MERIDIAN, Idaho -- Twenty-three 4 cylinder stock cars from, California, Oregon, Washington, Utah, and Idaho converge on Meridian Speedway to battle in the ASA Intermountain Pro 4 Challenge Series (IP4CS) All American Homes 75. Local favorite and current Mulder’s Auto Machine Late Model Lite (LML) points leader Kale Freedman set the pace with a 14.012 qualifying lap. Jeff Bard a rookie in the LML division this year stunned all with a qualifying lap of 14.081 for 2nd quick. Eddie Secord, Bloomington, Ca, rounded out the top 3 qualifiers with a 14.089. Less than 4/10 of a second separated the top 15 qualifiers.
The IP4CS uses a 16-car invert for the main event. Ron Hayes, Boise, Id broke and crashed hard in the wall during his heat race. Unsure of his cars competitiveness for the 75-lap main he elected to relinquish his 3rd starting position for scratch. This placed Boise’s Kenny Chandler on the pole for the start of the race. Kurt Madsen, West Jordan, Ut, started on the outside pole and took the lead the field completed the first lap.
Secord, starting 14th, moved through the crowed field and was running 8th by the 11th lap. Freedman struggled early in traffic, only gaining 1 position over the first 10 laps. In the next 4 laps Freedman found the groove and was running in 11th when the field completed the 14th circuit. Lap 17 brought out the first caution of the race when Terry Rennick, Lewiston, Id, spun in turn 1. On the restart Mike Bailey, John Dorociak, and John Peterson got together in the front stretch. Peterson’s car received extensive damage and was forced to retire from the race.
Secord moved up 5 positions over the next 3 laps to forth on the 20th lap while Freeman was struggling in traffic again running 10th. Secord moved into the 3rd spot on the 26 trip around the quarter mile oval while Freeman moved into 8th. With Secord challenging Shaun Tubbs for the Second spot Freedman’s efforts were wiped out on lap 30, when he spun on the backstretch bringing out the 4th caution of the race and placing him in the rear of the field in 18th. Secord restarted in 3rd but quickly passed tubs on the restart and set his sights on Madsen in the lead. Secord dispensed Madsen on lap 33 for the lead and started to pull away from the field while Freedman was still running 18th.
Freedman moved 8 positions over the next 7 laps, running 10th as Secord increased his lead over the rest of the field. Secord had over a 5.5 second lead over the field on lap 56 when Rennick and M.Bailey got together in turn 1 with both running into the wall at the top of the turn. Freedman was up to 6th on his way back through the field. Freedman gained another spot on the restart up to 5th. The field stayed the same through the next 10 laps when 3 cars got tangled in turn 3. Secord had a 6.5 second lead over the field prior to this yellow.
Secord separated himself from the field again on the restart having a 2 second lead 1 lap into the restart. Freedman took the forth spot from Jim Bailey on lap 72 and was challenging Rob Powers for 3rd as Secord crossed the line for the win, over 4 seconds in front of Tubbs. Freedman crossed the line in a photo finish with Powers. Powers edged out freedman by just .011 seconds.
This is Secord 2nd win this season at Meridian Speedway in as many races. Secord won the first night of the Independence Day Cup and was awarded the Independence Day Trophy after rain cancelled the 2nd night of racing.
ASA IP4CS All American Homes 75 Results:
Qualifying: Kale Freedman – 14.012
Heat 1: Victor Clark, Jeff Bard, Jim Bailey, John Peterson, Kenny Chandler
Heat 2: Eddie Secord, Shaun Tubbs, John Jackson, Terry Rennick, Mike Bailey
Heat 3: Rob Powers, Freedman, Kurt Madsen, Jeff Hill, Joe Barton
Feature Event: Secord, Tubbs, Powers, Freedman, J. Bailey
Jeff Meads returned to Meridian Speedway Saturday night for the first time this season in his super stock to compete with the Idaho Super Stock Racing Association (ISSRA). Meads was a fixture at the speedway in the 90’s competing in the super stock division (they were called Street Stocks then). He moved into the Grand American division when that division started up in the mid 90’s. He last competed full time at the speedway in the super stock division 3 years ago finishing 4th in the season points standings. Meads qualified poorly and was started the 40 lap main event on the pole.
Meads took the lead from the drop of the green flag while Darvin Ackerland started from the 10th position. The field of 13 took several laps to fall into single file. Once the field settled down Ackerland began his quest for the lead. Ackerland moved into the 5th spot on lap 11, 8 laps later to 4th. On lap 23 Ackerland passed Travis Milburn for the 3rd spot and than Rick Baldwin on lap 32 for the 2nd spot. Ackerland and Meads ran nose to tail. On lap 36 the first yellow flag came out when Dan Lowther and Rick Baldwin got together on the front stretch.
Ackerland made several attempts on the subsequent laps to get around Meads with no luck. As Meads was coming out of 3 for the final turn Lowther spun on the front stretch bringing out the second caution. This gave Ackerland one final chance in a green, white, checkers situation. Ackerland went to the outside on the restart but the grip was not there he faded back a little and tried again as the two received the white flag. Ackerland again could not get the grip he needed on the outside and Meads crossed the line .25 seconds in front of Ackerlad. This was reminiscent of the rivalry these two drivers had in the 90’s when they both ran in the street stock and Grand American divisions.
ISSRA Results
Qualifying: Darvin Ackerland – 14.839
Trophy Dash: Dale Bell
B heat: Jeff Meads, Rick Baldwin, Gale Carter, Frank Wallace, Dave Harris
A Heat: Bob Cecil, Dustin Stephenson, Ackerland, Dan Lowther, Charlie Ham Jr.
Main Event: Meads, Ackerland, Bell, Stephenson, Ham
Pat Stirm gained a little more breathing room in his quest for the Idaho Center for Professional Truck Driving (ICPTD) Street Stocks division. Stirm 67 points in front of Terry Lydell with one race remaining in the division. Vince Spinazzola dropped from 2nd to third just 80 points behind Stirm. Darrell Lankford remains in forth 102 points back. This division will run their final race of the season in two weeks September 23rd.
ICPTD Street Stock Results:
Qualifying: Terry Lydell – 15.575
Trophy Dash: Lydell
B heat: Brett Buchanon, Steve Bosselman, Brian Hyde, Craig Beckstead, Shawn Hansen
A heat: Keri Sigman, Darrell Lankford, Aaron Baker, Pat Stirm, Lydell
Main Event: Bosselman, Lankford, Frisbee, Lydell, Stirm
The Mini stocks points battle can not get any closer with one race remaining. Jason Sanders came into Saturday night’s races just 4 points in front of Justin Ellis. Sanders gained a couple points 4 points in qualifying by qualifying 2nd quick to Ellis’ 4th quick. Ellis finished 1 position ahead of Sanders in the heat race and 2 positions in front of him in the main event, gaining 3 points than Sanders more for the night. The two go into the September 23 Championship night separated by 1 point.
Mini Stock Results
Qualifying: Joe Fuentes – 16.029
Trophy Dash: Justin Ellis
B heat: Jason Lampman, John Ellsworth, Clint Whitney, Tim DeRose, Duane Gerber
A heat: George Gorton, Casey Hart, Ellis, Jason Sanders, Fuentes
Main Event: Gorton, Hart, Ellis, Fuentes, Sanders
Darrell Stogsdill Increased his points lead to 17 over Roy Cleaver with his victory in the Thunder Stock division. This was Stogsdill’s 2nd victory of the season. The Thunder Stocks have 1 race left on their 2006 season, September 23rd.
