Slawiak Tops TBARA - Yoakam Blasts FMSC - Robinson over Mods at Ocala
by Dave Westerman
Fans were treated to a full night of racing Friday night at Ocala Speedway as for once there was no rain in sight all evening.
The Tampa Bay Area Racing Association Winged Sprint Cars were out in force as 23 of the high-powered machines checked into the pits. Hard luck Bo Hartley had yet more engine problems and was trailered before the end of hot laps. Wayne Reutimann, Jr., a winner here in USCS competition earlier in the year, made contact with Gary Gimmler in heat one and hit the turn two wall ending his evening early as well.
Shane Butler, Sport Allen, and David Slawiak copped the three heat races and 21 cars were ready for action in the 25 lap feature.
It took three tries to get the race underway with Stan Butler grabbing the top spot at the drop of the green closely followed by outside polesitter Slawiak.
With their dad leading the race, Shane and Keith Butler were trying to make their way to the front from their 9th and 11th starting positions when they tangled entering turn two trying to lap a slower car. Neither sprinter was damaged significantly and the Butler brothers continued from the rear of the pack.
On the restart, Slawiak made his move to the outside of Stan Butler and grabbed the lead. A lap later, Dude Teate got around Butler and set sail after Slawiak. Meanwhile, Dave Steele, on "vacation" from the USAC wars up north, was moving in on Butler. Steele was giving The Schmidt Special, normally wheeled by Joey Aguilar, quite a ride moving from 12th on the grid to fourth in just ten laps.
Action was slowed for the second and final time on lap 19 as Shane Butler got turned around again in turn four. Once again, Butler's car suffered no major damage but he made his second trip to the back of the restart field.
Slawiak was awesome on the restart, putting several lengths on Teate as the green flag waved with six laps to go. With the first two spots virtually settled, all eyes were on the battle for third spot with Steele going high and low looking for a way around Stan Butler.
Slawiak and Teate took the checker about four car lengths apart as Steele made one last charge to the high side on Butler for third. The two cars crossed the stripe side by side with Steele just nipping Butler by the length of the front nerf bar. Ray Bragg had a great view of the action just in front of him as he crossed the line in fifth with Gary Gimmler, Doug Heveron, Sport Allen, Wayne Reutimann, Sr., and Wendy Mathis Rounding out the top ten.
Slawiak, in just his second full year of racing in the TBARA, took his third career win, but it was the Land O' Lakes' driver's first win here at Ocala.
The Florida Mini Stock Challenge was also on the docket for Friday night and twenty of the fast four cylinders made the trek to try and stop the Robbie Yoakam freight train. However, Yoakam was the locomotive once again on this evening while everyone else was playing caboose.
Yoakam had the outside pole for the start of the 50 lap run and zipped past polesitter Rick Partridge at the drop of the green. From there the only question was who would finish second and it seemed like nobody wanted to.
Caution flew quickly in this one on lap two as Justin Edwards and Steve Black got tangled up on the backstretch.
As the field restarted, Kevin Macy was on the move, grabbing second spot on lap four with Richard Kelley, Jr. following him into third spot.
Caution was out again as Rick Sirmans lost power in his machine and coasted to a stop in turn two. Sirmans car was pushed to the pits and he called it a night.
Yoakam was in a class by himself out front as Kelley began to work on Macy, moving into second on lap 12. Darren "Action" Jackson took third from Macy four laps later.
Meanwhile, Kelley appeared to be faster than Yoakam and was within a car length of the leader when the caution flew on lap 19 as both Tom Jones, Jr. and Chad Ashley looped their cars separately in turns three and four.
Just before the restart, Kelley pulled his car into the infield and out of the race.
Jackson inherited second place, but Yoakam quickly put some distance between them after the restart while defending FMSC champion Robbie Storer was on the charge taking third from Macy on lap 22.
At the mid point of the race, Yoakam was leading at ease over Jackson, Storer, Macy, Mark Moniz, Chris Thornton, Jeff Stalnaker, Sr., Rick Partridge, Dennis Valdez and Charlie Brown.
On lap 27, Jackson's car blew up going into turn three with the engine erupting into a ball of flame as he headed into the infield off turn four. The fire was quickly extinguished and Jackson emerged unscathed.
The remainder of the race saw the two Robbies, Yoakam and Storer, waltz away from the field. Storer was quick, but had nothing for Hernando's Yoakam as Yoakam took the win, his fifth in six FMSC races this year including a clean sweep of the Ocala events.
