Source: NSCS Media
Date: 04/30/2007

EUREKA, California -- Randy Houston made a last corner pass of Howard Ford to win the North State Challenge presented by Scottfeild Executive Hotels opener at Redwood Acres Raceway. Houston, who’s had much success at RAR, qualified second quick and led 25 laps in the middle portion of the 100-lapper before relinquishing the lead to Ford on lap 63. Ford led until the final turn and appeared to be on his way to certain victory when the lead lap car of Alan Cress brushed the wall and spun in front of the leaders, allowing Houston to close the gap. Ford went to the inside of Cress while Houston went outside and won the drag race to the checkered flag by a couple feet, officially .063 seconds.

“That was a strange one,” said the surprised winner. “My car had gone away on me. I had no brakes and I was going to feel pretty lucky to finish second. You never know what’s going to happen. I didn’t know which way the spinner was going to go but I decided to go on the outside. I was going to either win it or be in the wall! We got by him and I looked up and saw the checkered flag and just beat Howard to it.”

Ford and his crew weren’t entirely unhappy with second place after the struggles they’d faced all day. They missed all the practice sessions, and their qualifying spot, chasing gremlins in the car. The Rumiano Cheese car tagged the back of the qualifying line and, by rule, was allowed only one qualifying lap. After qualifying 20th, Ford had his work cut out for him. “I overdrove the car early in the race and heated up the brakes and the tires. The crew told me to ride for a while and cool the brakes so I dropped back in the pack. After that long red flag (lap 45) the car was good again. I think we could make this car go fast if we had a little time to adjust on it,” Ford said wryly after leading 36 laps.

Mike Doss finished third and showed why he is the two time defending NSCS champion. On a night when he did not have the best car, he still brought it home in one piece and scored a good finish. Jeremy Hopkins got his season off on the right foot qualifying fourth and finishing fourth. Mic Moulton debuted his new Fastenal/Monte Carlo and after missing most of practice, ran well all night and rounded out the top five.

The race got off to an inauspicious start when outside pole sitter, Blair Aiken, veered into the frontstretch wall at the drop of the green flag, while much of the 22-car field stacked up behind him. A third of the field was damaged to varying degrees. Aiken and Roseburg’s Kyle Pope received the most damage and were done for the night. Other drivers involved included Allen Gibney Jr, Jim Stillman Jr, CJ Bawden, Brandon Barnwell, Riley Watson and Jeremy Hopkins.

Local racer Glenn Shewry led the first 38 laps before Houston assumed the lead. Johnny Miskill waved the red flag on lap 45 when fast qualifier Luke Hall and Mike Lovell tangled with Hall’s #36 coming to rest atop the driver’s side roof of Lovell’s #75. Neither driver was injured. The final yellow flag flew on lap 62 after Riley Watson and Jacob Winfrey made contact and Winfrey hit the wall. Ford took the lead on the ensuing restart and led the next 36 laps.

See Also .:

News Index | E-mail to a Friend