Acton, California's Art Neville put on a driving clinic, August 26th, and ran away with the 40 lap Legend car feature at the Willow Springs Speedway, in Rosamond, a quarter mile paved oval, located in the mammoth Willow Springs International Raceway complex.
Kurt Vogtmann came off of the front row to lead the first two circuits before being overtaken by K J Garrison. But lap eight and nine became a most interesting turning point in this race. Vogtmann was clipped from behind and spun in turn three to bring out the race's first yellow flag. On the ensuing restart, Austin Murphy took the lead but the pass didn't count because the yellow caution flag came right back out before the lap was completed.
This time the yellow turned to red due to one of the hardest crashes of the entire evening. Chad Schrug and Vogtmann crashed on the backstretch. The impact literally sheared the left front tire off of the Schrug car. Neither driver was injured but the incident did turn into a major display of good sportsmanship. After climbing out of their cars, the two drivers checked up on each other and then shook hands while standing in the middle of the track. This is the type of gesture we need to see more of following a crash.
With the race underway again Austin Murphy needed one gree flag lap to again take the lead from Garrison. However Neville was also making quick moves through the field. On lap 22 the top four cars got bottled up coming into turn four. That's when Neville made his winning move by diving to the extreme low side of the turn. By the time he got to the start finish line, he was racing side by side with Murphy. That lasted one lap before Neville took the lead for good.
Once the nose of his Legend car was in the clean air, the series veteran just ran away from the competition and took the checkered flag with a very comfortable full straightaway lead. Austin Murphy, Broc Murphy, Justin Hummel and K J Garrison completed the top five.In the preliminary events Chad Schrug and Gary Schuerell won the heat races while Neville won the trophy dash.
Commenting on his race winning move the happy winner said "I just got tired of waiting. I knew that I could drive in, (the turns), more than them and I was just waiting for them to crash each other. Then I figured they're not going to do that so I said I'm going for it and moved them just a little bit. I went by them and then after that my car was just flying. The red car, (Austin Murphy), was all over me there for awhile but I started driving it deeper and deeper and it just kept sticking and it just got me motivated. I looked back in the mirror and saw a half a straightaway between us and I said this feels good. In the last few laps I was just cruising."
The series veteran came into the night with a healthy 76 point lead in the standing and, after collecting his third feature win of the season, left Willow Springs with an even bigger lead. However, Neville has made it clear all year long that he's really not interested in collecting points and is more about winning races. With a big smile on his face, Neville said "I'm 60 years old and when I won the trophy dash this evening all three of the other drivers in the race had a combined age of 40. All of these young kids are really coming along but they found out tonight that the old guy still has it."
In the Super Sportsman Division, series points leader Chris Peedan moved a giant step closer to another Willow Springs championship by scoring his sixth feature win of the season. Peedan started shotgun on the field but quickly discovered that his Dodge Intrepid was hooked up really well on the high line of the track. He used that advantage to work his way to the front and passed Kevin Sevenish, on lap 14, to take the lead for good.
By the end of the race Alex Anderson was in second and was doing everything he could to run down the leader. In the final laps Anderson pulled up to the leader's rear bumper but, going for the checkers, he spun the car in turn four. In a midst of white tire smoke, Anderson quickly got his Chevrolet pointed in the right direction and saved a second place finish before the field caught up with him. Sevenich, John Penning and Randy Wilkins completed the top five. In the preliminary events Sevenich won the heat race while Wilkins took the trophy dash.
After the race Peedan said "the car ran really good tonight but, after we got out front, it began to pick up a little bit of a push. By then Alex Anderson was running me down but he just ran out of laps. The car wasn't running all that great by the end of race. I got together with the 62, (Sevenich), when I passed him on the outside and I think it knocked the toe out a little bit. But it's a good win, good for the points and, (while pointing at Anderson), I've just got to say ahead of that guy over there."
The I-4/I-6 Outlaw Modifieds also were part of the action on this Saturday night at the Willow Springs Speedway. In their feature race, Jeffrey Goddard scored his third feature win of the season and padded his series points lead. Goddard made a winning past, over Ric Bronson, on the high line of turn one and led the final 18 laps to win the feature by a three car length margin. Bronson, Bryan Rungatis and Walter Dobbs followed him under the checkers. In the preliminary events Goddard won the heat race while Bronson took the trophy dash.
In victory lane Goddard said "we've been working on our suspension set up a little bit and that seems to be helping a lot. We got the front end stuck down to make it go faster. He, (Ric Bronson), was giving me a run for it tonight but I think I had a little bit more than him. His tires were a little worn out but, hopefully, he's going to give me a strong run in the next race."
The small, but very fast, Bandeleros cars were also part of the Willow Springs action. In the Young Gunds Division Ryan Bragdon scored his first feature win of the season but had to fend off an early race charge from Andrew Anderson to get there. Bragson took the lead for good on lap nine and had a full straightaway lead by the time the event was over.
Anderson had to overcome quite a bit of bad racing luck to get the runner up spot. He spun on lap three and got collected by Andrew Porter. There was some slight damage to the roof flap, where the drivers enter and exit the cars, and that meant Anderson had to finish the race convertible style. He was in the process of running down Bragdon again when the car spun in turn four on lap 11. That's all Bragdon needed to widen the gap and take the win. Ashley Ambriz and Porter finished third and fourth. In the preliminary events, Anderson won the heat race while Bragdon took the trophy dash.
After the race Bragdon said his car was basically perfect right out of the box and added "we went a quarter of a quarter turn on the chassis before the main event but, other than that, we didn't have to touch it all day from the practice session until after the heat race and it stayed perfect all night."
In the Bandelero Bandit Division, Jack Madrid won the feature flag to flag meaning he led all of the laps in ther race.
The race was red flagged, on lap four, due to a large deposit of oil on the track that came from a blown engine. Other than that, the race was incident free and Madrid passed under the checkers with a half straightaway lead over second place Jeremy Birch. Tyler Fabozzi, Eric Sloan and Aaron Anderson completed the top five.In the preliminary events Eric Sloan, making his first Willow Springs start, won the heat race and the trophy dash.
After the race Madrid said "it was great, my car was handling good and it was all perfect timing." Madrid also said that he planned to celebrate the win by enjoying a juicy Fatburger after he returned home. Fatburger Restaurants is one of the team's major sponsors.
