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Larry MacMillan – P.R.
February 11, 2007
David Steele Charges to 1st 2007 TBARA Win at Citrus
(Inverness, Fl. 2/10/07) Citrus County Speedway turned up the speed and
rocked the grandstands with the opening season race for the TBARA Winged
Sprint Cars and week two of the 2007 race for the championship point’s crown for
5 of the 8 regular weekly divisions Saturday night.
The TBARA racers traditionally open their new season at Citrus County
Speedway and this weekend they opened with a high speed 29 car field that saw
23 Florida drivers and 6 visitors from Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio down to run
during Speedweeks. Shane Butler, Doug Berryman out of Freemont, Ohio and
Larry J. Brazil Jr. out powered the field in the three qualifying heats. Ben Fritz
blitzed the field in the 13 car B Main to qualify the final 6 cars for the 24 car 30
lap Main.
When the green fell for the big one they put the hammer down and David Steele
and pole sitter Keith Butler ran side by side through turns one and two and then
Steele broke away while the rest of the field spent the rest of the evening chasing
Keith Butler in a race for second. Despite 5 caution flags no one had anything for
Steele who unofficially ran laps of 11.92, 11.94 and 11.96 seconds on the 3.8ths
mile oval. The fans had to hang on to their seats with the air circulation these
800 horse power rockets stirred up during their 30 lap main event.
When the checkers flew 16 of the 24 starters completed the 30 laps with Keith
Butler, just outrunning Shane Butler in the race for second and rounding out the
top five were Gary Gimmler and Troy DeCaire. Four cars finished 29 laps and
four cars ended the night with DNF’s. Steele confessed that he was using a
borrowed motor to even get into the race during the post race interview and
owner Lenny Puglio may just want to consider buying this one after the
performance that David put on.
Twenty three Sportsmen took the green flag in their 20 lap feature run and Tom
Posavec exercised patience from his 5th starting spot and moved through traffic
to take the point and set the pace right to the checkered flag for his first win of
the season. Arthur Conquest came from 13th to ride to the start finish line right
on Posavec’s rear bumper for a second place finish followed by Maloy Kelly who
had the early lead before Posavec took advantage of his push to the outside and
taking the lead away from him. Rounding out the top five were John Zuidema III
and Jim Altobelli. Altobelli was protested, torn down and was found to be legal.
Heat wins went to Posavec, Jeff Rook and Scott Hendrickson.
Twenty four cars went to war in the Pure Stock battle and again the winner was
decided in post race in section. Steve Stinedurf came off the outside pole and set
the pace from flag to flag while Bill Ryan drove his way from 17th to finish second
followed by 3rd starter Glen Colyer. Suspension modifications apparently got the
top three finishers in trouble in tech dropping Stinedurf, Ryan and Colyer right
out of the picture and Gary Johnson inherited the win over Jack Pate, Richard
Henick, Jesse Mullis and Mike Dubbs. Heat wins went to Victor Shahid and
Richard Henick by virtue of the D.Q’s and Mike Walsh took the win in the second
heat without any help from tech inspection.
It was a 20 car Mini Stock field that put on quite a show despite numerous caution
flags. Mike Curry looked like the man to beat coming off the pole to set the early
pace in their 20 lap main event. He looped it early in the race leaving the door
open for Clint Foley to move from his 5th starting spot to capture the win followed
by last week’s winner Steve Griffin who moved from 13th to hold out for second.
George Neumann locked down a third place finish from his 11th starting spot
followed by Johnathon Camp and Mark Powers. Heat wins went to Mike Curry,
Johnathon Camp and Phillip Joyner.
Again the top three in the 4 Cylinder Bomber feature ran into a very observant
Tech Inspector in post race inspection and lost their spots for suspension
illegalities. Jon Doucette, John DeGeorge and Donnie Guy lost their top three
finishing spots and left Jeff Eberly in Victory Lane for his first ever win. Travis
Hoefler came from the back of the 17 car pack to take second followed by Tim
Nocella, Patric Conner and Joshua Fairchild. Heat wins went to Fairchild and
Eberly.
Steve Hise made it two in a row in the Rookie V8 Thunder Stock feature from his
8th starting spot battling with Chad Markland right to the checkered flag.
Markland was D.Q.’d in tech and Jeff Eisenhower inherited the 2nd place finish.
John Brown made his first trip to the speedway payoff with a third place finish
followed by Eddie Rosasco and Ricky Shahid.
Next Saturday night will see the third week of the season with an 8 division race
card featuring the Open Wheel Modifieds, Sportsman, Mini Stocks, Street Stocks,
Pure Stocks, V8 Thunder Stocks, 4 Cylinder Bombers and the Wild and Fantastic
Figure 8’s in intersection action.
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