LEFT COAST RACING SCENE: DUSTIN ASH DOMINATES THE HORNADAY 100 AT THE ORANGE SHOW SPEEDWAY

Source: Dave Grayson
Date: 07/14/2008

Las Vegas-Nevada's Dustin Ash combined an extremely well prepared race car with a flawless driving performance and led every lap of the Hornaday 100, for the ASA sanctioned BSR West Super Late Model Series, at the Orange Show Speedway-OSS in San Bernardino this past July 12th. The event, presented by Black Jack Fireworks, was a major part of a celebration of short track racing led by three time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Ron Hornaday Jr who visited the quarter mile paved oval to host the Second Annual Ron Hornaday Night.

Ash's qualifying effort was not that strong but the pre race roll of the inversion dice was. The dice roll turned up a 12 which put him on the pole position. 20 ASA BSR West Super Late Models took the initial green flag with Ash quickly jumping into the lead in what would turn out to be the winning move. The only time his race rhythm was disturbed was from the seven caution flags due to spin outs and crashes during the race. In the final laps of the race OSS fan favorite Linny White, who won the trophy dash earlier in the evening, made a strong charge towards the leader but the Colton-California driver, and his Chevrolet Monte Carlo, just simply ran out of time. David Ross, another Colton driver, put his Monte Carlo in third, the Dodge of Las Vegas driver John Keller was fourth while Yucaipa's Big Rob Kiemele represented the Toyota camp by rounding out the top five.

After the checkers flew through the air to conclude the Hornaday 100, Ash treated the OSS fans to a very impressive front stretch burn out. Once he parked his Chevrolet Monte Carlo, sponsored by RC Racing Decals and Mobility Assistance, into victory lane the happy winner of $2,000 said "this car was amazing. We kind of stumbled in qualifying a little but, I don't want to say we sandbagged, but the inversion dice played in our favor. I got out front and was just cruising. They told me there were ten laps to go. I was hoping we wouldn't get a restart with just ten laps to go because the car was a lot better during a long run. My crew chief, Aaron, did an awesome job and we've got a new sponsor, Mobility Specialists, and it's great to have them on board. This trip was just fun. I haven't been racing that much this year and this definitely made it worth it."

Ron Hornaday Junior started sixth in the race bearing his name and was driving a Chevrolet Monte Carlo sponsored by Black Jack Fireworks and Keller Engines. The racing was extremely tight and it took him to lap 22 to crack the top five. But a short track ace like Hornaday knows to look for alternative means and he thrilled the large crowd of fans by moving to the track's outside line and placed his right side fenders literally inches from the wall. However the effort unraveled on lap 33 when he slowed dramatically and left the track. Later in the evening there was a report of brake problems with the car.

The ASA Pro Four Series also saw action on this night but had only 20 laps to get the job done. This was based on a call by OSS officials after they received reports of heavy rains working their way towards the San Bernardino area. It was too bad the impending weather, which actually never arrived, had to cut short what was a very exciting race. In the latter stages of the race David Glidewell and Chuck Becker were door to door before Glidewell was able to take command of the race for good on lap15. Kyle McGrady, Randy Davidhizer and Kendall Scheidecker followed them under the chekcers to complete the top five.

After pulling his Napa-Riverside Recycling-Fastrack Engineering Toyota Camry into the OSS victory lane, the series rookie joined his team and began the process of celebrating his first win. "This is my first series win," he said adding "I just started this deal with the help of my brother, (Bryan), and my family. This is actually my fourth race. We only had to make a few changes to the car. Eddie Secord, from Fastrack Engineering, set the car up and it worked really good. Over the past several weeks I've learned to be patient and things will come to you. That's what I did, I just hung back and everyone else had problems. When it was go time I battled my way to the front."

The Leno's Rico Taco Legend Series were also a part of this big night at the OSS. During their feature race Broc Murphy led the first eight circuits before Chase Catania pulled up alongside of his door to take the point. But all of that unraveled on lap 15 when the two drivers made contact and Cantania took a 360 ride through turn one. Both drivers were sent to the rear of the field for being involved in the yellow flag. That put El Cajon's Brian Tycski into the lead and he made very quick work of running out the laps to take the win. Cantania and Murphy recovered to finish second and third while Tyler Fabozzi took fourth.

After treating the fans to some smoky donuts, Tycski pulled his 1934 Chevy Sedan in victory lane and made it a point to thank his sponsors which included Teldata, Beer King, J&M Auto Body and Salm Engineering and Grading. "This is awesome," the happy winner said adding "I just started out this year so to win so soon really feels great." When asked if he was biding his time to see if Cantania and Murphy were going to get into each other, Tycski said "that was in the back of my mind during the whole race."

The fan favorite ASA Factory Fours put on their usual highly spirited main event that featured plenty of side by side racing. Throughout this race it appeared that Kim Marzullo was on her way to a second feature win. However that effort was upset on the final turn of the final lap when Jim Edmiston accidentally tapped her rear bumper and sent the race leader into a spin. A very surprised Duane Blay found himself in a drag race to the checkers with Edmiston for a finish that was too close to call. OSS officials declared Blay the winner and cited the fact that Edmistion would have been sent to the rear of field anyway due to his involvement in the race ending spin out. The final outcome moved Drew Reid, Benjamin Mahan, Art Ramirez and Greg Barnett up the standings to complete the top five.

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