IFS TEAM GOES 3 FOR 5 IN MODIFIED FEATURE

VICTORVILLE, California -- It was a night of racing plagued by the loss of track lighting along the back straight which resulted in a longer than usual intermission and the erection of temporary lights to fill in the gaps.

It obviously had no effect, however, on the guys from Barstow's IFS Racing team as they took three out of the top five positions in the IMCA Modified division feature Saturday night at Victorville Auto Raceway.

Team members Roger Gordon, who hails from Barstow and Victorville's Andy Moreton had their way with the competition in each of their heat events with team owner Wayne Francis following Moreton across the line in their heat.

When it all was said and done and the dust settled in the 20-lap feature race it was Francis getting the checkered flag with Moreton and Gordon flying across the finish line in fourth and fifth place, respectively.

Following the race, IMCA rules require that the top five finishers in the feature meet on the main straight in case there were any claims against them or each other. It was there that team owner Francis exited his racecar and went over and congratulated his teammates on their performances, a neat gesture by a classy racer.

The celebrating wasn't quite over, though, as another IFS team member, Placentia's Randy Davis, who drives the #10 IFS Street Stock Chevrolet in the Street Stock division, brought his own Sport Compact car up and proceeded to take top honors in the Sport Compact class. Torrance's Kristlyn Queener was the second-place finisher in the feature, followed by Phelan's Joe Pasquale.

Saturday night turned out to be a rewarding night for Mini Stock standout Vince Porter as well, as the Apple Valley racer swept his division for the second time in three attempts. Porter, Bloomington's Larry Harder and Johnson Valley's Mark Nustad were locked in a three-way battle for most of the feature race, with Porter finally getting the upper hand shortly before the final laps of the race.

Since the beginning of the 2007 season, Porter has been victorious in five out of the six races he has run, losing only one heat race to Nustad a few weeks ago. Saturday's finish had Porter with the win with Harder finishing second and Nustad following in third position.

The Minis will be taking a few weeks off from racing, returning to the track on June 30th, and the battle to unseat Porter from his place at the top of the heap is sure to resume hot and heavy again.

After two hot and heavy heat events that saw Victorville's Heidi Tresler and Phelan's Will Perkins each winning their respective heats, twelve super-fast 360/410 Sprint cars lined up for a bang up feature event.

One (or two or three) driver's misfortunes ended up being another's good blessing as both Perkins's, father Will and son Kenny found themselves out of the main, Kenny having gotten a bit too familiar with the wall at Turn 1. After a bit of concern, though, young Kenny finally emerged from his car unscathed but out of the race.

Things fared a bit better for Tresler, though, as she was able to keep battling through the pack to eventually finish the feature race in third place.

Celebrating his first win in Sprints was San Clemente's Seth Wilson, who hung in there to take the win, with Apple Valley's Dan Tedrick and the young Tresler rounding out the top three.

In what could be considered a tune-up for the upcoming Western States Dwarf Car Nationals, to be held at Victorville over three days later this month, Riverside's Walt Boyd emerged victorious in the CDCRA Dwarf feature, with Ramona's Eddie Morris, Placentia's Eric Lopez and El Cajon's Bobby Brown all in the hunt.

The race was punctuated by a scary incident when Jim Lyon from San Juan Capistrano did a triple flip in Turn 4 and landed on his tires. Lyon came out of the fracas unhurt but his car was unable to continue.

These Dwarf cars, which are powered by 1200cc motorcycle motors and weigh in the neighborhood of 1000 pounds, can always be counted on to put on a wild show whenever they are at the track. It is estimated that these little speedsters can reach in excess of 80mph on the straights.

Dwarf drivers come from all over Southern California. Saturday saw cars from places like Huntington Beach, El Cajon and San Juan Capistrano. The Victor Valley is well represented here as well, with the Lapkas, Mike and Justin, and Paul Jett from Apple Valley and Hesperia's Perry Highfill always in the mix.

The night's racing concluded with a wild feature race in the Street Stock division. The race was called a couple of laps before the end when Hesperia's Ruben Maguarnero flipped his car along the main straight and was banged by Hesperia's JR Steele.

Both Maguarnero and Steele were unhurt in the incident. Since it was so close to the end of the race and the time was pushing past the 11pm mark officials felt it best to call the race.

Kevin Andrews, the younger of the two racing Andrews brothers, fought off all comers to take the flag in this wild conclusion to the night's racing. Chad Johnson, who got the win last time out, came down from Bakersfield to finish in second place with Chino's Phil Fiehler rounding out the top three.

As previously mentioned, the Raceway will play host to the Western States Dwarf Car Nationals in a three-day meet beginning Thursday, June 21. Also racing on Saturday, June 23rd will be the IMCA Modifieds and the youngsters will be featured in their Mini Dwarf cars throughout the event.

Despite the lateness of the hour very few of the near-capacity crowd left their seats early. In fact many fans chose to stay and witness the trophy presentations on the track and visit with the drivers to talk racing.