InsideGroove - Race Report

TIPTON TUNES UP FOR WINTER MELTDOWN WITH $1,000 WIN

Las Cruces, NM -- Having spent the first two races of the four week Winter Cup Series debugging the new car that he and his father built last fall, Terry Tipton from Duncan, AZ moved back to his reliable D&M Performance Chassis Saturday afternoon and scored a $1,000 win in the 30 lap dirt modified feature at The Speedway of Southern New Mexico. Tipton is the defending champion of the rich Winter Meltdown race in early March and felt he could improve his chances of again winning that $6,500 prize by moving back into the car that he won the 2001 track title with and finished a tight second to Scott Logston in the 2002 points. Tipton uses Ford engines and had to fight off a strong challenge from 13 year old sensation Johnny Scott for the win. J Scott was the 2002 track street stock champion and he scored his first heat race win in the dirt modifieds earlier in the show. Track promoter Royal Jones ran third and will carry a four point lead on Billy Roy Harris into the Feb 8 series finale with the championship worth another $1,000. It was another big day for Royal Jones as he won the super stock feature and will carry a solid 18 point lead on Casey Rush into the finale for that class. R Jones has won the main event in the super stocks on all three weekends. Rick Ortega ran second ahead of Manny Nunez Jr. Johnny Scott raced in the street stock action for the first time in the series and won both his heat and the feature. The Jones’ clan is in position to win all three Winter Series championships as Royal’s 18 year old daughter Holly Jones ran third behind Cassandra Wells and is 18 points ahead of 12 year old Johnathan Burton in that point duel.

The dirt modified car count fell slightly to 32 cars with opening day winner Lorne Wofford among the missing. Previous week winner Troy Godwin beat Holly Jones in heat 1 with Anton Salopek edging out John Carney Sr in heat 2. J Scott’s first dirt modified win came in heat 3 with Rett Salopek second ahead of R Jones. Tipton won heat 4 ahead of track co-promoter Jimmy Ray. Twelve cars advanced out of the heat action and 12 more came from the B Main where Harris won ahead of Pat Carney, Alvie Williams, Bumper Jones, Colorado’s Michael Daut and Stormy Scott, the twin brother of J Scott. Alternate Mark Morris got into the feature when B Jones scratched. Harris passed P Carney with 3 laps to go for the win and Wayne Pelkey took a wild ride on top of the front wall in the B Main action. Albuquerque’s Bo Martinez ran third in his heat, but blew his engine at the finish line to end his day. Tipton was very hooked up in the 30 lap feature, but much of the lapped traffic was running in the high line that he favors and that allowed young J Scott, R Jones and A Salopek to reel him in. Tipton stayed out front for the $1,000 win with J Scott second ahead of R Jones, A Salopek, El Paso champion Greg Pratt Jr, R Salopek, Harris, Godwin, S Scott and J Carney Sr. Ray crossed the finish line in 5th, but had missed the driver’s meeting doing track prep work and failed to realize that he was supposed to go to tech. When he drove to his pit after the checkered flag, he was disqualified. R Jones’ point lead is 4 over Harris, 9 ahead of R Salopek and 11 in front of Pratt. Tipton stands fifth, 13 points out of first.

Twenty cars raced in the heat action for the super stocks, but only 17 ran their feature race. Brian Mundell beat Marty Scott in heat 1 with Lalo Trajillo outrunning Royal Jones in heat 2. Ortega beat Nunez in heat 3. In the feature action, it was R Jones on top with his potent Camaro as Ortega ran second ahead of Nunez, Henry Brumley, Rush, Trajillo, Arizona’s Gary Cheek, Russell Allen and Humberto Rocha. Rush is the only driver with a legitimate chance to overtake R Jones in the points in the Feb 8th series finale as he is 18 points back with Nunez and Ortega tied for third, 37 points behind the leader.

The Scott twins are trying to sell the street stocks that they drove to 1st and 2nd in the 2002 track points and J Scott raced his with the class this week. He won the first heat ahead of opening day winner Dustin Smith. Previous week winner Johnathan Burton won heat 2 with Wells second ahead of H Jones. There were 15 cars in the heat action and just 12 ran the main event. J Scott won ahead of Wells, H Jones, Mike Rosales, Tony Bujak, Jaime Montelongo and Adam Gallivan. H Jones’ point lead is 18 over Burton and 20 ahead of Smith.

After the Winter Cup Series concludes on Feb 8, concentration will be on the big Winter Meltdown show that runs Feb 28-March 2 after a Thursday night practice. The dirt modified feature pays $6,500 to win and every A Main starter is guaranteed $700. The super stocks will chase a $1,500 first prize.

Summary Street Stock Heat 1-Johnny Scott, Dustin Smith, Steven Pendergraft, Rick Tomas, Mike Rosales. Heat 2-Johnathan Burton, Cassandra Wells, Holly Jones, Tony Bujak, Rick Adkisson. Main-Scott, Wells, Jones, Rosales, Bujak, Jaime Montelongo, Adam Gallivan, Haddy Phillips, Tomas, Adkisson, Burton, Smith. Super Stock Heat 1-Brian Mundell, Marty Scott, Casey Rush, Gary Boles, Doug Roberts. Heat 2-Lalo Trajillo, Royal Jones, Gary Cheek, Scott Steger, Bryan Armstrong. Heat 3-Rick Ortega, Manny Nunez Jr, Henry Brumley, Carlos Ahumada, Russell Allen. Main-R Jones, Ortega, Nunez, Brumley, Rush, Trajillo, Cheek, Allen, Humberto Rocha, Ahumada, Roberts, Scott, Mike Forgue Sr, Boles, Armstrong, Steger, Mundell. Dirt Modified Heat 1-Troy Godwin, Holly Jones, John Carney Jr, Mark Morris, Billy Johnson. Heat 2-Anton Salopek, John Carney Sr, Bo Martinez, Greg Pratt Jr, Billy Roy Harris. Heat 3-Johnny Scott, Rett Salopek, Royal Jones, Alvie Williams, Stormy Scott. Heat 4-Terry Tipton, Jimmy Ray, Mike Wells, Pat Carney, Joe Alvarado. B Main-Harris, P Carney, Williams, Bumper Jones, Michael Daut, S Scott, Chris Sims, Mike Stringfield, Alvarado, John Tanner, James Lynch, Allen Gaddis, Matt Whetstine, Morris, Johnson, Ralph Adams, Robert Lawrence, Mundell, Wayne Pelkey. A Main-Tipton, J Scott, R Jones, A Salopek, Pratt, R Salopek, Harris, Godwin, S Scott, J Carney Sr, Sims, Daut, Morris, Wells, Stringfield, Tanner, Alvarado, Lynch, Gaddis, Williams, H Jones, J Carney Jr, P Carney.

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