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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 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 points 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 DNFs. 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 Posavecs 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.Qs 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 weeks 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 8s in intersection action.
Citrus County Speedway Results 2/10/07 TBARA Winged Sprint Feature 24 Cars 30 Laps 1. #91 David Steele Tampa 2. #19 Keith Butler Riverview 3. #41 Shane Butler Riverview 1st Heat Winner 4. #29 Gary Gimmler Palm Beach 5. #68 Troy DeCaire Tampa 6. #51 Mark Gimmler Palm Beach Garden 7. #21B Larry J. Brazil, Jr. Tampa 3rd Heat Winner 8. #99 Cameron Dodson Greenfield, IN 9. #98F Kevin Feeney Oxford, MI 10.#66 Kipp Beard Tampa 11.#18 Stan Butler Bushnell 12.#21 Jim Alvis Seffner 13.# 0 Dude Teate Leesburg 14.#9x Michael Smith Brooksville 15.#55 Tommy Nichols Tampa 16.#47 Richard Waddell Hollywood -30 Laps 17.#14 Hank Lower Angola, IN 29 Laps 18.# 7 John Gilbert Jr. Tavernier 29 Laps 19.#39 Charlie Ladner Brandon 29 Laps 20.#5W Randy Woodall Plant City - 19 Laps 21.#88 Frank Neill Vickery, OH 18 Laps 22.#55R Doug Berryman Freemont, OH 7 Laps 2nd Heat Winner 23.#56 Ryan Myers Eaton, OH 1 Laps 24.#16 Ben Fritz Ocala 1 Lap B Main Winner Sportsman Feature 20 Laps - 23 Cars 1, #01 Tom Posavec 1st Season Feature Win 2. #78 Arthur Conquest 3. #92 Maloy Kelly 4. #47 John Zuidema III 5. #76 Jim Altobelli 1st Heat Winner - #01 Tom Posavec 2nd Heat Winner - #75 Jeff Rook 3rd Heat Winner - #03 Scott Hedrickson Mini Stock Feature 20 Laps 20 Cars 1. # 7 Clint Foley 1st Season Feature Win 2. # 3 Steve Griffin 3. # 1 George Neumann 4. #84 Johnathon Camp 5. #29 Mark Powers 1st Heat Winner - #19 Mike Curry 2nd Heat Winner - #84 Johnathon Camp 3rd Heat Winner - #86 Phillip Joyner Pure Stock Feature - 20 Laps 24 Cars 1. #40 Gary Johnson 1st Season Feature Win 2. #69 Jack Pate 3. #61 Richard Henick 4. #99 Jesse Mullis 5. #36 Mike Dubbs 1st Heat Winner - #8 Victor Shahid 2nd Heat Winner - #43 Mike Walsh 3rd Heat Winner - #61 Richard Henick 4 Cylinder Bomber Feature 20 Laps 17 Cars 1. #001 Jeff Eberly 1st Season Feature Win 2. #20 Travis Hoefler 3. #16 Tim Nocella 4. #444 Patric Conner 5. # 6 Joshua Fairchild 1st Heat Winner - #444 Patric Conner 2nd Heat Winner - #001 Jeff Eberly V8 Thunder Stock Feature 20 Laps 16 Cars 1. #42 Steve Hise 2nd Season Feature Win 2. #73 Jeff Eisenhower 3. #57 John Brown 4. #10 Eddie Rosasco 5. # 3 Ricky Shahid No Heats Run
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