Two First Time Winners See Victory Lane at Citrus Saturday
by Larry MacMillan
(Inverness Fl. 5/27/06) With the Memorial Day Weekend unofficially beginning of the summer season Citrus County Speedway provided warm temperatures and plenty of hot track action Saturday night. The Central Florida Wingless Sprints locked onto the 3/8th mile chasing Keith and Stan Butler for 30 laps with the son/father team finishing one-two. Rookie youngster Rusty Dixon locked onto Stan Butler’s rear nurf bar for a third place finish over Jim Alvis and point leader Scott Adema. Heat wins went to Stan Butler, Rusty Dixon and Keith Butler. Scott Adema took home the winner take all $500 Dash for Cash race featuring the top 6 in the point’s race.
Twenty two Limited Sportsmen had a caution filled 20 lap feature that saw A.J. Isbister benefiting from the crashes and spins by taking the point late in the race for his second win of the season. Tom Posavec continued his top five runs with a second place finish from the back of the pack followed by Ernie Reed, Maloy Kelly and Edward Allen. Matt Blum and D.J. Macklin took the heat wins but were relegated to 13th and 14th place finishes in the feature due to mishaps in the main event.
Hobby Stocks continue to come out in great numbers with 24 of 28 racers making the show. Bobby Taylor checked the lineup at least a dozen times while cars were arriving and earning their position by 4 week point averages. Every time he looked, his position continued to go backwards. When the green flew, he had 17 cars to pass before he managed a lap 20, turn 4 pass on Tim Quick who led from the get-go to snatch his 2nd win of the season. Quick was after his first win in a borrowed race car and had to settle for second ahead of 17th starter Herb Hoefler, 20th starter Doc James Batson, looking for his 5th win of the season, and Don Paugh who moved from 8th to 5th at the checkers. Heat winners were Jim Hand, Paugh and Shelton Kinser.
Johnny Siner drew the 8th starting spot for the Mini Stock 20 lap main and wasted no time claiming the point. He set the pace for most of the race and was able to hold off several attempts by point leader Clint Foley to deny him his first win of the season. Foley started 10th and Johnathon Camp driving the #13 came from the 13th starting spot to finish third. Mike Lawhorn won the race for fourth over Jesse Henley who took the win in the first heat. Foley came from the back of the pack to take the win in the second heat.
Justin Durbin started 13th and rocketed his way through the 16 car Bomber field to take over the point in what looked like his 5th win of the season. Something happened in the final two laps and he faded to third putting Tim Nocella in the Winners Circle for the first time in 2006. James Turgeon pulled up in second at the checkers with Durbin third ahead of Kevin Stone and Tim Herrington. Stone and Durbin took the heat wins.
The Figure 8’s saved the best for last with 18 cars taking the green flag. The intersection took out four cars in the first lap in a cloud of dust that saw four deep racing off turn four when the green flew. A total restart saw Joey Catterelli blast his way from 10th to the point and the survivors spent the rest of the 20 laps chasing him to the checkers for his second win of the season. John Thomas worked his way through traffic from 12th to 2nd at the finish line while Wayne Calkins got in his tire tracks from 9th to 3rd. Bobby Towe held off Robbie Hage in the race for fourth.
Next Saturday the Gulf Coast Modifieds will be joined by the ½ scale NEXTEL Mini Cup Cars to head up another action packed race card at Citrus County Speedway. Joining them will be the Limited Sportsmen, Mini Stocks, Thunder Stocks and 4 Cylinder Bombers. Citrus is offering more variety in racing than ever before and has a division to satisfy just about everyone’s need for speed.
Citrus County Speedway Results – 5/27/06
FLORIDA SUNCOAST VAN LINES TOUR STOP #4 RESULTS ; Keith Butler, Stan Butler, Rusty Dixon, Jimmy Alvis, Scott Adema, Dude Teate, Gary Gimmler, Daryl Smith, Dennis Misuraca, Shane Butler, Tommy Nichols, Lance Taylor, Dakotah Stephens, Rod Anderson, John Sambor, Bill Pettijohn, Skeeter Faulconer, Tommy Rice, Larry Brazil Jr., Frank Hurst
HEAT RACING of BRANDON DASH - Scott Adema, Daryl Smith, Jimmy Alvis, Dennis Misuraca, Rusty Dixon
