
K-COUNTRY STREET STOCKS (20 Laps):
1) Paul Fletcher #94 2) David Chastain #17 3) Mike Wilson 31 4) Mark Mitchell #71 5) Doug Webster #72 6) Tommy Roberts #44 7) Kenny Abney #6X 8) Mike Rosa #76 9) Kyle Maynard #07 10) Bobby Taylor #66 11) Mike Fiddia #41 12) Paul Fletcher #28 13) Sid Mosbrucker #62 14) Harry Brown #38 15) Pete Close, Jr. #08 16) William O'Quinn #09 17) Rick Bass #21 18) Shirley Johnson #79 19) Harold Edwards #65 20) Pete Reynolds #91 21) Mark Ryder #61 22) Dave Danielson #70 23) Estle Morrow #02 24) Gordon Cade #21X DNS Bobby Carter #99 DNS Tim Burr #94
FOUR CYLINDER STOCKS (15 Laps):
1) Joel Byall #40 2) Tom Ellis #31 3) Ric Fort #2 4) Michael Stalnaker #8 5) Joey Durbin #5 6) Harold Barup #3 7) Rick Kuhn #47 8) Harry Drier #61 9) Steve Moulton #41 10) Terry Dunbar #72 11) Dennis Harden #17 12) Kurtis Mitchell #00 13) Jeff Pittsley #20 14) Chris Antis #01 15) Chris Noce #99 16) Heather Stalker #78
