The Havasu 95 Speedway officially unlocked its gates this past Saturday and launched its 2009-2010 winter racing series. An avid group of local, as well as out of town, racing fans packed the grandstands and were truly thrilled about the return of ASA sanctioned stock car racing to Lake Havasu City-Arizona.
The speedway, known as the most scenic quarter mile asphalt oval in the southwest, responded by treating its fans to a full evening or racing from their ASA street stock, factory stock and bandolero divisions. The evening was highlighted by a visit from the SuperClean Modified Racing Series who ran a 75 lap, action packed, main event.
The ASA street stocks are once again going to be the lynch pin of the Havasu 95 Speedway's new winter racing season. It didn't take long to figure out that the division's feature race was going to become a launching pad for Ralph Adams to begin the process of winning another track championship.
Nathan Hovdal and Bud Schienley led the starters under the initial green flag. Adams started the race from the outside of row two and made very quick work of roaring into the lead before the first lap was completed. The only time Adams' race rhythm was disrupted was due to two caution flags in this race for spin outs. Other than that he hit his marks perfectly and won the race flag to flag.
Phillip Waterman followed the race winner across the line to finish second with Rick Maddox Jr, Nathan Hovdal right behind him. In the preliminary events Maddox won the heat race while Waterman won the trophy dash.
It was clearly evident that Adams is going to be the same tough competitor that he was during his 2008-09 championship season. Last year the 68 year old Oak Hills-California driver told everyone that his age was "34 times two." But since that time he's celebrated another birthday which means he may to change his age to "23 times 3."
It was also apparent that the youngsters in the speedway's bandolero division are going to have another exciting season. Saturday night's 20 lap feature certainly proved that point. Breanna Nelson came off of the front row and quickly established herself as the car and driver to beat. Unfortunately, that all unraveled on lap 17 when the race leader came off of turn two and hit the backstretch wall.
Reigning division champion Tommy Kelley, who had spent the majority of this event trying to overtake Nelson's lead, took the point and made quick work of running out the final three laps for the win. Ryan Cansdale, Kyle Niquette and Matthew Davey followed him across the line while Michelle Brachowski, a Phoenix driver making her series debut, completed the top five. In the preliminary events Ricky Schlick won the heat race while Niquette won the trophy dash.
Unfortunately this main event race was the scene of one of the hardest crashes of the evening. On lap nine cars driven by Jeremy Orozco and Schlick were racing down the front stretch when contact was made. Both machines slammed hard into the wall. Neither driver was injured but the same could not be said for their race cars.
The Havasu 95 Speedway's factory stock program is a major fan favorite and they, once again, delivered the fun and excitement. Lake Havasu City's "Jumbo" John Thorpe won the feature race after leading all of the laps except for one. Brady Juve, Shawn Deitch, Robert Berwick and Chris Blackwell completed the top five. In the division's preliminary events Thorpe and Berwick won the heat races, Lisa Snell won the trophy dash while Scott King won the B main.
The excitement level hit a frenzy pitch when 22 open wheel cars from the SuperClean Modified Racing Series came out onto the track for the running of the Sunoco Fuels 75. In what has now become a series tradition, all 22 drivers were holding American flags during the pre race parade laps while the speedway's sound system played the song "God Bless The USA."
From that point it was time for business and Riverside-California's Jim Mardis took care of business. Mardis led all 75 laps in a completely dominant performance for his very first series win. Reigning series champion Jimmy Dickerson was second while Chris Gerchman, Tim Morse and new series points leader Andrew Phipps completed the top five.
After the evening was over Havasu 95 Speedway promoter Bill Rozhon was all smiles. "I'm very excited," he said adding "you worry about it all summer with the economy and things like that. Historically, we've always had a good opening weekend and we did that again with a strong show featuring the SuperClean Modified Racing Series. We also had strong shows and car counts from our street stocks, factory stocks and even had 11 cars in bandolero division. That's as strong as any other track and I'm very proud of that. There's always some opening jitters but right now it feels good to sit down and relax."
Racing returns to the Havasu 95 Speedway on Saturday night, October 10th, with the season debut of the Gene Price Motorsports late model series as well as action from the ASA street stocks and the factory stock powder puffs. For complete details dial up their website at www.havasu95speedway.com.
