With nineteen NASCAR Late Models set to do action on a Chamber of Commerce evening in Tucson, it would again be Ron Norman setting the pace in qualifying. The choir from Sycamore Elementary school sang the National Anthem to start off the evening and they wowed the crowd with their harmony. The six lap, six car Trophy Dash would see Herefords own Joe Paladenic taking the Trophy and the Cash.
Because of the car count, four heat races would be contested in the Late Model class and after the dust had settled Norman would win heat 1 over rookie Duane Hunt Jr. Rookie Mat Williams would beat Tim Blodgett in heat 2, heat 3 would see Scott Rueschenberg best rookie Adam Milsap and heat 4 would be Paladenic over late arriving Matt Levin. With a six car invert for the main event, Hunt Jr. and Blodgett would be on the front row. Hunt Jr. led the first couple of laps until Norman slipped by on the inside. After lap twenty it was looking like another Norman run away, with Paladenic keeping him in site and three abreast racing was common throughout the field with position changes on every lap. On lap twenty eight, Mike Donoho had suspension failure and hit the turn 3 wall hard, resulting in a ball of fire and severe damage to the #5 car. Due to Tucson Raceway Park's stringent safety rules, Donoho received nothing more than a deflated wallet. At the exact same time of Donoho's accident, Vail's own Jerry Thitchener broke a pinion gear on the back straight and he traveled all the way to turn 2 leaving a trail of 90 wt. gear lube that required a two year supply of kitty litter to soak it up. After pulling the Donoho car into the infield and sweeping up a ΒΌ mile of kitty litter, the Jim Click Dodge safety truck would set the pace for the restart of the 40 lapper. At the drop of the green, it was obvious that Paladenic was sizing up Norman and just waiting for the opportunity to get revenge for the last race day loss on the last lap to Norman. On lap 38, Paladenic dove under Norman in turn 1 and they stayed side by side only inches apart for the next two laps. With the crowd on the edge of their seats, Paladenic would win by inches over Norman followed by Levin and Rueschenberg. In victory lane, Paladenic would say he was thinking about last weeks defeat at the hands of Norman and was determined to not let that happen again tonight!
The NASCAR Factory Stock class was a close battle between Casey Rohrer and Tom Mikla, followed by cowboy, Ken Hunt and Ray Johnson and at the end of twenty laps, that is where it would finish. Becky Harrington would best Tammy Lynn in the shortened NASCAR Mini Stock class and P.J. Megna would dominate the sparse TRP Modified field over Pat Bush and Bill Harrington. Last year's champion, Suave Brachowski would win yet another INEX Legend main event over Romano Cionni, III and Blake Leuth.
The class sizes and crowd continue to grow and the racing never seizes to amaze those in attendance at Tucson Raceway Park, where "we'll sell you the whole seat, but you'll only need the edge"!
