Mike Doss was the class of the field on Saturday night as Ukiah Speedway hosted the second race of the North State Challenge Series. Derek Thorn overcame a lap 16 pit stop, to repair body damage, and came home second in the 75 lapper. Dave Miller survived a lap 3 off track excursion and a lap 16 back of the pack penalty to finish third. Junior Roddy spent much of the race in second before a slight bobble, on a lap 64 restart, dropped him to fourth, and last race winner Howard Ford rounded out the top five.
Perennial fast timer Thorn topped qualifying with a 12.522 lap followed by Doss, Roddy and C. J. Bawden. Thorn would win the dash but drew an inversion of 8, for the main event, putting Neil Gordon on the pole alongside Luke Hall with Jeremy Hopkins and Randy Houston in the second row. Gordon would pit for repairs on the warm-up laps and opt to the back of the field moving Hopkins to the pole.
Hopkins jumped to the early lead followed by Hall, Bawden, Doss and Roddy. Miller brought out the first caution when he went off track on lap 3 and tagged the back of the pack. The most serious incident of the night occurred on the ensuing restart. As the field was coming down the backstretch to the green flag, several cars made contact in an accordion style pile up. Many cars caught a piece of the action but the most seriously damaged were Jim Stillman Jr, Gary Glenn, Andrew Snider and Dennis Del Biaggio. Only Del Biaggio was able to make repairs and he returned 10 laps later.
Doss inherited second place on lap 8, after Bawden tapped Hall sending him spinning. Both went to the back and Doss started working on Hopkins. By lap 25, Doss started peeking inside Hopkins' left rear only to have Hopkins repeatedly shut the door. On lap 27 they made contact and Hopkins spun in a cloud of tire smoke. The restart showed Doss leading Roddy, Eric Graham, Ford and Hall while Thorn had moved back up to sixth. Doss and Roddy put some distance between themselves and the pack by lap 35. Thorn got by Graham for third on lap 42. Thorn and Miller got by Roddy on a lap 64 restart when he pushed up the track in turn one.
Over the final ten laps, Thorn tried to make a charge on Doss but it was not to be. " I'd pretty much used up my brakes and I didn't have anything for Mike there at the end," Thorn would say. Doss was quick to praise his team. " I really want to thank the Stillmans and all my guys who work so hard to give me a good car. The car was on a rail! I'm glad to finally beat this track. It has been a nemesis to me for a long time. I've won here in my late model but this is my first win here in the tour car. Now if I can run good at Shasta, I'll be happy. I've never had much luck there either." Congratulations Mike!
The next race is at Shasta Raceway Park on June 3rd.
Results
Fast Time- Thorn (12.522)
Dash- Thorn, Roddy, Bawden, Doss
Main- Doss, Thorn, Miller, Roddy, Ford, Bawden, Hopkins, Graham, Hall, Berndt Akerstrom, Gordon, Del Biaggio, Houston, Glenn, Stillman Jr, Snider
