HARESKY WINS, COCKRELL TAKES IMCA TITLE AT RT. 66

Since this race marked the end of the regular IMCA season race officials chose to make it the track's "Featured Main Event" of the night, complete with on-track driver's introductions and a few pace laps for the crowd.

The race itself was riddled with at least 7 "restarts" as drivers battled it out to move up in the all-important points standings. Before tonight's race three drivers had a realistic shot at the points crown; Barstow's Robbie Cockrell, Riverside's Dale Underwood and Apple Valley's Randy Thornell were all vying for the title, with Cockrell holding an all-but-safe 20-plus point lead over Underhill.

"On this track, with these quality drivers, even a 20-point lead isn't safe and anything can happen to turn things around," Cockrell stated in a pre-race interview. As it turned out, Cockrell's concerns fell aside as, although he lost the race to Phelan's Joe Haresky, his second-place finish secured the 2005 IMCA points title for the Barstow driver.

Thornell turned out to be a no-show on this final night and the staring grid saw Underwood and Cockrell placed in 11th and 12th position, respectively. By the fourth, or was it the fifth restart, Underwood had moved up to fourth place and Cockrell found himself in sixth position.

However, by the race's end, Cockrell had continued to move all the way to second place and found himself chasing the race's eventual winner, Phelan's Joe Haresky to the checkered flag. Underwood, who was last season's IMCA champion, had a tough night and finished well back in the pack and his shot at a repeat were gone.

There are still three meetings left to the regular season for the other classes and the night was filled with lots of exciting racing, including another "double" by Barstow's racing Rose family, Steve and daughter Tabitha. The elder Rose shook things up in the Street Stock division with a stunning win while young Tabitha got the crowd stirred up with a come from behind victory in the season's fourth Powder Puff event.

The Street Stock feature looked for all the world like it was going to be an all-Barstow event, at Rose, Mike Milender and John Krieger all got off to a flying start and even a complete restart didn't seem to break up the Barstow trio.

It wasn't long, though, before both Krieger and Milender began to fall back, leaving Rose to battle it out for a while with the points leader, Norco's Chris Tooley, and Hesperia's Tim Timmerman. Even these two drivers weren't able to hang on and the end of the race saw Rose cross the line ahead of Hesperia's Jason Andrews and Oak Hills' Ralph Adams. Rose's win followed a third place finish in his heat race while Tooley finished second in his heat but well back in the pack in the main.

Just who sits on top of the Street Stock points will have to wait until later in the week when the new standings are released, but a quick look would indicate that the Barstow driver just might be at the top of the heap.

In Mini Stock division it was a sweep for Johnson Valley's Mark Nustad as he held off a charging Vince Porter for the victory. This followed wins by both Porter and Nustad in each of their previous heat contests. Victorville's Andy Moreton brought out his Mini Pinto in addition to his Modified car and finished up in third place.

The race started out with Nustad and Porter out front and before the race was four laps old the pair was closing in on slower traffic, and Porter got close enough that he could smell Nustad's cologne

Throughout the race, Moreton had steadily been gaining ground on the leaders and by race's end had moved to a challenging position, along with Riverside's Eddie Gurwell. There just wasn't enough race left, though, and in the end the sweep belonged to Nustad.

The All American feature contest saw 11 cars on the track in a race that ended with Yucca Valley's Stan Blakely, Sr. capturing the checkered flag, with Hesperia's Bud Gray and Monrovia's "Grandma" Diann Abright in second and third, respectively. Hesperia's JR Steele, who is currently in the thick of the All American points race with Abright, finished close behind in fourth position. It would appear that Abright still holds a slight lead in the standings over Steele.

The Super Street feature turned out to be a "where did he come from" second-place finish for Barstow's Mike Morris as he came from out of nowhere late in the race to finish behind race winner Scott Curry by a mere fender-length. Curry, who races out of Yucca Valley, seemed to dominate the race from the green flag, but both Morris and his nemesis, Trona's Chris Smith, weren't going to let Curry out of their sights. Neither were the Apple Valley trio of Jimmy George and Jim and John Abright.

The race took a strange turn when, following a restart when Tim Timmerman lost and then apparently drove over, his own fuel cell and was forced out of the race. On the restart Smith, Curry and Morris attempted to go three-wide and it was Morris who wound up spun out.

Morris somehow managed to work his way back through the field, past George and both Abrights to barely get nosed out by Curry at the finish. This race marked Morris' return following two races away and puts a different spin on the points race in Super Street.

The night's racing finished up with the fourth in this season's Powder Puff series and that race saw Barstow's Tabitha Rose capturing the win in an exciting race over Yucca Valley's Patti Smith.

The young firebrand continues to prove that she is a force to be reckoned with and only time will tell when she will take the plunge into one of the other classes, perhaps even putting her own Street Stock car on the track and challenging her dad, Steve, for bragging rights.

Also notable is the performance of Newberry Springs' Christina McFarland, who finished a respectable fourth in this nine-car field. Although a relative newcomer to the sport, McFarland continues to show that she has the "stuff" that real competitors are made of and in time may come to win her share of races.

Racing will return to the Fairgrounds again on September 17, with both the Hornets and the Hornet Juniors back on the track, in addition to the return of the motorcycle engine powered Dwarfs.

Track Notes: When All American driver Stan Blakely, Sr. won his feature race on August 20, he was anxiously awaiting the birth of a new grandchild. That night turned out to be a false alarm. Blakely was again on Victory Lane on Saturday and once again was waiting to hear the news that he was a new "grandpa". Did it happen, this time, Stan?…Although he didn't have such a great night, it was good to see Barstow's Mike Miller back on the track with his MOPAR-powered Super Street machine after a long absence…Tonight's win by youngster Cody Grinder in the Mini Dwarfs marked his fifth consecutive win in the class. Grinder surpasses the previous record of four straight set by Billy "Wild Bill" Gibson. Grinder is now driving the car that was once driven by Gibson. Just goes to show that great cars need great drivers. Way to go, Cody!

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