June 3, 2000 – Mesa Marin Raceway - Dan Holtz won the first 50-lap Exide Night at the Races main event and inched closer to Mike Duncan as they continue to duel for the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series Championship at Mesa Marin Raceway. But Mike Duncan quickly returned the favor by getting winner’s circle privileges with his win in the second 50-lap Pyrenees French Bakery main event.
Going into the night, Holtz trailed Duncan by 14 points. After two main events, Duncan is now eight points ahead of Holtz – 281 to 273.
In the first main event, Holtz rolled his brand new – four hour old - Late Model #16 to qualifying and didn’t hit his usual fast time to make the trophy dash, but due to the luck of the draw he sat on the second row for the first main event. Holtz quckly handled Bobby Aldridge and Brian Branson and by lap 5 he took the lead and never gave up the position, but not because Duncan wasn’t right there chasing his bumper. With less than 10 laps to go, Duncan caught Holtz and was challenging him for the lead. As they raced side-by-side, Barry Bradshaw thought he saw a chance to get by both of them and made it three-wide going out of turn 2. Duncan got squeezed and spun out and had to settle for 6th place as Holtz stayed out front to win.
Brian Branson, Rex Calderwood and Les DenHerder took 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.
In the second main event, Duncan got the front row advantage and the #9 was like a rocket. Holtz was pushing Duncan hard by lap 9. But Duncan proved he had the car to win. With each of the four restarts Duncan got the jump on Holtz. On lap 40 Holtz was able to move up on Duncan and had his best chance to get on by for the lead, but Duncan was able to fend him off and Holtz had to settle for 2nd place.
Rex Calderwood, Brian Branson and Brandon Loverock took 2nd, 3rd and 4th.
In the Exide ShorTrack Series Street Stocks, Mike White’s win broke the tie he shared with Mike Riale for the Championship. Tony Alvarez was doing driving duties in the #11 and he was able to work his way up to 3rd, but Mike White jumped out to the lead earlier and didn’t look back. Billy Tucker was White’s challenger for the night, but had to settle for 2nd with J.R. Garcia and Mark Tenhet rounding out the top five.
The Super TT Motorcycle Series returned to Mesa Marin for an awesome show. All the way from France, Fabien Rolland put on a spectacular show to win the early Trophy Dash event. In the Middleweight main event Casey Yarrow showed his prowess to out-jump and out-distance Mark Cerenicky and Brad Banister. Then during the Sportsman event Papa Allen Yarrow dominated over Bruce Sellers and Ed Coffee.
But the best show of the night was Rick Pearce, he started several positions behind fast-time Fabien Rolland, Casey Yarrow and Don Canet. Pearce would make his greatest gains coming off the jump on the front straight, but it took him until the last lap and the last jump to shoot to the front and steal the win from Rolland, followed by Casey Yarrow and Don Canet.
Next week the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series Late Model will have another night of Twin 50s, plus Modified Stocks, Street Stocks and 911 Race For Youth.
