Northpinellas: Grigsby wins 50-lap event at Sunshine

Does anybody remember who was the second man on the moon? Well, before the start of the 50-lap, CQ Auto & Injury Attorneys Figure 8 Championship on Saturday night at Sunshine Speedway, No. 15 Joey Catarelli of Pinellas Park -- third in season points -- made the surprising statement that his strategy was to stay on the bumper of No. 11 Art "The Master" Calkins. The St. Petersburg driver has won the class season title more times than there are bolts on a Buick.

Catarelli should have taken his own advice.

Calkins set the fast time in the first Figure 8 trials with a track record of 20.955 seconds on the 1/3-mile course. He topped that by drawing the low number and started on the pole. Catarelli was behind him in third.

At the end of Lap 1, Catarelli was right where he said he wanted to be -- in second behind Calkins. Everything continued on plan through 12 laps, until Catarelli made his move on Lap 13 and scooted ahead of Calkins. It didn't last long. Matt McGarr, No. 29, attempted to make a cross by going the opposite direction at the intersection -- hopefully between Catarelli and Calkins -- and smacked the back quarter panel of the No. 15 car.

Catarelli was forced to the pits.

For some reason, Calkins surrendered his reclaimed lead and headed to the pits, too. He returned before the race restarted, but at the back of the pack.

That put No. 89 Ron "Hollywood" Davis of Pinellas Park in first.

Davis knows a lot about second. In his 14 years of racing at Sunshine, he has finished the season as the runner-up six times.

"It seems like every year at this time, I'm leading the points," Davis said before the race, then shook his head. "I don't know what happens."

However, he did win the same big race a year ago after starting second from last, so his prospects looked pretty good. Just behind him Saturday was the No. 28 of Shane Grigsby of Pinellas Park.

Davis and Grigsby ran relatively clean, bumper-to-bumper until Lap 39, when Davis went high -- possibly with a little help from No. 28 -- on Turn 1, which is the same as Turn 4 on the oval course.

Grigsby went low and took the lead. Halfway through the lap, Grigsby was blocked by a lapped car, and Davis took over.

On Lap 40, the same thing happened in Turn 1, and Grigsby captured the lead again. Davis fell to second. On the last lap, No. 17 Bobby "Zeebo" Moctezuma of Largo unsuccessfully attempted to thread the needle between Davis and No. 31 Donnie Thomas of Pinellas Park.

With his car severely disabled, Davis crossed the finish line, gushing water and steam in sixth place.

"He's got one coming, and you can quote me on that," Davis said after the event. "Not what happened at the intersection; that's just Figure 8 racing. Shane was pushing me up to the wall."

"There was oil on the track (at Turn 1)," Grigsby said. "Ron gave me one h--- of a run."

Despite his success, Grigsby said this will be his last season of competing on a weekly basis.

"Running for points is too much of a hassle," he said. "I need to spend more time with my wife, Barbie, and our kids, James, Brandon and Lindsey.

"I want to thank them and Jim "Crowbar", (who uses no last name in racing circles) for working with me on the car every night," Grigsby said.

Thomas placed second, No. 21 J.R. Meyer of Pinellas Park was third, Calkins worked his way back to fourth and No. 3 Cliff Rousseau of St. Petersburg was fifth.

NOTES: Chris Robbins, No. 88, of Indian Rocks Beach has recovered from his second open-heart surgery a few months ago and returned to racing Aug. 25 in the Open Wheel Modified division.

Saturday night, Robbins started on the pole in his heat race and won.

"Not bad for an old guy," Robbins said. In the Modified feature, No. 51 Mike Hinegardner of Seminole held off No. 3 Tony Meeham of Tampa for the victory.

Ron Campbell, No. 5, of St. Petersburg finished third, which was enough to move him into 10th place in the season points standings. He replaced No. 66 John Moore of Lutz.

In Open Wheel Modifieds, No. 2 Robert Crisp of Clearwater returned to the Winner's Circle with a victory over points leader No. 56 Robby McAuliffe of Pinellas Park.

Tim Henault, No. 69, of Safety Harbor, who is second in points, took third in the feature.

St. Petersburg's Marty Neikens, No. 70, leapfrogged in the Mini Stock season points after winning the feature.

Neikens finished ahead of points front-runner Catarelli, who continues to lead by a large margin, and No. 10 Mike Birk Jr.

As a result, Neikens moved from fourth to second in the standings. Tom Zimmerman, No. 55, of Largo dropped to fourth. Tampa's Dennis Valdez, No. 40, remains in third.

Street Stock points leader Roger Welch, No. 98, of St. Petersburg guaranteed his place on top of the points battle with a win over No. 77 Brian Rogers of Tampa and No. 8 Chris Escott.

In the 15-lap Hornets feature, No. 5 Kevin Felenhauer was tops.

He was followed by No. 85 Steve Sorenson, No. 71 Derek Molloy, No. 13 D.J. Clark, and No. 23 Jesse Schwendeman.

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