InsideGroove - Race Report

JOHN SILVA DEBUTS NEW CAR WITH IMPRESSIVE OUTING

Bakersfield, CA --

Debuting a new Larry Shaw car that had never turned a wheel, John Silva was impressive in the season opener for the CarQuest Western Dirt Late Model Tour as he charged from 7th starting to take the lead on lap 19 and win the 40 lap feature after setting fast time Saturday night at Bakersfield Speedway Park. Dick Shepherd was impressive in the debut of his new Jerry Pitts built car as he paced the first 18 laps before breaking. Pitts is a former Winston Cup crew chief. The dirt late models had been added to this night's card to quickly make up the rainout of the scheduled season opener on March 23. Silva finished a close second to Mike Collins in last year's point race and his racing efforts are sponsored by E & L C Excavation. He missed the January action that many of the CarQuest teams ran in Arizona in January as he was busy putting together new Larry Shaw cars for himself, Phil Indihar and Gary Sorgdrager after selling last year's car to Derek Nance. Scott Pounds fell short in his attempt to win the season opening event for a third straight year, but was still a strong second place finisher to the $1,250 winner.

Another former series champion Steve Drake finished third and Chad Reichenbach drove the Chris Sivesind GRT to a fourth. Pounds drives a Warrior and Drake a GRT. Looking to have a strong 2002 season after a health plagued 2001 effort, Dana Nelson was an impressive fifth. Gary Dutton led just the final four laps to win the 20 lap IMCA Modified main event. It was his second straight win and Ronnie Jenkins ran second over Troy Morris Jr. Seventeen year old Bradley Pounds spun while leading after some contact from Dutton and he crossed the line 4th only to be disqualified for not reporting to the tech pad after the race.

The season opener for the dirt late models drew a 21 car turnout, but Jeff Hylton trailered home early when he elected not to confirm with the series muffler rule. Silva's fast time effort was a 13.287 lap on the 1/3 mile clay oval. Reichenbach was second fast at 13.334 and Drake ran a 13.440. Shepherd wheeled the new Pitts car to a 13.449 lap with Mike Johnson and Bill Bartels in the top six. Pounds timed 8th fast behind much improved Jay Edens, who has the Shepherd car from 2001. The CarQuest Series uses an invert 3 lineup in the heat race action. Shepherd won the first heat from an outside front row start ahead of Edens and Silva. Pounds won heat 2 from the pole with Reichenbach second ahead of Johnson. B Bartels was impressive in his win of heat 3 ahead of Nelson and Drake. Defending series champion Mike Collins hurt his engine and elected to just run a single lap in the feature and fall out. The top two finishers from each heat are involved in the feature inversion with CarQuest and tonight's 40 lap lineup put Nelson and Shepherd on the front row with Pounds and B Bartels in the second row. The third row was occupied by Edens and Reichenbach. With their third place heat finishes, Silva, Johnson and Drake started behind the sixsome.

The 40 lapper saw six caution flags in the first 24 laps, but the final 16 laps were run without another slowdown. Collins limped off the track on the opening round as Shepherd raced into the lead over Nelson and Pounds. Reichenbach took fourth from B Bartels on lap 3 and Silva broke into the top five on lap 4. The first yellow came on lap 5 as Santa Maria mini stock racer Craig Gardner tangled with teammate Donnie Hampl and Oregon's Ron Brewster. Both Silva and B Bartels shuffled Reichenbach back to sixth on lap 7. Johnson broke into the top five on lap 9 when rookie Eric Jacobsen stalled for a yellow flag. Pounds was able to get underneath Nelson on lap 10 to take over second. Silva was third a lap later and Silva made short work of Pounds, gaining 2nd on lap 13. After getting shuffled back, Reichenbach went on a charge, taking fourth from Nelson on lap 14 and passing Pounds for third on lap 17. Silva had just started making an inside run at leader Shepherd when Shepherd coasted to a stop high in turn 4. Shepherd was towed off the track with Silva leading Reichenbach, Pounds, Nelson and Johnson. Drake gained a top five slot on the restart and Pounds retook second from Reichenbach on lap 21. The final restart on lap 25 saw Drake getting around Reichenbach for third. Pete VanIderstine and Brewster exited on lap 29 and Nelson was able to get by Johnson for fifth. Silva was committed to a bottom groove run and he maintained the top spot to the checkered flag. Pounds ran second ahead of Drake, Reichenbach and Nelson. Johnson ran sixth ahead of Ron Bartels, Shawn DeForest, rookie Bobby Hogge IV, Edens and Billy Griffin as B Bartels overheated and dropped out with just a couple laps to run.

