Completely Unofficial 10/31 Citrus County Recap

The Overview:
Citrus County is back! It does not appear to be a shoestring operation but a fully functioning Racetrack.

Complainer’s Corner:
>The Show-- “Started” at 5:30 with the afternoon sun-ball in the spectator’s eyes, as usual–but hey, that’s Citrus. We got to look at the near empty and nicer grandstands on the backstretch–that were in the shade.

The first race did not run until 6:30. They ran Features only, and qualifying in between. As usual, qualifying is boring as watching paint dry. Run it early, or draw, or…we really do not care, but qualifying is a waste of one’s life, from a fan’s perspective.

There were five features run, I only stayed for four, and left at 10:30–yes, race fans, that is four races in five hours. The officials like officiatin’, but I can assure you, the mood ranged from apathy to upset in the stands.

>The Chow–I intentionally drove past the fast food places to support the track. If you want to support the track, do the same. Otherwise…

>The Restarts–They ran “Delaware” style restarts. That is, the leader was out front and the rest of the field was two wide behind him. Some like this type of restart. I am not one of them.

The Racing:
Pretty darn good. Citrus has unusual banking coming out of four that pitches the cars toward the front stretch wall. Repeatedly in both the Street Stock and Mini classes the leader would have the second place guy get under him, they would race side by side for laps, and eventually the second place guy would take the point. Unbelievably, the new leader would then go high, and the new second place guy would get under him, and…repeat. Over and over again. It made for exciting, if restrictor plate type racing.
Open suggestion: If you are in front, protect the bottom. The high side is a long way around.

It is my understanding that Wayne Anderson has largely retired to let his sons, Ricky and Randy, take the wheel. They looked good, and looked like they were trying to bring the cars home in one piece, which they did in second and third.

The Winners:
Tommy Schnader in Late Models, Paul Fletcher in Street Stocks, Chris Allen in the mod-minis, and Anthony LaPoint in the mini stocks. All were well deserving winners.

Scary Stuff on Halloween:
Curtis Flanagan had the street stock field covered in his good looking #3 Camaro, until his throttle apparently stuck, and he hit the turn one (ramp shaped) concrete barricades and barrel rolled out of the joint. He seemed okay, the car, no doubt, not so much. A poured wall in one and two would be much safer…

Great Stuff on Halloween:
Dora Thorne gave one of her trophies to her “biggest fan”, and it brought the young lady to tears. Big props to Dora!

Old school

The # 3 of flannigan actually broke a rod when he lifted…that was scary. I really dont like jersey barriers as a retaining wall. A few years back there was no wall at all.

Dora is a long time racer at the track and yes that was a classy move

And congrats to Schnader. Those anderson boys have the best of the best. Although they drove him clean he drove a good race and really powered out of corners. I am a little biast because we share a shop together.

He broke a…connecting rod??

Certainly not questioning you, but man is that hard to believe.

No visible oil on the track, and no clean up. There were two long black marks all the way to the launch site. I assumed they were from front wheels sliding.

And he did not appear to scrub much speed off prior to the launch, either.

Is the car done?

just talked to Curtis [3 ss] he’s a little sore throttle hung car is junk glad he’s ok

The barriers were put up when they were getting quite a few cars parking in the area off turns one & two and having no wall became a safety factor… Also, a Legend Car went off there at the start of a race and hit a golf cart that was shuttling popcorn from the front concession to the back concession… Nobody got hurt but some perfectly good popcorn was ruined…

Indeed, the barriers are better than nothing.

But clearly there is still improvement to be made.

Am guessing Curtis isn’t in the mood for popcorn right about now. Am hoping the aches and pains go away soon.