VENTURA, California — Kenny Wiley became the fifth and final leader of the NMRA-TQ Midget Series 25-lap feature Thursday night at the fifth-mile clay Ventura Raceway. The Ventura County Fair mid-week annual race attracted about 2,000 spectators on night two of the 12 day Ventura County Fair, which started 133 years ago in 1875. The fair, which is next to the Pacific Ocean, has “A Country Fair with Ocean Air” as its motto. The breezy climate agreed with Wiley, who recorded his second victory this season and the eighth of his eight year TQ career. He was the 2002 NMRA rookie of the year and the 2007 NMRA champion when he drove for Paul Lopiccolo, his car owner for six years. Round 11 of the 17 event NMRA season had 11 cars in competition and five of them led the main event at one point in the most competitive NMRA race of the season.
Wiley started sixth and led the final 11 laps in his Teri Wiley one of a kind WMK chassis with a Suzuki 760cc engine. He revealed that his car started as a USAC full midget (the No. 12 Dave Ellis-built chassis owned and driven by Rick Hendrix). Walt Johnson and his son Mitchell and driver Kenny shortened the car by cutting it at the firewall and rebuilding it as a three-quarter (TQ) midget during the off-season. The WMK chassis designation stands for the first initials of their first names. Wiley won race two of the 2009 season at Bakersfield on March 21 in the same car for its first feature triumph.
Rookie Amanda Thomas started second, out-jumped the pole starter at the initial green and led the first four laps. It was the first time she has led a TQ feature. West Evans, in his own Stealth/Suzuki, made an outside pass in turns one and two on lap 5 and paced three laps. Eighth starter Richard Ortega, Jr., a two-time winner this season, took the point on lap 8 by passing Evans on the inside from turn four to the starting line. Anthony Lopiccolo came from 11th starting spot to pass Ortega in the second turn on lap 11 for the lead. Wiley, after falling back to seventh initially, got rolling after three-wide racing in the early laps became double-wide. He took third on lap 11, second on lap 14 and first on lap 15. He used an inside turn four pass of Lopiccolo to take command. Wiley extended his advantage to half a straight and took the white flag, but a spin in turn two by Evans negated that lap.
Wiley took the green for lap 24 with Lopiccolo and Scott Dobson right behind him. Dobson, in Guy Barber's Rick Stewart chassis with Honda power, took second on lap 24 and trailed Wiley by 15 yards at the lap 25 checkers. Lopiccolo was one length back in third, with pole starter Chris Hedge fourth and Bruce Hiroshima fifth. Jimmy Dodson, Scott Niven, Thomas, Evans and Dave Lambert completed the top ten and all of them ran 25 laps. The 15-minute race had three brief yellow flags for spins--by Hiroshima on lap 2 in the first turn, by Niven on lap 11 in a third turn solo spin, and by Evans on the white flag lap. Ortega, the lap 8-10 race leader, was in third place on lap 20 when he slowed and pulled into the infield trailing fluid behind his car. A broken fuel line caused him to be the only retiree.
Ortega's retirement cost him the point lead and he dropped to second, 14 points in back of race runner-up Dobson. Both drivers are seeking their first TQ championship. NMRA teams ran a pair of 8-lap heat races. J. Dodson led all the way from the pole in the six-car first heat. S. Dobson started fifth, took the lead on lap 4 with an inside pass from the fourth turn to the starting line, and won the second heat by 20-yards over early leader Hiroshima. The next NMRA TQ event will be August 15 at Santa Maria Speedway.
An IMCA Modified 30-lap, 23-car feature concluded the three-division oval track racing portion of the entertaining evening as colorful fair rides operated beyond turn two. Danny Lauer started tenth and led laps 19-30 to win by half a straight over Josh Vogt, 20, in a 36-minute event with ten caution flags for spins and multi-car crashes. There were five complete two-abreast restarts before a single file restart enabled drivers to complete the first lap without incident. Mike Frazier led all 20 laps of the eight-car VRA Sport Compact front-wheel drive main. Brent Underwood led the final 11 laps of the 15-car VRA Sport Compact rear-wheel drive 20-lap main. An 11-car demolition derby concluded motorized action at the Miller Lite Grandstand. Travis Riley, in a 1978 Chevy station wagon, outlasted Mike Stanford after nine minutes of metal-smashing in the infield ended at 9:41 pm. Evan Thrasher, the Ventura Fair demo derby winner a night earlier, had his 1963 Chrysler Imperial eliminated early Thursday as he tried to win two demo derbies in a row.
| NMRA SUMMARY |
|---|
| Heat 1: Jimmy Dodson, Richard Ortega, Jr., Kenny Wiley, Amanda Thomas, Dave Lambert, Anthony Lopiccolo. Heat 2: Scott Dobson, Bruce Hiroshima, Chris Hedge, West Evans, Scott Niven. Main: Wiley, Dobson, Lopiccolo, Hedge, Hiroshima, Dodson, Niven, Thomas, Evans, Lambert, Ortega. |
| NMRA POINT STANDINGS: (as of August 10) |
Drivers Car Owners 1 Scott Dobson 613 1. No. 18 Guy Barber 643 2 Richard Ortega, Jr. 599 2. No. 8 Richard Ortega, Jr. 629 3 Bruce Hiroshima 575 3. No. 5 Bruce Hiroshima 602 4 West Evans 554 4. No. 36 West Evans 584 5 Kenny Wiley 546 5. No. 96 Kenny Wiley 573 6 Anthony Lopiccolo 467 6. No. 21 Paul Lopiccolo 491 7 Scott Niven 444 7. No. 66 Scott Niven 471 8 Jimmy Dodson 426 8. No. 6 Jimmy Dodson 450 9 Dave Lambert 392 9. No. 55 Dave Lambert 423 10 Amanda Thomas ® 350 10. No. 40 Ed Thomas 377 |
