Justin Durbin Feeling "Grand" After Big Four Cylinder Win at Ocala
by Dave Westerman
It was a night for Ocala Speedway's Four Cylinder Stock drivers to have a chance at some big money, and in the end it was Justin Durbin finding his way to victory lane and a prize of $1,000 in a class that normally pays $100 to win on a regular Friday night.
Twenty-eight Four Cylinders were in the pits looking for their chance at the pot of gold. Justin Durbin and point leader Rick Kuhn dominated their respective heat races while Terry Dunbar held on at the line to win his heat.
Luck of the draw put Durbin on the pole and he immediately set sail although he and his challengers would see eight caution flags over the course of 30 laps and one red flag for a three car crash on the frontstretch involving Jeff Pittsley, Karla Phipps, and the brand new machine of Clayton Harden which was not looking very "new" after this one. All three drivers were OK but their cars were done for the night.
Ric Fort moved his Toyota in behind Durbin's Pinto after each caution but was never really able to significantly challenge the young driver as Durbin led every lap to record his first win since the second night of the season back in March and indicated a lot of hard work along with a new set of tires were his keys to victory.
Fort settled for second but admitted Durbin had the field "pretty much covered." John Naber came blasting through the field after going to the rear following a caution on lap 14 to take third in his Toyota pick-up truck while point leader Kuhn came home a solid fourth just ahead of Joel Byall who came from 16th at the start to fifth.
Terry Dunbar, Mike Muroski, Dan Sanderson, Steve Gallagher, and Festus Barup rounded out the top ten.
Rich Pratt made it two in a row in the Steven A. Bagen & Associates Super Late Models driving the Groeb Farms Chevy to a close win over hard-charging Tate Pierce who did everything he could to get by Pratt as the two waged a crowd-pleasing duel.
Pratt had the pole for the feature and rocketed to a big early lead while Pierce moved up to second on lap six and was closing fast on Pratt when 2002 track champ Robbie Smith's hard luck continued with yet another engine failure, causing him to spin on lap 19 bringing out one of only two caution flags in the 30-lapper.
The final ten laps were fantastic as Pierce pulled out all the stops but couldn't get by Pratt. "That was fun," said Pratt. "There's no better guy to race against than Tate. I think he had a little better car than us, so I feel pretty good about being able to hold him off," he said.
Keith Zavrel had another good run taking the checker in third just ahead of point leader E.J. Wise. Super Late Model rookie Gale Grayer also continues to impress and took a solid fifth place finish. Pratt and Pierce won their respective SLM heats.
It was Joshua Kelley night at the race track as the ten-year-old youngster, who suffers from a rare form of bone cancer, was able to meet his race car driver heroes and even ride in the pace car during part of the night. Driver Roger Damron promised Joshua that he would try his best to win the Diamond H Air & Heat Sportsman feature, and if he did, the two of them would get their picture taken in victory lane.
Damron made good on his promise, but the win would not come easy for him. Damron had the pole for the feature, but Patrick Mennenga got by him on lap two and led the next five laps before Damron's car began to come to him and he zipped by Mennenga to re-claim the lead.
This race would see seven caution flags over the course of twenty laps, mostly for minor spins although there was one scary moment when Jim Higginbotham was trying to get his damaged car into the pits and was hit by Jeremy Finegan. Finegan, making his first start of the year, was done for the evening while Higginbotham returned to finish ninth.
Following the final caution on lap 13, Damron steadily pulled away to take his sixth win of the season and second in a row. Mennenga, finally sporting some sponsorship along with a new engine, was pleased with his second place effort while William Edwards was a very close third. Frank Buchanan and Kyle Maynard were fourth and fifth.
Buchanan and Edwards were the Sportsman heat winners.
Young driver A.J. Schreier finally got the monkey off his back taking his first career win in the K-Country 93.7FM Street Stocks in wire to wire fashion.
Luck of the draw put Schreier on the pole and he made the best of it leading all the way. David Chastain stayed within striking distance but could never really mount a challenge and settled for second. Ironically, Schreier was driving a car that had been purchased from Chastain at mid-season.
"Mr. Third Place," Doug Webster was, you guessed it, third again - for the tenth time this year while Paul "Tweety Bird" Fletcher came out on top of a fender banging duel with Tommy Roberts as the pair crossed the line in fourth and fifth.
Vacationing Andy Taylor, down from Long Island, NY, drove his brother Bobby Taylor's car to victory in the V-8 Stock class which was sporting several new faces this week. Taylor led all the way although he was pressed late by Dan Tremblay who settled for the place position. Emmitt Bottoms, Laura Fletcher and Clint Simmons completed the top five.
RESULTS - OCALA SPEEDWAY - 10/3/03:
FOUR CYLINDER STOCKS (30 Laps):
1) Justin Durbin #33 2) Ric Fort #2 3) John Naber #3T 4) Rick Kuhn #47 5) Joel Byall #40 6) Terry Dunbar #72 7) Mike Muroski #61 8) Dan Sanderson #7 9) Steve Gallagher #39 10) Festus Barup #69 11) Joey Durbin #5 12) Tony Thompson #007 13) Chris Noce #99 14) Harold Barup #3 15) Clark Pittsley #64 16) Michael Stalnaker #8 17) James Turgeon III #18 18) Kris Richardson #24 19) Karla Phipps #8X 20) Clayton Harden #50 21) Jeff Pittsley #20 22) Jeff Stalnaker, Jr. #10 23) Tom Ellis #31 24) Mike Hilliary #9 25) Steve Moulton #41 26) Kurtis Mitchell #00 27) Dave Neiswender #38 DNS Dennis Harden #17
STEVEN A. BAGEN SUPER LATE MODELS (30 Laps):
1) Rich Pratt #0 2) Tate Pierce #81 3) Keith Zavrel #47 4) E.J. Wise #7 5) Gale Grayer #87 6) John Buzinec #08 7) Gig Smith #23 8) Tim Shull #8 9) Tom Root #19 10) Robbie Smith #01 11) Craig Tims #12
DIAMOND H AIR & HEAT SPORTSMAN (20 Laps):
1) Roger Damron #76D 2) Patrick Mennenga #16 3) William Edwards #08 4) Frank Buchanan #07 5) Kyle Maynard #27 6) Tommy Brakeman #20 7) Big John Smith #31 8) Bryson Ryker #48 9) Jim Higginbotham #76 10) John Castro #5 11) Paul Hudson #08X 12) Tom Posavec #8D 13) Justin Reynolds #20X 14) Jeremy Finegan #22 15) Lamar Smith #77
K-COUNTRY STREET STOCKS (20 Laps):
1) A.J. Schreier #98 2) David Chastain #17 3) Doug Webster #72 4) Paul Fletcher #94 5) Tommy Roberts #96 6) Bobby Taylor #66 7) Mark Mitchell #71 8) Paul Fletcher #28 9) Michael Mennenga #91 10) Mike Fiddia #41 11) Jay Morgan #55 12) Dot Kelly #38 13) Rick Bass #39 14) Harry Brown #29 15) Danny Fletcher #6X DNS Pete Close, Jr. #0 DNS Mike Rosa #76 DNS Sid Mosbrucker #62 DNS Dave Danielson #70
V-8 STOCKS (15 (Laps):
1) Andy Taylor #27X 2) Dan Tremblay #40 3) Emmitt Bottoms #96 4) Laura Fletcher #21 5) Clint Simmons #74 6) Robert Ward #92 7) Shelby Mather #17
