ANDERSON, California -- Howard Ford won the North State Challenge Series presented by Scottfeild Executive Hotels curfew shortened feature at Shasta Raceway Park on Saturday night, and he did it the hard way. Forced to the pits, to repair body damage after contact on lap 12 while running 6th, Ford tagged the back of the 20-car field and began his march to the front. He passed a struggling Randy Houston on the 57th circuit, and took the checkered flag after 73 laps, in the scheduled 100 lapper.
Eureka’s Mic Moulton finished a strong second and scored his best finish of 2007, after qualifying fifth, and moved up to second in the point standings. “The car was good tonight,” he said after the race, “but it just wasn’t quite there. I was out of brakes. I could stay with Howard but I just didn’t have enough for him tonight.”
2003 champ, Dave Miller, finished third in his first start of the season, after starting ninth. Carson City’s CJ Bawden finished a season high fourth, after qualifying fourth and moved into fourth in the 2007 points. Wilbur Oregon’s Riley Watson rounded out the top five in his second NSCS start. “I’m happy with the finish,” he said, “but I hate it that I got into the #75 (Mike Doss). I just hammered him and it was my fault.”
Hometown racer, Randy Stutesman, topped the qualifying charts with a surprising 15.686 to Ford’s 15.815 and Luke Hall’s 15.960. CJ Bawden rounded out the dash field with his 16.009. Stutesman won the dash.
Stutesman drew an inversion of eight, putting Mike Doss on the pole and Thomas Martin on the outside of the front row. Martin used the outside to clear Doss and grabbed the early lead. Martin held the lead through several early caution periods. As the race started to find a rhythm, Doss got under Martin, on lap 24, and took the lead with Randy Houston and Moulton following. Four laps later, Houston and Moulton got by Doss and started to pull away.
Watson and Doss tangled on lap 39 and Doss pitted, returning minus front-end bodywork. On the ensuing restart, the charging Ford passed Miller for third and the top three started to put some distance on the pack. Ford took second from Moulton on lap 44 and got by Houston, for the lead, on lap 57. Houston retired two laps later with a broken oil line. After recovering from a lap 19 solo spin, the hard charging Stutesman retired on lap 68, while challenging for the third position.
With curfew looming, officials decided that the next yellow flag would bring out the checkers. Doss and Kristi Schmitt got together on lap 73 and the race was over.
“After I got together with the #17, the toe was knocked out, but the car actually seemed better,” Ford said. “Our luck has been better lately. A couple years ago, I wasn’t sure I’d ever win another race. My luck started changing when I went to Mike Naake for shocks and I learned another way to do things.”
“I’ve got a great crew now. We’ve got good chemistry together. Things go a lot better when people are happy!”
