100 Lap MM race!

[flvideo]

Well its been a long time since I've seen so many Mini Stocks in the same place.
They drew 37 cars and started 34 I think. That was probably too many for Citrus. They had a lot of Cautions, cars stacked up on top of each other.
It was a shame they cut the race short. I feel a lot of fast cars were just trying to stay out of trouble. They thought they had plenty of laps to get to the front. Yokums #8 for one would have pushed a little harder if he'd known about the shortened race. he finished 3rd I think. Lawhorn in the #44 took the lead in lap 1 and held it to the end. He was a happy camper in the winners circle. The #32 of smith was a hot contender for the lead. He went on the outside of Lawhorn several times. When he would get what looked like a run on the lead another caution would come out. One thing the cautions did was to keep the leaders out of lapped traffic. The race was pretty good as it was from a spectators standpoint, but if we had been able to finish it there would have been some fierce competition. Bob...

[ancrdave]

Why in the world would you start 34 cars at a small track like Citrus?? All you are asking for is yellow after yellow... How about this: Dump the boring qualifying, run three heats and a consy to set a 24 car field... Get rid of the squirrels and junk before the big race so you can actually run 100 laps... As a fan, I probably would have felt a bit cheated at seeing only half a race...

[flvideo]

Yes Dave I would have too. They had 6 other classes and they ran heats in 5 of them. They had a introduction on the front straight and they didn't have the cars lined up right and it was a mess. Their wireless didn't work so they introduced them from up top. I tried to tape it to get all the drivers on in the beginning of my video, but it was so disorganized I quite taping it. I agree with you if they would have had 3 less support classes and Heats and a consi, every one, fans and drivers would have left happy. It was a learning experience. I think there is going to be more as the year goes on. There were several cars that haven't raced in quite a while. They brought them out of the moth balls to race this event. Bob...

[mocha2@dishmail.net]

As a fan I did feel cheated.The track wasted way too much time.I feel bad for the drivers and owners that supported the race.I bet there wasn't even 20 laps of green flag racing.

[flvideo]

Yeah Mocha I feel bad for Jim Curry too. He put his all into that race and got cut off. He has, I think, chalked it up to experience. Next time maybe there will only be 2 or 3 support classes, and we can have less cars in the feature. Have heats and a consi so even the people that don't make the feature will get to race a heat and a consi. That would go a long way toward making the drivers and fans happy. They all go home thinking they got their moneys worth. Bob...

[USAMedia]

Video Clips

Three short clips courtesy FLORIDA VIDEO of the racing action at Citrus County Speedway Saturday night featuring the Mini Stock 100 can be seen AT THIS LINK!

These video clips have been made available by Bob Culbertson from the raw footage. Bob will have DVD's available later in the week.

We will add a few more clips in a day or two.

There is a photo gallery from the race HERE!

And Bob Wing's photos (Bob is now the Official Photographer at Citrus) are HERE!

[mocha2@dishmail.net]

Yeah Mocha I feel bad for Jim Curry too. He put his all into that race and got cut off. He has, I think, chalked it up to experience. Next time maybe there will only be 2 or 3 support classes, and we can have less cars in the feature. Have heats and a consi so even the people that don't make the feature will get to race a heat and a consi. That would go a long way toward making the drivers and fans happy. They all go home thinking they got their moneys worth. Bob...

Yeah,Bob like I said in another thread I felt bad for Jim Curry the most because he stepped up to do something for the mini class.I hope he will consider doing it again because I am sure his efforts were appreciated and the reasons the race was shortened were not his fault.The thing that perplexed me the most was having a drivers meeting after time trials which led to a 30 minute delay.In all the races I have been to over the years the drivers meeting was usually held before the races.Oh well hopefully some lessons were learned.Thanks again Mr. Curry I hope you will consider doing it again in the future.

[AJ14]

Nice photos Mr.Wing .

[dnsno]

last nights IFR

I liked Mr. Green's rant and venting.....made since.

[Benny The Mule]

I would like to add to this conversation but i wasn't there.

I'll start with two questions.

1) How long were the ministocks on the track?

2) How many cautions did they have?

What is referred to on this thread as support divisions are the guys there weekly racing for little money and bring sometimes 10 plus people in the pits with them. They DO support the track.

They should be cast aside for a ministock race?

Remember, these are ministocks.........not a national touring series.

[AJ14]

Its been mentioned many times before , and by far smarter people than myself , but here it is again . Every track owner , every promoter , and if possible every track official ( in rotation ) should sit in the stands and watch a FULL race night , from qualifying right through to the last lap of the last race for the night . Not wandering around talking , not going back to the office or to the tower to sit in the AC , but planted right in their seats just like the average fan is . The fans are stuck there , you should be too . I'm telling you , the show looks much different from the average fans' perspective than it does from the tower . And while the oficials are usually right in the middle of everything , that view isn't what the fan gets . The fans sit in one place , on fairly uncomfortable seats for 4 or 5 hours , occaisionally getting to stretch their legs , not being able to hear half of what the announcer says , and constantly wondering why the long delay in the show . Why does it take so long to clean up after a wreck ? Why didn't someone think to have the drivers meeting before the races , even before qualifying , to keep the show moving ? Why did they run all of the weekly classes first , i have to get to bed for work in the morning ? Why are there so many classes scheduled on one night ? Go through exactly what the fans do , and i guarantee you will make changes in how you run your shows .

[Winger]

There have been some constructive remarks about this race. I hope the track listens and I'm sure they will. One thing that would speed the shows up tremendously would be the use of raceceivers. Too much time was spent trying to line the cars up after every caution. I know it's a little additional expense but the drivers would have more racing and the fans would see more racing. The tracks that use them have very efficient shows. JMO
BTW, thanks for the compliment on the pictures. I have several hundred more to go through and post. Just had to check out this board first.

[flvideo]

Hey Benny, I was hired to video tape the race at Citrus. They had the drivers meeting after Qualifying, but they ran heats for each support class of which there was 5. They had the figure eights but didn't run heats. I heard the announcer say that the Mod Minis were alloted 1hour and 5 minutes to run 100 laps. I didn't time it but I think they included the time the cars were re-fueling after 50 laps. There were a bunch of cautions. I didn't count them but we would seem to get 1 lap in and another caution. Each time there was a caution it seemed to take forever to line them back up. They counted the cautions in the first 50laps and as they were lined up they were running around the track clicking off laps as they lined up. Another problem was starting so many cars on a 1/4 mile track. They were on top of each other.As some one said above, "they aren't a traveling Late Model series they are only MINI Stocks" Well this race was the premire show for 4/11 and I think should have been treated as such. They had a way too many classes to run a 100 lap race and have all those classes running too. This was an effort to revive the Mod Mini racing and they did a good job. I know of 4 of those cars that haven't raced in several years and came out for this show.
I would be suprised if they ran more than30 green flag laps. Bob....

[Benny The Mule]

Thanks Bob, sounds like too much on 1 plate. 1 hour should have been enough but the re-fuel may have thrown that off.

AJ.......ministocks ARE a weekly division.

Nothing against them, all divisions should have a special from time to time.

Big pat on the back for Curry making something like this come together for drivers. i don't know if i'd feel bad for him....he made a lot of cars come out which i think makes it a success.

I guess too much in too little time...........maybe a 50 lapper next time?

[ancrdave]

Raceivers are required at Volusia and do they ever speed up the show... Every track should use them... It's a great safety item too...