Storer was second followed by Kevin Macy, Chris Thornton (driving Rick Sirmans' back up car) and Mark Moniz. Jeff Stalnaker, Sr., Rick Partridge, Dennis Valdez, Tom Jones, Jr., and Georgia driver Justin Edwards completed the top ten.
Twenty-one WIND-FM Modifieds signed in to do battle on this night and try to lay claim to the $800 first-place prize awaiting the winner of the 30-lap feature.
Bob Masciarelli, Jeremy Gerstner, and Raymond Vann topped the three heat races, picking up $100 each for their efforts. It would not be a good night for either Vann or Masciarelli as Vann's machine couldn't make the call for the start of the feature, while Masciarelli only made two laps in the main event before something happened to his car and he hit the turn two wall, fortunately without injury. It would only be the start of a disappointing night for Masciarelli - but more on that later.
Jeremy Gerstner ended up on the pole and made the most of it, moving out to a substantial lead early.
After the caution for Masciarelli's incident, the field managed to make seven laps under green before Larry Goolsby and Kevyn Terry made contact in turn four to bring out yellow flag number two.
On the restart, David Baxley and Troy Robinson were on the move taking second and third spots and closing on the leader.
Jeremy Gerstner was doing all he could to hold off arch-rival Baxley when Baxley's right front tire went flat going into turn three on lap 25.
As the field slowed to avoid Baxley's car, John Foerg and John Gerstner made contact on the backstretch to bring out the caution. Both drivers went to the rear of the field while Baxley was able to pit and return to the track on the lead lap with a new shoe.
Following the restart, Robinson made a move to the inside of Jeremy Gerstner in turn one. The two cars made contact coming out of turn two with Gerstner's machine sliding high and just scraping the wall. Gerstner continued and no caution was thrown as track officials agreed it was just good, hard racing.
Finishing this race would take some time as Chuck Burhalter spun with three laps to go to bring out another caution. On the restart, Johnnie Newsome and Jason Garver got together fighting for fourth spot, relegating them to the back of the field. Only a lap could be run under green before Jamie Tinkham spun to bring out the final caution flag on lap 28.
The two lap dash to the checker would find Robinson easily outdistancing Mike Wilson for the win, his second of the year although not a very "popular" one with the fans. Jeremy Gerstner, who lost several spots after the altercation with Robinson, came back for third at the finish.
Although visibly upset over the incident, Gerstner kept a cool head realizing he's leading the points with only a few races left on the schedule although he did do a crowd-pleasing "fence climb" to salute his fans.
Larry Goolsby continues to impress as a rookie in the Modifieds, coming back from his earlier incident to finish fourth, just ahead of John Foerg. John Gerstner, David Baxley (with a great run from the back of the field following his flat tire), Chuck Burkhalter, Johnnie Newsome, and Fireball Maguire rounded out the top ten.
Things didn't get off to a very good start for the Diamond H Air & Heat Sportsman cars as Roger Damron, a winner here two weeks ago, had his engine come unglued (yet again) during the first practice session dumping enough oil on the track to delay practice almost 20 minutes.
Patrick Mennenga jumped from his pole starting spot to take the lead at the drop of the green with typical close Sportsman competition going on behind him.
Despite some close calls, the only caution in the 20-lap event was for debris on the track on lap 14 and it would not work in Mennenga's favor.
With the field allowed to close in on Mennenga, Bob Masciarelli and Doc Batson, who had been glued together the entire race, made their move on lap 17 and sped by Mennenga to take over first and second.
The race would finish that way, but third place Mennenga filed a protest on Masciarelli's engine which was found to be illegal. Thus Doc Batson was awarded the win followed by Mennenga, Kyle Maynard, Tommy Brakeman, and Charles Hornbeak. It was Batson's second win of the year.
Sportsman heats went to Mennenga and Brakeman.
The K-Country Street Stock 20-lap feature was surprisingly tame with plenty of good racing all through the big field which sported several new cars.
Former Modified driver Shane Nichols got the jump on Doug Webster at the drop of the green and led every lap in the Abney 6X. The racing behind him was incredible, sometimes three-wide, as Mark Mitchell made a mid-race pass of Webster to take second but was unable to close on Nichols.
Nichols took his initial win of the season followed by Mitchell, Webster, Pete Close, Jr., and Tommy Roberts.
Heat races for Street Stocks were won by Close, Jr., Mike Wilson, and Doc Batson.
Another first time winner emerged in the Four Cylinder Stocks as Terry Dunbar and his Mustang held off the race-long challenges by Toyota drivers Rick Kuhn and Rick Fort to pick up his first career checker.
