Source: Orange Show Speedway Public Relations
Date: 08/26/2007

SAN BERNARDINO, California -- Brian Malone continued his late-season climb up the BSR West Late Model standings by winning the 30-lap main event at Orange Show Speedway Saturday night.

The win, over Jim Conklin and Steve Smith, was Malone’s second straight and fourth in five races and moved him into sole possession of second place, 10 points behind defending champion Conklin with two points races to go.

The next Late Model event on the schedule, Sept. 22, will be a 100-lap, non-points race, the “Toys for Tots 100.”

Malone, 40, of Grand Terrace, started on the outside of the front row, fell back to third early on, then went to the front on lap five after Jimmy Rouse Jr. and fast qualifier Steve Smith got together in Turn 2 while fighting for the lead.

Once in front, Malone had no trouble maintaining a comfortable lead over Conklin for the final 25 laps around the ASA-sanctioned quarter-mile oval.

The win, his fifth of the year, left Malone 10 points behind Conklin and eight ahead of Dave Arce, who had shared second with Malone. Arce, of Santee, finished fifth in the car usually driven by Anthony Mainella after the crankshaft in Arce’s Chevrolet-powered Pontiac broke during afternoon practice.

Tom Smith continued to be perfect in the Lucas Oil Outlaw Figure 8 class, battling Riverside’s Johnny Lathrop for the lead in the early stages of the 25-lap main event, then pulling away for his 12th win in as many races.

Lathrop, a former Orange Show Speedway Figure 8 champion, was racing at the track for the first time in 21 years.

The battle for the Legends Cars championship tightened up extremely when a first-lap spin by class leader Bree Brewer resulted in a 14-point gain for Darren Amidon, who finished second to Murrieta’s Gary Scheuerell in the 30-lap main event. Brewer, who started on the outside of the front row, had to drop to the rear of the 20-car field after her spin and could only work her way to ninth at the finish.

The 14-point loss narrowed Brewer’s lead over Amidon to just four points, 554-550, with two races remaining.

Banning’s Roger Gates got his first Stock Pony main event win by taking the lead when early pacesetter Richard Boker of Phelan pulled off with mechanical problems on lap 14, then holding off Mat Goodwin and Jim Edmiston through three yellow caution flags and the final six laps. The race was cut from 30 to 20 laps because of time constraints caused by seven caution periods.

Andrew Anderson, 14, of Lancaster, won the 20-lap Bandoleros main event.

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