InsideGroove - Race Report

BRAD POUNDS DOMINATES TIME SHORTENED BAKERSFIELD FEATURE

Oildale, CA -- Absent from the winner’s circle since an early season three race winning streak, teenaged Brad Pounds returned to form by pacing the final 16 laps to win the time shortened 21 lap IMCA Modified feature Saturday night at Bakersfield Speedway Park. Pounds wheels a new Xtreme Chassis from the Race Prep shops in 2003. A brake fire on lap 19 sidelined second place Mike Hood and Buck Cox ran second behind the winning B Pounds entry. Rick Childress managed a third despite finishing on six cylinders and point title contender Steve Smothermon was forced into a substitute car for a second straight week. He drove the Chris Mendenhall entry to a fourth ahead of Mike Scott. After finishing third in distant Winnemucca NV on Friday night, Larry Hood protected his small Bakersfield point lead with a sixth place run. The hobby stock feature had a wild ending as race leaders Clyde Benson and Mike Wilson hooked bumpers on lap 17. This allowed teenager Robby Sawyer to claim the top spot and he scored his second 2003 win in the 20 lapper. Wilson crossed the line second, but was disqualified for having an illegal torque convertor. That moved Eric Olson into second ahead of Mike Lee.

The IMCA Modifieds had a 21 car turnout, but Smothermon’s engine woes in his own mount struck early and he moved over to the Mendenhall car. R Childress won the dash from the pole ahead of Jeff Miller. M Hood came from 4th to win heat 2 over Steve Morrison. Rookie Robert Sanders won heat 2 from an outside front row start with Scott second ahead of last starting Billy Griffin. Miller and Pounds were 1-2 in heat 3. The scheduled 25 lap main event had the usual 12 car inversion using the drivers point averages and that put Morrison and Sanders in the front row ahead of Brady Bell and Cox. Sanders paced the first five laps. Cox took second from Morrison on lap 2, but lost the spot to Pounds on a lap 4 restart. Bell and David Childress had hooked bumpers and Miller crashed into D Childress as they broke free. An outside pass on the backstretch netted the lead for Pounds on lap 6 and M Hood also moved by Sanders for second. M Hood’s car was smoking heavily as Griffin raced into fourth. Griffin took third from Sanders on lap 10 and he drove the Ken Hobson owned Xtreme by M Hood for second on lap 13. Sanders spun out of fourth and was clipped by Gary Dutton and Griffin’s great run ended as he pulled into the infield. Dutton had to pit with a broken front end and the restart saw Pounds leading M Hood, Cox, R Childress and Smothermon. The R Childress motor continued to run worse and worse as the laps wore down. A brake fire on runnerup M Hood brought out a lap 19 yellow flag. Afraid that the fire would re-occur, the officials sent M Hood to the pits and elected to race just two more laps. Bell was slowed with a flat tire as Pounds won ahead of Cox, R Childress, Smothermon, Scott, L Hood, Tommy Gregory and Kenneth Cleveland. L Hood ended the night 7 points ahead of Smothermon and 10 ahead of defending champion R Childress.

The hobby stocks had an 18 car turnout and Doug Robinson won the dash over previous week race winner Tom Klamorick. When Sanders moved up to the IMCA Modified class, he called on former owner-driver Robinson to race his hobby stock. Olson got the win in heat 1 when four time feature winner Bruce Johnson lost a wheel leading on the last lap. Sawyer beat Roger Brewer’s Chevy El Camino in heat 2. Wilson had a flat leading on the last lap of heat 2 and David West ended up with that win. David Hayder was a feature scratch and birthday racer Billy Irwin could only get his car running to race the last couple laps of the 20 lapper. Benson took a quick lead in the 20 lapper over Wilson and Brewer. The wild early action saw both Ricky Spicer and Robinson out after a hard first lap tangle and rookie Geoff Menees hit the wall. Sawyer gained fourth when S Cimental spun on lap 3. A Johnson flat forced a lap 7 yellow flag. Wilson was pressuring Benson hard for the top spot when the great run by third place Brewer ended with a a lost wheel on lap 15. When Benson and Wilson hooked bumpers on lap 17, Sawyer drove by both for the top spot. Wilson recovered in second with Eric Cimental third. E Cimental broke in a cloud of smoke to force a lap 18 yellow flag. The young son of former dirt late model racer Kelly Sawyer, R Sawyer stayed out front for those final two rounds with Wilson crossing the line second. The post race disqualification of Wilson moved Olson up to second ahead of Lee, point leader Richie McGowan, Zach Forster, Johnson and Brewer. Lee cut McGowan’s point lead to just 6 points and Forster solidified his hold onto third ahead of Klamorick. The track announced that Lou Wolfe had shown major improvement in his health fight and had been released from the hospital.

The July 5th show will feature Freestyle MotoCross Jumping and the VRA Dwarf Cars will visit to join the IMCA Modifieds, Hobby Stocks and American Stocks.

Dash

Doug Robinson, Tom Klamorick, Robby Sawyer

Heat 1

Eric Olson, Eric Cimental, Clyde Benson, Bruce Johnson, Ricky Spicer

Heat 2

Sawyer, Roger Brewer, Mike Lee, Klamorick, Geoff Menees

Heat 3

David West, Zach Forster, Mike Wilson, Steve Cimental, Richie McGowan

Main

Sawyer, Olson, Lee, McGowan, Forster, Johnson, West, Klamorick, Benson, S Cimental, Brewer, E Cimental, Spicer, Menees, Robinson, Billy Irwin

Dash

Rick Childress, Jeff Miller, Gary Dutton

Heat 1

Mike Hood, Steve Morrison, R Childress, David Childress, Tommy Gregory

Heat 2

Robert Sanders, Mike Scott, Billy Griffin, Buck Cox, Steve Smothermon

Heat 3

Miller, Brad Pounds, Brady Bell, Dutton, Darrell Hood

Main

Pounds, Cox, R Childress, Smothermon, Scott, Larry Hood, Gregory, Kenneth Cleveland, Morrison, Bell, M Hood, D Childress, Sanders, Dutton, D Hood, Dale Underwood, Griffin, Larry Blake, Miller, Jimmy Goldsmith