Racing veteran Ben Booth of Deland made the most of his pole position start to lead every lap of Friday nights Classic Auto Racing Series 15-lap feature at Ocala Speedway.
Booth topped the opening heat while defending CARS champion Jim Rahman outran the field in heat two.
Booth and Rahman had the front row spots for the main event and they would run 1-2 the entire distance as the race ran from green to checker.
The field spread out pretty quickly with Bud Spencer making the biggest moves in the early going from his tenth starting spot. Tim Ousley dropped out on lap two with mechanical problems while George Hall III, driving his dad's car after his own machine suffered a broken transmission in his heat, fell off the pace and headed for the infield on lap four.
David Marsh got into the wall in practice and his crew relaced a radiator and got him out for the feature. Marsh completed 13 laps before falling by the wayside.
Booth had the field covered and took his second win of the year by several car lengths over Rahman who had a good cushion between himself and third place Al "Hot Rod" Hagan who finally had a bit of good luck go his way.
Patrick Sanders started eighth and worked his way to fifth at the finish just ahead of a hard-charging Spencer while 11th starter Joey Strehle claimed seventh. Bill Posey, Keith Baiga, and Steve Smith completed the top ten.
Booth's win allowed him to open up a 41 point advantage over second place Daryl Grief in the season point chase and moved him 50 points ahead of Joey Strehle in the Door Operating Systems Rookie of the Year battle.
The Classic Auto Racing Series is back in action Saturday night, September 6th as part of the Saturday Summer Spectacular at Orlando Speedworld.
FINISH - CLASSIC AUTO RACING SERIES - OCALA SPEEDWAY - 8/29/03
1) Ben Booth (R), Deland #12 2) Jim Rahman, Clermont #5 3) Al Hagan, Merritt Island #6 4) Daryl Grief, Deland #1 5) Patrick Sanders, Winter Garden #8 6) Bud Spencer, Palm Harbor #7 7) Joey Strehle (R), Deland 8) Bill Posey (R), Rockledge #00 9) Keith Baiga, Deland #42 10) Steve Smith, Groveland #2 11) David Marsh, Orlando #711 12) George Hall III, St. Petersburg #32 13) Tim Ousley, Windermere #88 DNS George Hall, Jr., St. Petersburg #9
