ANDERSON, California -- Eric Graham hit the jackpot in his Blue Lake Casino/DTS sponsored Monte Carlo on Saturday night, winning the 'Budweiser/Charter Cable 75' North State Challenge Series race at Shasta Raceway Park. He nearly made a clean sweep of it, qualifying second and finishing second in the dash by a fender. Mike Doss chased Graham to the checkers with Junior Roddy a strong third, Josh Bews fourth and rookie Derek Thorn fifth.
Thorn set fast time at 15.789 followed by Graham's 15.994. Medford's veteran Ken Scales posted a 16.013 and points leader Bill Binns and Sacramento's Billy Butler each ran 16.016. According to series rules, the tiebreaker was their second lap where Binns had a 16.147 to Butler's 16.177 putting Binns in the dash. Binns won the dash followed by Graham, Thorn and Scales.
The six car inversion put veteran Howard Ford on the pole with 22 year old All American Speedway regular Butler, on the outside of row one in his first series effort. The first yellow flag flew on lap 5 for a solo spin by David Miller. Darin Snider also spun trying to get slowed down. Dane Smith who'd struggled all day with fuel pressure problems, pitted and called it a night. Ford led Butler, Binns, Graham and Thorn to the green flag. On lap nine, Thorn started working the high line and was able to get by Graham, Binns and Butler to claim second place. Doss and Steven Gannon made contact on lap 12 sending Gannon into the wall and ultimately, onto the trailer. Lap 16 saw Binns and Graham use the outside line to get by Butler for third and fourth respectively. Ford and Thorn had separated themselves from the field by 10 car lengths until Snider and Brad Wasmund made contact bringing out another caution and erasing their lead. On the restart, Thorn got under Ford coming out of turn 4 and beat him into turn one, taking the lead, It would be short lived though as Thorn went spinning off Ford's bumper the next time they reached turn 4. They both went to the back of the pack for the restart, handing the lead to Binns followed by Graham and the surprising Butler. Midway in the 75 lapper, Doss was able to get under Butler bringing Roddy and Bews with him to claim third, fourth and fifth. Four laps later, Binns started puffing smoke. Officials checked for leakage and allowed him to continue. Graham passed Binns for the lead on a lap 42 restart and started to pull away. Seven laps later, the yellow flag flew again when Binns engine sent up a huge plume of smoke, ending his night. Graham would lead the last 25 circuits enroute to his third career series victory. Though Doss hounded him for the last 10 laps, he was never able to make a serious bid for the lead. "We've struggled for three races to get this new car dialed in and we finally nailed it! It feels great to be competitive again!" said Graham after the race.
Doss has finished second for the second race in a row and has taken a 4 point lead in the championship standings. Junior Roddy had his best run of the '05 campaign, Josh Bews rebounded from his misfortune at Redwood Acres, and impressive rookie Thorn came from the back of the pack twice to finish fifth. With Binns and Houston both having problems, the point standings will be close heading to the next race at Ukiah Speedway.
Dash-Binns, Graham, Thorn, Scales
Main-Graham, Doss, Roddy, Bews, Thorn, Ford, Butler, Bill Ward, Miller, Jim Stillman, Scales, Randy Stutesman, Sean Hays, Wasmund, Snider, Binns, Houston, Jeremy Hopkins, Gannon, C.J. Bawden, Smith
