Some Points Championships a Lock Entering the Final Week at Citrus
BY Larry MacMillan
(Inverness, Fl. 10/18/03) - With double features due to last weeks postponed races and the final two weeks of point races on the calendar Citrus County Speedway race drivers were focused on locking in their division point championship or improving their positions in the top ten.
Great racing weather and plenty of cars in the pits proved to give the fans all the action they could handle plus a wild Figure 8 race that saw some major wrecks.
With only two races left on the Late Model schedule it looked like it was going to be a show down between point leader Mike Bresnahan and runner up Ricky Carlton. The surprise of the night was that Carlton was a no show after what appears to have been a disagreement about an official call two weeks ago that left him in third at the finish.
Twelve cars took the green flag for the 30 lap feature and the first caution flag took out Jim Smith who would post a DNF and not return to run the balance of the race putting him further behind Bresnahan. Herb Neumann Jr. was the dominate car despite several more caution flags with Danny Johnson holding o
Sportsman Rookie Mike Bell looks like he may have wrapped up his championship crown despite a DNF in the first of two feature races. Stephen Anderson took his third win of the season holding off Terry Caters late charge for the checkered Flag. John Gann won his heat last week while Bill Oesterreicher and Kyle Bookmiller followed closely to round out the top five. In the second feature Mike Veltman recovered form the damages he received in the first race and blitzed the eleven car field with Mike Bell locked on to his rear bumper for all 20 laps. Oesterreicher has pretty well locked the runner up spot in the point race with his third place run. Stephen Anderson and Kyle Bookmiller were again in the top five finishers.
Ernie Reed has overcome some midseason mechanical problems that just about took him out of the Street Stock championship run to pretty well nail down the crown with a pair of feature wins Saturday night. Joe Viverito ran second in both races and drew closer to taking away second place from Danny Cretty. Mickey Burns paired up a third and fourth place finish to stay in the top five running while Daniel Webster swapped spots with Burns in fourth and third place finish in the twin bill. Danny Cretty had to settle for a pair of fifth place finishes to hold onto second in the running with just one race left in the point season.
Chris Hooker pretty well locked up his first Mini Stock championship with his fifth win of the season and a second place run in the second feature of the night. George Neumann was a distant second behind Hookers win followed by Chris Thornton who borrowed Richard Kellys racer to make the race. The car just about got destroyed in the race when Dan Smith lost it on turn four and took the whole right side of the #61 racer. Dustin DesChamps came back to out power Hooker to the checkers in the second feature. Richard Kelly was able to repair the body damage to his car and pulled off a third place finish from the rear of the 12 car field in the second race.
The Hobby Stock championship may still be in question as Richie Smith is looking for his third consecutive crown in the division. Roy Perkins led the charge for the flag in the first feature for his first win of the season over Dean Lawyer, Smith, Wes Wilson and Todd Downs. Wes Wilson came back to win the second feature over point runner up Curtis Neumann, visitor Mike Wilson, Dean Lawyer and another visitor, Paul Fletcher.
Tim Wilson outran the 24 car Thunder Stock field in the first feature with point runner up Lee Keller holding out for second over Victor Shahid Jr., Shawn Conner and Derek DeSomma. Undisputed 2003 Thunder Stock champion Pat Quick had nothing to prove except that she could score her 14th win of the season and came through a ton of traffic to do just that in the second feature. Pole sitter Wayne Heater held out for his best finish of the year, a second place finish, followed by Tim Wilson who heads for the alter and marriage on Wednesday. Larry Triana and Lee Keller rounded out the top five.
In a wild, crash filled, multi caution flagged and shortened Figure 8 finale race for 2003, 15 cars took the green flag and pole sitter and former Figure 8 Champion Ronnie Schreifels avoided all the intersection mayhem to take the win. Another former champion, Gary Swing, got back into a Figure 8 car after a 2 year hiatus and pulled off a second place finish over Jim Peters, Ken Crews and Stormin Norman Moodey. Carl McPeak, Dave Ross and Neal Hearn had a three car collision in the intersection that looked tragic but all three drivers were able to walk away without injury. Their cars were damaged extensively and clean up and getting McPeak out of his racer took about a half hour. This plus the multitude of unusual caution flags shortened the race to 15 lap
