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Curtis Neumann Launches Citrus Modified Season With Win
By Larry MacMillan
One hundred ten race cars in six divisions fired up week two of Citrus County Speedways 54th season on a cool night of hot racing. The Modifieds, 4 Cylinder Bombers and Sportsmen divisions took on the 3/8ths mile oval for their first race of the year in the abbreviated kick off to the 2009 season.
Citrus will race through February 28th before taking a 3 week hiatus for the Citrus County Fair activities. Opening ceremonies took time out for a moment of remembrance to David LaPearle who passed away on Friday at the age of 60.
David is a former Late Model driver at the speedway, was very active with the Citrus County Fair board and was instrumental in getting a go kart series running at the track and promoting the Annual Antique Tractor and Truck Pull at the Fairgrounds which just wrapped up a very successful 10th year show at the Fairgrounds.
Open Wheel Modifieds opened their season with a 20 car field of heavy hitters and the ultimate outcome was a repeat of the last race of the year in 2008. Robbie Cooper, Mark Nelson and Billy Bechtelheimer took the wins in the first 3 heat races and on the pill draw Troy Robinson and Curtis Neumann won the pole slots. When the green fell on the 40 lap feature Troy Robinson won the drag race into turn one and two as the front row ran side by side for the first couple of laps. Several caution flags slowed the action down due to minor crashes but the front end of the field was not affected with Robinson setting the pace with Neumann and Robbie Cooper in pursuit until the final 10 laps.
The front three mixed it up with Neumann making the pass on Robinson and then holding off a late charge by Robinson and leaving Cooper to finish third behind the two front runners. Rounding out the top 5 were Mark Nelson, and Tommy Schnader. Looks like a great season ahead for the Mod Squad at Citrus.
When the green fell on the 40 lap feature Troy Robinson won the drag race into turn one and two as the front row ran side by side for the first couple of laps. Several caution flags slowed the action down due to minor crashes but the front end of the field was not affected with Robinson setting the pace with Neumann and Robbie Cooper in pursuit until the final 10 laps.
The front three mixed it up with Neumann making the pass on Robinson and then holding off a late charge by Cooper leaving Robinson to finish third behind the two front runners. Rounding out the top 5 were Mark Nelson and Billy Bechtelheimer. Looks like a great season ahead for the Mod Squad at Citrus.
Fourteen Sportsmen opened their season with the heats won by Jo Jo Viverito and Mike Veltman coming back strong after taking most of last year off. Matt Blum won the pole on the pill draw and set the pace from the drop of the green flag to the checkered flag being pressed at the line by sixth starter Joey Catterelli who won the Figure 8 Championship in 2008 taking his first ride in the Sportsman division.
Mike Veltman came off the outside pole and managed to hold off the rest of the field for a third place finish followed by 2008 points runner up Bobby Ervien and 2008 Point Champion Tom Posavec rounding out the top five.
Mini Stocks had a fifteen car field for the feature run and had trouble running 2 laps throughout the scheduled 20 lap main without a caution flag coming out.
This was their second week in the season points run and it looked like opening night jitters got the best of them when the time limit ran out on them and the race was cut to 15 laps. Travis Hoefler looked like he was on his way to his first Mini Stock win but Brandon Strevels took it away from him on the restart into lap 13 for the win and Travis had to settle for second over 7th starter Paul Combast, 13th starter Mike Lawhorn and 15th starter Robbie Yoakam who took the first win of the season last week. Heat wins went to James Ellis and Robbie Yoakam.
A lot of the Pure Stocks are still in the reconditioning stage after the 2008 season but the field was loaded with talent and 23 cars started the feature. Richie Smith was pulling double duty again but had the success he was looking for in Mike Hindes #142 for his first win of the season.
He started sixth pulled up behind pole sitter Cory Swanston and followed him for 18 laps before getting down to business in the final two laps and taking away the win at the checkered flag. Cory pulled up second but lost that position in tech inspection for an illegal steering box giving the spot to Drew Matissek.
Curtis Flanagan moved up to third from his 11th starting position and was in the mix for the top 3 at the finish line. Rounding out the top five were Tommy Smith who moved from his 19th starting position and Richard Dinkins. Heat winners were Richie Smith and Richard Dinkins.
The scheduled 20 lap main for the 4 Cylinder Bombers was another race that just couldnt outrun the clock and only got 10 laps in. Tim Scalise took the green flag and exploded a motor in turn one making for a long cleanup. On the restart the 19 car field definitely wanted to win their first race of the year in the first lap.
Caution after caution came out for a tough start to the beginning of their season. When the mayhem was all over Shaun Cater out dueled Justin Durbin for the lead in lap 9 and continued on to Victory Lane with 2008 Champion Richard Kuhn giving him all the heat he could handle in the run for the checkers. Kuhn settled for a second place finish after winning the first heat followed by Justin Durbin, Nathan Florian and John DeGeorge. Richard Kuhn and Shaun Cater logged the heat wins.
Eighteen V8 Thunder Stock Rookies closed out the evening of racing with Arden Franklin picking up the lead in lap 6 and winning his first 20 lap main event. Early leader Darrell Demonbreun recovered from two minor wrecks to hold out for second followed by Matthew Harris, Thomas McKay and Ron Sellers III.
Next Saturday will see the Street Stocks, Pure Stocks, V8 Thunder Stocks, 4 Cylinder Bombers, Bass Pro Challenge and the Mini Cup cars putting on the show for week 3 of the Citrus County Speedway racing season.
Closing out the first four weeks of the season on February 28th will be Doug Rose in the Green Mamba Jet Dragster completely blowing away a derelict car that makes for quite a fireworks show.
The Super Late Models will run their first race of the year along with the Sportsman, Mini Stocks, Street Stocks and 4 Cylinder Bombers. The Speedway will take a three week hiatus for the Citrus Co. Fair and restart on March 28th with the first of three scheduled School Bus Figure 8 and Boat Trailer races this season plus The Daytona Antique Racing Association will put on a show with the Sportsman, Mini Stocks, Street Stocks and 4 Cylinder Bombers restarting their 2009 point race and running right on through November 14th.
Citrus County Speedway Results 2/14/09 Open Wheel Modified Feature 40 Laps 20 Cars 1. #01 Curtis Neumann Inverness 1st Season Win 2. #98 Troy Robinson - ? 3. #0 Robbie Cooper - Bronson 4. #111 Mark Nelson Clearwater 5. # 19 Tommy Schnader - Clearwater
1st Heat Winner - #98 Robbie Cooper 2nd Heat Winner - #111 Mark Nelson 3rd Heat Winner - # 6 Billy Bechtelheimer
1st Heat Winner - #98 Robbie Cooper 2nd Heat Winner - #111 Mark Nelson 3rd Heat Winner - # 6 Billy Bechtelheimer
