Close Tops J.R. Wilbanks Memorial - Durden Outlasts Mods at Ocala
by Dave Westerman
Great weather and a great field of cars welcomed fans to Ocala Speedway Friday night with the main attraction being the 50-lap, $1,000 to win J.R. Wilbanks Memorial for the K-Country 93.7 FM Street Stocks.
Rookie Street Stock driver A.J. Schreier surprised everyone by setting fast time at 17.807 seconds followed by Mike Wilson's 17.820and the 17.841 of "Speedy" Pete Close, Jr.
Street Stock point leader Tommy Roberts had trouble with his car in practice and picked up a ride in the Southside Builders car slated tobe driven by Marlon Durbin. Mark Mitchell blew the engine in his car in hot laps and borrowed Kyle Maynard's Nova to keep himself in the point race.
Luck of the draw put Close on the pole, while fast-timer Schreier started ninth. Close took the lead at the drop of the green and immediately took command as David Chastain settled into second spot.
Seven caution flags, all for minor spins, would close the field up on several occasions, but Close was able to fend off all challengers despite developing a "push" late in the race.
Chastain hounded Close all the way but had to settle for second while Doug Webster brought his "Big Bird" Monte Carlo home third behind the two lead Camaros. It was the ninth time this year that Webster has finished in third place in the feature. Bobby Taylor finished a close fourth followed by Paul "Tweety Bird" Fletcher who came from 14th at the start. Mike Wilson, Krystal Batson, Mike Fiddia, Mike Rosa, and Mark Mitchell completed the top ten.
The WIND-FM Classic Rock Modified feature would again come down to a battle between arch-rivals David Baxley and Jeremy Gerstner, but in the end, Kevin Durden was all smiles in victory lane.
Three heats were needed to sort out the big Modified field. Baxley won by a large margin in heat one while Alan McAfferty made his return to Ocala Speedway by winning heat two. John Grimm, in only his third race in two years, held off a snarling pack to win heat three.
Baxley had the pole for the 30-lap feature and wasted little time putting distance between himself and the rest of the field. However, four cautions in the first 15 laps kept things close. Jeremy Gerstner had moved into second and the duel was on between first-half champion Baxley and current point leader Gerstner.
Their battle continued to rage through two more caution flag periods. On a restart following a lap 21 caution, Gerstner dove low coming out of turn four and held his ground as Baxley attempted to "slam the door shut." The two carsmade contact starting a full-scale melee involving half the field. The cars receiving the worst end of things were Tom Bailey who hit the wall hard enough to rip the right front wheel off his car and Larry Goolsby who hit Gerstner's car and damaged the front end of his Maguire's Racing machine. Both were done for the night while Baxley and Gerstner continued at the rear of the field.
Kevin Durden inherited the lead at this point, and with the time limit expired on the race, held on through a green-white-checker finish as the race was halted after 24 of the scheduled 30 laps.
Archer's Durden took his first win of the season with Alan McCafferty a very close second. Kevyn Terry had a great run to take third despite some late-race body damage that had his right rear tire really smoking at the finish. Mike Wilson survived several near-misses and did an excellent job of grabbing fourth just ahead of Mark Emberson who had his best run of the year. John Grimm, John Foerg, Johnnie Newsome, John Gerstner and Jamie Tinkham rounded out the top ten.
Domination was the only way to describe Roger Damron's run in the Diamond H Air & Heat Sportsman feature. Chiefland's Damron topped his heat, started on the pole for the 20-lap main event, then led every lap and won going away.
Only three cautions were needed in this race, the first coming on lap five when Tommy Roberts (driving a new car out of the Southside Builders stable) and Doc Batson locked horns on lap five. Mr. hard luck, Big John Smith, blew his seventh engine of the year coming out of turn four on lap seven, then Patrick Mennenga spun the length of the front straightaway while running second trying to chase down Damron.
