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CHARLES PAUL REBOUNDS TO WIN IN CHOWCHILLA, CARDOZA AND K NOLAND TIE FOR CHAMPIONSHIP

Chowchilla, CA --

Rebounding from a lost effort at Bakersfield Speedway the previous night, Charles Paul from Porterville led the final 6 laps to win the 20 lap Super Street Stock feature Sunday night at Chowchilla Speedway. Johnny Cardoza from Carruthers ran second with Bakersfield Speedway point leader Karl Noland Jr taking advantage of a last lap spin by Keith Heaslet to run third. Chowchilla promoter Tom Sagmiller and Bakersfield promoter Doug Bainton had posted a $500 point fund for the two nights of racing for the Super Streets, but the championship ended up in a tie between Cardoza and K Noland Jr as they traded 2nd and 3rd place finishes between the two nights. The promoters elected to pay them both $250 in point awards and Sagmiller even increased the payoff to $150 each for the three drivers who tied for 3rd in points. They were Paul, Steve Stone Sr and Bakersfield winner Raymond Noland. In addition, the Sagmiller’s put up the TV set that they had won at the Bakersfield banquet for the series champion and Cardoza won a coin flip with K Noland Jr for the TV. Tim Ragsdale ran fourth in the Sunday night race ahead of S Stone. The track held up posting the results of the crash shortened hobby stock feature, but unofficially the win was headed for Mark Funkhouser following a race ending incident between track champion Red Williams and Bud Glover as they dueled for the top spot. Glover’s car flew up and over the front stretch wall, landing between the wall and the safety catch fence and the race was redflagged. Williams was set down for rough driving, but the officials decided to review the race films before making their final calls.

The Super Streets had a 23 car turnout. Paul won the first qualifying heat race over Mike Calhoun and Rich Firato, who changed motors after Saturday night’s action in Bakersfield. K Noland Jr won heat 2 with Chowchilla point leader Monty Tomlinson Jr in second over Aaron Barker. Ramie Stone won heat 3 from the pole with Lee Jensen jumping into the Steve Cargill car and racing it to a second ahead of Keith Heaslet. At Chowchilla, the drivers draw a single pill and the heat races are straightup off the pill draw with the feature lineup completely inverted off the pill draw. The drivers in the first heat start in the rear of the feature and the drivers in the last heat start in the front of the feature. Even with the large field, the super streets ran their 20 lap feature with just two yellow flags. Cardoza took an early lead over Monty Tomlinson Sr. On lap 2, Heaslet moved into second and the yellow fell as a spinning Brady Bell was hit by K Noland Jr. S Stone Sr spun and was hit by M Tomlinson Jr. Jensen took over third ahead of Paul on the restart and Paul was third on lap 6. After leading six laps, Cardoza pushed high in turn 2 and lost the lead to Heaslet, who won the big George Steitz race here on Memorial Day weekend. Paul took over second on lap 8 with both Jensen and R Noland getting by Cardoza on lap 9 for the 3-4 slots. Barker blew a tire on lap 12 and leader Heaslet got tangled up with Eugene Costa for a lap 14 yellow flag. The incident forced Jensen to spin and the caution flag saw M Tomlinson Jr, Tim Bewley and sixth place R Stone all retire. Heaslet was able to drive through the incident that heavily damaged his bodywork. Paul charged into the lead on the restart and Cardoza rebounded to second on lap 16. K Noland Jr had now worked his way forward into the top five. After getting as high as third, Saturday night winner R Noland faded in the closing rounds. When Heaslet and Paul got together, Mike Shepherd was able to race into third, but he then got tangled up with Heaslet. Heaslet regained third only to spin in turn 2 on the final lap. Paul won over Cardoza, K Noland Jr, Ragsdale, S Stone Sr, George Lefler Sr, Shepherd, Firato and Calhoun. It was obvious that Cardoza and K Noland Jr had identical records for the weekend and tied for the championship, but it took a lot of paperwork to determine that Paul, S Stone Sr and R Noland had tied for third and would each receive a $150 point fund check.

With the Bakersfield late models and super streets towing north, four the hobby stocks elected to also make the lengthy tow to Chowchilla. This gave them a 25 car turnout. Rod Lefler won the first heat over Mark Odgers and Megan McCluney. Funkhouser won heat 2 from the pole with Bakersfield Saturday night winner Jacky Wood in second ahead of Larry Hood. Defending track champion and current point leader Red Williams crashed in heat 3 where Jerry O’Hagan won over Andrew Krumm and Craig Tatum. Fighting time issues with the large car counts and huge fireworks display, the track elected to start all the surviving cars in the scheduled 20 lap feature. The third heat cars lined up in front of the second heat cars who were in front of the first heat cars. The feature had to be restarted after a tangle between Roy Luton and Charles Seals. Williams started on the pole and took a quick lead over Glover and O’Hagan. Wood had a flat tire early and O’Hagan took second from Glover on lap 3. Krumm moved into third, but lost the spot back to Glover on lap 5. A pair of Bakersfield invaders, Gene Verbeek and Mike Lee tangled with Luton for a lap 8 yellow flag. Glover took second from O’Hagan on lap 9. On a lap 10 restart, contact between Williams and O’Hagan got both cars out of shape and Glover raced by both for the top spot. Funkhouser had moved into fourth in the race to the yellow flag on lap 9 and he passed O’Hagan for third on lap 11. As they finished the next lap, contact between Williams and Glover saw Glover’s car ride up and over the front stretch crashwall. He was unhurt in the spectacular crash. The early official decision was to disqualify Williams and award the win to Funkhouser, but the officials agreed to watch the video tapes before making their final rulings. Should Funkhouser win, O’Hagan would be second ahead of Jay Connelly, Tim Dean and Odgers.

Summary Hobby Stock Heat 1-Rod Lefler, Mark Odgers, Megan McCluney, Tim Dean, Jay Connelly. Heat 2-Mark Funkhouser, Jacky Wood, Larry Hood, Gene Verbeek, Roy Luton. Heat 3-Jerry O’Hagan, Andrew Krumm, Craig Tatum, Charlie Seals, Bud Glover. Main-(Unofficial pending review) Funkhouser, O’Hagan, Connelly, Dean, Odgers. Super Street Stock Heat 1-Charles Paul, Mike Calhoun, Rich Firato, Tim Bewley, Raymond Noland. Heat 2-Karl Noland Jr, Monty Tomlinson Jr, Aaron Barker, George Lefler Sr, Mike Shepherd. Heat 3-Ramie Stone, Lee Jensen, Keith Heaslet, Steve Stone Sr, Johnny Cardoza. Main-Paul, Cardoza, K Noland, Tim Ragsdale, S Stone, Lefler, Shepherd, Firato, Calhoun, Brady Bell, Jensen, Jack Chapman Jr, Monty Tomlinson Sr, R Noland, John Clarke, Heaslet, Eugene Costa, R Stone, Barker, Bewley, Nathan Corn, M Tomlinson Jr.

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