IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

May 26, 2008 Eight Divisions Turn on Citrus Race Fans Saturday by Larry MacMillan (Inverness, Fl. 5/24/08) Great weather, a long holiday weekend and plenty of racing fireworks helped race fans get a good start to the Memorial Day Weekend. Unfortunately the car count was down with drivers and families using the weekend as a get away as the first holiday of summer salutes our fallen heroes of past and present conflicts throughout the world. Saturday night’s races got underway with a tribute, a salute and opportunity to say thanks to all those who have been a part of our continuing fight for the freedoms we enjoy. A very short modified field was supposed to be the highlight of the 8 division race card. It got shortened from 40 to 20 laps. Curtis Neumann continues to dominate his home race track with his 4th win out of 7 races thus far this season and leads the point race by 32 over Richie Smith who picked up his first DNF of the season. Doug Miller put on a match race with Neumann in the final laps of the race only to settle for second followed by Jeremy Gerstner. Ernie Reed started on the pole and won the drag race through turn 1 and 2 and never looked back to log his first feature win of the year in a 12 car Sportsman, 20 lap feature. JoJo Viverito took advantage of several caution flags and worked his way through traffic from 8th to second when the checkers flew. Bobbie Ervien locked down a third place finish over Tom Posavec and Mike Veltman. Sal DeFranco and Reed picked up the heat wins. George Neumann made short work of the front half of the 15 car Mini Stock field but it wasn’t an easy victory for him with several caution flags coming out in the late going that put his lead in jeopardy on each restart after losing the lead during the caution lap. When the dust settled and the checkers flew Chris Allen and Jason Rendell chased Neumann across the start finish line followed by Mike Lawhorn, Steven Smith, Don Faunce and Clint Foley. Allen and Rendell lost their finishing position in post race inspection moving Lawhorn, Smith, Faunce and Foley up 2 spots for the final finish. Clint Foley and Don Faunce won the heat races. Tim Quick reconfirmed who is boss in the Street Stock division logging his 3rd heat win and 4th feature win of the season closing out the week with a 65 point lead in the race for the 2008 championship. Starting 13th in the 19 car field he worked his way through traffic and locked onto the point to lead most of the second half of the race. Meanwhile the battle was on for second with Jason VanOchten falling to the pressure from Mike Loudy. Tommy Smith put on a late charge after being put to the rear of the pack for a caution flag infraction to hold out for third over VanOchten and Frank Stromquist. Heat winner in the first heat was David Foster who got a DNF in the feature. Shawn Evans started 7th in the 4 Cylinder Bomber 24 car field and took his time going to the front. When he did it was all over except his trip to Victory Lane for his first Citrus County Speedway win. Anthony LaPoint ran in the top five for all 20 laps and held out for a second place finish over Phil Edwards, Tim Scalise and Chris Eberly. Heat winners were Phil Edwards, Josh Fairchild and Tim Scalise. Tim Wilson continues to roll in Pure Stock action becoming the winningest driver at Citrus with his 7th of the season over the 18 car field and adding his 5th heat win to his resume. John Drye held off a whole lot of heat in the race for second from Tom Potts, “Wild” Bill Ryan and Jesse Veltman, all finishing in that order. Victor Shahid took the win in the first heat. Only 12 cars made the trip for the Figure 8, 20 lap feature but it was a barn burner from the get-go. John Baranauskas charged to the front on two attempts to get the race underway. The rest of the field jockeyed for position behind him with Joey Catterelli moving from 9th to settle for a second place finish unable to make the late pass on Baranauskas. Joey and John are the only two out of 24 Figure 8 drivers to log two wins for the season. Rounding out the top five were Wayne Calkins, Ron Schreifels and Cliff Rousseau. Young Austin Roberts made his second trip to Victory Lane in the V8 Thunder Stock Rookie Division moving from 8th to the point early in the race after recovering from an early 1st lap spin into the infield. Randy Werstein out ran Drew Matissek, Michael Martin and Jon Brown in the race for second. Next Saturday night Citrus County Speedway brings back the Super Late Models, Sportsmen, Mini Stocks, Street Stocks and 4 Cylinder Bombers. Citrus County Speedway Results 5/24/08 Open Wheel Modified Feature – 20 Laps – 4 Cars 1. #01 Curtis Neumann – Inverness – 4th Season Win 2. #53 Doug Miller – Largo 3. #27 Jeremy Gerstner – Tampa 4. #42 Richie Smith – Hernando Sportsman Feature – 20 Laps – 12 Cars 1. #55 Ernie Reed – Lecanto – 1st Season Win 2. #56 Clint Foley – Dunnellon 3. #88 Bobby Ervien – St. Petersburg 4. #01 Tom Posavec – Dunnellon 5. #155 Mike Veltman – Crystal River 1st Heat Winner - #50 Sal DeFranco – Brooksville 2nd Heat Winner - #55 Ernie Reed Mini Stock Feature – 20 Laps – 15 Cars 1. # 1 George Neumann – Inverness – 3rd Season Win 2. #44 Mike Lawhorn – Clermont 3. #32 Steven Smith – Inverness 4. # 2 Don Faunce – Spring Hill 5. # 7 Clint Foley – Dunnellon 1st Heat Winner - #7 Clint Foley 2nd Heat Winner - #2 Don Faunce Street Stock Feature – 20 Laps – 19 Cars 1. #97 Tim Quick – Lecanto – 4th Season Win 2. #21 Mike Loudy – Brooksville 3. #93 Tommy Smith – Floral City 4. #99 Jason VanOchten – Hudson 5. #57 Frank Stromquist – Lecanto 1st Heat Winner - # 4 David Foster – Wildwood 2nd Heat Winner - #97 Tim Quick 4 Cylinder Bomber Feature – 20 Laps – 24 Cars 1. #46 Shawn Evans – Williston – 1st Season Win 2. #88 Anthony LaPoint – Zephyrhills 3. #21 Phil Edwards – Crystal River 4. #48 Tim Scalise – Lutz 5. #56 Chris Eberly – Spring Hill 1st Heat Winner - #21 Phil Edwards 2nd Heat Winner - # 6 Josh Fairchild 3rd Heat Winner - #48 Tim Scalise Pure Stock Feature – 20 Laps – 18 Cars 1. #93 Tim Wilson – Floral City – 7th Season Win 2. #39 John Drye – Inverness 3. #29 Tom Potts – San Antonio 4. #33 Bill Ryan – Bushnell 5. #55 Jesse Veltman – Crystal River 1st Heat Winner - #88 Victor Shahid – Floral City 2nd Heat Winner - #93 Tim Wilson Figure 8 Feature – 20 Laps – 12 Cars 1. #27 John Baranauskas – St. Petersburg – 2nd Season Win 2. #15 Joey Catterelli – Pinellas Park 3. #14 Wayne Calkins – St. Petersburg 4. #64 Ron Schreifels – Hernando 5. # 3 Cliff Rousseau – St. Petersburg V8 Thunder Stock Feature – 20 Laps – 15 Cars 1. #31 Austin Roberts – Inverness – 2nd Season Win 2. # 9 Randy Werstein - ? 3. #68 Drew Matissek – New Port Richey 4. #76 Michael Martin – Citrus Spring 5. #57 Jon Brown – Lake Panasoffkee Have an opinion on this story? 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