Veteran driver Bob Strauss of Lucerne was the big winner in the modified portion of the Jim McKinney Memorial at the Lakeport Speedway Saturday night, and his victory saw him win his 12th championship in his 30 year auto racing career. Strauss won the 2003 NCRA modified championship by 105 points over runner-up Terry McIntire of Kelseyville.
In the NCRA mini stock division it was Kevin Barba of Windsor the feature winner, his second consecutive, but it was Shawn Shearer of Clearlake who won the battle with retiring driver Rod Gard of Lower Lake in the mini stock championship race. Shearer clinched his first championship in only his second season of competition by a mere 16 points over Gard.
In the Guy Strohmeier Auto Center bomber division Darrin Knight of Kelseyville collected his fourth season victory and congratulated NCRA bomber champion Kevin Medina of Lakeport. Medina earned rookie of the year status in 2002 and took the points lead away from Michael Bishop at mid season.
Special events action saw Andrew Snider of Kelseyville with a near clean sweep in the Airport Auto Brokers late model series where he set fast time of 13.237, won the fast heat race and drove to his second consecutive victory in his #21 late model. Mike Swaney beat Snider in the trophy dash to prevent the clean sweep. The late model series has one more points race at Lakeport Speedway on Sept 13.
In the modified feature fast qualifier (13.104) Derek Thorn drew the #13 chip for a 13 car inversion which put Wade Wittman and Gerald Christensen in the front row. Christensen pulled into the pits before the race began moving Danny Bishop up along side of Wittman. Wittman and Bishop ran side-by-side the first five rounds with Ron Conner and Mike Smithhart next to each other in the second row. When Smithhart moved to the outside behind Bishop, Strauss poked his nose in the hole and when Bishop bobbled, Strauss passed both Smithhart and Bishop on lap 10.
Strauss then drove around Conner for second and took the lead away from Wittman on lap 14 . Two rounds later Conner and Wittman made contact resulting in Wittman spinning in turn two. This put Strauss and Aaron Hicks side-by-side for the restart where the pair ran wheel to wheel until the next caution on lap 20 when Conner and Rod Harper tangled.
The final restart saw Hicks put up the fight of his life, but Strauss was determined and held on for the win. Hicks finished second with Brian Gard third, Darin Snider fourth and Smithhart fifth. Heat wins went to David Furia and Gard. Snider won the dash.
Eleven cars took the green flag in the mini stock 30-lapper with Gard and Shearer only 14 points apart going into the final event. Gard took the initial lead as Shearer got caught in the back field. Matt Preston passed Steve Sprague for second on lap three as fast qualifier (13.720) Kelly Gray moved into third on four. The red flag flew on lap six when Harley Sharpe spun in turn four and was clipped by Tom Burger. As the pack was racing to the yellow, Shearer also t-boned Sharpe and suffered front end damage. Shearer pitted and returned to action to take the next green.
The next five laps saw Gard and Preston swap places with each pass as Barba drove under Gray for third. Gard broke loose and lost ground to both Barba and Gray on lap 22 and two rounds later Gard spun on the back stretch. Barba took the lead on the restart and drove the distance for the win. Preston finished second with Shearer and Gard rebounding to finish third and fourth. Sprague finished fifth.
Heat wins went to John Baker and Shearer. Shearer also won the trophy dash.
Bomber action saw April Drake and Manuel Antonio battle for the lead until the two came together and Drake lost control in turn four. Drake brushed the wall in turn one, and with no where to go, Jim Watts also ended his run in the turn one concrete. While the field was under yellow, Kenny Grinols lost an axle and retired his mount to the infield.
The restart saw Nickolas Rhodes challenge Antonio with Chris Salmina and Justin Potter next in line. Knight was making his way to the front when Potter and Jimmy Sorrels made contact with Sorrels spinning. Richie Schwarm was collected in the incident but only Sorrels had to be towed away.
When racing resumed Antonio lost ground on the high side as Salmina moved into second. Knight moved to the outside passed Salmina on lap 13 and took the lead for good on lap 15. Michael Bishop followed Knight to the front and at the checkered flag it was Knight, Bishop, Antonio, Salmina and Potter.
Schwarm, Antonio and Sorrels were heat race winners and Kyle Medina won the trophy dash. Kevin Medina set fast time of 14.638.
