SUPER LATE MODEL BATTLE HEATS UP AT ORANGE SHOW SPEEDWAY AS ACCIDENT COSTS LEADER MOST OF HIS POINTS ADVANTAGE

Source: Jim Short
Date: 08/18/2007

SAN BERNARDINO – The battle for the Hype Manufacturing Super Late Model title heated up considerably on a hot Saturday night at Orange Show Speedway.

Highland’s Rob Kiemele was a wire-to-wire winner of the 50-lap main event, holding off close friend Linny White of Fontana over the final 35 laps. But points leader Rick Chavez was a non-finisher and saw his once comfortable advantage trimmed to two points over third-place finisher Frankie Gould and 16 over fourth-place John Manke.

Earlier in the evening, Eddie Secord continued to dominate the ASA Pro 4 series wit his eighth win in 10 races, Spencer Samaro moved closer to the Aflac Factory Fours title with his third win of the season, Dean Caskey ended Mike O’Hara’s three-race win streak in the Mini StocKar feature, and 11-year-old Benjamin Mahan took the Jr. Mini StocKar main for his fifth win this season and 13th in a row over two years.

Chavez, who recently moved from Lakeside to Murrieta, was running fifth with 20 laps to go when his car and those driven by Travis Stockman and Glen Cummings got together in Turn 2 of the ASA-sanctioned quarter-mile oval.

Cummings was able to continue and recouped to finish fifth. But Chavez and Stockman both went to the pits to stay and finished 10th and 11th, respectively. As a result, Chavez lost 14 points to Gould and 12 to Manke, and a lead that was 34 points on June 2 now is two points (432-430) with four of the 14 races remaining.

Kiemele, who sat out all but one of the season’s first seven races, got the pole after fast qualifier White pulled a six in the draw to determine how many cars will be inverted for the start. That seemed a precarious place to be during the wild opening laps, when Manke, White and Chavez all applied some pressure.

Manke emerged with second and held it until he spun to avoid running into Kiemele entering Turn 3 after 13 laps. That put White in second and Gould in third and that’s where they stayed to the finish. And after his first main event win, Kiemele thanked White for helping him set up his victorious Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

Secord, the top qualifier in Pro 4, also started sixth in a field of 14 that included two drivers from Utah and two others who concentrate primarily on the touring Southwest Pro 4 series. He moved up gradually while Kendall Scheidecker and John Soares battled for the early lead, then roared past Randy Becker Jr. to take the lead while Scheidecker pulled off on a caution flag restart with six laps to go.

Samaro was easily the night’s most surprised winner. Starting in the sixth row of a field totally inverted from the finishing order of two weeks ago, Samaro moved his Toyota pickup into the top five by lap 5 and then joined Jeff Imbriani and Tony Dumont in an intense battle for the lead.

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