Chowchilla California – More than the wind blew through the Chowchilla Speedway on Sunday May 29th, in addition to twenty mile an hour winds there were one hundred mile per hour race cars flying around the fast valley dirt track located at the Chowchilla Fairgrounds.
Fourteen hard charging drivers took to the track in the headlining Sport Mod main event and from the drop of the green flag it was clear this was going to be a hammer down event. Ray Tevis and Tim Prothro established early in the race that they would be in the mix up front, Robert Fandry, Shawn Bryant, Cody Brown, Mitch Enos and Joe Dias also let it be known they were up on the wheel for this event as well.
With ten different drivers out of the fourteen capable of winning this race track point leader Gary Hildebrand had his work cut out for him, not to mention the fact he now has a cash bounty on his head started by the track announcer. Mitch Enos whipped Hildebrand in the heat race, so others appeared to take note for the main that he was beatable.
If Hildebrand did not already have a full plate with ten thirteen very hungry drivers and some big cash on the line, he suffered a flat tire on lap five after contact with a hard charging Robert Fandry. After a fast pit stop Hildebrand worked his way through the pack back towards the front.
Ray Tevis was in control of the first half of the race, with Bryant, Brown, Fandry, Enos and Prothro fighting over the second spot. Several incidents brought out the caution flag causing some very intense restarts in the race. Brown looked as though it could be his night to take home the big check as his car was very fast but suffered a huge push in the middle of the corner, and this appeared to be the reason he spun the car of Tim Prothro ending both of their chances for victory lane.
By the time Hildebrand had worked his way into the top five he had a problem, and it was named Mitch Enos. Tevis was in a three way fight for the lead with Bryant and Enos, and Enos had the better handling car of the three. But in racing to have a hot winning streak it takes hard work and a little luck every now and then, and luck would come Hildebrand’s way as Mitch Enos broke a suspension part taking him out of the battle up front.
On the next restart Hildebrand flew by the front two taking the lead. Most thought it was over as this was on lap twenty-two of the thirty lap event, but to the crowds surprise Tevis was up on the wheel and all over the back bumper of the track point leader. In fact Tevis was driving so hard you could see nothing but hands flying in the car, it looked like he was getting ready to rope a steer from inside his race car!
When the checkered flag went into the night sky it was Hildebrand taking the $500 victory with Tevis and Bryant right on his heels. Cody Brown and Robert Fandry made up the balance of the top five.
The Dwarf cars fly around the Chowchilla Speedway, and they ran speeds in the main event that were simply amazing. They were three and four wide much of the race and short of two caution flags, they run so close to each other and do it perfectly. After twenty five hair raising laps it was Cameron Diatte taking the win over Gene Pires, Shawn Jones, Ryan Diatte, and Mark Biscardi for the top five. Fans and the Chowchilla Speedway staff greatly appreciate the professionalism the Dwarf drivers display on and off the race track.
Ryan Hart has been a dominate driver in the Hobby Stock class during 2011, but for the last three races he has seen out of town drivers come in and take the big prize of first place out from under his nose. First it was the veteran driver Mark Keyes, then Marshel Weaver pulled the rug out from under him during the fair race, and this week he saw the smooth driving second generation Watsonville driver named Nick Silva do it to him in the $500 to win Tri-Holiday event.
Silva and Hart thrilled everyone with their back and forth racing, but Silva was able to hold Hart off and take the big check home. Matt Kyle was very impressive and ran a close third to the front duo, the hard working Charles Parmley worked hard and finished fourth, Mike Germalt was fifth, with Kristie Shearer, and Dick Webb right behind him.
Robert Dias, Steven Hannah, and Gary Tucker put on one great race in the Super Stock main event as you could have thrown a blanket on all three of them. The only trouble was they were racing for second place as Roy Hart Jr. smoked them in this twenty-five lap $500 to win four car race! That’s right, a four car Super Stock race that paid $500 to win! In fact Hart was ready to lap all three of them when the checkered flag came out.
The 4-Banger race was a little wild to say the least, I’m told by the old guys this is what happens when you mix a low cost car and a high paying race? There was plenty of action for the fans that like wrecks in this one, and after many cautions it looked as though the race would settle down and let the guys and gal up front put on a great show.
This is just what they did for several laps until the second place car of Mike Pickering touched the first place car of Corky Galey in turns one and two, this turned into a real tank slapper for Galey as he fought his race car like riding a bull in the PBR all the way down the back straight. The car won this fight as he lost control going into turn three right in front of the hard charging pack behind him. It looked like a party favor blew up all over the track, but it was his race car and there was no party.
After a fifteen minute red flag he was removed from his car by paramedics, and the crew cleaned up the mess and towed his wrecked hot rod to the pits. The race got back under way and Mike Pickering out ran Jimmy “the stunt man” Wood and the impressive Tina Perez to the checkers to take the win. Terry Cheatman finished fourth, with Andrew Fountain fifth, Tom Frankina sixth, Corkey Galey seventh, and Johnny Tevis eighth.
Finally after a 55 minute 15 lap main event we have three happy drivers in victory lane receiving their trophies, hold on, it cannot end like this after this wild race…
The three drivers fire up their race cars and go to the pits, but all three failed to report to the technical inspection area, instead the winner went directly to his pit area, and the other two drivers follow him! Oh no, trouble…. The Chief Steward goes to their pit area to see why they did this, he performs the inspections and moves on. Once the race director found out about the failure to report to the inspection area he disqualified all three cars. “I hated to do this, especially after our pit steward was trying to work with them, but we were crystal clear in the drivers meeting, and we stated several times that the top three finishing cars had to go directly to tech or they would be DQ’d. So I had no choice but to disqualify all three of them” Kevin Vaught.
So the only three cars that were not wrecked got disqualified, giving the win and $150 check to Terry Cheatman, Andrew Fountain took second, Tom Frankina was paid for third, The crashed Corkey Galey got fourth, and Johnny Tevis got the fifth place check.
The next race is next Saturday night and the UMP Modifieds return to the Chowchilla Speedway!