The 12 car late model field was reduced to ten when Harley Sharpe’s car developed an oil leak in hot laps and Andy Layton’s car experienced engine problems before the start of the race. Kevin Estep pulled ahead of Dan Harris at the drop of the green flag, but as the pack was coming back to the front stretch Jeff Atkinson tagged Harris and turned him around. Jeff Davis and Janice Buschiazzo had no where to go and slammed hard into Atkinson. Both Davis and Buschiazzo retired to the pits.
When action finally got under way Estep took control with Mark Edrich second and Snider third. Snider drove around Edrich on lap five and stole the lead away from Estep on seven. Trophy dash winner Mike Swaney followed Snider’s lead and was running second by the eighth round. Estep’s car slowed allowing Edrich to move into third. Estep lost an engine and stalled to bring out a lap 12 yellow, and Swaney’s engine went sour in the final rounds. Snider drove to a convincing victory with Edrich and Harris getting around Swaney to finish second and third. Swaney held on for fourth and Dave Stephens finished fifth.
Auto racing takes a three week break for the Lake County Fair and returns to action on Saturday, September 13 for the "Inaugural Marlene Baker Memorial" Bomber Bash #8, featuring 100 laps of bomber racing plus the Pro-4 modifieds and late models.
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8/23/2003 _ LAKEPORT SPEEDWAY RESULTS...
NCRA MODIFIEDS
A_Main _ Bob Strauss, Aaron Hicks, Brian Gard, Darin Snider, Michael Smithhart, Derek Thorn, Danny Bishop, Ron Conner, Rod Harper, Wade Wittman, David Furia, Jerold Christensen, Terry McIntire.
Heat 1_ David Furia, Wade Wittman, Rod Harper, Danny Bishop, Ron Conner, Jerold Christensen.
Heat 2_ Brian Gard, Darin Snider, Bob Strauss, Derek Thorn, Aaron Hicks, Michael Smithhart, Terry McIntire.
Time Trial_ Derek Thorn (13.104)
Trophy Dash _ Darin Snider, Aaron Hicks, Michael Smithhart, Derek Thorn.
NCRA MINI STOCKS
A_Main _ Kevin Barba, Matt Preston, Shawn Shearer, Rod Gard, Steve Sprague, Kelly Gray, Patt Lucas, John Barker, Dave Fields, Harley Sharpe, Tom Burger.
Heat 1_ John Barker, Steve Sprague, Harley Sharpe, Dave Fields, Tom Burger.
Heat 2_ Shawn Shearer, Kelly Gray, Kevin Barba, Matt Preston, Rod Gard, Patt Lucas.
Time Trial_ Kelly Gray (13.720)
Trophy Dash _ Shawn Shearer, Kevin Barba, Matt Preston, Kelly Gray.
NCRA BOMBERS
A_Main _ Darrin Knight, Mike Bishop, Maneul Antonio, Chris Salmina, Justin Potter, April Welch, Kyle Medina, Richard Thorn, Nickolas Rhodes, Guy Minyard, Kevin Medina, Bill Mucci, David Tinney, Eric Johnson, Richard Schwarm, Jimmy Sorrels, Kenny Grinols,
Jim Watts.
Heat 1_ Richard Schwarm, April Welch, David Tinney, Bill Mucci, Guy Minyard, Eric Johnson.
Heat 2_ Maneul Antonio, Nickolas Rhodes, Justin Potter, Chris Salmina, John Ward, Scott Griffin.
Heat 3_ Jimmy Sorrels, Kenny Grinols, Richard Thorn, Mike Bishop, Darrin Knight, Kyle Medina, Kevin Medina.
Time Trial_ Kevin Medina (14.638)
Trophy Dash _ Kyle Medina, Darrin Knight, Kevin Medina, Richard Thorn.
LATE MODELS
A-Main - Andrew Snider, Mark Edrich, Dan Harris, Mike Swaney, Dave Stephens, Jeff Atkinson, Kevin Estep, Rod Harper, Jeff Davis, Janice Buschiazzo
Heat 1 - Estep, Harper, Buschiazzo, Harris, Atkinson
Heat 2 - Snider, Swaney, Davis, Edrich, Stephens
Time Trials - Snider (12.237)
Trophy Dash - Swaney, Snider, Edrich, Davis
