Irwindale,, Calif. -- Results Saturday night (March 24) from the running of the Silver Crown 100 Coors Light Silver Bullet Series Race at Irwindale Speedway, with starting position in parentheses, driver, hometown, laps completed, reason out if any and money won:
"I told you I'd be back," said Russ Gamester of Peru, Ind. in the post-race interview after winning Saturday night's "K & N Classic" 100-lap USAC Coors Light Silver Bullet race at the Irwindale (Calif.) Speedway. Gamester won a similar race at Irwindale last October.
Russ started 20th in the 30-car field but quickly worked his way through traffic and took the lead from Aaron Fike on lap 62. He led the rest of the way in his Terre Haute First National Bank machine to claim the $9,100 first prize and emerged as the new series point leader going into a May 5 race at Nazareth, Pa.
"We made major changes to the car after qualifying," he admitted. "But I think we were better than we were last year. Now we're going to make a serious run at the championship." A late-race yellow flag bunched the field but despite a vibration in his car Russ was confident he could hold off Fike. John Heydenreich, J.J. Yeley and Jason McCord rounded out the "top-five" at the checkered flag. Dave Steele led the first 13 laps before spinning out and Fike led the next 48 laps before yielding to Gamester.
Dave Darland won the Oliver Trucking pole position for the 100-lap race but slipped to 17th in the final rundown. Derek Davidson won the 15-lap "qualifying race."
USAC COORS LIGHT SILVER BULLET SERIES RACE RESULTS: March 24, 2001 -- Irwindale, California --Irwindale Speedway - "K & N Classic"
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Dave Darland, 56, Foxco-16.664; 2. Dave Steele, 19, GMS-16.672; 3. Aaron Fike, 92, Hoerner-16.763; 4. Ed Carpenter, 11, Snider/Foyt-16.779; 5. Tracy Hines, 37, Indiana Underground-16.781; 6. J.J. Yeley, 111, Snider/Foyt-16.783; 7. Jason McCord, 4, Contos-16.797; 8. Kasey Kahne, 67, Zarounian-16.842; 9. Jay Drake, 62, Beaver-16.877; 10. John Heydenreich, 110, West-16.902; 11. Brian Tyler, 69, Dynamics-16.948; 12. Paul White, 10, Cook-16.949; 13. Wayne Chinn, 71, Chinn-16.979; 14. Jerry Coons, Jr., 35, RE-17.001; 15. Michael Lewis, 85, Lewis-17.024; 16. Dane Carter, 27, Carter-17.038; 17. Tyler Walker, 2, Vance-17.092; 18. Brad Armstrong, 59, Westcon-17.098; 19. Gary Hieber, 66, EWH-17.126; 20. Russ Gamester, 51, Gamester-17.152; 21. Bud Kaeding, 21, Dewitt-17.153; 22. A.J. Fike, 93, RFMS-17.174; 23. Chet Fillip, 77, Advanced Racing-17.178; 24. Robin Bank, 90, Duda-17.220; 25. Carl Edwards, 80, Edwards-17.248; 26. Tony Elliott, 20, Nolen-17.295; 27. Bentley Warren, 29, S & S-17.536; 28. Jimmy McCune, 01, West-17.550; 29. Kevin Kierce, 02, Swann-17.573; 30. Wally Pankratz, 98, Western Racing-17.743; 31. Daryl Daugherty, 34, D & D-18.048; 32. Cory Kruseman, 6, JD-18.294; 33. Derek Davidson, 25, BWB-18.375; 34. Rich Tobias, Jr., 74, RW-18.675; 35. Scott Hansen, 42, Robison-NT; 36. #135, RE-NT; 37. #9, East/Stewart-NT.
QUALIFYING RACE: (15 laps) 1. Davidson, 2. McCune, 3. Tobias, 4. Elliott, 5. Kierce, 6. Edwards, 7. Kruseman, 8. Daugherty, 9. Pankratz, 10. Warren. NT
FEATURE: (100 laps) 1. Russ Gamester, 2. Aaron Fike, 3. John Heydenreich, 4. J.J. Yeley, 5. Jason McCord, 6. Kasey Kahne, 7. Brian Tyler, 8. Tracy Hines, 9. A.J. Fike, 10. Tyler Walker, 11. Tony Elliott, 12. Ed Carpenter, 13. Paul White, 14. Chet Fillip, 15. Jay Drake, 16. Gary Hieber, 17. Dave Darland, 18. Dane Carter, 19. Dave Steele, 20. Robin Bank, 21. Carl Edwards, 22. Jerry Coons, Jr., 23. Kevin Kierce, 24. Derek Davidson, 25. Bud Kaeding, 26. Michael Lewis, 27. Brad Armstrong, 28. Wayne Chinn, 29. Jimmy McCune, 30. Rich Tobias, Jr. 37:54.68
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-13 Steele, Laps 14-61 Aaron Fike, Laps 62-100 Gamester.
NEW COORS LIGHT SILVER BULLET STANDINGS: 1-Gamester-99, 2-McCord-96; 3-White-90; 4-Kahne-76; 5-Steele-75; 6-Elliott-73; 7-Carter-71; 8-Yeley-68; 9-Darland-67; 10-Carpenter-65.
