IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

August 1, 2004 FSCR Rain Postpones Florida Pro 100 at Citrus by Larry MacMillan Sixteen quality Super Late Model race machines made the qualifying field for the sixth race in the 2004 Florida Pro Series 100 Saturday night at Citrus County Speedway. Threatening weather stayed to the south of the Speedway as time trials opened the night of racing. Series point leader Rich Pratt was fast qualifier followed closely by Herb Neumann Jr. who was out to win his second consecutive Florida Pro race at his home track. Another local, Jim Smith, has shown why he is in contention for series Rookie of the Year and a possible run for the series championship with a third fast time and currently running second in series points. Wayne Anderson was able to make room in his busy race schedule to try to make the race with a fourth fast time run on the clocks on the race track where he grew up. Kevin Finney continues to be a top qualifier with fifth fast time. Doyle Boatwright currently holds fifth in the series points chase and came up sixth fastest on the clocks followed by Brian Finney who is running sixth in points at the halfway point in the series races. One interesting note in the field was German import to Florida racing in the way of Norbert Goestl who recently moved from Germany to make his new home in Cape Coral, Florida. It is rumored that Norbert bought his race car on the internet and this was his very first race ever. His inexperience showed in running slow time on this unfamiliar race course and left fans wondering why he would start his racing career in such a high profile division and series race. Unfortunately we couldn’t get an answer to that question. Heat races were run for all five regular divisions and three feature races beat the weather before the balance of the program had to be called due to rain and the speedway 11 p.m. curfew. 4 Cylinder Bomber pilot Justin Durbin opened up the evening with the win in the first heat of the night and followed it up with his 6th feature win of the season after taking the week off two weeks ago. Most recent winner Rick Fort followed up with a second place finish followed by Dan Sanderson, point leader Clark Pittsley and Rusty Adams. Twenty four cars took the green in the wild Thunder Stock race that had a surprise ending. It took Gary Budek 10 laps to take the point after the green fell and he set the pace right to the checkered flag. Steven Stinedurf was the hard charger coming from 22nd to finish second when the checkers flew and when post race inspection was completed, Budek was disqualified for running an illegal exhaust and Stinedurf logged his third win of the season. Victor Shahid moved up to second for his best finish of the year followed by Michael Bocija, Wayne Heater and Rick Badessa. Heat winners were Shawn Nocella, Louie Cioe and John Sullivan. Alvin Williamson drove his best race of the year to win a barn burner over a 26 car Hobby Stock field. Williamson logged his second win of the season, in a five car run for the checkered flag, over Rusty Bremer, point leader Tommy Smith, Richie Smith and Don Teague. Tommy Smith, Curtis Neumann and Artie Hewitt won the heat races. Neumann started on the pole and led the race for the first 10 laps and looked like he might overcome the 3 DNF’s he has experienced in his last three races. With a good lead going into turn three the motor gremlins got to him again and ended his night as the push truck pushed him to the pits for the fourth time in a row. The 17 car Mini Stock feature made it on the track prepared to take the green when the rain started. It rained for about 20 minutes before an attempt was made to dry the track. Unfortunately the rain continued on and off until 9:45 when the races were called due to the lack of time to get the track dried and get the three remaining 140 laps of racing in before the 11:00 curfew. Mini Stock heat winners were Don Faunce and Jay McKenzie. The Mini Stocks will run twin features next Saturday night. Twenty one Super Stocks ran in three heat races with John Makula, Dusty Bouchard and Robbie Yoakam taking the wins. By the time the evening was over the three more Super Stocks showed up for a potential 24 car feature line up. The Super Stocks will run twin features on their next scheduled appearance August 14th and the Florida Pro Series will return on August 28th to run their rescheduled 100 lap race. Next Saturday will see the Late Models back to run their rained out Twin 50’s plus the Sportsman 40, Figure 8’s, Mini Stocks in double features, Hobby Stocks, Thunder Stocks and 4 Cylinder Bombers. It will be an all feature night in almost 265 laps of action packed racing plus a “Back to School Bash” for the kids with driver autograph session. Citrus County Speedway Results – 7/31/04 Super Late Model Florida Pro 100 – 16 Cars Qualified Postponed until August 28th due to rain Fast Qualifiers – 1. # 0 Rich Pratt 2. #98 Herb Neumann Jr. 3. #32 Jim Smith 4. #84 Wayne Anderson 5. #180 Kevin Finney 6. #57 Doyle Boatwright 7. #80 Brian Finney Hobby Stock Feature – 20 Laps – 26 Cars 1. #09 Alvin Williamson 2. #5x Rusty Bremmer 3. #42 Tommy Smith 4. #28 Richie Smith 5. #2x Don Teague 1st Heat Winner - #42 Tommy Smith 2nd Heat Winner - #01 Curtis Neumann 3rd Heat Winner - # 9 Artie Hewitt Thunder Stock Feature – 20 Laps – 24 Cars 1. #0x Steven Stinedurf 2. # 8 Victor Shahid 3. #4x Michael Bocija 4. #71 Wayne Heater 5. #88 Rick Badessa 1st Heat Winner - #01 Shawn Nocella 2nd Heat Winner - #88x Louie Cioe 3rd Heat Winner - #33 John Sullivan 4 Cylinder Bomber Feature – 15 Laps – 6 Cars 1. #79 Justin Durbin 2. # 2 Rick Fort 3. # 7 Dan Sanderson 4. #64 Clark Pittsley 5. #67 Rusty Adams Super Stock Feature – 20 Laps – 24 Cars Postponed by Rain – Rescheduled for August 14th (Double Feature) 1st Heat Winner - #27 John Makula 2nd Heat Winner - #47 Dusty Bouchard 3rd Heat Winner - # 8 Robbie Yoakam Mini Stock Feature – 20 Laps – 17 Cars Postponed by Rain – Rescheduled for August 7th (Double Feature) 1st Heat Winner - #2 Don Faunce 2nd Heat Winner - #5x Jay McKenzie Have an opinion on this story? 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