Today's Scheduled features: BIG 5 SUPER LATE MODELS, WINGED MODIFIEDS, CHAMPIONSHIP RACE FOR THE HORNETS, BUMP TO PASS, "PLUS" THE FIRST BUMP TO PASS BOAT & TRAILER RACE...
Today's first group of racers were the very fast Winged Modifieds. The fast time qualifier for the day was #2 Mike Roberts setting the pace with a quick 11.817. The trophy dash was won by the points leader #65 Monte Zema Jr. The B heat race was won by #55 Don Kudrna with #33 Rick Nelson taking second and the A heat race was won by #65 Monte Zema Jr again with #82 RJ Fronsman taking second. So it was time for the 30 lap main event with twelve cars coming around turn four with #33 Nelson at the pole. Before the race got started #16 Brian Andruss went into the pits, his front end was in bad shape due to a collision with turn four earlier in the day. The green flag was thrown and #55 Kudrna jumped into the lead by turn two, gaining a comfortable eight car lead by lap three. Here comes last years champion #15 Sherri Howard in second with #65 Zema right behind her. By lap thirteen, there was a three car break away for the lead, battling each other for position. With lap traffic, the leaders were really challenged to hold their position. On lap twenty, #65 Zema takes the low groove and captures second place. On lap twenty-three, #2 Roberts takes the low groove on Howard and captures third place. With only four laps to go, #65 Zema jumps to the low groove on Kudrna in turn three and takes the lead with #2 Roberts right behind, leaving Kudrna on the high groove to fall to third place. Mike Roberts is all over the leader and these two drivers are really going at it. On lap twenty-nine, the final lap Roberts keeps a sharp eye out for an opportunity. They come around turn three into lap traffic and in turn four Zema is slightly blocked and Roberts takes a very low groove to race to the checkered flag....It was right down to the wire, Roberts wins by a nose.... The official results are as follows: Winner #2 Mike Roberts, 2nd #65 Monte Zema Jr, 3rd #55 Don Kudrna, 4th #15 Sherri Howard, 5th #66 Mark Jones, 6th #82 RJ Fronsman, 7th #44 Todd Coleman, 8th #05 David Hill, 9th #28 Chris Soden, 10th #33 Rick Nelson, 11th #45 Corey Harbison and 12th place was the unlucky #16 Brian Andruss. Notice After This Race: #65 Monte Zema Jr is Crowned the 2002 Winged Modified Champion!
The second group of racers were the Crazy Bump To Pass Drivers. The fast time qualifier for the day was #1 John Wagner with a 17.482. The Trophy Dash and the Heat race was won by the new points leader #0 Chuck Wagner. (Trying to get some distance between himself and his closely matched brother) So it was time for the 20 lap main event with #89 Rick Pygott at the pole. The green was thrown, surprisingly in turn three we were four cars wide and we made it a complete lap without a yellow flag. On lap two, on the back stretch #89 Pygott's car died causing our first yellow flag. The leaders were #22 Darren Goetz, #77 Buddy McClellan, #76 Ervin Caveness and #68 Bob Greiner. By the fourth lap, #22 Goetz was way out front dominating the field but there's a lot more racing left. On lap five, #5 John Jones does his own 360 in turn four, smoke covers the crowd and he keeps on going like nothing happened. On lap seven, here comes #5 Jones again into turn four and he tries to climb the wall, bouncing off and just keeps on going again. I wonder if he is consouce? Then about at the same time, the Wagner brothers smack together in turn two, #0 Wagner with a flat tire heading for the pits and #1 Wagner pulled into the pits by Randy's Towing and is out for the evening. During the yellow flag, while Wagner was being removed, the safety crew had to remove the exhaust system that fell off in turn four from #5 Jones. #0 Wagner had returned to the race before the green flag was thrown for the restart. There's oil all over the track so the red light was on, delaying the restart. On the restart #68 Bob Greiner is the leader, everyone else is a lap down. With eight cars coming around to take the green, #69 Kenny Evans starts smoking his tires, no one watches the flagger, they start racing anyway, no green flag was thrown so we had a practice lap. The green flag was finally thrown, #77 McClellan smacks the wall in turn two and by lap eleven, #69 Evans spins out in turn four throwing the infield grass all over the track. By lap fifteen, #68 Greiner has to break down to lose this one. On lap seventeen, #89 slams the wall in turn four after bouncing off #69 Evans. This was enough for who was left, the officials called it a eighteen lap main event with #68 Greiner taking the checkered flag. So the official results are brought to you by Wenatcheecars.com as follows: Winner #68 Bob Greiner, 2nd #22 Darren Goetz, 3rd #77 Buddy McLellan, 4th #0 Chuck Wagner, 5th #69 Kenny Evans, 6th #08 Chuck Neville, 7th #76 Ervin Caveness, 8th #27 Mike Sheehey, 9th #89 Rick Pygott, 10th #1 John Wagner, 11th #5 John Jones and 12th place goes to #88 Mike Head
