See Also BRANDON MILLER CLOSES ON POINT LEAD WITH CINTAS 50 WIN 05/11/2002 FIRST WIN FOR TEENAGER TYLER BROWN 05/11/2002

Bakersfield, CA --

For years, IMCA modified star Jason Pike from Pahrump, Nevad has stated that Bakersfield Speedway was his favorite track, but he doesn't race here a lot. He plans to make it a regular stop for the remainder of 2002 after he won Saturday night's 20 lap feature race. Pike is attempting to defend his 2001 Western Region championship and recently quit racing at his home town track due to low car counts and other issues. Tonight's win was his 6th of the season. Point leader Rick Childress ran second with another visitor Chris Tonoli coming from 11th starting to place third. Lloyd Reed led all 20 laps to win the super street stock feature followed by point title hopefuls Karl Noland Jr and Brady Bell. It was Reed's second win and defending champion K Noland Jr cut Bell's point lead to 7 points. Teenager Larry Hood led the final 17 laps to win the 20 lap hobby stock main event for his first win of 2002. Rookie Chett Reeves had a season best second and female ace M'Lissa Manzella was third. Point leader Sidney Payne had another flat tire late in the race and saw his point lead cut to 5 points by Manzella and he is just 15 points ahead of Hood as Brian Puckett fell back to 4th in points.

The IMCA Modified field was 21 cars as a pair of dwarf car graduates, Jim Bonetti and Ronnie Williams, joined Pike in making the long tow from Nevada with Kathy Pierson and Tonoli making the tow from the Ventura area. Phil Cook won the first heat from the pole with Troy Morris Jr second over back row starter Pierson. Pike came from 7th starting in his Dirt Works to win heat 2 with front row starter Jim Deines second. Jeff Miller won heat 3 from the pole with Gary Dutton second. All 21 cars survived to start the 20 lap feature with Bonetti lined up last as his lack of a window net kept him out of the heat action. Cook and Miller shared the front row with Childress and Pike in row 5 ahead of travel mates Tonoli and Pierson. The feature was restarted after a spin by front row starter Miller. Dutton and Tom Gregory restarted in the rear after pitting. Cook led the first 5 laps with regional rookie of the year hopeful Lee Jensen into second on lap 2 ahead of fellow rookie Lee Walker. Walker took second from Jensen on lap 5 and he took the lead from Cook a lap later as both Pike and Childress were flying forward. Pike and Childress had the 2-3 slots on lap 7 as Morris moved into fourth behind Mike Corwin. Pike had taken the lead from Walker just before Lin Deines spun after a tap from Bonetti for a yellow flag. This was the first of four yellow flags in a three lap period as Mike Scott blew and then Corwin spun. By lap 13, Childress, Tonoli and Morris had shuffled Walker back to 5th. Dutton was able to work his way back to fifth by lap 16 as Pike ran away over those closing 6 laps for the win. Childress ran a solid second over Tonoli, Morris, 18th starter Williams, Walker, Jensen, Dutton and Cook. This marked Childress with six top five finishes in 7 races as he opened a 23 point lead on Corwin with Dutton another 9 points back. Lin Deines is 3 points back of Dutton and 1 ahead of Jensen.

