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INVERNESS - In September, Rex Struble pulled off the rarest of feats at Citrus County Speedway, capturing the title in two division events to become a double feature winner. Saturday night, the Homosassa driver again was king of the hill, snaring a victory in the Sportsman and Late Model features.
By LOGAN NEILL
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 23, 2001
INVERNESS -- In September, Rex Struble pulled off the rarest of feats at Citrus County Speedway, capturing the title in two division events to become a double feature winner. Saturday night, the Homosassa driver again was king of the hill, snaring a victory in the Sportsman and Late Model features.
For Struble, it was a dramatic turnaround to a season that has seen more than its share of woes. Despite five earlier Sportsman wins, his normally trusty Hernando Oil/Struble Trucking Co. No. 69 had been struggling to finish races throughout October.
As the DNFs mounted, he continued to lose ground in the points hunt, eventually falling to third behind rookie Chris Hooker.
On Saturday, Struble managed to regain much of the lost ground by posting a heat win and outrunning points leader Mike Veltman to the checkered flag to claim the 20-lap feature.
Struble then hopped into the No. 3 machine he drives for Glen Webster Racing to join the 15-car Late Model field.
The flag-to-flag victory over Billy Bechtelheimer was Struble's second division win of the season, enabling him to move within 13 points of Jim Smith, who's 10th in the division.
LATE MODEL: Bechtelheimer, who has posted three top-five finishes in as many weeks, moved past Dale Sanders into second place in the points race. Bechtelheimer is 53 points behind division leader Herb Neumann Jr.
STREET STOCK: Defending champion Wes Wilson posted his first victory of the season by holding off a late charge from James Green Jr.
Wilson, who took several months off from racing, was substituting for Dean Lawyer.