EL CAJON, CA (June 17) . John Tyczki Jr. had won two previous late model sportsman main events at Cajon Speedway. But each triumph had come after another driver was disqualified - once earlier this year and once a year ago. Both races left a sour taste with Tyczki and his crew. Saturday night though it was sweet. The two time former bomber stock champ finally drove his Chevrolet Monte Carlo unassisted into victory lane following the 40-lap NASCAR Weekly Racing Series feature at the 3/8 mile paved oval.
Tyczki crossed the finish line a couple of lengths in front of Jerry Gay. Ron Overman, the night's quick qualifier, ran third. Todd McLauchlan edged out point leader Gary Tamborelli for fourth.
"Finally our first checkered flag," Tyczki smiled after his drive. "It feels good. The first two times we didn't count those. We don't want to go through the back doors. It was emotional over there (at the scales). My crew was all weak in the knees."
In the other features, Lance Biggers romped to his sixth Grand American modified victory in seven outings. Jimmy Kyte outran Billy Hoagland in the pony stocks. Kyte's win moved him back atop the pony stock point standings. Randy Wallace was a wire-to-wire victor in the bomber stocks. Rick Roberts edged out Joe Bauer for honors in the KFMB celebrity race.
Tyczki overhauled pacesetting Don Kerr for the number one spot seven rounds into the sportsman event. Kerr had started on the pole. Tyczki meanwhile had started fifth but was running third behind Kerr and Russ Gregson after the opening circuit. Once Tyczki eased past Gregson on lap 3, he took to the low groove and went to work on the 20-year-old leader. He dipped low in turn two on lap 6 and ran a full round on the low side of the youngster before finally making his way past.
Gay gained the number two spot from Overman after a lap 21 restart and challenged Tyczki for the lead a couple of times. With just two laps remaining, Gay put in a strong bid as they ran up on slower traffic. But Tyczki was not to be denied.
Tyczki's winning run came after spinning twice in the dash and once in the heat - all in turn two. Those incidents were a direct result of a change they made for the night. Prior to Saturday he had always practiced and qualified fast but then faded in the main event. In fact he has been the fastest qualifier six of the first ten races.
"We've been fighting a tight condition in the evening in the main events," Tyczki explained. "Steve (Teets, Tyczki's car builder) was not here tonight. That was kind of a drag. He said we needed to start those air pressures way down and let the car come to us. And it worked. But the only problem was that the car was very, very loose the first couple of laps. In both the trophy dash and the heat race, it started coming after three or four laps."
"I went over to Ron Overman before the main event and told him I hoped I could get off turn two - we hadn't been too successful there tonight. In the main the car was absolutely perfect. It didn't push; it wasn't loose. We've always said if we could figure out what happens in the evening with this car, we would be able to go hard after Gary for the championship."
Biggers was buried in the back of the pack early on in the Grand American modified feature. But then he slowly worked his way back towards the front. He took the lead from Scott Brown nine rounds into the 25-lap affair and cruised to victory. Bo Lemler ended up second. Randy Keatts had the best run of his career, running third. Keatts and Mike Salm had slammed hard into the crashwall on the last lap of the heat race, but each came back to run the feature after making major repairs. Salm lost a second place finish when he spun in the last turn. Fourth and fifth went to Scott Brown and Doug Carpenter.
Kyte's victory over Hoagland came after pacesetting Ed Hale blew a motor on lap 14 of the 20-lap event. Kyte was dogged by Hoagland the remainder of the way and took his second win of the season. Neil Rodvold, who started the night in the points lead, saw his race come unraveled when he was sent to the back of the pack after tagging Hector Leon on lap 14. Rodvold ended up 13th and now trails Kyte by 26 markers. In pursuit of Kyte and Hoagland were Rick Anders, Troy Hatfield, and Douglas Wright Jr.
Wallace picked off his third victory of the season after going winless en route to the championship a year ago. Rookie Greg McCown lost a top five finish when he rammed the lapped car of Mark Schilling head on just four laps from the finish. McCown had been running third. Mark Holland started eighth and moved up to second in just three laps. He then tried chasing Wallace down but was unable to get closer than a couple of car lengths. Point leader Pat Garity moved from 11th at the green to third at the finish. His shadow, John Luecht, came from 12th, to take fourth. Bob Wickey was fifth.
PIT NOTES: Our good buddy Chuck Trickle had an awesome evening at Las Vegas
Saturday. He swept both features and moved back onto the number one spot in
the points standings. . Our train racers put on another fantastic show.
There were ten trains that took to the course. The two leaders were derailed
when they went out the third turn pit gate on the final round. That gave the
win to Andy Schoening and Jim Shaning. . And finally, the truth must be
revealed. The only reason Rick Roberts edged out Joe Bauer in last week's
KFMB race was that Mother L Butterbreast sneaked into the back seat of Joe's
car prior to the race. Joe didn't discover this until after the race
started. So he had to drive carefully so he didn't rattle her too much.
After all she is very fragile though feisty. Joe thinks that Mother needs to
stick to school cafeteria menus (if you listened to Hudson and Bauer, you
will understand; if you didn't don't worry about it).
