Mike Mendenhall had only started two previous races at Cajon Speedway in 1999. Both nights were full of misfortune. The third time however was the charm Saturday night. He led all 100-laps of the Coors Classic for late model sportsman on the 3/8 mile paved oval in front of largest crowd at the track in over six years.
The victory, witnessed by 5021 cheering fans, was worth $2500 to Mendenhall. That is the most ever paid for a late model race at the track. At the stripe, the polesitter was five lengths in front of Gary Tamborelli, who recently was crowned the Winston Racing Series champion at Cajon for the third straight season. Taking third was Todd McLauchlan. Austin Cameron, the night's quickest qualifier, was the only other driver to complete the full 100-rounds. Don Kerr nursed his badly smoking Monte Carlo home in fifth It marked the second straight year that Mendenhall has led the field home in the Coors contest. Last year, Tamborelli dominated until his Monte Carlo faltered in the final five rounds, allowing Mendenhall, Cameron, and John Borneman III to get by.
This year Tamborelli had worked his way past Borneman into the second spot on the 26th circuit. During most of the final 50 rounds, Tamborelli kept the pressure on the race leader. But in the final rounds, Tamborelli backed off a bit as the two leaders were working their way through lapped traffic. "Ron Zajicek, our rear end sponsor, underwent 10 hours of open heart surgery (in Los Angeles) yesterday," Mendenhall pointed out. "I hope he's doing good. They did the surgery and then they had to go in and do some emergency surgery later in the day. We are definitely thinking about him. I wish this (victory) would fix him up."
Fourteen of the 24 starters were around to take the checkered flag. Five yellow flags slowed the pace. The final 45 rounds ran non-stop. The race was the final event of the season for Cajon Speedway, which will celebrate its 40th season in 2000.
The first slowdown came just seven rounds in when the engine in Russ Gregson's Monte Carlo erupted. Then on lap 28 Rich Green Jr. and Claude Bell smacked together in turn two. Five rounds later Gary Jenkins and semi main winner Jess Flores locked horns in turn three. Tobin Whitt looped it in the same corner on lap 42. The final caution came started on lap 52 to remove a stalled car, which had stopped in the infield and was sitting too close to the track. As the field powered through turns three and four to retake the green flag, young Borneman appeared to deliberately take out Jerry Gay. Borneman was immediately black-flagged and banished to the pits for the remainder of the race.
When the green flag finally was unfurled for good on lap 55, Gay went to work on the field. He worked his way back up to sixth by the time the race concluded. Kerr and Cameron also put on quite a show for about ten rounds while they battled for fourth. Lap after lap the 23 year old Cameron would dip underneath the 20 year old Kerr in the corners. But he was unable to make it stick and would come off the corner sideways. He finally made it past on lap 72 and then slowly put distance on the San Diego State University sophomore, whose rear end was failing.
Mendenhall, who was a bit apprehensive before the race about having the stamina to complete the grind, was obviously pleased with him run. "I'm fine," he smiled while signing autographs for his young fans. "It's amazing. Harry Lockmann told me - you haven't raced 30 laps all year. I don't think you're going to make it. I was a little worried."
In the opening stages of the contest, Mendenhall ran away from his pursuers while Borneman and Tamborelli battled for the number two spot. But from the middle portions of the race on, the lead was never very large. "My crew kept giving me lap times," Mendenhall continued. "But I couldn't make up my mind what pace I wanted to run. But I thought about lap 60, I was running too hard and had run too hard up to that point. But on the greens right after the yellows, I ran as hard as I could for a couple of laps and made sure I was pulling away. Then I would kind of slow down again. We had a couple of passes on lapped cars that were sort of weird."
"But luckily that last yellow didn't come out. I was worried about the brakes the last ten laps. The pedal kept get lower and lower and I was pumping the brakes on the straighaways. I think if we would have had a restart right at the end, we could have been in big trouble. I don't know how good Gary was at that point. But I would have been really worried about charging into the corner with one lap to go or something on a restart. It probably would have just driven straight up because it wouldn't slow down."
The final race rundown saw five drivers end up one -lap down. Trailing Kerr and Gay in the final standings were Eric Ferguson, Chuck Trickle, Orange Show champ Roger Brown, and Arnie Fry, who was the first car listed two laps down. Trickle started 23rd. He ran nearly the entire event on seven cylinders and could have had a top five finish. He however spun all by himself in the south turn on lap 72.
Twenty-eight cars showed for the Coors contest. Orange Show regular WadeRiddering broke in hot lapping.
Fast qualifier D.J. Ferreria dominated the Spec Truck action. The San Jacinto racer smashed the one-lap qualifying standard and then led the field home in their 40-lap feature. Ferreira, who entered the night third in points, outdistanced point leader Steve Smith by a half straightaway. Nathan Wuiff, the second man in points, came home third. A series of late race yellow flags kept the field bunched up, but on each restart Ferreira would pull away. He started the evening by turning a quick lap of :16.645. That was nearly a full three-quarters of a second under the old standard of :17.342 set by Smith back on June 28, 1997.
The spec truck feature took two tries to get underway and then ran 18-rounds before the next slowdown. The final four caution periods all came in the final half of the contest - on laps 21, 25, and the final pair on lap 33. None of the incidents was serious.
CAJON SPEEDWAY WINSTON RACING SERIES RESULTS
LATE MODEL SPORTSMAN
Fast Time - Austin Cameron, El Cajon, :15.992.
Dash(6 laps) -
1 38 Todd McLauchlan 1:37.99
2. 12 Mike Mendenhall
3 170 Ray Hooper Jr.
4 30 Gary Tamborelli
5 112 Austin Cameron
6 81 John Borneman III
Semi (25 laps) -
1 53 Jess Flores 12:13.20
2 99 Claude Bell
3 41 Rick Bogart
4 03 Roger Brown
5 70 Chuck Trickle
6 4 Dee Cable
7 55 Jeff Seifert
8 36 Brian Koski
9 15 Ron Nava
Coors Main Event (100 laps) -
1 12 Mike Mendenhall 56:47.74
2 30 Gary Tamborelli
3 38 Todd McLauchlan
4 112 Austin Cameron
5 3 Don Kerr
6 1 Jerry Gay
7 67 Eric Ferguson
8 70 Chuck Trickle
9 03 Roger Brown
10 21 Arnie Fry
11 29 Tobin Whitt
12 5 John Manke
13 41 Rick Bogart
14 53 Jess Flores
15 170 Ray Hooper Jr.
16 29x Brandon Whitt
17 81 John Borneman III
18 99 Claude Bell
19 9 Gary Jenkins
20 56 Rich Green Jr.
21 26 John Tyczki Jr.
22 4 Dee Cable
23 69 Jeff Wright
24 22 Russ Gregson
SPEC TRUCK
Fast Time - DJ Ferriera, San Jacinto, :16.645.
Dash (6 laps) - 1. Nathan Wuiff, Escondido; 2. Bill Helgeson, Riverside; 3.
Steve Smith, Escondido, 1:42.76
Semi (20 laps) - 1. Angelo Gulotti, Malibu; 2. Jim Kondziela, Yorba Linda;
3. Trevor Brilman, Covina, 5:51.98.
Main Event (40 laps) - 1. DJ Ferreira, San Jacinto; 2. Steve Smith,
Escondido; 3. Nathan Wuiff, Escondido; 4. Dave Blankenship; 5. Vince Little,
Clovis, 27:04.52.
TRAIN RACE - Joe and Robert Totten, Lakeside
ATTENDANCE - 5021
