The Father’s Day Special at Citrus County Speedway proved to be an endurance race for the relatively new drivers to stock car racing featuring the Pure Stocks and Thunder Stock Rookies in a 30 car, 50 lap race.
Time trials had 38 of the 41 cars register go on the clocks and Bobby Taylor picked up fast time beating out his brother Ted who flew in from New York just to put on a match race with Bobby.
Twenty four cars qualified on the clock and six more came out of a slam bang B-Main with Rex Mullis, Fred Henick, Ricky Shahid, Tim Whitehead, John Crowfoot and Dave Davis filling in the final six for the 30 car feature. Davis got his spot spinning across the line backwards in the infield in a cloud of steam.
The top 12 were inverted for the start of the 50 lap main event with Bobby and Ted Taylor side by side in row six. Ted ran into problems in lap six when his motor went south and he was black flagged before it blew. Bobby took off from his 12th starting spot and moved through a gaggle of traffic picking up the lead after multiple caution flags due to spins or contact crashes.
Taylor weathered the storm and picked up the point at the midpoint of the race. Bill Ryan stayed with Taylor all the way to the checkers from his 9th starting spot followed by John Drye who picked up third spot after post race inspection D.Q.’d James Erickson for being too light and refusing to tear down. Steve Stinedurf and Harold Erickson locked in the top five spots.
Late Models finally got their 5th race of the season in after their last outing was rained out. It was all Mike Bresnahan from the drop of the green flag right to the checkers as he had the entire 14 car field more than covered from his outside pole position start. Jim Smith started on the pole and managed to finish in that position when it was all over. Dale Sanders had his best finish of the year starting where he finished in third. Scott Grossenbacher locked in a fourth place finish over Mike Bell and Jason Rendell. Bell and Smith took the wins in their heat races.
Sportsman went into a 15 car battle royal with outside pole sitter Rusty Bremer taking the point from the get go and setting the pace right to the checkered flag with 7th starter Mike Veltman in hot pursuit to the finish line. Post race inspection changed the final results with Bremer weighing in too light giving Veltman his 4th win of the season plus the win in the first heat. Richie Smith came from 12th to finish second followed by 9th starter Fred Tuski. Rounding out the top five were Curtis Flanagan and Tom Posavec. Clint Foley inherited the win in the second heat after the Bremer’s D.Q. in the feature.
Something is happening in the Mini Stock division with 33 cars registered in the point’s race and only drawing a field of 8 cars. When the green flag flew George Neumann showed his four time championship form taking the point from the outside pole and setting the pace all the way to the Winner’s Circle for his second win of the season. Kevin Harrod came from the tail end of the field to cross the finish line in second being chased by Clint Foley, point leader Steve Griffin and Mike Lawhorn who also won the heat race.
With 56 Street Stocks registered in their championship run, 18 made the show on Father’s Day weekend for heat and feature action. The end result in their 14th race of the year was what it has been most of the season. Richie Smith had his 9th win of the season postponed last week after taking the checkered flag with a D.Q. which put him at the tail end of the field for the start Saturday night. He turned up the boost, worked his way through traffic to overtake Tim Quick and taking his 9th trip to Victory lane. Todd Downs stayed in the top five mix for the last half of the race to take third followed by Johnny Zuidema and Curtis Flanagan. Flanagan took his 6th heat win in the first heat and Zuidema made it 2 for the season in the second heat.
The largest field of the evening in point racing came with 21 cars taking the green in the 4 Cylinder Bomber division. Dan Hagg took the lead from his 8th starting spot early and set the pace for most of the first 15 laps before he lost it in turn 2 bringing out the caution flag and sending him to the rear of the field for the restart. Phil Edwards started 14th and worked his way up to challenge Hagg for the lead inheriting the lead on the restart and led the field to the checkers with 5 laps to go. Bobby Richardson picked up second with Patric Connor out running Travis Hoefler in the run for third followed by Jeff Eberly. Eberly, John Kidwell and Connor won the heat races.
Next Saturday night will feature the Open Wheel Modifieds in their postponed Twin 35 Lap features which will be run back to back with a 15 minute break in the infield between races. Added to the program will be the Mini Cup Series, Sportsman, Mini Stocks,V8 Thunder Stock Rookies, 4 Cylinder Bombers and the Fantastic Super Modified Figure 8’s. TBARA Winged Outlaw Sprint cars return on June 30th with a full race card that will also include the Florida Pro Challenge.
Citrus County Speedway Results 6/16/07
Pure Stock Special – 50 Laps – 30 Cars – 42 registered
1. #127 Bobby Taylor – 6th Feature Win 2. #33 Bill Ryan 3. #39 John Drye 4. # 0 Steve Stinedurf 5. #114 Harold Erickson
Fast Qualifier – Bob Taylor
Late Model Feature – 35 Laps – 14 Cars
1. #66 Mike Bresnahan – 3rd Season Win 2. #121 Jim Smith 3. # 1 Dale Sanders 4. #09 Scott Grossenbacher 5. #17 Mike Bell
1st Heat Winner - #17 Mike Bell
2nd Heat Winner - #121 Jim Smith
Sportsman Feature – 20 Laps – 15 Cars
1. #94 Mike Veltman – 4th Season Win 2. #42 Richie Smith 3. #71 Fred Tuski 4. # 3 Curtis Flanagan 5. #01 Tom Posavec
1st Heat Winner - #94 Mike Veltman
2nd Heat Winner - #7 Clint Foley
Mini Stock Feature – 20 Laps – 8 Cars
1. # 1 George Neumann – 2nd Season Win 2. #34 Kevin Harrod 3. # 7 Clint Foley 4. # 3 Steve Griffin 5. #44 Mike Lawhorn
Heat Winner - #44 Mike Lawhorn
Street Stock Feature – 20 Laps – 18 Cars
1. #142 Richie Smith – 9 Season Win 2. #97 Tim Quick 3. #00 Todd Downs 4. #47 Johnny Zuidema III 5. # 3 Curtis Flanagan
1st Heat Winner - # 3 Curtis Flanagan
2nd Heat Winner – #47 Johnny Zuidema III
4 Cylinder Bomber Feature – 20 Laps – 21 Cars
1. #21 Phil Edwards – 2nd Season Win 2. #22 Bobby Richardson 3. #444 Patric Connor 4. #20 Travis Hoefler 5. #001 Jeff Eberly
