Source: DaveGrayson
Date: 10/02/2007

Mark Schriner was extremely strong last Saturday night and dominated the JJ&B Late Model Series 35 lap feature at the Lucas Oil I 10 Speedway in Blythe-California. The September 29th event was the opening night for the 2007-2008 Winter Blast Series, presented by Dennys Restaurant, at the five-sixteenths of a mile paved oval located at the Colorado River Fairgrounds.

Schriner's excellent evening began during the Late Model qualifying session when he set a new track record by touring the I 10 in a time of 14.576 seconds in his Mesa Bluffs Ford Fusion. However the pre race roll of the inversion dice was not as good and Schriner found himself having to start sixth behind some well established names in this series. One of those established drivers was Chris Gerchman who grabbed the lead after the initial green flag and paced the 17 starters during the opening laps of the race. The only yellow flag during the race came early when Derrick Frohlich spun in turn two and was collected by Victor Pfluger. Upon the return to green flag racing Gerchman paced the field for three more laps before he was overtaken by Late Model newcomer Austin Murphy. But one lap later Schriner moved into second and began eliminating the asphalt real estate between himself and the race leader. Schriner made his winning move on lap 23 and easily pulled away from the remainder of the field. Murphy, Gerchman, Bobby Kierns and Steve Almquist completed the top five. In the preliminary events Schriner won the trophy dash while Kierns and Anthony Maniella won the heat races.

After the race the happy winner said "our car was real slow at the start and I was really nervous because it seemed to be overheating. Then it cooled down and the car started to come back to me. It was our pre race plan to be ready for the long run and it just kept getting faster." Driving one of the few Fords at the speedway that night Schriner smiled and said "that really hurts those Chevy guy's feeling when a Ford can win especially with a crate motor. I need to say thank you to Mesa Bluffs and Chuck Taylor who is both my boss and the car owner."

In Torco Fuel Pure Street Stock Action Brian Sutterfield won the 30 lap feature after passing early race leader Dusty Hope on lap 20 during a race that was all about getting up on the wheel and racing. This race ran completely free of any caution flags. Hope held on to second while Mike Sutterfield, Richard Selph and Danny Dill completed the top five.

In Lucas Oil Factory Stock action John Lowrence, the defending series' champion, proved that he plans to pick up exactly where he left off and easily won the 12 lap feature. in the division's preliminary events Kenny Foster won the trophy dash while Lowrence and Dean Lester won the heat races.

Despite the long day into the long night Greg Scheidecker, Lucas Oil Special Events Manager, had a big smile on his face that indicated he was very pleased with the opening night of his 2007-2008 Winter Blast Series. "It's just amazing," he said adding "we're going into our sixth season. The area and the local business people are well aware that we're starting our sixth season so we're well established. Our billboards are full, our programs are full and our grandstands tonight were very full." Commenting on the quality of the racing action at the I 10 he said "we just recently put together a sponsorship package with JJ&B Racing which is a businessman in Lake Havasu City and the Havasu 95 Speedway. He has contributed to our Late Model Series which will allow us to pay not only tow money but also $800 to win and $200 for starting the show and we learned tonight, right off the bat, that it does work. Havasu 95 in their last race had 16 Late Model cars that started the main event. Tonight we had 17 cars here. To a lot of race tracks that might sound like a low number but you've got to realize where we're at, what we're trying to accomplish and it appears that the division is growing. So the successes of both the Havasu 95 Speedway and the Lucas Oil I 10 here in Blythe is definitely generated around marketing and sponsorships and it's working."

It was immediately apparent that the Lucas Oil I 10 Speedway had undergone some physical changes as well. In fact, the track looked fantastic. Commenting on some of those changes Scheidecker said "this race is a true D shaped facility. If you were to draw a D on a piece of paper you would realize that by the time you got to turn four you would have a very sharp corner. We redid the front straightaway wall and made it smooth all the way down. That made the drivers more comfortable about coming out of the corner and drifting all the way to the wall without the wall catching them. That wall was just at the wrong angle. That wall was at a ninety degree angle with the world, not a ninety degree angle with the surface of the race track. What would happen was, if you got caught up in the wall, it would suck you in. Now it doesn't do that. That doesn't mean that you come out and run against the wall all the way down the chute but if you get into it you can also get away from it and this allows the race drivers to move up the race track another two to three feet because of that security blanket that is there."

Scheidecker also pointed out that other changes during the off season has made the track more consumer friendly and added "our VIP area is larger and has a more relaxed atmosphere. We have additional seating and the seating that we had was relocated so the visibility of the race track is even better. We're constantly working on these things so we can get more spectators into the facility."

Racing returns to the Lucas Oil I 10 Speedway on October 13th and will again feature their Late Model, Pure Street Stock and Factory Stock divisions along with a special guest appearance from the USAC Ford Focus Midget Series. Dial up their official website at www.i10speedway.com for details.

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