Super Stock Saturday Provides Excitement at Citrus
by Larry MacMillan
(Inverness, Fl. 11/01.03) With the pressure of the point season behind them Citrus County Speedway racers let their hair down and went for the thrill and the fun plus of course bragging rights and the purse in extended feature races Saturday night. The fans saw plenty of action and paint swapping and the drivers had a ball just having fun.
The Super Stocks (formerly Street Stocks) powered up in time trials to qualify for their starting positions on the clocks and 2003 Sportsman Champion Michael Bell clocked in at 15.180 seconds for top qualifier honors. The field was loaded with visitors from other tracks who managed to figure out the 3/8ths mile quickly. Visitors Lyle Maynard turned a quick 15.212, Dusty Bouchard stopped the clock at 15.268, followed by 2003 Street Stock Champion Ernie Reed at 15.331 and another visitor Patrick Mennenga took care of the top five with a 15.352 circuit.
When the green flew for the 15 car, 50 lap main event pole sitter Kyle Maynard took the point away from Michael Bell and held on to the spot for the first 17 laps before he got into trouble on the turn one and two rumbles strips and got turned around, bringing out the first of four cautions. Mike Bell set the pace from there to the checkers followed by three visitors, Dusty Bouchard, Rodger Damron, Patrick Mennenga and local racer Brett Flagg. Rounding out the top ten were Charles Hornbeak, Bill Ryan, Travis Nichols, Kyle Maynard and Frank Buchanan.
Sport Wilson set fast time for the 29 car Hobby Stock field in qualifying for their 50 lap main. “Big Bird” Doug Webster locked in second fast qualifier over Wes Wilson, Bobby Taylor and Victor Stanley. Twenty six of the qualifiers took the green flag with Sport Wilson taking the point from the get go out of his row two starting spot and was held up by five caution flags that slowed things down and running 15 of the first 35 laps under caution. Sport was being chased by Doug Webster who saw that Wilson’s left rear tire decided to start bouncing like a basketball and took advantage of the circumstances to move Sport to the outside and make the pass for the lead. He led right down to the checkered flag with Wes Wilson in pursuit all the way. Curtis Neumann outran Sport Wilson to the flag for third. Red Van held off Tommy Roberts for fifth. After Tech inspection, Doug Webster was found to be illegal in the P & G inspection, moving everyone up a spot with Wes Wilson taking home the win.
In other action, Rick Sirmons came up from Pinellas Park and showed the fourteen car Mini Stock field that he hasn’t forgotten his way to Victory Lane at Citrus. After being sent to the rear of the field in lap three of their 30 main event, Sirmons picked off the entire field to lead the final five laps to the flag followed by Chris Thornton, Travis Nichols, Dustin DesChamps and George Neumann. Heat wins went to 2003 Mini Stock Champion Chris Hooker and Neumann.
Point runner up Lee Keller headed up the Thunder Stock 30 lap main event for a last hurrah taking the 23 car field around the 3/8ths mile with no problem. Rick Badessa hooked up with Keller from the get go but just couldn’t make a run at Keller and had to settle for an uncontested second. Shawn Conner, Wayne Heater and Steven Stinedurf battled for the final tip five spots, finishing in that order.
Thirteen Open Wheel Lites saw Rick Lundeen double up with a heat and feature win. Brian Gingras, Bob Quick, Kevin Baxter and Eric Powell took the balance of the top five spots.
The Four Cylinder Stocks put on a ten lap exhibition race and only three cars made the show Rick Fort, Jamie White and Harold Barup finished in that order.oo
The 2003 season goes out with a bang next week when the best Late Model pilots in the state of Florida will go head to head in the second leg of the Triple Crown. Patrick Williams will try to make it two in a row after winning at Bronson Saturday night.
