by BJ Cavin

Mother Nature has not been kind to Ocala Speedway lately. On Friday, September 21st, a heavy thunderstorm that blew in from out of nowhere ended the night before feature races could begin. Then this Friday, September 28th, nature took another shot at racing as more rain fell on the speedway.

On a night where the track was attempting to make up two feature races lost to a rainout the previous week, plus the fact that the Stars Pro Trucks had traveled in to race, no one was giving in when rain twice interrupted things. Despite two lengthy rain delays and a problem with the lights that could have emptied the grandstands at many tracks, a solid group of fans waited out the delays and saw some very competitive and exciting racing.

Part of the night’s program were make up features from the previous week when thunder and lightning sent everyone home. The grid was set by the heat races and pill draw on the 21st, and most of those racers were back and ready for action. The V8 Pure Stock division got first dibs on the track for their make up race with James Erickson on the pole. Erickson never relinquished the lead, going 20 laps, green to checkers, for the win. Bobby Taylor was in the mix until he spun on lap 7, with other cars also spinning out as they tried to avoid collisions. That spin took Taylor out of contention and opened the door for some other drivers to move up. While Erickson got the win, Mike Smith and Jim Kruse finished out the top three.

Next to make up for last week’s weather were the V8 Thunder Stocks, Ocala Speedway’s rookie division. Brian Brogan who was only in his third feature race led the cars to the green flag from the pole, but Donnie Buckner overtook him on the third lap of the race. Buckner obviously had the car to beat and took the win, while Brogan was forced to settle for second. 14 year old Guy Bacelo Jr. had another fine showing as he raced to the third place spot.

Regularly scheduled feature races began with the V8 Pure Stocks again, this time with Eric Gellman on the pole. Gellman led from flag to flag and proved himself too tough to tame for everyone but the tech man, but was found wrong in the post race inspection and earned a DQ for the night. That promoted second place finisher Bobby Taylor to the winner’s spot for the race, with Larry Welter Sr in second and Mike Veltman in third place. James Erickson and Matt Schell proved they had fast cars by racing from deep in the field toward the front, but falling just short of the top three in the end.

Justyn Elwood earned the pole for the 4 Cylinder Stock feature race, but his cousin, Brandon Elwood, took the lead from him before the first two laps were completed. Later in the race a track incident would relegate Justyn to the rear, and he managed to salvage a 5th place finish from there. Meanwhile it was Brandon who stole the show, fighting off John Layerd to take the win. Melissa Hunley returned this week and raced to a third place finish. Two former division champions were not so lucky on the night. Richard Kuhn fought hard but could not get his car to run up front, while defending 4 Cylinder champion Justin Durbin was back in his familiar orange number 12, but only managed a 4th place finish.

Pete Close has dominated the Street Stock Division this season at Ocala Speedway, and this week he added another trophy to the vast collection of hardware filling his home. Jeff Stalnaker Jr led the field to the green flag but was overtaken by Close on just the second lap. Brent Cooper has fought hard to make his street stock run up front and he also blasted past Stalnaker to earn a second place finish, while Stalnaker wound up finishing third. Shelby Mather was having a strong night running as high as 3rd place until something went wrong late in the race, ending his night. David Foster and Carl Carr rounded out the top five finishers, as both raced from deep in the field and stayed out of trouble along the way.

The next race on the schedule was courtesy of the Stars Pro Truck Series, as their young guns division took to the track for a 20 lap feature race. Lance Daubach was on the pole and managed to race to a win, but Chase Hoffman harassed him from flag to flag to make it a tough challenge for him. After the race Daubach acknowledged Hoffman for his tough racing in his post race interview and was happy with the win. Matt Cohen raced his truck to a third place finish.

The Sportsman division had an interesting night thanks to the weather, as two attempts to run their heat races were interrupted before they could begin. As the cars for the first Sportsman heat race went onto the track, and Mother Nature dumped a shower on them and caused the longest delay of the night while the track was dried. Then as the track drying continued an electrical failure caused the front stretch lights to go out. Track officials finally conceded the Sportsman heat races to the weather and gremlins and the field was set via the pill draw in order to save time. That put the 61 car of Eric Sauer on the pole and rooted some strong contenders further back in the pack, which in the end created a very competitive and exciting race. William Edwards would earn a well deserved win while Sauer would settle for second place. Tim Shull was again very competitive and worked his way to the third place spot. Patrick Mennenga returned and fought to a fourth place finish, and Don Milam again looked strong as he rounded out the top five.

Thanks to the rain delays it was getting late when the Stars Pro Trucks hit the track for their feature race, and that race was voluntarily shortened from 50 laps to 35 in order to save some time. John Kidwell is no stranger to Ocala Speedway’s odd layout, and he proved it by earning the pole with a fast qualifying time of 15.860. Kidwell dominated the race, but had to fight off a hard charging Barry Bartlett in order to get the win. Bartlett kept the heat on Kidwell for the entire race but was never able to make the pass that would give him the lead. And while those two battled for first and second, a few other trucks mixed it up behind them in the top five. Jason Vail had his truck in the top five for awhile before he committed a mistake that sent him to the rear. Andy Megronigle has seen some success at Ocala Speedway before and was also very strong, running in the top three, but dropped out with mechanical issues midway through the race. Kidwell got the win while Bartlett finished second. Mike Powers turned up the heat in the final laps to race to the third place spot while James Green had handling problems that left him fourth. Rounding out the top five was Michael Cenzi, another truck racer who knows Ocala Speedway well.