The IMCA Modifieds had another solid 24 car turnout. Splitting his time with a pavement effort at Mesa Marin, Jason Selvidge won the first heat over rookie Rodney Jennings. Young B Pounds beat Dutton in heat 2. Impressive rookie Doug Robinson broke running third. Jeff Miller won heat 3 over Jim Deines with Mike Corwin's night over with a broken rear end. The feature lined up 19 cars as visitor Andy Anderson scratched along with Robinson, Corwin, Phil Cook and newcomer Dick Compton. Miller and Pounds shared the front row with Pounds pushing his QWIK Chassis into the lead. Miller settled into second over Dutton and Jenkins. On a lap 7 yellow flag, Jim Deines had to pit from fifth with damage from a wall incident. Morris moved into fifth. Miller raced underneath Pounds in turn 4 on lap 14 for the lead only to break on the restart to end his race. Pounds was back in front of Dutton, Jenkins and Morris. On lap 17, Pounds got into turn 4 too hard and his out of shape mount was tapped by Dutton. Pounds looped into the infield and he recovered in fifth as Dutton now led Jenkins and Morris. When Lee Walker, Steve Morrison and Rick Childress crashed on lap 18, the race was called complete due to the time limit rules and Dutton won ahead of Jenkins and Morris. Pounds gave up his 4th when he didn't go to tech. This moved Mike Scott into fourth ahead of Jennings, Lee Jensen, Bill Gates, Tom Gregory and Lin Deines. Jennings was the track champion in the hobby stocks in 2001 and he now leads the modified point standings by 5 points over Childress, 6 ahead of Gates and 8 ahead of Morris. Dutton has climbed into fifth just one point behind Morris.

The track announced that the April 27 USAC Midget show has been cancelled to allow Mesa Marin to have that weekend alone as home town favorite Kevin Harvick is returning to race that night. This will also allow all the track officials to attend the CarQuest Dirt Late Model action at Las Vegas that night.

Summary IMCA Modified Heat 1-Jason Selvidge, Rodney Jennings, Steve Morrison, Mike Scott, Bill Stevens. Heat 2-Bradley Pounds, Gary Dutton, Lin Deines, Bill Gates, Rick Childress. Heat 3-Jeff Miller, Jim Deines, Rick Jenkins, Troy Morris Jr, Lee Jensen. Main-Dutton, Jenkins, Morris, Scott, Jennings, Jensen, Gates, Tom Gregory, L Deines, Bryson Lynch, Brian Terry, J Deines, Morrison, Childress, Lee Walker, Miller, Stevens, Selvidge. Dirt Late Model Fast Time-John Silva 13.287 Heat 1-Dick Shepherd, Jay Edens, Silva, Ron Bartels, Shawn DeForest. Heat 2-Scott Pounds, Chad Reichenbach, Mike Johnson, Billy Griffin, Mike Collins. Heat 3-Bill Bartels, Dana Nelson, Steve Drake, Bobby Hogge IV, Pete VanIderstine. Main-Silva, Pounds, Drake, Reichenbach, Nelson, Johnson, R Bartels, DeForest, Hogge, Edens, Griffin, B Bartels, VanIderstine, Ron Brewster, Craig Gardner, Eric Jacobsen, Phil Indihar, Shepherd, Donnie Hampl, Collins.

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