(Inverness, Fl. 8/31/03) The Late Model racing schedule at Citrus County Speedway has been limited during 2003 by special races or weather conflicts with only 18 races scheduled for the season. Race number 11 proved to be special for Dale Sanders who has been a solid fifth in the point race and the only driver in the top five without a win for the season. On the pill draw, Dale drew the pole position and when the green dropped he went through the gears quickly and set the pace right down to the checkers in the caution free 30 lap main event. Young gun Brock Oglesby was the only driver to even make a run at Sanders with the pair finishing nose to tail. Three time winner Jim Smith finished just ahead of point leader Mike Bresnahan who also has just one win. Two time winner Ricky Carlton held out for fifth. Billy Bechtelheimer and Rex Struble picked up the heat wins.
Sportsman followed up with another green to checkers race and J.D. Goff scored his third win of the season with Billy “O” Oesterreicher right on his bumper all the way. Oesterreicher just couldn’t find the horsepower to make the pass on Goff. Chris Cross has been off to college for the past month and a half and came home for a brief stay for the holiday and managed a third place finish after all this time out of the drivers seat of his race car. Bill Ryan continued his top five runs finishing fourth ahead of Johnny Sanders who is also chasing Ryan in the race for third in points. Goff also scored the win in the only heat for the divisiion.
The front row seemed to be the place to start in just about all the feature races Saturday night. James Green came off the outside pole and went on to win his fourth feature of his limited racing season. Celebrating his 29th birthday on Sunday meant a little something extra to the win in as much as this is the third year in a row that he has celebrated his birthday with a feature win. Point runner up Ernie Reed made every effort to deprive James of the win to no avail and had to settle for second. Reed pulled ahead of sixth finisher Danny Cretty in the point lead by 3 points based on his second place finish and a heat win. Mickey Burns took the checkers in third but lost the position to Joe Viverito after his trip to the scales, weighing in lite. Sport Wilson inherited a fourth place finish pinch hitting for Daniel Webster while point leader Danny Cretty watched his point lead fade with a fifth place finish after Burns D.Q.
Dustin DesChamps is back after slipping from third to sixth in the Mini Stock points championship race. He suffered an off track accident that kept him out of the drivers seat since June 6th. He returned with a vengeance last week with a fourth place finish and turned up the RPM’s this week for his third feature win of the season. Chris Thornton locked on to second at the checkers outrunning Phillip Joyner, Chris Hooker and Steve Griffin in the run for the checkers. Dustin added another 10 points to his recovery effort with a heat win. Another medically absent driver since May 5th, Rob Wheatley, took the win in the second heat and finished the 20 lap main in sixth place on his return.
Hobby Stockers were not quite so fortunate in getting through multiple cautions. The attrition rate took its toll but point leader Richie Smith managed to drive through most of the crashes and spins after suffering some major damage in the heat race. Smith had to replace multiple front end parts after the crash with Wes Wilson that could have ended his night. Wes, Sport and Erica Wilson pulled out of the feature which left a field of 21 starters. Richie started 21st and went to the front by lap 15 of the 20 lap feature, making the pass on Roy Perkins who finished second over 15th starter Dean Lawyer, Josh Teague and Peanut Higgenbotham. Todd Downs and Perkins took the heat wins.
Pat Quick scored her ninth Thunder Stock win and survived tech inspection when they took a close look at the shocks she was using in tech. Point runner up Lee Keller made every effort to reel Pat in after starting back in sixteenth spot and had to settle for second again. Tim Wilson was denied his third consecutive win settling for third. Louie Cioe and Larry Triana balanced out the top five with fifteen out of 22 starters going the distance. Rex Mullis and Pat Quick took the heat wins.
Todd Colbert, Chris Nichols and Adam Chumita the TEAM X-TREEM sport Bike Free stylists put on quite a show for the fans at halftime with precision motorcycle riding for about a half hour. They had the fans on their feet with 12 o’clock wheelies, front wheel stoppies, burn outs, handle bar wheelies, tank stands, no hands tank stands and donuts and a couple of burn outs that blew Adam Chumita’s rear tire. That didn’t stop him from continuing another burn out on the front straight. It was like watching a three ring circus with something going on at all points on the track and the infield.
Next Saturday night the Late Models return for their 12th race of the rear plus the Sportsman, Street Stocks, Mini Stocks, Hobby Stocks and Thunder Stocks. On September 13th Citrus will be the venue for the second leg of the North Central Florida TBARA Sprint Car meet that begins at Ocala Speedway on Friday night September 12th. Figure 8’s return to action on Saturday September 20th.
