Under the blue skies of a beautiful, January 10th, Sunday afternoon in Rosamond-California, the Willow Springs Speedway launched the debut of their winter racing series on the quarter mile paved oval located within the mammoth Willow Springs International Motorsports Park. Eight different racing divisions entertained the fans that afternoon.
One of the stand outs from this afternoon was without question the presence of Bobby Dezarov who arrived at the Willow Springs Speedway with a recently acquired street stocker. Not only did the shake down of the new car work well, he also managed to shake up the competition on this Sunday afternoon. The Palm Desert-California driver finished second in the street stock main event and then entered the late model main, for some extra lap time, and surprised the competition by winning the 25 lap feature.
In the street stock main event Ray Mood was formidable during the course of the division's 25 lap feature. The Diamond Springs-California driver passed Dezarov for the lead early in the event and successfully fended off a tight battle to keep that lead all the way to the checkers. Following Mood and Dezarov across the line were Walt Price Jr, Kelly Whitfield and Tom Wilson to complete the top five. Rounding out the street stock main event field were Randy Wilkins, Darren Cheek, Alex Anderson, Ron Davis, Henry Weslowski and Tim Byrd. In the preliminary events Wilson won a heat race and the trophy dash while Dezarov won the second heat.
However Dezarov's Sunday afternoon at the Willow Springs Speedway was far from over. An unanticipated car count in the late model division prompted six street stock drivers to join the field for some extra lap time and racing fun. Their presence in the division's 25 lap feature race would turn out to loom large due to a finish that was also unanticipated.
When the late model main received the green flag Valencia-California's Dana Moore roared out of the front row and jumped into the lead. Despite the presence of some white smoke, coming out of the exhaust portal especially when the car exited the corners, Moore's Pontiac was strong and looked like a sure fire winner.
However, the race leader had some very strong competition from Tehachapi-California's Doug Foos who was literally glued to Moor's rear bumper throughout the event. Approximately two thirds into the race the inevitable contact from hard racing occurred and the two drivers found themselves parked next to each other at the top of turn two following a crash. Both cars had to exit the track although Foos later returned to the race.
All this while Bobby Dezarov was riding in third and watching the leaders. It was likely that he anticipated something was going to happen in front of him. The opportunity soon presented itself and Deazrov took command of the race and ripped off some very fast laps all the way to the checkers.
The late model main event turned into the a street stock bonanza. The street stocks of Ray Mood, Randy Wilkins and Tom Wilson followed the race leader across the line. Foos recovered from the earlier altercation and was the only actual late model in the top five finishing order.
The mini stock and factory four divisions ran a combined main event on this Sunday afternoon at the Willow Springs Speedway. Once the field received the green flag the mini stockers of Rodney Bornhop and Greg Didoha made quick work of separating themselves from the field and, during the opening laps of the race, treated the fans to some door to door racing for the lead. However Bornhop's mini stocker seemed to be well balanced and was able to run the low lines especially coming through the corners. That allowed him to break away and take the win.
Didoha, Tony Polisano and J J Barnett were credited for the final order of the mini stock portion of this race. Making his Sunday in Rosamond even sweeter was that the fact that Bornhop also won the division's heat race and trophy dash.
But it was the lead car in the factory stock portion of the race within a race that garnered the most attention on this day. That's because the division main event winner was young Tony Forfa IV who is all of eleven years old. The young driver was on the track with his dad, Tony III, and the Forfas really seemed to be enjoying a family outing at the speedway. The final race results showed Tony Forfa III and Gary Mendoza taking second and third in factory stock portion of the race. In the division's preliminary events Gary Mendoza won the heat race while Tony Forfa III took the trophy dash.
After parking his car in victory lane to receive his trophy, it was clearly evident that young Forfa was advancing and enhancing his family's racing legacy. During the course of the post race ceremony a lot of observers, from pit road to the spectator grand stands, were all asking the same question: "how good of a driver is this young man going to turn into during the years to come?"
It also needs to be pointed out that Apple Valley-California's Jethro Blaylock was in this event as the lone entry representing the sport compact division. He will be getting the credit and the points for a division win.
The always popular legend cars were also a part of this Sunday afternoon of racing at the Willow Springs Speedway. Once under green in their main event Santee-California's Darren Amidon only needed three quarter mile circuits to catch and pass early race leader Bob Blackmon to take command of the race for good. Art Neville, Blackmon, Bill Vose, "Papa" Jim Pantier, Derek Lacey, Jason Duncan, Frank Baker and Mitchell DeJong completed the finishing order. In the division's preliminary events Amidon also won the second heat race while Neville took heat one as well as the trophy dash.
In the pure street stock main it appeared that Rosamond' Gary Keaster was going to be the driver to beat. However, contact from some very close quarter racing found the race leader spinning through turn four. Curtis "Down Town" Dyre took over the point with Rosamond's Erik Rapos right behind him. Midway through the event Rapos used the presence of a lapped car, riding in front of the race leader, as a pick which allowed him to make a well timed pass on the outside of turns three and four to take command of the race. From that point it was just a matter of Rapos running out the laps to take the win. Dyre, Keaster and Matthew Wolfe followed him under the checkers. In the division's preliminary events Rapos also won the heat race while Keaster took the trophy dash.
The Willow Springs Sunday afternoon concluded with the Figure Eight division. Jon Christensen, a veteran of this type of racing, slung his car around the corners and through the X like he was on a dirt track and easily claimed the win. Gary Keaster, Randy Wilking, Matthew Wolfe and Tony Forfa III completed the top five.
The stage is now set for round two of winter points racing at the Willow Springs Speedway which will be held on Sunday afternoon January 31st. For complete details dial up the speedway's website at www.beyondwillowspeedway.com.
