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A tradition of gut-level racing and an air of fan friendliness has kept Citrus County Speedway going for the past 45 years.
By LOGAN NEILL
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 4, 2000
On the eastern edge of Inverness, where the bright white lights of Citrus County Speedway punch a hole in the night sky, is where you can find Peg Scholler nearly every Saturday from March through November.
From her perch 14 rows up in an ancient wooden grandstand, she and her husband, Al, have a commanding view of the quarter-mile asphalt oval where they keep close vigil on their racing heroes.
Peg has several favorites, including Late Model veteran Danny Johnson, for whom she plants an orange hand-sewn flag that bears his name and car number.
Johnson, who won the Late Model division last season, is one of the track's top drivers. But this night won't be a good one for Johnson and his No. 96 machine. Halfway through the 35-lap feature, he is taken out in a grinding crash with another competitor. All of which prompts his rooter at the top of the bleachers to throw her hands up in anger and frustration.
"They've been trying to run him off the track all year," Peg says later. "It's just not fair. He drives clean, but some of these guys are just plain idiots."
Yet, despite such crushing disappointment Peg and her husband will still make the 30-mile trek from their Spring Hill home the following week, just as they have for the past eight racing seasons.
"To me, nothing is as exciting as what you get to watch here," says Al Scholler. "This is about as gut level as racing gets."
That tradition of gut-level racing, along with an unmistakable air of fan friendliness has kept Citrus County Speedway going for the past 45 years. Located adjacent to the county fairgrounds, it is the weekly meeting place for retirees, teenagers and toddlers, all of whom share a love for speed.
As the grandstands begin to fill for the six classes of races that run every Saturday evening, the air swirls with the curiously sweet aroma of popcorn, barbecue and burning rubber. Fans too, mix just as casually. Gearheads with grease-stained hands chat amicably with cross-stitching grandmothers. Teenage girls primp while boys dressed in baggy jeans stroll past. A small group of children sets up a miniature toy car race track on an vacant area of the concrete walkway.
As the action heats up on the asphalt, cheers rise for the drivers who have become giants in this tiny racing realm. Names such as Wilson, Hooker, Neumann and Goff are all part of the lore that the track has enjoyed over the past four decades.
"Some fans have followed some of these guys for years" says Crystal River resident Bob Talmon, who has been coming to the track for the past 28 years. "It's like coming and watching a member of your family out there."
Marlene Gordon, who has been collecting tickets at the front gate since 1991, has come to know well many of the 1,200 or so fans who pass through the gates. She is viewed as something of an ambassador for the venue that bills itself as the "friendliest track in the south", greeting fans with cheery smiles.
"The staff really works hard at spreading good will toward the fans," she says. "There aren't that many activities around here that are fun and affordable for families, so you want to make sure that people have a good time and that they will want to come back again."
With attendance at Citrus on the rise this season, Gordon says the speedway appears to be bucking the downward trend of local short track racing in recent years, which has happened despite the booming popularity of NASCAR stock car racing.
"Our fans like the fact that what they are seeing is more real than what is shown every week on TV," she said. "This is the heart of what NASCAR is, just not as much glamour."
Indeed, most of today's most celebrated NASCAR stars began their racing careers in low-budget weekend efforts that netted at best a $100 winner's purse.
Over the past few years, as NASCAR grew in popularity, interest in short track racing began to diminish. Hundreds of small tracks around the country went belly up, while those that have remained have struggled to fill the stands each week.
But the charm of short track racing seems to continue to hold on, particularly in rural communities where family entertainment is harder to come by.
Which is why Delores Tibbets and her husband, Gary, still come out nearly every week from March through November. For Delores, the track still retains much of the flavor it had when she was a youngster. She remembers playing with other children behind the bleachers on the track's fourth turn, the same place where she and her husband often sit along with their 4-year-old grandson Cody.
"He really gets excited when I tell him we're coming," she says as she watches Cody pointing to the speeding racers going past. The first time she brought him, Delores thought the noise might frighten the child. However, those fears quickly vanished.
"That's a little boy for you; the louder it gets the more he seems to like it," she said.
Tibbets enjoys watching the races, but she also comes to see old friends who still come out the the track occasionally.
"A lot of us used to be part of a cheering section that would jump and scream every time our favorite drivers would come by," recalls Tibbets. "It's still fun, but I don't scream like that anymore. I guess you become more subdued as you get older."
Homosassa resident Ray Lindsey feels that many race fans are returning to the roots of stock car racing because of the impersonal nature and high costs of going to larger professional race events.
"Fans enjoy being more personally connected to racing," says Lindsey, who attends the speedway each week with his wife Nancy and daughters Michelle, 15 and Brittany, 10. "That's hard to do at a place like Daytona, where there are hundreds of thousands of people. Here, the action is right in front of you. I don't think you can really get the same feeling at a big race track.
All told, a typical night at the track, which includes admission, snacks and an occasional souvenir, runs about $60 for the Lindseys. Not bad, Ray figures, saying, "You can easily spend that much at the movies these days."
Although Ray and Nancy both have a long-standing enjoyment for the sport, they began regularly attending races at the speedway about two years ago. They admit that they are a bit surprised that their daughters have grown to be big fans.
Last season, Michelle and Brittany struck up a friendship with Late Model driver Mike Bresnahan, who extended an invitation for them and their parents to come back to visit him in the pits at the end of the night.
Bresnahan, so taken by the girls's admiration, gave them the winning trophy he earned that night.
Needless to say, they have been die-hard followers ever since.
"He's so cute," offered Brittany, who has adorned her room at home with pictures and mementos of the driver.
"He's the reason I like coming every week."
Pleasing the fans is what racing is all about, says Sport Wilson, a veteran driver from Floral City who competes in the Street Stock class.
"Every driver I know wants to go out and entertain the folks," said Wilson, who has earned a reputation for his hard-charging driving style.
"And when you do well, they are the first to let you know. When I hear those cheers from the stands it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I can't think of any place I'd rather be on Saturday night."