InsideGroove - Race Report

THREE WINS IN THREE WEEKS FOR BARTTELT

Barona, CA --

Last year's Route 66 Raceway IMCA Modified track champion Jimmy Barttelt stayed hot with another feature win Saturday night at Barona Speedway. It was his second straight win at the newly sanctioned track and he won at Route 66 on the weekend in between to give him three wins in three starts in three weeks. Opening race winner Steve Linthicum ran second with Las Vegas, Nevada invader Mark Allison third. Greg Bragg from Visalia continued down the road to another California Lightning Sprint season championship by winning for the 4th time in 2002 in the Ken Alden car. His closest point rival David Cardey ran second, but trails Bragg by 158 points. Another huge turnout of 28 California Outlaw Dwarfs saw Kevin Drake race his way into the point lead with a feature win. Ramona residents took the top 3 slots with Brian Drake in second ahead of Billy Groves Jr. K Drake was coming off a great performance the previous weekend when he won both the B Main and the A Main with the traveling CDCRA Series at Route 66 Raceway.

The IMCA Modifieds had an 8 car turnout and Barttelt was chased to his feature win by Linthicum with Imperial Valley Speedway champion Allison third over newcomer Gary Popps, first time visitor Tom Harrison from the Yuma, AZ area, Ron Busch, Rich Rose and Don Pannel.

The California Lightning Sprints had a 26 car turnout. At Barona, they get to run time trials and Chris Rahe was the quickest at 14.2 seconds. The heat action put the fastest qualifiers in the 4th row of each of the three heat races. James Dean beat Donny Gansen in heat 1 with Ashley Walker third. Gary Sexton won heat 2 by a half lap with Danny Swanson just holding off Bragg for 2nd. Rahe clipped the wall in turn 4 and did not finish. D Cardey won the third heat from the third row with Adam Householder second over Ernie Bartley. Lonnie Clabaugh took an early lead in the B Main and held off the late challenge from Rahe, who came from the 5th row for 2nd. Dylan Morris ran third over Steve Cardey and Mike Barnette. In the feature race, it was D Cardey taking an early lead over Bragg. Father Jesse Dean ran ahead of son James Dean in their duel for 3rd. James Squire was an early fifth. Jamees Dean passed Jesse Dean for third on lap 5. Working lapped traffic, Bragg took the lead from D Cardey on lap 10. Bartley gained fifth on lap 12, but got sideways a lap later and collected Gansen in a two car tangle. On the restart, Rahe made a big move going from 8th to 4th in one lap. Josh Williams got underneath James Dean for fifth. Squire flipped to force a red flag on lap 21. Sexton took fifth from Williams. Rahe had just passed James Dean for third on lap 24 when he clipped the wall and got sideways collecting James Dean. The race was over for both. This put the busy Householder into the top 5. Householder races in both the Mini Sprint 600 class and the Lightning Sprints at Barona. Walker got around Householder to finish fifth and gain the point lead in the fight for rookie of the year. D Cardey pressured Bragg for the win, but settled for second. S Cardey gained the hard charger award by climbing 9 spots from 18th to 9th. Sexton ran third over Williams, Walker, Householder, Nick Nicholson, Jesse Dean, S Cardey and Barnette. With a tough night, Tyler Brown slipped to third in points, 85 behind D Cardey. Rahe is fourth ahead of Sexton.

The 28 dwarf cars were split into four qualifying heats with four transfers from each. K Drake won the first heat over David White, the two drivers tied for second in points dueled for the win in heat 2 with Billy Groves Jr beating Eddie Morris, early season point leader Tom Clodt beat B Drake in heat 3 and Scott Newton edged Tom Smith in heat 4. Having missed his heat, Steve Nordberg won the B Main over Frank Damron and Jeff Thompson. K Drake then won the feature race with B Drake second over Groves, Newton, Morris, White, Marc Teixeira, Doug Carpenter and Terry Burke. K Drake ended the night with a 29 point lead over both Morris and Groves. Clodt ran 20th and fell 45 points out of the point lead. Ken Brady is fifth in points, 95 out of first.

Summary Dwarf Car Heat 1-Kevin Drake, David White, Doug Carpenter, Phil Teixeira, Kevin Frantum. Heat 2-Billy Groves Jr, Eddie Morris, Ken Brady, Terry Burke, Linda Taylor. Heat 3-Tom Clodt, Brian Drake, Tom Eaton Jr, Tom Mihalov III, Scott Creighton. Heat 4-Scott Newton, Tom Smith, Marc Teixeira, Mike Missildine, Jeff Thompson. B Main-Steve Nordberg, Frank Damron, Thompson, Jarrett Kramer, L Taylor, Ralph Kintz, Scott Taylor, Brian Truax, Frantum, Creighton. A Main-K Drake, B Drake, Groves, Newton, Morris, White, M Teixeira, Carpenter, Burke, Missildine, Thompson, Smith, Brady, Kramer, Damron, Eaton, P Teixeira, Mihalov, Nordberg, Clodt. Lightning Sprint Fast Time-Chris Rahe 14.2 Heat 1-James Dean, Donny Gansen, Ashley Walker, James Squire, Dan Lancaster. Heat 2-Gary Sexton, Danny Swanson, Greg Bragg, Paul Townsend, Jesse Dean. Heat 3-David Cardey, Adam Householder, Ernie Bartley, Nick Nicholson, Josh Williams. B Main-Lonnie Clabaugh, Chris Rahe, Dylan Morris, Steve Cardey, Mike Barnette, Seth Kramer, Wink Schweitzer, Steve Nelson, Karl Benefeil, Pat Hickey. A Main-Bragg, D Cardey, Sexton, Williams, Walker, Householder, Nicholson, Jesse Dean, S Cardey, Barnette, Morris, Townsend, James Dean, Rahe, Lancaster, Clabaugh, Squire, Swanson, Bartley, Gansen. IMCA Modified Main-Jimmy Barttelt, Steve Linthicum, Mark Allison, Gary Popps, Tom Harrison, Ron Busch, Rich Rose, Don Pannel.

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