On the luck of the draw Scott Grossenbacher won the pole position in his defense of his 2006 Late Model Championship in the 22 car, 35 lap main event at Citrus County Speedway.
This was only the second week of the official point’s chase for 2007 and Scott spent most of the evening holding off Herb Neumann Jr. and Wayne Anderson for the win after a second place finish in the first race of the year 2 weeks ago. The win should put Grossenbacher in the early point lead.
A late contact between Wayne Anderson and Herb Neumann changed the top five finish with Neumann getting his spot back on the caution flag and Anderson passing on joining the restart at the rear of the pack with only 5 laps left to go in the big one. Neumann held off the charges of Keith Zavrel, Gary Grubbs and Daniel Webster to finish 2nd through 5th. Rounding out the top ten were Mike Bell, Dale Sanders, Perry Lovelady, C.J. Calabrese and Bert Morris. Heat winners were Mike Bell, Jim Smith, who had mechanical problems in the feature, and Daniel Webster.
Clint Foley and Bobby Taylor drove in two different divisions and each came up a winner in one of those races. Foley came off the outside pole for the start of the 20 car, 20 lap Sportsman feature. He launched it to the point and left the rest of the field to battle it out for second.
Rusty Bremer, Phillip Rook, 12th starter Bobby Taylor and 14th starter Mike Veltman locked horns with Taylor able to make the pass after a caution flag tightened up the field for a second place finish right on Foley’s rear bumper. Bremer, Phillip Rook and Veltman balanced out the top five at the finish line. Foley, Veltman and D.J. Macklin took the heat wins. Macklin had a run in with Fred Tuski early in the race and spent most of the feature dragging what was left of his right front fender.
No matter where Richie Smith starts in his Street Stock, you can bet he will be somewhere near the front before the halfway point. Last week he crashed but this week he charged from 18th to Victory Lane for his 4th win of the season.
Tim Quick started 5th and made short work of pole sitter and early leader Tim Wilson to lock onto a second place finish. Wilson held out for 3rd over 9th starter Wayne Heater and 20th starter Tim Alexander in a field of 26 starters. Heat wins went to Quick, Alvin Williamson and last week’s winner Curtis Flanagan.
It was a short 12 car field of Mini Stocks but they put on a super show. Clint Foley looked like he was on his way to Victory Lane again as he moved up through traffic after winning his heat and made it to fourth before running into mechanical problems that took him out of the picture.
Meanwhile 6th starter George Neumann and 8th starter Steve Griffin put on a battle royal for the lead with defending champion George Neumann logging his first win of the season. Griffin managed to hold onto his point lead with a second place finish. Young Mark Powers is really beginning show some talent as he moved from 10th to third for his 3rd top five finish of the season.
Todd Haught started on the pole and salvaged a 4th place finish after winning his heat race and Johnny Siner came out for his first race of the year and locked in a fifth place finish. Steve Griffin took the win in the second heat.
Bobby Taylor is driving in three divisions this year and has come up a winner in two of the three. In the Pure Stock division he seems to be unstoppable.
Coming from his 17th starting spot he took the point in 5 laps and went on to win his third consecutive 20 lap main in only his third race in the division. Bill Ryan got locked in traffic from his 16th starting spot and had to use the last five laps to move from 10th to second around Rick Shahid, pole sitter Louie Cioe and Mike Dubbs. John Zuidema Jr and Taylor took the heat wins.
Travis Hoefler is making noise in the 4 Cylinder Bomber division winning his heat race and moving from 9th to the Winner’s Circle for his first win of the season. Add to that 2 top fives and 3 top tens and you have a contender for the championship crown. Chris Harvey lost his runner up finish in post race inspection for an illegal sway bar on his racer.
Anthony LaPoint inherited 2nd over the 17 car field with Jon Doucette making a late move to third when the checkers flew. Patric Conner locked onto 4th after winning his heat and point leader Jeff Eberly rounded out the top five.
Fifteen V8 Thunder Rookies watched John Drye launch his racer from his 9th starting spot and after three laps the entire field just about lost sight of him as he checked out and never looked back for his first win of the season.
Last week’s winner Chad Markland had a little something for Drye in a couple of restarts but it was all over when the checkers flew with Markland being chased by 15th starter Ricky Shahid, Chad Fairbanks and John Brown rounding out the top five.
Next Saturday night will feature the Open Wheel Modifieds, Sportsman, Mini Stocks, Street Stocks, Pure Stocks, V8 Thunder Stocks and the wild and crazy Figure 8’s that had 22 cars in the fray last week. Should be a great show.
