MORETON WINS IMCA RACE, BUT KINKADE IS REGION CHAMPION

VICTORVILLE, California - With rain clouds hovering all around the track and a definite winter chill in the air, Victorville Auto Raceway nonetheless got its fourteenth week of the 2007 racing season in the books with a shortened racing program that was completed by 9:30pm on Saturday night.

In the Street Stock feature it was Whittier's Tim Foster driving away with the win in a hotly contested battle that began at the drop of the green flag and continued throughout the race.

Trona's Ken Gosnell got out to the early lead and held on for a while before finally being retired in the early laps. While Foster was holding off all challengers, including Chino's Phil Fiehler, it was Norco's Chris Tooley who made the story in this race.

Tooley, who made it to the track after the heat races had been completed, started the feature dead last in the field and through the course of the race slowly picked off the cars in the rest of the field to finish in third place.

"It was pouring rain down the hill and I was really hesitant about making the trip up, but my son Bryce and I decided that we should go ahead and make the trip and see what happens. To top it all off, I lost both belts with about five laps to go in the race and finished with no power steering and no alternator. It was a real struggle driving without those belts," Tooley mentioned after the race.

While Foster was taking the Street Stock trophy, Fiehler captured second place and Tooley, as previously mentioned, came under the flag in third place. The Andrews brothers, Kevin and Jason finished in fourth and fifth place, respectively.

In Sport Compact Juniors, it looked for the entire world that the race was Gary Marshall, Jr.'s all the way. In fact Marshall led the race for almost the entire race, right until the last lap, when Hesperia's Jessica Sooter managed to get by him. Sooter had been in second position for all of the final seven or so laps, and Wilmington's Steven Parra had been sitting in third position for the last third of the contest. Myrick was trading places with Hesperia's Stacey Elderbaum for fourth and fifth place.

The race ended up with Sooter capturing the win, Marshall in second position and Parra in third, with Elderbaum finishing in fourth and Myrick taking fifth.

Although Saturday night marked the end of the 2007 IMCA Western Regional racing season, there are still three races remaining to determine the local division championship. In the regional section it was Apple Valley's Tony Kinkade, Jr. capturing the points title, but it was Victorville's Andy Moreton who drove away the winner in the IMCA Modified feature.

Things got off to a shaky start when Romoland's David Lord met up with the wall on the back straight, causing a complete restart that saw Barstow's Robbie Cockrell, along with Moreton and Hesperia's Tim Timmerman leading the pack away from the green flag.

The current track points leaders, Kinkade and Daggett's Wayne Francis wound up both stuck in traffic and not able to gain any ground on the leaders.

It got so bad for Francis that he decided to pull off and retire from the race. "The car just wasn't handling for me all race long and I just felt that I should quit before I wound up hurting the car real bad or maybe killing myself," Francis was heard to say in the pits.

While all this was happening, Francis' IFS Racing teammates, Moreton and Barstow's Roger Gordon, were having a far better time of things. Moreton had finally caught up with Cockrell and went under him to take the lead.

Gordon, meanwhile, was reeling in Kinkade and getting by him, despite a thrilling hole shot by Kinkade on a restart, which wasn't successful. The end result was a one-two finish by IFS teammates Moreton and Gordon, with Kinkade coming under the checkered flag in third place.

Cockrell finished in fourth place in only his second race in a brand new car that he debuted just a couple of weeks ago. Hesperia's Tim Timmerman II was fifth to reach the finish line.

As previously mentioned, the IMCA Modifieds will race here three more times, twice in October and on the final night of racing on November 3rd.

In the All American division it was Apple Valley's Jefro "Lightnin' McQueen" Blalock taking the victory in another wild one. The feature got off to a crazy start when Blalock and Victorville's David Spina got locked together tail to nose right out of the chute, causing a red flag situation while track crews worked to get them untangled.

The restart saw Hesperia's Carol Lewis jumping off to an early lead before being reeled in by Blalock on the outside. From that point on it was pretty much all Blalock as he continued to build his lead to almost half the track.

Victorville's Dan McGuire almost hurt his own cause when he nudged Lewis in an attempt to mover her over. The tap caused McGuire to get loose and start a spin, but he was able to recover and continue on. McGuire was finally able to get around Lewis by race's end.

While all this was going on Hesperia's Bev Stauffacher and Victorville's Sandie Sage were in back of the pack racing their own race while being lapped by the remainder of the pack.

The finish of the All American contest ended up with Blalock taking the win, McGuire finishing second and Lewis coming across in third place. Stauffacher and Sage ended up in fourth and fifth place, respectively.

By the time the 8-Cylinder Figure 8's hit the track, the temperature had dipped considerately and, although most of the remaining crowd were bundled in blankets, most hung around to watch Torrance's Danny Queener race to the win.

It didn't look like this would be the end result as two hard-battling local competitors got out to the early lead. Hesperia's Jeff Singer and Apple Valley's Randy Vogel, both of whom have visited victory lane following wins in this division.

The red flag came out as Singer wound up with one of the track's white marker tires under his car, requiring work by track workers to free him from his extra baggage. While this was going on, Vogel discovered a flat right front tire and shot off the track for a tire change. Vogel's return put him at the back of the field, but he didn't stay there long.

Soon after the restart, Singer's car began smoking and it appeared that he fried his motor. Other drivers were having their share of troubles as well, as Fontana's Bob "Shrimp Boat" Schrimsher, Jr; found himself without a left rear wheel.

Meanwhile, while Queener was stretching out his lead, Barstow's Jerry Crain was frustrating Vogel. Crain suffered a flat tire but chose to keep on racing anyway. Vogel eventually passed him, though.

The race ended up with Queener capturing the win, Nuevo's Jim Rook taking second place and Crain rolling across in third place. Vogel finished in fourth place and Apple Valley's "Jabbering" Jimmy Helton in fifth.

Racing continues again this Saturday night, September 29th, when the Raceway will feature racing by the 360/410 Sprints, Mini Stocks, Junior and Senior Sport Compacts and the 4-cylinder Figure 8's.