With Tucson Raceway Park's last scheduled race a washout, fans and racers were eager to get back on track at Arizona's only 3/8 mile paved oval. Jim Click Dodge brought five classes of racing which included the Monsoon 100 NASCAR Late Model race and fierce battles in all Tucson Raceway Park racing divisions which were counting on maximum points in the Double Points night. The NASCAR Factory Stocks kicked off the evening's program with qualifying which was led by 2005 Champion, Jerry Gaede, whom posted a new official track record of 18.427. The NASCAR Factory Stock Trophy Dash was next on the card and Loren "Shef" Sheffield led flag to flag to take the Trophy and CASH!
The night's heat races were won by Suave Brachowski in the Legends, P.J. Megna in TRP Modifieds, Tammy Lynn in NASCAR Mini Stocks and Jerry Gaede in heat one of NASCAR Factory Stocks and Tom Mikla in Heat two. All of the nights feature events would be lined up by current driver points with the point's leaders all the way in the rear! The exception being the NASCAR Factory Stocks which were lined up by qualifying full inverted, which after a scratch by the popular Jeremy Smith, would put the points leader, Mikla on the outside of the front row for the feature event due to a poor qualifying effort.
The INEX Legend feature would be dominated by 2006 Champion Brachowski followed closely by Rookie Blake Leuth and Romano Cionni III sporting a new crazy paint scheme on his #48 Legend.
The TRP Modifieds were again short on count but not on excitement as P.J. Megna narrowly beat the tire smoking and always spectacular Pat Bush, followed by points leader Bill Harrington.
The NASCAR Mini Stocks would be another nail biter as heat winner Lynn would battle hard with Becky Harrington and David Bosley throughout the feature with the win going to Harrington followed by Lynn and Bosley. The Ladies of TRP would be featured on Fox TV's Sports Force on Sunday Evening which would highlight their talents behind the wheel and show that women can "get er done"!
The NASCAR Factory Stocks feature would see three abreast racing throughout the feature with the popular Mikla taking home the win over the rapidly improving Ray Johnson whom has methodically improved his finishes week after week. It looks as though next week will be Johnson's break through win! He can do it as his meticulously prepared #24 gets faster every week!
With the weather threatening all night, nineteen NASCAR Late Models would line up for the Monsoon 100 with Bob Jones and Jerry Thitchener on the first row and Bobby Hillis, Mark Gnirk and Dustin Jones in the rear do to them not having any current driver points. With a full invert the nights feature was sure to be exciting from the drop of the green as TRP's fast guys were at the rear. With not even one lap complete, Joe Paladenic and Rookie Duane Hunt Jr. got hooked up on the front straight that required TRP's "TOWMATER" to pull them apart. Both Paladenic and Hunt would return to the restart missing body panels with Paladenic's beautiful #63 looking like a TRP Modified. The race would go just four laps before red flag number two caused by multiple contact and the blown motor of Jones which would require considerable cleanup! After racing resumed, Cassie Gannis and Ned Champine would tangle on the front straight bringing out a yellow which would lead to a red flag to get the cars in their proper order. The action resumed with Matt Levin leading the way as Ron Norman and Mat Williams were charging through the field. Norman would get by Levin just past lap 50 and would continue to lap cars at a furious pace. Meanwhile, the fenderless Paladenic would be charging forward until lap 70 where he would encounter Tim Blodgett and Rick Butler whom were very fast and still had all their fenders on. The racing excitement was indeed centered on the third through seventh guys as Norman and Levin were alone out front. With laps winding down, Paladenic and Butler would tangle resulting in both going to the rear for bringing out the yellow. The green would wave again until a lap 91 yellow for removal of Butler's #44 in turn four after contact with Dave Larson on the back straight. Lap 91 would see a restart with the lapped cars moved back in the line up to ensure a good race to the finish for the lead laps cars. Once again, the battle for top 5 was the SHOW as Williams, Hunt, Blodgett and Paladenic would be two and three abreast to the checkered and Norman alone out front. At the end of the marathon, caution filled 100 lapper, it was Norman taking a well deserved win followed by Levin and Blodgett.
The Monsoons stayed away and the fans came in force to see another action filled night of racing at Tucson Raceway Park.
