| Robbie Storer Takes Top Spot in FMSC At Citrus | By Rick Warren
No sign of Rain, the Pit Area packed with racecars, and warm weather. This was the scene Saturday night as the Florida Mini-Stock Challenge rolled into Citrus County Speedway for a 50 lap feature event. 28 Drivers signed in to take a shot at winning on the action packed track in Inverness Fl.
Robbie Storer, from Zephyrhills, set the fastest qualifying time in his Autoland sponsored entry, with a lap of 15.039 seconds. Floral City’s Chris Hooker was right behind with a time of 15.052 seconds, and Johnathon Camp of Beverly Hills took his Tim’s Tile entry to a lap of 15.057 seconds to nail down third spot in the qualifying results.
After the Draw for for inversion was held, the line up was set. The 34 of Kevin Harrod sat on the pole position, flanked by Storer on the outside. The second row was filled by Marty Neikens and Camp, followed by Chuck Frazier, Raymond Folwell, Robbie Yoakam, Jason Rendell, Kevin Macy and Chris Hooker finishing out the top ten starting positions.
As 28 cars lined up behind the Pace Truck for the warm up laps, it appeared to even the casual observer that we had the makings for a very exciting 50 green flag lap event. Indeed it did turn out to be an exciting night, and the race turned into a war of attrition.
Storer powered to the lead at the start of the race, with Harrod, Neikens, Camp, and Frazier right on his bumper. The first of many cautions came on lap 3, as the 41 car of Mark Moniz got turned around entering turn 3. At the same time the 70 of Neikens was stopped in turn 2 with mechanical difficulties. The 70 was able to enter the pit area, make repairs, and return to the race without losing any laps. The field came to the restart with Storer out front, followed by Harrod, Camp, Frazier, and Folwell in the top 5.
Lap 6 saw Storer pulling away from the dogfight behind him when a multi car crash took place on the back straight among those chasing the leader. At least 6 cars were involved either directly or spinning to avoid the crash. The 7 car of Clint Foley received the worst of it, having the left rear wheel torn from the car, ending his night.
The line up for the restart saw Storer on top, followed by Folwell, Rendell, Hooker, and Yoakam. As the racers came to the green for the restart, much of the field was showing body damage to varying degrees, but still anxious to race. Storer continued to hold his lead convincingly, but several cars were making their way thru traffic to try and get a shot at the leader.
Robbie Yoakam was making a big run thru the field in an attempt to try for the lead, however a broken trailing arm mount ended his night early. Chris Hooker was making some moves toward the front, but contact between Neikens and Hooker brought out the caution and relegated both cars to the rear for the restart. Shortly after the halfway mark, the 13 of Camp started to mount a charge, and was able to get by Folwell for second position.
Storer and Camp were both running for all they were worth, and it looked as if Camp might be helped out by the heavy lapped traffic that Storer was fighting his way through. As it turned out, lapped traffic was no kinder to Camp than it was to Storer, and as both cars cleared traffic, they appeared to be about equal, with Storer still maintaining a lead of several car lengths, but not pulling away. Lap 42 saw the last of many caution periods, and after two failed attempts at restarts, the race had to be ended on lap 42, due to time restrictons of the track curfew. Storer captured the win, leading every lap. Camp ran an excellent race to take second position, and Raymond Folwell finally was able to end a string of bad luck and take a strong third place finish.
After the top finishers cleared post race technical inspection, the race was declared official.
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