NOTES FROM MESA MARIN RACEWAY

Source: Janet/RacingWest
Date: 04/16/2005

Checkered flag is shown and the fans are on their feet, it is Richardson, Robinson Smith, Degeer and Lay. Richardson wins his 2nd event of the season.

Lap#42 battle for 3rd...Degeer and Smith door to door. Degeer gets loose...Smith makes the pass as does the lapped car of Lay.

Richardson, Robinson, Degeer, Smith, Pruitt are your top 5. The #88 has hot water leaking.

It looks like the #38 of Travis Newsom has some kind of problem. He has brought it into the pits.

Lap 31 and caution is out as Degeer loops it coming through turns 3 and 4.

The race on the track right now is for fifth as Mike Lay in the 48 and Smith battle for position.

The top-three (Richardson, Degeer, and Robinson) have pulled away. The close racing is behind them.

Now Smith is working on Lloyd Wren Jr for 4th and Smith takes position.

We go back to green on lap 18. Richardson leads them off and in the back it is the 2 of Chris Smith and the 3 of Michael Lawrence that battle for 5th position.

The tow truck is out on the track pulling off Horn's car. That really is too bad. He had a great run going and a very nice car. I don't like to see any of these cars torn up.

Back to green and now Robinson is pressuring Horn and Eric Richardson has worked up to third place. Battle for the lead. Robinson looks low. Contact. Yellow out. 13 Horn in the wall.

The 2nd caution comes out but it will be a short one.

All the cars are fine and the pace car turns off the light and we go back to green flag racing. Beautiful restart by Horne and trouble at the end of four as Josh Compton is sideways, not sure what happened.

Yellow flag comes out as two cars make contact (Jeff Smith in the #2 going over the 88 of Cody Pruitt).

Horn takes the lead and all cars get around the first lap without incident.

Beautiful warm night. Pace car leads them around one more time. Flagman shows the one to go. The cars are zigging and zagging heating up their tires. And the pace car turns off the lights, tucks in the infield and the cars are coming around turn three looking at the flagman and the anticipation of the green....and they are off!

The NASCAR Late Models are lining up on the straightaway in front of the crowd. The #13 of Josh Horn will start form the Pole with the #88 of Michael Mulhall on the outside pole. In the 2nd row is the #31 of Ray Robinson and the #12 of Jeff Smith. "Let's Get Ready to Rumble" plays as the fans go back to their seats with popcorn and soda...OK some have beer ;)

Randy Tucker wins the Crystal Pools 30 lap Street Stock event. Thomas was 2nd, Gillespie third, Smith fourth and Degeer finishes fifth. This is Tuckers 2nd win in a row. He won his first event two weekends ago.

Lap 23 they go 3-wide on the front stretch. Everyone gets through clean. Tucker continues to lead followed by Thomas, Gillespie, Howie Smith and Degeer.

The battle for the lead stays hot and heated as Thomas still wants to be your leader, but Tucker pulls away and has about two to three car lengths between them now. We are on lap 19 and the cars have sorted it out but challenge for positions between the #1 of Anthony Gillespie and the #02 of Paul Ebersbacher.

The race is on for the lead as the #5 of Tucker goes low on Thomas and they are side by side on lap 14. Tucker gets the advantage and will lead lap 15.

Lap 12 and we are finishing up another caution. Pace car is pulling off and here we go back to green flag racing.

We are green and the #21 Thomas has a commanding lead, once again. The #5 of Randy Tucker is challenging the #10 of Degeer for the 2nd position and Tucker takes 2nd.

#06 Conley spins again in turn one/two and the caution flies. It is now lap 9. Pace car lights are off and they are coming around to take the green.

#21 of Thomas takes over the lead on lap #3. The #06 gets loose between turns three and four but the race stays green.

The #06 Tim Conley power to a lead with the 21 of Shane Thomas hunting him down, behind Thomas is the #10 of Roy Degeer.

There are 14 Street Stocks in the Crystal Pools main event.

The NASCAR Street Stocks are the next event. Right now the action is focused at the start/finish and they are giving away a GT BMX bike from Sniders Cyclery.

The 01 General Lee ride driven by Stoops wins the inaugural Havoline Racing Revolutions Ford Compact Series. Coming home second was the #78 Marion Collins painted car driven by Lipscomb. #48 Jimmie Johnson looking car was good for 3rd, the Sterling Marlin looking #4 driven by Cory Kerley was 4th and the #6 Mark Martin car driven by Scott Cox was 5th. Great little race. The announcers were able to have a lot of fun with it. Could be a great little series.

Caution comes out on lap 9 of this 19 lap event. The top-five are the General Lee looking car, the Harvick looking car and the red #78 painted like Marion Collins old paint scheme driven by Mike Lipscomb.

Next up is a brand new division called the Havoline Racing Revolutions Ford Compact Series. The cars are painted somewhat similar to the Cup drivers. We have the #20 Tony Stewart look-a-like car driven by Travis Reeves on the pole. The General Lee car driven by Lee Stoops is leading on lap 7, behind him the Kenseth and Harvick looking cars driven by Jeremy Salamacha and Jeff McCaulty are side by side behind him.

Eddie Secord powered to a win taking over the lead with four to go in the 40-lap Lucas Oil Pro Four Challenge Series tonight at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield. Following Secord to the stripe was the # 33 of Jim Snow. Rex Lockwood in the #14, Tim Carruthers in the #99 and Shawn Steele in the #25 rounded out the top-five.

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