The final feature of the night fell to the V8 Thunder Stocks, who ran their regularly scheduled race for the evening. Steve Young led the field to the green flag but quickly ran into problems and lost his lead to a hard charging Guy Bacelo Jr. Bacelo never looked back, and the 14 year old fought off Donnie Buckner to earn the feature win. Brian Brogan again proved that he is a strong racer despite his lack of seat time, finishing solidly in third place as Shawn Bailey and Steve Young rounded out the top five.

Next week Ocala Speedway welcomes “Ford of Ocala Night” with a huge, 50 lap, $1000 to win, V8 Pure Stock race. The big race will feature NASCAR styled driver intros, plus there will be giveways running throughout the night beginning when the grandstands open at 5 PM. In addition to racing, all of the new 2008 F-Series trucks will be on display for the fans to see along with many 2008 Ford automobiles.

Ocala Speedway Results for 9/28/07

Stars Pro Trucks

1- 7NY John Kidwell
2- 71 Barry Bartlett
3- 05 Mike Powers
4- 53 James Green
5- 92 Michael Cenzi
6- 7T Bill Hoffman
7- 407 Jason Vail
8- 18 Dustin Henderson
9- 33 Casey Caudill

Stars Pro Trucks Young Guns

1- 77 Lance Daubach
2- 7T- Chase Hoffman
3- 46- Matt Cohen
4- 55- Jonathan Fortin

V8 Pure Stock (make up race from 9/21 rainout)

1- 66 James Erickson
2- 69 Mike Smith
3- 82 Jim Kruse
4- 28 Don Welter
5- 85 Larry Welter Sr.
6- 57 Matt Schell
7- 127 Bobby Taylor
8- 67 Josh Brown
9- 96 Bruce Pernitza
10- 14 James Sullivan
11- 63 Bill Thomas
12- 3D Jessie Corbett

V8 Thunder Stock (make up race from 9/21 rainout)

1- 98 Donnie Buckner
2- 63 Brian Brogan
3- 25 Guy Bacelo Jr.
4- 196 Jason Henry

V8 Pure Stock

1- 127 Bobby Taylor
2- 85 Larry Welter Sr.
3- 63V Mike Veltman
4- 66 James Erickson
5- 57 Matt Schell
6- 69 Mike Smith
7- 3D Jessie Corbett
8- 00 Brandon Elwood
9- 14 James Sullivan
10- 28 Don Welter
11- 96 Bruce Pernitza
12- 67 Josh Brown
13- 07 Scotty Anderson
14- 22 Kenny Thornton
15- 82 Jim Kruse
DQ (tech) 53 Eric Gellman
DNS- 63T Bill Thomas
DNS- 60 Greg Young

4 Cylinder Stock

1- 28 Brandon Elwood
2- 02 John Layerd
3- 18 Melissa Hunley
4- 12 Justin Durbin
5- 17 Justyn Elwood
6- 46 Shawn Evans
7- 75 Dan Kerr
8- 8 Pete Nelson
9- 06 Karl Born
10- 47 Richard Kuhn
11- 23 John Hagen
12- 43 Mike Taylor

Street Stock

1- 86 Pete Close Jr.
2- 97 Brent Cooper
3- 10 Jeff Stalnaker Jr.
4- 4 David Foster
5- 09 Carl Carr
6- 14 John Buzinec
7- 39 Rick Bass
8- 91 Hall Robertson
9- 6 Leonard Arnold
10- 00 James Sealy
11- 12G Steve Grindstaff
12- 12 Neal Durbin
13- 17 Shelby Mather
14- 71 Mark Mitchell
15- 8 Mike Stalnaker

Sportsman

1- 08 William Edwards
2- 61E Eric Sauers
3- 8 Tim Shull
4- 16 Patrick Mennenga
5- 69 Don Milam
6- 76 Jim Higginbotham
7- 61W William Stalnaker
8- 39 Rick Bass
9- 02 Mike Bates
10- 121 Gordon Cade
11- 42 Gary Miller
12- 29 Leroy Donaldson
13- 32 Shelton Bowers
14- 38 Todd Kelly
15- 3 Harold Barup
DNS- 9 Michael Mennenga

V8 Thunder Stock

1- 25 Guy Bacelo Jr.
2- 98 Donnie Buckner
3- 63 Brian Brogan
4- 07 Shawn Bailey
5- 27 Steve Young
DNS- 8 Donald Altiere
DNS- 69 Doug Morgan
DNS- 196 Jason Henry

Next Week: Ford of Ocala Night, featuring the 2008 F- Series Trucks
50 lap/$1000 to win V8 Pure Stock Race