UKIAH, California — It was a double Doss night at Ukiah Speedway Saturday as both Mike Doss of Upper Lake, in the Airport Auto Brokers Late Model Series, and son Jeremy Doss, in the Airport Auto Brokers Legends Cars class, drove to victory in their respective divisions as the North State Racing Association opened it's 2011 auto racing season.
Other racing action saw 2-time track champion Dustin DeRosier of Cloverdale power by Eric Johnson on lap 13 to capture the Bill Binns Machine Shop Modified feature event. Jimmy Sorrels of Ukiah stole the lead away from Rick Tommila on a lap-eight restart, and out-paced the field to win the season opener in the Bud Bomber class, and 10 year old Kolby Berry of Redwood Valley lead all 20 laps to win the Dennis Furia Heating and Air Bandolero main event.
Thirteen late models clocked in with fast qualifier Doss (12.437) starting 7th according to the pill draw. Pole setter Dallas Shane lead the way as Trevor Cristiani faded in the outside groove. This put Corey James in second and Todd Lands third. Doss passed Lands for third on lap eight, and two rounds later drove under James. When Doss caught Shane he bumped Shane resulting in Shane's car spinning to bring out the first yellow. Doss restarted in the rear and both Shane and Junior Roddy retired their cars to the pits.
This left Clay Caturegli up front with Cristiani along side for the double-file restart. Cristiani could not hold on, allowing James and Jimmy Stillman, Jr. to forge ahead. Steven Gannon followed in fifth with Doss charging hard through the pack to sixth by lap 25. James passed Caturegli for the lead on lap 27 and Stillman tapped the back of Caturegli's car, spinning him in the process. While the field was slowed, Roddy attempted to rejoin the field and drove into the side of Gannon's car. Gannon continued but Roddy was out for the night.
The remaining laps saw Doss back in the lead on lap 50 where he held it the final 25 laps for the win. Cristiani got by James to finish second with James, Stillman, and Gannon rounding out the top five.
Dash winners were Stillman and Caturegli. Race fans chose Jeremy Donahoo's #05 as the best appearing Late Model
Eighteen Legends Cars took the initial green flag in their 30 lapper with Jim Sturges pulling ahead of Mike DeMartini at the start. Derek Lovell passed Sturges for first place on lap six just before Scott Sabol wheel-hopped Angel Morfin's car bringing out the yellow flag. Three more yellow flags fell before action got back to racing, and when it did Jeremy Doss took control with Jerry Wilkins in second and Mike Lovell in third. Anther three caution periods took their toll on time and the race was yellow-checkered early with Doss the happy winner. Lovell settlead for second with Sabol making a good come-back to finish third. Wilkins and David Fisher rounded out the top five.
Lovell's set fast time of 14.520, heat wins went to Sturges, Derek Lovell and Sabol. Wilkin's car was voted best appearing.
A short field of Modifieds saw Richard Knight and Eric Johnson run side-by-side for four laps before Johnson finally pullead into the lead.
Shasta visitor Kyle Borden drove under Knight for second with Darrin Knight, driving the Bob Strauss modified, pulling into third on six.
Knight had two solo spins to slow the action, and on the lap 12 restart, DeRoiser inched under Johnson and stole the lead.
Borden and D. Knight were swapping paint back and forth until finally Borden slowed and pullead off the track. DeRosier kept Johnson behind him to capitalize on the win. Johnson finished second with D. Knight third and R. Knight fourth. D. Knight set fast time of 13.224 and DeRosier won the heat race. Johnson's car was voted the best appearing Modified.
Rick Tommila lead the way over the 14 car Bomber feature with Cindy Allen in second and Rick Jelton in third. Jesse Frey spun in front of the pack on the second go-round and as the pack scattered Brenton Smith slapped the front-stretch wall. Both cars continued with no yellow thrown, but on lap seven Bob Mook spun and was clipped by Smith. Smith's car drove off the track and had to be towed out of the dirt.
This put Jimmy Sorrels along side Tommila for the restart and when they drove hard into turn one Tommila lost control and spun out. Sorrels restarted next to Jelton where they battlead two laps before Sorrels pullead ahead. Defending champ George Abella joined the front runners as did Anthony McCoy and Brandon Verde.
Sorrels checked out leaving the pack to fend for themselves, lapping several cars in the closing laps. The final caution came on lap 28 when Smith spun in two, and at the checkered flag it was Sorrels, McCoy, Verde, Jelton and Abella. Smith was the quick qualifier at 15.904, heat wins went to Abella and Verde, and Abella's car was chosen best appearing by the race fans.
The Bandolero class was represented by several rookies, but it only took returning driver and fast qualifier (15.637) Kolby Berry one lap to come from the back of the pack to the lead with an inside pass on eight year old newby Colby Furia. Tim Buzzard and Furia swapped places twice but on lap 9 Furia bumped the back of Berry, breaking Beery loose. Berry collected it up to continue, but Furia lost control and drove off the track in turn two.
The remaining laps went without incident with Beery the winner over Trystan Mucci, Furia Buzzard, Sammy Nuno and Dylan Washburn. Furia won the heat race and also collected best appearning car honors.
Auto racing resumes at Ukiah Speedway this Saturday night with the Street Stocks and Pro-4 Modifieds joining the Legends Cars, Bombers and Bandoleros. Gates open at 5:00 pm with racing at 7:00 pm. For more information about the auto races, call the speedway office at
707-462-7242 or 707-274-1354, or visit the website at www.UkiahSpeedway.com.
