InsideGroove - Race Report

JOHN SILVA FIRST TO THREE WINS WITH CARQUEST SERIES

Bakersfield, CA -- Using a strong heat race run to makeup for a disappointing qualifying run, John Silva from Fremont led all 50 laps from the pole position to collect the special $2,000 win in the 50 lap CarQuest Western Dirt Late Model Series holiday special Saturday night at Bakersfield Speedway Park. Sponsorship from American Fabrication and Claborn Motorsports allowed the extra purse money but a standing room only crowd appeared for the show that included fireworks. Series point leader Scott Pounds ran down Silva with a dozen laps to run, but Silva responded to the challenge and pulled away in the closing rounds to become the first 3 time feature winner on the series in 2002. Silva is second in points and ended the night 33 points back of Pounds. Pounds spun on lap 44 and settled for a sixth place run as third ranked Mike Johnson finished second ahead of former Santa Maria Speedway track champion Phil Barrow. Defending series point champion Mike Collins ran fourth and ended the night just 3 points back of Johnson in their third place duel. Dick Shepherd finished fifth, but destroyed his car a few feet beyond the finish line when he t-boned the spun Chet Buckley.

With Santa Maria not racing late models on this night, the car count rebounded to 22 cars and track conditions favored the early qualifiers. The fourth car to time, Steve Drake posted fast time honors with his 13.797 lap that nipped the 13.888 turned in by race sponsor Randy Claborn. Using a borrowed engine from modified racer Mike Corwin, the Chris Sivesind car returned with Dave Byrd driving and Byrd was third fast at 13.947. Johnson was the only other car to break into the 13's. Knowing that their late draw would hurt them, Silva tried a dramatically different setup for time trials and placed 16th of the 20 cars that timed. Danny Baldridge Jr crashed hard into the turn 4 fence in hot laps and Bobby Hogge IV saw his night end early with a broken engine in hot laps. Collins hit the wall in turn 2 after he finished his time trial run. The CarQuest Series uses an invert 3 lineup for the heat races and the top 2 heat finishers earn starting spots in the front 3 rows for the feature race. Pounds won his heat race for the 8th time in ten races and Silva made a strong run from sixth starting to finish 2nd. Silva even passed Drake before Drake broke running 3rd to end the night for Drake. Shepherd was a crash victim in heat 2 as the fast improving Jay Edens from Santa Rosa won with Barrow second ahead of Claborn. After pitting on a pace lap for the heat race, Collins came back to win from the pole with Byrd a strong second over previous week Santa Maria winner Buckley. The feature lineup draw put Silva and Barrow on the front row, Byrd and Pounds in row 2 with Edens and Collins in the third row.

The feature had 19 starters, but had a rough start as a 9 car incident in turn 4 forced a restart. Edens was the only car eliminated in the incident, but the cars of Shawn DeForest, Randall Davis, Dana Nelson, Shepherd, Pete VanIderstine, Bill Bartels and Eric Jacobsen all suffered damage. The next start attempt saw the talented field rip off 32 straight green flag laps before the next caution. Silva raced into the lead over Barrow and Byrd. VanIderstine clipped the wall on lap 1, but didn't pull into the infield until lap 8. Pounds and Collins both got underneath Byrd on lap 5 for the 3-4 slots as Byrd's outside groove wasn't working in the feature. Johnson was fifth on lap 6, but lost the spot to rookie Eric Jacobsen on lap 8. Johnson regained fifth on lap 10. DeForest, who recently towed to Ohio to race in The Dream, Claborn and Jacobsen were all done by lap 15 and Silva quickly opened a 1/3 lap advantage over Barrow. Pounds was pressuring Barrow for 2nd and Johnson got around Collins for fourth on lap 21. After working on him for a dozen laps, Silva finally put Ron Bartels a lap down and Pounds gained second from Barrow just past halfway. An infield excursion cost Barrow third as Johnson got by and Silva saw his half-lap lead wiped out by a lap 32 caution for debris. Silva welcomed the yellow flag as both his water and oil temperatures were extreme. Only 7 cars were on the lead lap with Collins fifth over Byrd and Shepherd, but Byrd pitted during the caution and his engine expired when he rejoined the restart.

The final 18 laps were also run without a yellow flag and Pounds impressed as he chased down leader Silva. Once Silva saw that he was there, Silva stretched his advantage as they again got into traffic. Pounds got into turn 1 too hot and spun on lap 44, falling to sixth. Silva was 1/3 lap ahead of Johnson at the checkered flag. As they dueled to the flag, contact between Barrow and Buckley sent Buckley spinning. Shepherd dueled Collins to the line in their battle for fourth and then slammed into Buckley at full speed. Barrow ran third over Collins, Shepherd and Pounds. The dazed Buckley got out of his damaged mount and attacked Barrow in the victory ceremony area. Buckley was disqualified for his actions and Shepherd had to call one of his business tow trucks to cart his heavily damaged car home. Ron Bartels ran 7th over Davis, Nelson and Ron Barnett.

Next action on the CarQuest Series is a July 13th date at Santa Maria Speedway and Pounds carries a 33 point advantage over Silva with Johnson 70 points out of the point lead. Collins is three points back of Johnson with Hogge falling 131 points out of the lead with his tough night.

Summary Fast Time-Steve Drake 13.797 Heat 1-Scott Pounds, John Silva, Mike Johnson, Eric Jacobsen, Ron Bartels. Heat 2-Jay Edens, Phil Barrow, Randy Claborn, Shawn DeForest, Dick Shepherd. Heat 3-Mike Collins, Dave Byrd, Chet Buckley, Pete VanIderstine, Bill Bartels. Main-Silva, Johnson, Barrow, Collins, Shepherd, Pounds, R Bartels, Randall Davis, Dana Nelson, Ron Barnett, Bill Bartels, Byrd, Jacobsen, Claborn, DeForest, VanIderstine, John Lowrey, Edens.

Scott Pounds 792

John Silva 759

Mike Johnson 722

Mike Collins 719

Bobby Hogge IV 661

Ron Bartels 654

Dana Nelson 616

Bill Bartels 596

Shawn DeForest 588

Eric Jacobsen 575

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