TUCSON RACEWAY PARK - "GREAT RACING"

Source: Dan Ruth
Date: 09/26/2006

With the program a few minutes behind schedule due to a lengthy drivers meeting, the night started out with the Super Late Model qualifying and Joe Paladenic from Hereford, came back to Tucson Raceway Park with his program in high gear and took the Bud Pole with a 15.994. The Trophy Dash for the Super Late Models was once again won by Matt Levin making it three out of five.

The first heat race out was the INEX Bandoleros and the youngsters raced side by side, nose to tail for eight laps with Houston Franco beating Christian Vesper by a nose. The INEX Legends took to the track with Wes Fry defeating Suave Brachowski and Romano Cionni. The Mini Stocks had two heats with Jim Bates winning heat one and Chris Bates winning the other over Tucson Raceway Parks trucks of Barnett and Harrington. The Townsend Performance Factory Stocks Heats were won by Teammates David Rooyakkers and Kenny Kington over Sheffield and Shepherd. The Modified heat race was all Pat Bush in the #30 over P.J. Megna. The Super Lates had no heat race as they were saving all they had for the Twin 50's.

The night's main events started with the INEX Bandoleros. They ran fifteen laps around the bottom six feet of Tucson Raceway Parks blacktop with Houston Franco making it two in a row over Austin Trebilcock and Christian Vesper, Andrew Norman and Brittany Pacheco.

The INEX Legends 20 lap main event was dominated by Wes Fry in a different car with the same results. Amy Elizondo took home a well deserved second followed by Rob Ashley.

The Mini Stocks were again dominated by Chris Bates followed by Jim Bates and Ken Barnett. I would say an invert is in order to mix up the competition in their class!

The point leader, Rooyakkers beat team mate Kington and Casey Rohrer in the Townsend's Performance Factory Stocks where the best racing was mid pack, amongst Sheffield and Shepherd.

The revival of the Tucson Raceway Park NASCAR Modifieds has begun with young Chris Stress gathering the troops and five guys showing up to do battle. It was a battle royal between eventual winner Pat Bush and defending champion P.J. Megna for all twenty laps with Stress gathering speed at the end to finish third. This one race was worth the price of admission!

The NASCAR Super Late Models lined up for the Twin 50's paced by Paladenic and Norman. At the drop of the green, we could see the mature, cagey veteran Paladenic was saving his equipment for the second 50 laps, as he dropped to fourth by the end of the first lap. At the end of the first half, it was Norman, Egurola, Paladenic, Blodgett and Levin. With twenty minutes to change everything but their tires, it was up to the mechanics to work their magic. The first round winner, Ron Norman was escorted to the TRP front straight by Racing Limos of Tucson, to draw the pill for the traditional invert and with Tucson Raceway Parks own Wendy Dickson, overlooking, Ron pulled #5 which was the maximum invert for tonight's second 50 laps and would move Ron back to fifth for the restart on lap 51. The invert put tonight's Trophy Dash winner, Levin, on the pole and Blodgett beside him. By the end of lap 55, it was Egurola leading the way followed by Blodgett and Levin. Tonight's fast qualifier, Paladenic, would fade to the rear and would retire on lap 77 with handling issues. Norman battled side by side with Blodgett for over thirty laps while Egurola cruised out front. On lap 44 Norman overtook both Blodgett and Egurola working on the bottom of Tucson Raceway Parks banks and went on to win by a car length over Egurola and Blodgett. This perfectly designed racing layout always brings out terrific side by side racing action and tonight was no exception!

We'll sell you the whole seat, but you'll only need the edge!

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