MICHAEL HALE PICKS UP FIRST CAREER PPG MODIFIED WIN AT RMR

Source: Candida Benson
Date: 05/07/2000

He had won heat races and trophy dashes. He even came close to a main event win a couple of times, but Michael Hale's turn to be at the front finally came Saturday. The 21-year-old driver from West Valley held off a hard-charging Rick Ellison to top the field in the PPG Modified series at Rocky Mountain Raceways for the first time in his career.

Hale was strong all night, picking up a win in an earlier heat race. In the main event, he started third in the 21-car field. He quickly jumped to the front, passing Roger Wilson for the lead on lap five. He led from there to the finish of the 40-lap event, but his run at the front was anything but easy. Hale was under constant pressure from behind-first from Jim Wysong, who briefly took the lead on lap 27 before hitting the wall, and then from Ellison, who stayed on Hale's back bumper from the restart following Wysong's crash. But Hale drove his line and held off the challenges to win his first main event.

"I was nervous from the beginning," he said. "I just kept waiting for something to happen to take it away from me."

Hale was followed by Ellison, Ron Moser, Jim Campbell and Jim Cooksey. The win continues a strong start to the season for Hale. He opened the season last weekend with a trophy dash win and a heat race win. With the main event win this week, Hale moved into the series points lead by a mere two points over Ellison. Jim Eaton won the other heat race while Lynn Hardy won the trophy dash.

In other action, Dave Fitzgerald barely held off the car of Ryan Burdett to pick up the win in the season-opening race for the SLVRA Sprint Cars. Fitzgerald took the lead on lap 10 of 40 and took off. He built up a lead of about three seconds over second place Rick Pardee. But Burdett was moving forward quickly. He took over the second place spot on lap 28 and the race was on. Burdett closed the gap quickly. He took over the lead briefly on lap 33, but Fitzgerald battled back to claim the win. Bryan Shafer, Pardee and Mark Bergener rounded out the top five. Jim Waters won the night's heat race. Shafer and Brian Evans won the heat races.

In the Pro 4 Late Model Lite class, Paul Marconi won the main event, followed by Jason Sanchez, Bruce Renneman, Jeff Keller and Kurt Campbell. Matthew Harrell won the trophy dash. Steve Pola and Sanchez won the heat races.

Johnny Luttmer survived a crash in the heat race to come back and win the Figure 8 Cars main event. Luttmer crossed the line ahead of Bill Cleveland, Dave Fleishman, Jason Thomas and Jon Knudsen. Wade Hugoe won the heat race.

Bryan "Skip" Delaney's view of the Wynn's Figure 8 Train race wasn't the best Saturday, but that didn't matter. Delaney, along with brakeman Randy Winn, survived a T-bone crash and a flapping hood to top the Train field. The hood on Delaney's "BUD-WEIS-ER" Train flew open early in the race and then flapped open and shut to the finish. Delaney may not have been able to see around the hood through much of the race, but he continued on. While Delaney battled the flapping hood, Justin Westmoreland and Sean Snover broke away from the field. It looked as though they would win, but as they entered the intersection for the final time, they were hit by the Train of Michael Norman and Jon Knudsen. That opened the door for Delaney and Winn, who crossed the line ahead of Greg Gleason/Ray Nieser, Westmoreland/Snover, Nathan Taylor/Mike Dugan, and Norman/Knudsen.

The season kicked off for the Street Legal "Gambler" Series on the drag strip Friday night. For Brandon Albritton, the night was twice as nice as he topped the field in two classes. Albritton first beat Kyle Smith in the High School Eliminator class to pick up a trophy there. He then returned to the start line to make a run for the Street Legal Heavy trophy. He met Jim Poyser in the finals there. Albritton got the better start and that was the key as he came from behind to beat Poyser.

Other winners Friday were: Bruce Coggins, Street Legal Outlaw; Farshid Farahani, Sound Warehouse Mini; Brian Simmons, Street Legal Truck; Rod Harris, Tri-City Polaris Snowmobiles; and Stan Short, Street Legal Motorcycle.

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