Second heat winner Kyle Maynard was a distant second to Damron, who scored his fifth win of the year. Tommy Brakeman fended off a host of challengers and had a solid run for third with Frank Buchanan and William Edwards coming back from a heat race incident to finish fourth and fifth.
"Mr. Consistency" Rick Kuhn had finished either second or third in eight of his last nine Four Cylinder Stock features. Kuhn was not to be denied this week as he passed Harold Barup for the lead on lap seven and went on to score his third win of the year, but first since May 2nd.
Kuhn's win added to his big point lead in the division as second place in points Tom Ellis finished eighth.
Barup, still looking for that elusive first win, nonetheless had a good run to finish second ahead of Dan Sanderson, Kurtis Mitchell, and Ric Fort. Justin Durbin was looking strong early and led the opening four laps before a slipping transmission forced him to the pits.
Four Cylinder Stock heats were won by Kuhn and Barup.
The new V-8 Stock class again had just two cars, but this week it was Dan Tremblay turning the tables on Laura "Mrs. Tweety" Fletcher, scoring his first win and ending Laura's three race win streak.
RESULTS - OCALA SPEEDWAY - 9/26/03:
K-COUNTRY STREET STOCKS (50 Laps):
1) Pete Close, Jr. #08 2) David Chastain #17 3) Doug Webster #72 4) Bobby Taylor #66 5) Paul Fletcher #94 6) Mike Wilson #1 7) Krystal Batson #B4 8) Mike Fiddia #41 9) Mike Rosa #76 10) Mark Mitchell #07 (driving in place of Kyle Maynard) 11) James Morgan #55 12) Tommy Roberts #0 (driving in place of Marlon Durbin) 13) Paul Fletcher #28 14) Rick Bass #39 15) Michael Mennenga #91 16) A.J. Schreier #98 17) Sid Mosbrucker #62 18) Doc Batson #77 19) Dan Geer #65 20) Harry Brown #29 21) Harold Edwards #11X 22) Estle Morrow #02 DNS Rennie Wilbanks #81 DNS Gordon Cade #21X DNS Tommy Roberts #96 DNS Mark Mitchell #71
WIND-FM MODIFIEDS (30 Laps):
1) Kevin Durden #56 2) Alan McCafferty #32 3) Kevyn Terry #007 4) Mike Wilson #79 5) Mark Emberson #34 6) John Grimm #72 7) John Foerg #1 8) Johnnie Newsome #31 9) John Gerstner #7 10) Jamie Tinkham #98 11) Jeremy Gerstner #70 12) David Baxley #64 13) Mike Batten #5.0 14) Glen Ervin #0 15) Larry Goolsby #19R 16) Tom Bailey #24 17) Danny Hill #15 18) Chuck Burkhalter #21 19) Bobby Valeo #8 DNS Fireball Maguire #19W
DIAMOND H AIR & HEAT SPORTSMAN (20 Laps):
1) Roger Damron #76D 2) Kyle Maynard #27 3) Tommy Brakeman #20 4) Frank Buchanan #07 5) William Edwards #08 6) Charles Hornbeak #67 7) John Luke #51 8) Tom Posavec #8D 9) Doc Batson #B4 10) Patrick Mennenga #16 11) Tommy Roberts #40 12) Big John Smith #31 13) Jim Higginbotham #76 DNS Bryson Ryker #48
FOUR CYLINDER STOCKS (20 Laps):
1) Rick Kuhn #47 2) Harold Barup #3 3) Dan Sanderson #7 4) Kurtis Mitchell #00 5) Ric Fort #2 6) Raff McDougall #39 7) Terry Dunbar #72 8) Tom Ellis #31 9) Jeff Pittsley #20 10) Chris Noce #99 11) Festus Barup #69 12) Tony Thompson #007 13) James Turgeon III #18 14) Michael Stalnaker #8 15) Justin Durbin #33 DNS Steve Visneski #42