NEXT COORS LIGHT SILVER BULLET RACE: May 4-5 - Nazareth (PA) Speedway
USAC WESTERN SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: March 24, 2001 Irwindale, California, Irwindale Speedway
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Troy Cline, 11, Cline-16.493; 2. Tony Hunt, 77, Scott-16.590; 3. Randy Bauer, 81, Newman-16.647; 4. Tracy Hines, 27, Morales-16.653; 5. Rick Hendrix, 97, Hendrix-16.718; 6. John Ryals, 66, Ryals-16.831; 7. Todd Ellison, 14x, Ellison-16.862; 8. Jim Waters, 24, Waters-16.874; 9. Jeff Gardner, 51, Gardner-16.879; 10. Bobby McMahan, 26, Espindola-16.912; 11. Damien Gardner, 20, Gardner-16.917; 12. Rick Williams, 6, Williams-16.957; 13. Ryan Flynn, F1, Flynn-17.019; 14. Scott Hansen, 33, Hansen-17.041; 15. Bryan Bullard, 14, Pierson-17.099; 16. Amy Barnes, 12, Barnes-17.110; 17. Anthony Simone, 10, Simone-17.129; 18. Tom Stansberry, 75, Stansberry-17.143; 19. Kevin Kierce, 2, Swann-17.228; 20. Brian Evans, 87, Evans-17.270; 21. Shauna Hogg, 5, Hogg-17.328; 22. Bryan Stanfill, 88, Bumgarner-17.351; 23. Kevin Urton, 21, Urton-17.458; 24. Mark Monico, 21x, Monico-17.535; 25. Randy DuBois, 79, DuBois-17.570; 26. Randy Mello, 25, Mello-17.642; 27. Ryan Burdette, 36, Burdette-17.982; 28. Gregory Giardina, 31, Giardina-18.805; 29. Shane Miller, 78, Miller/Holz-19.635; 30. Don O'Keefe, 0, O'Keefe-23.042;31. Ray Evans, 82, Evans-NT; 32. Mike Gilmore, Jr., 48, Tuttle-NT.
QUALIFYING RACE: (12 laps) 1. Urton, 2. Hogg, 3. Kierce, 4. Stanfill, 5. Miller, 6. Monico, 7. B. Evans, 8. DuBois, 9. Burdette, 10. Gilmore, 11. Giardina, 12. O'Keefe, 13. Mello. 3:30.41
FEATURE: (40 laps) 1. Tracy Hines, 2. Randy Bauer, 3. Troy Cline, 4. Bobby McMahan, 5. Jeff Gardner, 6. Bryan Bullard, 7. Ryan Flynn, 8. Todd Ellison, 9. Anthony Simone, 10. Tony Hunt, 11. John Ryals, 12. Damien Gardner, 13. Rick Williams, 14. Randy DuBois, 15. Scott Hansen, 16. Mark Monico, 17. Kevin Urton, 18. Tom Stansberry, 19. Brian Evans, 20. Rick Hendrix, 21. Shauna Hogg, 22. Kevin Kierce, 23. Amy Barnes, 24. Bryan Stanfill, 25. Shane Miller, 26. Jim Waters. NT ------------------- FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-2 Cline, Laps 3-34 Hines, Lap 35 Hunt, Laps 36-40 Hines.
NEW WESTERN SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-Hines-63; 2-Bauer-61; 3-Cline-60; 4-Gardner-48; 5-Bullard-45; 6-Ellison-39; 7-Hunt-38; 8-Simone-36; 9-Ryals-32; 10-D.Gardner-29.
NEXT WESTERN SPRINT CAR RACE: March 31 - El Cajon, CA - Cajon Speedway
ABOVE FEATURE AND RESULTS COURTESY UNITED STATES AUTO CLUB
Attendance: 5,264
Also on the night's exciting triple-bill was the first appearance of the Automobile Club of Southern California NASCAR Late Models. Riverside's own Todd Burns that he had speed to burn as he qualified on the pole and led every lap to post a win in the victory column for the Villa Roma Sausage team. Thirty-one Late Models started the 50 lap stock car feature with 26 finishers (17 of them on the lead lap at the end).
Part of a deliberately-booked "mixed" night of divisions, the Auto Club Late Models impressed everyone at the track including the President of USAC, John Capels, who complimented the local division on both the good looks of the machines and the quality of the show that they put on for the fans.
Behind Burns first Mike Price, from San Pedro, and then Doug McComb from West Covina, and then Derek Ward (So . OK, we'll call him "The X-Man" since his car number is the Roman numeral "X" . Don't get any ideas Todd # IIII or Mike Haney #XXXIII, the Advantage Ford scoring pylon only goes to two digits), took turns trying to catch the fast-flying number 4 car but to no avail. Palm Springs-type Ward got a well-deserved "show" with Alta Loma's Haney up for the "place" money in Saturday night's stock car contest.
After the checker a proud Burns cruised the Irwindale grandstands from right to left holding three fingers high in a victory salute to the late Dale EarnHardt. -DS
NEXT WEEK: A FIVE-RING CIRCUS OF ACTION FEATURING THE FOOD 4 LESS SUPER LATE MODELS, KING TACO LEGEND CARS, NASCAR SUPER STOCKS, GRAND AMERICAN MODIFIEDS, AND ULTRA WHEEL SUPER TRUCKS! (MAR 31)
