SHERMAN BEATS DAVIS AGAIN IN JULY 5 ASCS FEATURE AT MANZANITA

Source: Windy McDonald
Date: 07/06/2008

Jeremy Sherman continued his march to a record fourth straight sprint car driving championship Saturday night at Manzanita Speedway. Sherman scored his sixth Discount Tire American Sprint Car Series feature win and added another four points to his lead over Charles Davis, Jr. Just as he did in Friday night’s races on Manzy’s one third mile track he was dominant in his win on the half mile track Saturday night. He had his worst starting position after running fifth in his heat race but he came out of the seventh row, took the lead from Davis on the 20th lap and was a solid 4.69 seconds ahead of Davis at the checkered flag at the end of the 30 lap feature. He now holds a 52 point lead over Davis, the 1996 and 1999 driving champion.

Josh Pelkey started on the pole and led the first eight laps before yielding to Davis who started eighth. Unlike the Friday night race which was stopped for two red flag incidents and numerous yellow flags, the half mile show had only one red flag, that coming on the second lap when rookie driver Derek Sell flipped. He walked away from the crash. Pelkey was a distant third ahead of R.J. Johnson and Friday night’s third place finisher Shon Deskins. Rounding out the top ten were Mike Leslie, Mike Martin, Nathan High, Andy Reinbold and Justin Fisher.

A hard series of end over end flips down the front straightaway on the opening lap for the third heat race sent second year driver Jeremy Reagles to St. Joseph’s Hospital where he underwent a series of tests, all of which came back negative. He was conscious when the paramedics extricated him from his car. Fortunately a Phoenix fire truck/ambulance was already at the track and transferred the youngster to the hospital where he was held overnight. He was to be evaluated Sunday event and was hopeful that he would be released at that time.

The red flags for Reagles and Sell were the only incidents in the sprint car program. Even with a lengthy, spectacular fireworks show the races end just after 11:00 P.M.

Davis came out of the second row and beat Bobby Taylor, Pelkey and Jay Ervine in the first eight lap heat race. Passing was at a premium in the heat races and Davis was high point man for the evening with his move from third to first. The second heat went to pole sitter Brandon Lane with Johnson, Deskins and High in pursuit. Johnson started fourth. The final heat went green all the way after the red flag for Reagles who had contact with the car driven by Steve Tellas. Leslie ran away from the field with Bernie Smith taking second ahead of Leland Michael and Andy Reinbold.

"The Tempe Tornado" was honored Saturday night and as grand marshal he threw the die to see how many drivers would draw for starting positions. The die came to rest on 12.

Josh Castro led all 20 laps in the Arizona mini sprint feature and made it look easy in scoring his fourth feature win of the year. Josh Shipley finished second, his brother Kyle was third with former champion Dustin Cormany fourth ahead of points leader Kiley Fellers who won his fourth feature Friday night. Behind the top five, in order, were Kurt Stults, Brandon George, Tyler Keesler, Ashley Robella and Justin Quinn.

The 27 car field ran three eight lap heat races and the attrition rate was high so the scheduled semi main was scratched and 24 cars started the feature.

Keesler won the first heat with a wire to wire win over Cormany, Stults and Paul Martin. Fellers broke a rear suspension and was hauled to the pits by a wrecker. The car was repaired a ready to go in the feature where Kiley started 18th. The second heat went to Josh Shipley over Castro, Ken Caskey and Jeff Greszler. Brandon George took the checkered flag first but a Texas start following a yellow flag send him to fifth after he passed two cars before the green flag was out. The final heat went to Kyle Shipley who made it look easy after starting in the first row. Russ Martin was second ahead of Robella and Dennis Parks.

Josh Shipley started fourth in the trophy dash, took an early lead and was running at track record speed but a red flag for an easy roll by former champion Dave Alexander stopped the race while working the final lap and that left one lap to run. Alexander was not injured. Shipley pulled away from the field on his way to the checkered flag with Paul Martin, Cormany, George and Fellers in pursuit.

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