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By BOB BOYLE
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 26, 2001
Outlaw Late Model drivers will have to wait another two months before they get their place on center stage.
The class' 50-lap championship race at Sunshine Speedway was washed out Saturday night.
That's not necessarily a bad thing.
The division is new and, so far, only 13 cars are registered. In addition, the most that have raced on any single night this season is 11. By Aug. 25, when the championship event has been rescheduled, more of the drivers who have their cars under construction should be ready to run. Next week, the Tampa Bay Area Racing Association's Winged Sprints are the featured attraction at Sunshine. It will be the Sprints' second visit to the track this year. The first event, on March 31, was rained out and rescheduled.
With no local racing, it is a good time to take a look at season points, which are beginning to shape up at the half-way mark.
Starting with the top dogs, the Open Wheel Modifieds, No. 80 Jimmy Houle of Pinellas Park has earned the largest points lead of anyone in any class at Sunshine.
Houle's 46-point advantage is the equivalent of winning a feature, 40 points, and coming in first in a heat race, six points.
Houle could miss an entire night of competition and do no worse than be tied with No. 56 Allyn Summers of Odessa. Summers has a handy 506-472 lead over No. 66 John Moore of Lutz. After that, the spread widens.
Others in the top 10 in order are: No. 13 Mike "Captain America" Leacock of Seminole, No. 28 Phil Kessler of Brooksville, No. 8 Randy Rhodes of Seminole, No. 00 Pat Grimes of Largo, No. 7 Darren Jackson of Lakeland, No. 09 Steve Harbuck of Largo and No. 55 Herman Brame of Pinellas Park.
Ron "Hollywood" Davis of Pinellas Park, No. 89, probably has set some sort of record for finishing second in points in the Figure 8 division. His biggest problem has been No. 11 Art "The Master" Calkins of St. Petebsburg, who has won the crown more than anyone.
This year, Calkins has become semi-retired and takes time off from racing whenever the need or mood strikes him. Still, even without a serious effort, he is sixth in points.
Davis has a new problem this season -- No. 28 Shane Grigsby of Pinellas Park.
Grigsby won't go away, and Davis can't shake him. Davis leads Grigsby by only 18 points. One misstep, such as an early crash and finishing in the back, and Grigsby will snatch Davis' glory.
Unlike Modifieds, the top 10 in Figure 8s are close. The others are No. 15 Joey Catarelli, No. 21 J.R. Meyer, No. 40 Mark Thomas and No. 31 Donnie Thomas, all of Pinellas Park; No. 59 Jack Boswell of Clearwater, No. 20 Cliff Rousseau and No. 7 Wayne Calkins, both of St. Petersburg.
In Mini Stocks, the top three are close. Tom Zimmerman, No. 55, of Largo has a 19-point lead over No. 70 Marty Neikens of St. Petersburg, who has only a three-point edge over No. 65 Catarelli.
Others in the top 10 are No. 40 Dennis Valdez of Tampa, No. 33 Eric Cuchta of Largo, No. 3 Matt Rotkis of St. Petersburg, No. 10 Mike Birk Jr. of Pinellas Park, No. 32 Troy Meredith of Pinellas Park, No. 41 Mark Moniz of St. Petersburg and No. 16 Glenn Kelley of New Port Richey.
Street Stocks, which were promoted from Enduros last season, has been a see-saw battle, but No. 27 Harold Ashley is at the top of the heap at the moment. The Gulfport driver has a 12-point lead over No. 98 Roger Welch of St. Petersburg.
Just 16 points behind Welch is No. 1 Dan Rieger of St. Petersburg, who was atop the points for much of the season until he failed to qualify on a double-points night. Rieger is only nine ahead of No. 22 Mike Hill of St. Petersburg.
The remaining six in the top 10 have a long way to go to reach the front-runners. They are No. 24 Dave Cleary of St. Petersburg, No. 12 Jay Coleman of Palm Harbor, No. 77 Brian Rogers of Tampa, No. 18 Larry Brannon of Seminole, No. 61 Dave Ochsenwald, another former points leader from St. Petersburg, and No. 82 Jimmy Kruse of St. Petersburg.
Two Pinellas Park drivers are battling for the lead in Outlaws -- No. 6 Ed Kidd and No. 56 Robby McAuliffe. Kidd has only a five-point advantage over McAuliffe, who has only 15 points over No. 77 Rick Haugh of St. Petersburg.
Tim Henault, No. 69, of Safety Harbor is only seven behind Haugh and 30 ahead of No. 2 Robert Crisp of Clearwater -- an early points leader who has been coming back strong and won the feature the previous two weeks.
The other five top-10 Outlaws are No. 1 Scott Holley of Dunedin, No. 20 Steve Lone of Clearwater, No. 7 Troy Johnson of Pinellas Park, No. 85 Jimmy Billera of St. Petersburg and No. 112 Corky Craver of Pinellas Park.
Barring serious injury or illness or a divine intervention, No. 5 Brian Leverock of Seminole or No. 15 Dwayne Dempsey of St. Petersburg will win the Super Late Model Series Championship and the $5,000 bonus. Probably, that is. Nobody else will get anything.
With four of the seven races out of the way, Leverock owns a six-point lead over Dempsey. The last Late Model race of the season, the 100-lap Dayton Andrews Dodge/Leo Musgrave Memorial, will count for double points.
Others in the top 10 are No. 82 Den Neighbor Jr. of Clearwater, No. 22 Sam Coghill of Largo, No. 21 Duane Haines of Seminole, No. 0 Mason Love of Seminole, No. 2 Wayne Bowman of Clearwater, No. 3 Bobby Baldwin of Oldsmar, No. 25 Tom Chambers of Seminole and No. 11 Jimmy Thompson of Pinellas Park.