BAKERSFIELD, California -- When the Mesa Marin Raceway, in Bakersfield, California, opened the gates for the April 16th night of racing they were hoping their loyal fans would warmly welcome their brand new racing division: the Havoline Racing Revoloution Sport Compacts. The plan worked to flawless perfection as the fans cheered on an impressive debut of the 16 race cars.
The Sport Compacts is Mesa Marin's new entry level division and is extremely affordable for anyone who might want to give racing a try. The division consists of 1994 and up compact cars such as Hondas, Nissans, Ford Escorts etc. Making the division even more interesting is the policy of having teams paint and number their cars to resemble popular NASCAR Nextel Cup cars.
When the green flag fell for the very first Havoline Racing Revoloution Sport Compacts main even Travis Reeves, with a Tony Stewart paint scheme, led the first three laps. Jeremy Salamacha, showing his appreciation for Nextel Cup champion Matt Kenseth, took the point for two more circuits before Lee Stoops made the winning pass to take the lead for good. Mike Lipscomb, Cory "Crash" Kerley, Lance Hilderbrand and Scott Cox completed the top five.
The Stoops car had the number 01 on it which is Joe Nemechek's number in the Nextel Cup Series. However, the bright orange paint job indicated that he was likely going for the General Lee look from the old television show "The Dukes Of Hazard."
In victory lane the Oildale, California driver was thrilled to enter the Mesa Marin record books as the very first main event winner in a brand new racing series. "This feels great," he said adding "these things are a blast. This is a great idea that the (Mesa Marin owners) Collins family came up with. Some of us guys who aren't rich can afford to get out on the track and have some fun.
Commenting on the intensity level of the competition Stoops said "these guys took it easy during practice and then, when we got out here racing, these guys were serious. They were beating and banging but it was a lot of fun."
The tiny race cars often went into a precarious three wide formation going into the turns and the position swapping, during the course of a single lap, was fast and furious. It's likely that the Mesa Marin scoring team really had their hands full trying to keep up with all of the passing.
The Havoline Racing Revoloution Sport Compacts are going to be a lot of fun this year. You could often hear the roar of approval from the fans over the racing noise.
The drivers seemed to have a lot of fun as well. One of those fun loving drivers was Carmel, California's Mike Lipscomb whose Volvo won a heat race and finished second in the main event. In the back seat area of Lipscomb's race car were dressed up male and female maniquins. When asked who his passengers were, Lipscomb smiled and said "they're my neighbors."