The third group of racers were the Hornets for their Championship Race. The fast time qualifier for the day was the #15 Kris Fischer setting the pace with a 18.231. The trophy dash was won by #17 Gustavo Martinez. The B heat race winner was #23 Randy Dietrich and the A heat race was won by #66 Brian Bennett with the points leader #16 Tyrell Brim coming in second. So it was time for the 30 lap main event, eighteen cars coming around to take the green flag with #07 Doug Lantzy at the pole. Right off the bat, on lap one, turn four, the points leader #16 Brim hits the wall, dies on the front stretch and is out for the evening. On the restart #15 Kris Fischer got black flagged for jumping in front of others before crossing the green flag. With four cars wide and everyone battling for the lead, it was lap five before we could decide a consistent leader, it was #23 Randy Dietrich running away slightly from the field. By lap ten, #17 Gustavo Martinez was challenging the leader on the outside groove in turn, running side by side but ending up being blocked by lap traffic holding him in second place. Then here comes #63 Kevin Burley taking second place on the back stretch. On lap fourteen, #63 Burley bangs the wall in turn four, dies in the infield and needs a push truck for assistance. The leaders are as follows, #23 Dietrich, #17 Martinez, #6 Gordon Vanderank and #66 Brian Bennett. On the restart the battles were on and it was not until lap twenty-three when #66 Bennett got a little to aggressive when he bumped the rear of #17 Martinez in turn two which he got black flagged for. These drivers fought to the end, #6 Vanderank was all over the leader, bumping him at times but to no avail. The final results are brought to you by Wenatcheecars.com as follows: Winner #23 Randy Dietrich, 2nd #6 Gordan Vanderank, 3rd #17 Gustavo Martinez, 4th #7 Josh Sims, 5th #01 Brandon Knouf, 6th #80 Justin Hamlin, 7th #13 Jarod Sanford, 8th #33 Lee Jarolimek, 9th #07 Doug Lantzy, 10th #15 Kris Fischer, 11th #66 Brian Bennett, 12th #1 Wayne Duncan, 13th #61 Teddy Shales, 14th #0 Shawn Archer, 15th #2 Don Meza, 16th #77 Johnny Huson, 17th #63 Kevin Burley and 18th was #16 Tyrell Brim. For final championship results go to Wenatcheecars.com.
The fourth group of racers for the evening were the Super Late Models. The fast time qualifier belonged to the track owner, but very talented driver Garrett Evans, setting the pace with a 12.799. The track record was set back in 2001 by Jeff Bailey with an unheard of 12.475. Evans car was really set up well for today's racing action, he is in eleventh place for the year and it's not every day when your car fits the driver and the track. The trophy dash was also won by the fast time winner Evans which gave him the option to call for the invert during the main event, Garrett chose a 6 car invert to be a as fair as possible to all the drivers for the 100 lap main. Any car can wreck or just break down, there are no sure things as all you race fans know, anything can happen. So the cars came around turn four to take the green flag with #33 Rick Schultz at the pole. This was quarter mile track action at its finest, the leaders were battling like no other, they were three cars wide in turn three which is very rare for these high dollar cars. After the first ten laps, Evans had worked all the way from sixth place to side by side with the leader Schultz. Even with Evans on the outside, it just took a couple of laps before he had the lead in his possession. By lap sixteen, #99 Shane Mitchell was all over Schultz, going high on the front stretch and taking a solid second place after a couple of laps battling with him. By lap thirty-four the first yellow flag was thrown due to #75 Curt Phillips and the points leader #2 Bill Lawrence spinning out in turn two. This tightened the field and gave Mitchell his chance to capitalize on the leader. By lap fifty-three, Evans was looking untouchable, his car was hooked up and he was on, holding a fine line and making no mistakes for Mitchell to take. As the Lawrence car came down the front stretch you could hear his motor miss, possible sucked valve but he kept on racing. On lap seventy-six, Mitchell was pushing his car for all he could, getting loose in turn two and he just was not able to keep up with Evans. It was Evans night to shine and what a great race it was....Bill Lawrence has possibly sealed the championship for the year, get the official updates as they come in at Wenatcheecars.com. The official race results for this race were as follows: Winner #64 Garrett Evans, 2nd #99 Shane Mitchell, 3rd #84 Christian Roader, 4th #33 Rich Schultz, 5th #22 Bryan Goetz, 6th #7 Chuck Ogle, 7th #63 Gary Shales, 8th #58 Gary Fink, 9th #2 Bill Lawrence, 10th #26 Alan Spivey, 11th #75 Curt Phillips, 12th #21 Mike Kaiser and 13th place went to #35 Kris Touchette.
The fifth main event for the evening was an all new Bump To Pass Trailer/Boat Pulling Competition. There were only 5 cars left running from the earlier Bump To Pass Race. Each one got to hook up to a beautiful boat and trailer. The last car running with a boat on the back wins. What a thing this was to see....Cars were doing their usual smoking of tires, squealing around the turns, no rules with the added attraction of a boat on a trailer. We made it one lap with all the boats still in place, by the second lap things were changing. It all started with #69 Kenny Evans bumping into a boat with his car, ending up with #27 Mike Sheeheys boat in turn two with a detatched trailer on its side in front of it and the race continued. Then here comes #68 Bob Greiner with his boat falling off in turn two also. #22 Darren Goetz lost his boat on the back stretch, ending up in the infield and shutting down for the evening. Then we came down to the finalists, the close friends of #77 Buddy McClellan and #69 Kenny Evans. They battled for a solid lap with McClellans boat coming off first in turn four, leaving Kenny Evans as the first BTP Trailer pulling race champion.
Next weeks Features: THE FINAL NIGHT OF CHAMPIONSHIP RACES, WITH TWIN 30 LAP LATE MODEL STOCK CAR RACES PLUS GRAND NATIONALS, MINI SUPER STOCKS, MINI SPORTSMEN AND THE BUMP TO PASS
Come on down, bring the family, bring a friend, bring a stranger and have a great time! This is for the Championship of 2002, try not to miss it