The Super Street Stocks had a 12 car field. Bell won the first heat from an outside front row start over third starter Lonnie Welch. Joe Wilson Jr won heat 2 from the same outside front row start with 4th starter Karl Noland Jr second. Bill Little just missed making repairs from a heat race incident in time to start the feature and Nevada's Jerry Crowley was a scratch. This left ten starters for the scheduled 25 lapper. As the field came down for the green flag in the feature, Mike Bulley forced visitor John Harville into the front wall and Harville ended up being on his side up against the fence. He was unhurt, but the race was over for both Harville and first time racer Marshall Lencioni. The 8 car inversion had put Bulley and Harville on the front row for the race. The incident moved Reed and Raymond Noland onto the front row and Reed raced into the lead over R Noland, K Noland Jr and Welch. Welch pitted on lap 4 to move Bell into 4th. A smoking Ed Barrett pitted on lap 7. K Noland Jr got underneath his brother R Noland to take over 2nd on lap 12 and both Bell and Wilson got by R Noland on lap 13. Bulley climbed into the top five as a limping R Noland was lapped by leader Reed. The race was shortened to 20 laps and Reed won ahead of K Noland Jr, Bell, Wilson, Bulley and R Noland. Bell's point lead is now 7 points over K Noland Jr as Bell posted his sixth top 3 finish of the year. Third ranked Wilson is now 40 points back and 4th ranked David Childress was absent with R Noland now taking over 4th.

The hobby stocks had a 20 car turnout and Laura Farris won the first heat ahead of point leader Sidney Payne. The track honored the memory of long time racer and official Walt "Pops" Farris, who died earlier in the week. He was the father of L Farris. Zach Forester was back behind the wheel of the car he shares and he won heat 2 over third row starter and rookie Robby Sawyer. Matt Sliter won heat 3 from the pole with Jeff Barrett second. For the 20 lap feature, the track uses a 12 car inversion that puts Manzella and Payne in row 6 as Reeves and Sliter shared the front row. Sliter led two laps as the yellow fell on lap 1 when Barrett spun and Bruce Johnson had to pit with a flat tire. Farris was second on the first lap and she took the lead on lap 3 with Hood into second over Reeves. Hood drove around L Farris for the lead on lap 4 and point leaders Manzella and Payne had raced forward to the 4-5 slots. A broken axle took out Sawyer on lap 10. Mike Lee also pitted with a broken axle on lap 12 and Payne's top five run ended with a flat right rear tire on lap 17. Farris broke an axle on the final lap coasting her a very emotional top 3 finish. She was able to limp that final lap and claim a 7th as Hood won ahead of the best divisional effort for Reeves. Manzella ran third over Tom Klamorick, Barrett, Dave Hayder and Farris. Payne's point lead shrunk to five over Manzella, 15 over Hood and 21 ahead of Puckett, who lost a lap early in tonight's feature.

Summary Hobby Stock Heat 1-Laura Farris, Sidney Payne, Chett Reeves, Larry Hood, Eric Cimental. Heat 2-Zach Forester, Robby Sawyer, M'Lissa Manzella, Bruce Johnson, Chad Huffman. Heat 3-Matt Sliter, Jeff Barrett, Brian Puckett, Tom Klamorick, Steve Cimental. Main-Hood, Reeves, Manzella, Klamorick, Barrett, Dave Hayder, Farris, Johnson, Puckett, Forester, John Fenton, Payne, S Cimental, Sliter, Huffman, Mike Lee, Sawyer, E Cimental, Lou Wolfe, Eric Farris. Super Street Stock Heat 1-Brady Bell, Lonnie Welch, Raymond Noland, John Harville, Marshall Lencioni. Heat 2-Joe Wilson Jr, Karl Noland Jr, Lloyd Reed, Mike Bulley, Bill Little. Main-Reed, K Noland Jr, Bell, Wilson, Bulley, R Noland, Ed Barrett, Welch, Harville, Lencioni. IMCA Modified Heat 1-Phil Cook, Troy Morris Jr, Kathy Pierson, Lee Jensen, Lin Deines. Heat 2-Jason Pike, Jim Deines, Mike Corwin, Chris Tonoli, Bill Gates. Heat 3-Jeff Miller, Gary Dutton, Lee Walker, Rick Childress, Mike Scott. Main-Pike, Childress, Tonoli, Morris, Ronnie Williams, Walker, Jensen, Dutton, Cook, Rodney Jennings, Corwin, Jim Bonetti, L Deines, J Deines, Miller, Steve Morrison, Tom Gregory, Pierson, Scott, Doug Robinson, Gates.

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