VICTORVILLE, California -- What could be sweeter than winning both your heat race and your Main Event, completing the "sweep" in Street Stock on a warm Saturday night at Route 66 Raceway? Why, it would be sitting up in the grandstand with your wife and friends watching your daughter climb into your car and taking the Powder Puff trophy in a hard-fought finale to the evening's racing action.
That's just how it happened Saturday night at Route 66 Raceway for Barstow's Steve Rose. Having just completed a sweep in his division, Rose retired to the stands to root his daughter, Tabitha, on in her battle with fellow Barstonian Lisa Morris for the checkered flag in the third in this season's series of Powder Puff challenges.
Due to noise restrictions, all feature races at the Victorville track are run with a "20 laps or 20 minutes" rule to allow for completion of all feature races in the allotted time. The senior Rose's Main Event race was fraught with numerous yellow caution flags back in the pack that pushed the race close to its time limit and forced a "green-white-checkered" situation at the end of the race.
Throughout most of his race, Rose was able to stay well enough ahead of most of the field to stay in the lead, being occasionally challenged by fellow Barstow driver Jim Eichler, but holding him off successfully until Eichler ran into trouble and faded.
It turned out to be a sprint to the finish line which saw Rose beating Riverside's Vance Rogers and Hesperia's Gary Owens, who finished second and third, respectively. He had previously bested Fontana's Mike Stone to capture his heat race win.
For daughter Tabitha, who stayed out of the last Powder Puff race for health reasons, it turned out to be a battle royal for the entire race, with the youngster holding off numerous challenges by Barstow's Lisa Morris.
Although Rose is the current reigning Powder Puff points champion, Morris is considered by many fans as the overall "Queen of the Puffs" and, whenever she is on the track, almost inevitably becomes the one to beat in the class.
It was Tabitha's night, however, as she fended off challenge after challenge from Morris right up until the final lap. When she rounded Turn 4 and headed for the flagstand, fans, who had been on the edge of their seats throughout the entire race, were on their feet, including her parents, Steve and Tammy, in addition to a sizeable crowd who came down from Barstow to watch the races.
Always gracious, even in her loss, Morris congratulated Rose on her win and both ladies stated that it was indeed a hard-fought battle. "Tab continued to hold her line in the turns and there just wasn't enough track width to get by her," Morris said in a post race interview. "She ran a good race, she stayed right in there and held her ground. She's a good driver and I'm happy for her win," she continued.
When asked how she felt about her win, the young Rose said, simply, "I'm tired and hot! I really had to work the car and I'm worn out, but yes, I am happy with this win. I was really out there tonight for the fun of racing and it's always gratifying to beat Lisa, she's a great driver." If the young Rose decides to continue on the rest of the season it's a sure bet that she'll be out there to make her presence felt.
In other racing action, it was also a nice night for Apple Valley's Mike "Woody" Sabers as he took his first checkered flag in IMCA Modifieds. Sabers, whose shiny black number 3W Modified is arguably one of the "prettiest" cars of any class on the track, won his feature race which was another of those rock 'em sock 'em events that the IMCA guys have become noted for.
That race turned out to be not so nice for Hesperia's Ryan Leis, who lost it coming out of Turn 4 and parked his car on the rail just shy of the grandstand. Leis was unhurt in the spectacular crash and waved to the crowd after emerging from the badly damaged car.
IMCA racers hold their trophy presentation immediately after their feature race and that turned out to be even more special for Sabers. He was presented with his first IMCA winner's trophy by his old high school buddy, Dave Peer, who had never seen "Woody" race and had flown in for the event.
"Who would have thought that Dave would be here tonight and be able to see my first IMCA win! That really makes it extra special!" Sabers said at the trophy presentation.
In capturing his first Modified victory, Sabers held off both Barstow's Robbie Cockrell and Riverside's Scott Moore, who finished second and third, respectively. Moore had previously won is heat race, while both Sabers and Cockrell had finished second in their individual heat races.
In Mini Stock it was Apple Valley's Rob MacDonald who came out the winner, beating out Vince Porter, who also races out of Apple Valley and Riverside's Eddie Gurwell. Porter and Gurwell had previously finished one-two in their earlier heat race while MacDonald finished his heat race back in fifth position. Perennial favorite Mark Nustad, who races out of Johnson Valley, won his earlier heat race but wasn't a factor in the Main Event race in Mini Stock on this night.
Saturday night saw the return to the track of both the Hornets and Hornet Juniors classes. It was a short field entered in both classes with just seven cars entered in the Hornet class and eight participants in the Hornet Juniors.
In the Hornet class it was San Bernardino's Stan Youngblood who came across the finish line to take the win in the Main Event, leading the way for Temecula's Bobby Kimbrough and Perris' Dan Youngblood, who just happens to be Stan's father. These three drivers had previously finished in the same order in their earlier heat race, only it was San Bernardino's Steve Gresham who captured the win, with the younger Youngblood, Kimbrough and the elder Youngblood finishing in second third and fourth places in the heat.
In the Hornet Juniors it was Apple Valley's AJ George coming out the winner, beating out Torrance's Kristlyn Queener and his older sister Danielle for the Main Event trophy. In the earlier heat race it was Hesperia's Taylor JIn Super Street it was Temecula's Henry Wesolowski who bested Apple Valley's John Abright and North Hills' Frank Woodward for the win. It was Wesolowski's first win in the class here and followed a third-place finish in his earlier heat race, in which Woodward was the winner. Abright finished behind Wesolowski in that race as well.
It was a disappointing night for Barstow's Mike Morris who broke a suspension part and was unable to compete in his scheduled heat race. He was able to repair the car and finished in fourth place in the Main Event, behind Wesolowski, Abright and Woodward.
ames who took the checkered flag, followed across the finish line by Danielle George and Hesperia's Cody Leis.
Rounding out the night's racing action was the earlier All American class Main Event, which was won by Yucca Valley's Stan Blakeley, Sr., who led Trona's Jolynn Tompkins and Riverside's Frank Warnke across the finish line. In earlier heat races in All American both Yucca Valley's Dale Smith, Jr. and Monrovia's "Grandma" Diann Abright were able to garner wins in their individual races.
Following a week off, racing will return to Route 66 Raceway on July 30, with the final appearance for the regular season of the 600cc Winged Sprint cars and the Route 66 Dwarfs. All the regular classes of cars will be on hand as well. Race officials recently decided to return to the schedule some of the classes that were originally "dropped" from the original lineup on this date.
