After a confrontation that eliminated race leaders Thomas Wright and Rick Rose on lap 22, Chuck Pruett of Finley inherited the lead and drove to victory in the modified feature at the Lakeport Speedway Saturday night.
With only 10 laps to go, Kelly Gray of Clearlake made the winning pass on long-time leader Peter Unruh to capture his first season main event in the mini stock division, and Mark Maines held off the challenges of Jeremy Nowlin and Chuck Pruett to bag the feature event in the Konocti Harbor Resort and Spa bomber division.
In special events action, Debbie Darnell of San Lorenzo led wire to wire to capture the mini cup car 25 lapper, and Patarick Russum of Galt was out in front the entire distance to win the future stars main event.
Nineteen modifieds took the green flag in their 30 lapper with Jim Whaley and Danny Bishop fighting for the lead the first five laps. Bishop lost ground on the outside, giving way to Chuck Smithhart and Rick Rose. Whaley got caught behind lapped traffic and lost the lead to Smithhart on lap nine and Rose, Pruett Thomas Wright and Ben Phillips gained position. The first caution came on lap 11 when Pat Hinchcliff and Shawn Bertram made contact causing Bertram to spin on the front stretch.
The double-file restart saw Rose pull ahead, and on the next restart Wright took the lead away from Rose. Wright, Rose and Pruett ran one-two-three for eight laps before Rose bumped Wright resulting in Wright spinning in turn four. With no where to go, David Furia and Mark Marek will collected in the incident and both were towed to the pits. Rose was sent to the back of the pack. This left Pruett in the lead with Bryan Denton second and Terry McIntire third.
Lap 24 saw Rose and Wright tangle again and this time Rose was black-flagged for rough driving. Pruett lead the remaining laps to win over Denton, McIntire, Ben Phillips and rookie driver Gary Lowblad.
Denton set a new track record of 12.618 seconds.
Mini stock action saw Dusty Barton lead the first eight laps with Dean Reep second and Peter Unruh third. Barton and Reep made contact and spun in the eighth lap leaving Unruh in the number one spot. Kelly Gray came from 10th starting to second in nine laps and challenged Unruh for the lead through three more yellow flags until taking the lead for good on lap 21. Gray drove to victory with Reep rebounding to finish second. Unruh settled for third with Rod Gard fourth and Robert Schmidt fifth.
Twenty-two bombers clocked in with Chuck Pruett setting a new track record of 14.911 seconds. Their 30 lapper began with Nick Kirby and Ruben Serrano leading the way until Serrano cut down on Kirby and both lost position. Kevin Minassian took over the lead followed by Jeremy Nowlin and Arlene Pruett. Mark Maines moved into the top four on lap eight, and passed Nowlin for second on nine. Nowlin continued his outside run and stole the lead on the tenth go-round.
A mid-race yellow was thrown when Charles Beck and Lex Burger tangled, and the final caution came on lap 24 when Darrin Knight and Lex Burger both spun and Beck hit the wall. Chuck Pruett snuck under Nowlin for second on the restart, and at the checkered flag it was Maines, C. Pruett, Nowlin, Rick Tellstrom and Minassian.
Both the mini cup car and future star events went wire to wire without caution with Debbie Darnell taking the win in the adult division. Jason Jess finished second ahead of new track record holder (14.343) Jim Pestana, Dennis Allegre and Matt Davis. The Future Stars race was won by Patrick Russum followed by heat winner Jeremy Wood, Jarod Eaton, trophy dash winner Nick Williams and Kurt Jonnson.
Junior trophy presenters were Amber Wilson, 6, of Lakeport, Josh Smith, 9, of Lower Lake, Esperanza Valencia, 8, of Finley, and Coty Redden, 7, of Lower Lake.
Racing resumes at the Lakeport Speedway next Saturday night, May 20, with the Airport Auto Brokers Late Models and the NCI-4 modifieds joining NCRA modifieds, mini stocks and bombers.
