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Aguilar Dominates at Citrus County
SCOTT LOCKWOOD
Florida Short Track Report
IVERNESS - With a full moon in the sky and thunderstorms all over the area, it was
obvious that the TBARA would lead a wild night of racing at Citrus County
Speedway Saturday night.
Not even a light sprinkle could stop the TBARA cars as they took to the 3/8 mile
speedway for their first heat race of the evening. Starting from the pole, Mickey
Kempens led every lap and held on to win. Coming out of the final turn, , Kempens
held off a hard charging Ben Fritz, who had a run on the outside and drew nearly
even at the line. Dave Steele, who started eighth, was right on Fritz’s tail to finish
third.
For the second week in a row, Steven Bradley made it look easy in a heat race,
starting from the pole and winning by nearly the length of a straightaway. The third
race was marred by an accident that saw the cars of Bryan Eckley and Stan Butler
get together in turn two. Eckley’s car slammed into a row of tires and water barrels,
nearly flying out of the racetrack - landing on the track’s exit road to the pits. Brian
Gingras took the win in the third heat.
Not long after the third heat, the skies opened up and caused a rain delay of over
90 minutes. However, thanks to the help of some of the drivers and cars from
Citrus County’s regular classes, the track was dried fairly quickly and the action
was able to continue.
Remarkably, Eckley’s crew would be able to repair the damaged car in time for him
to race in the feature. As the field of 23 cars took to the track took to the track for
the prerace warmup, the wing collapsed on Steve Heisler’s car. Heisler saved the
car, and was allowed to start the feature to collect points.
As the field lined up for the pace lap, all eyes were on the cars of 11th place
starter Troy DeCaire, last week’s winner at DeSoto Speedway, and Steele, starting
12th. These drivers were sure to put on a show for the fans, and would certainly
not disappoint.
Bradley jumped out into the lead from the pole, and would be closely followed by
Fritz. A car quickly on the move after the start was Joey Aguilar, who started eighth
and was all the way up to third by the fourth lap.
As Bradley and Fritz completed the fifth lap, Fritz came down on Bradley, causing
both cars to spin wildly into the swamped infield. Fritz was able to continue, but
Bradley’s night was over thanks to damage to the right rear of the car. Aguilar
inherited the lead, while Gary Grimmler found himself in second place.
On the restart, Aguilar jumped out to a big lead in just a few laps, only to see it
erased when the caution came out for D.J. Hoelzle’s quick spin in the fourth turn on
lap 10. By this point, Steele and DeCaire had worked their way up to sixth and
seventh, and weren’t done yet.
Aguilar jumped out to another huge lead on the restart. Five laps later, the caution
came out again as Fritz and Butler got together on the front stretch. Butler
continued, but Fritz wasn’t as fortunate. It was the final caution of the night.
While Aguilar set sail on the restart, the real fight on the race track was for third
between Steele, DeCaire and Dude Teate. All three cars ran wheel-to-wheel for
three laps, until DeCaire got around Steele and Teate both with the same pass on
lap 18.
“After the caution, I was able to get to the outside of those two (Steele and Teate)
while they were battling,” DeCaire said. “They were worried about each other, and
I went unseen under the radar, so it worked out for the best. I wasn’t necessarily
faster than Dude or David, but with them preoccupied, I was bale to get a good
spot.”
Three laps later, DeCaire got by Grimmler for second, but would have nothing for
Aguilar over the last few laps. Aguilar took the checkered over DeCaire by about a
half a straightaway, taking his first TBARA win in over two years.
“I sat around waiting for two years, no phone calls, no nothing and just wishing
something would happen,” Aguilar said. “Then I got a phone call from Don and
Dorothy Vinson and here we are, a year after that, and we’ve got a win.”
Not lost on Aguilar was the fact that his team, which runs a limited schedule, beat
the best in the business.
“All I can say is when you win in the TBARA and you beat guys like Troy DeCaire,
Dave Steele, Dude Teate and the Butler’s - I could go on down the list. This is
unbelievable.”
Even though he wasn’t able to win for the second week in a row, DeCaire was able
to expand his points lead.
“When I got up into second, I broke free and I thought I was coming to him a little
bit,” DeCaire said. “But I wore the tires off my car coming through the field, having
to run the outside line. Hats off to those guys - they were definitely fast and I’m not
sure if I could have passed even if I got near him.
“Joey’s had a lot of bad luck and some trials and tribulations, so he definitely
deserved to win.”
After Aguilar and DeCaire, Steele, Grimmler and Teate rounded out the top five.
In other action, Ritchie Smith took his 10th feature win of the season at Citrus
County in the street stock division. Starting 12th in the 20 lapper, smith appeared
to be stuck in traffic until a couple of cautions strung out the field. It may have
taken him 15 laps, but Smith eventually got to the lead and blew away the rest of
the field. He actually has 12 feature wins at the track, also winning two features in
the sportsman class.
“It’s awesome - this car is just a good old car,” Smith said of his Chevy Camaro
street stocker. “It’s work, and we work hard on it every week. My brother helps me
on it and if it wasn’t for him, I probably wouldn’t be out here because he’s the one
that got me into this.”
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