Tom Ellis and Harold Barup completed the top five in a well-driven race.
Four Cylinder heat wins were taken by Fort and Kuhn.
Laura Fletcher outran Dan Tremblay to win the V-8 Stock feature.
RESULTS - OCALA SPEEDWAY - 9/12/03:
TBARA SPRINTS (25 Laps):
1) Dave Slawiak #79 2) Dude Teate #68 3) Dave Steele #96 4) Stan Butler #118 5) Ray Bragg #66 6) Gary Gimmler #29 7) Doug Heveron #22 8) Sport Allen #88 9) Wayne Reutimann, Sr. #99 10) Wendy Mathis #80 11) Keith Butler #19 12) Shane Butler #18 13) Mark Gimmler #51 14) Sonny Hartley #32 15) Skeeter Faulconer #6 16) Frank Scimeca #98 17) Warren Baughn #6F 18) John Sambor #33C 19) Richard Bennett #3 20) Ben Fritz #16 21) Bobby Rose #56 DNS Wayne Reutimann, Jr. #00 DNS Bo Hartley #3X
FLORIDA MINI STOCK CHALLENGE (50 Laps):
1) Robbie Yoakam #8 2) Robbie Storer #9 3) Kevin Macy #19 4) Chris Thornton #X5 5) Mark Moniz #41 6) Jeff Stalnaker, Sr. #10 7) Rick Partridge #13A 8) Dennis Valdez #40 9) Tom Jones, Jr. #60 10) Justin Edwards #112 11) Steve Black #0 12) Chad Ashley #07 13) Tom Zimmerman #55 14) Charlie Brown #11 15) Darren Jackson #7D 16) Richard Kelley, Jr. #61 17) Rick Sirmans #05 18) Marty Neikens #70 DNS Clint Foley #7 DNS #38 Fast Qualifier: Richard Kelley, Jr.
WIND-FM MODIFIEDS (30 Laps):
1) Troy Robinson #0B 2) Mike Wilson #79 3) Jeremy Gerstner #70 4) Larry Goolsby #19R 5) John Foerg #1 6) John Gerstner #77 7) David Baxley #64 8) Chuck Burkhalter #21 9) Johnnie Newsome #31 10) Fireball Maguire #19 11) Tom Bailey #24 12) Kevyn Terry #007 13) Mark Emberson #34 14) Jamie Tinkham #98 15) Jason Garver #27 16) Bobby Valeo #7 17) Glen Ervin #0 18) Bob Masciarelli #72 DNS Timmy Gamble #34B DNS Raymond Vann #99 DNS Mike Batten #5.0
DIAMOND H AIR & HEAT SPORTSMAN (20 Laps):
1) Doc Batson #B4 2) Patrick Mennenga #16 3) Kyle Maynard #27 4) Tommy Brakeman #20 5) Charles Hornbeak #67 6) Tom Posavec #01 7) Eddie Kilbury #71 8) Frank Buchanan #07 9) Charles Kopach #53 10) Jim Higginbotham #76 11) Glen Baum #09 12) William Edwards #08 DNS Roger Damron #76D DQ Bob Masciarelli #72
K-COUNTRY STREET STOCKS (20 Laps):
1) Shane Nichols #6X 2) Mark Mitchell #71 3) Doug Webster #72 4) Pete Close, Jr. #08 5) Tommy Roberts #96 6) A.J. Schreier #98 7) Bobby Taylor #66 8) Doc Batson #77 9) Paul Fletcher #94 10) Estle Morrow #02 11) Mike Fiddia #41 12) Krystal Batson #B4 13) Mike Rosa #76 14) Sid Mosbrucker #62 15) Paul Fletcher #28 16) James Morgan #55 17) Robert Capps #44C 18) Ken Asbell #89 19) Harry Brown #29 20) Harold Edwards #11X 21) David Chastain #17 22) Bobby Carter #99 23) Rick Bass #39 24) Mike Wilson #1 DNS Ed Taupier #07
FOUR CYLINDER STOCKS (20 Laps):
1) Terry Dunbar #72 2) Rick Kuhn #47 3) Ric Fort #2 4) Tom Ellis #31 5) Harold Barup #3 6) Jeff Stalnaker, Jr., #8 7) Jeff Pittsley #20 8) Donnie Pitts #24 9) Steve Visneski #42 10) Chris Noce #99 11) Mike Muroski #M61 12) Kurtis Mitchell #00 13) Festus Barup #69
