See Also BRAD POUNDS DOMINATES TIME SHORTENED BAKERSFIELD FEATURE 06/28/2003

Oildale, CA -- Only fast time eluded multi-time track champion Dick Shepherd Saturday night as he drove to wins in the dash, his heat and the 50 lap feature as the Mac Tools Super Late Models raced for the third time in 2003 Saturday night at Bakersfield Speedway Park. Shepherd and runnerup Ron Bartels had a built a half-lap lead over the field when Shepherd slid into a four car melee on the front stretch on lap 21. Shepherd’s Jerry Pitts built mount suffered minor body work damage, but he was sent to the rear for the restart. He charged back through the field, gaining second on lap 37 but appeared to be unable to catch leader R Bartels. Bill Bartels, the father of R Bartels stalled with a flat tire for a lap 42 yellow and Shepherd had his shot. The rim riding R Bartels got out of shape after minor contact with the turn 3 fence on lap 47 and Shepherd made his winning pass. The checkered flag fell a lap early on lap 49 and Shepherd was the $1,500 winner. He also won $200 from the J&M Cafe for his dash win and $100 from Little Darlin’s ChildCare for his heat win. Shepherd was quick to thank Pitts for spending all of his Father’s Day completed redesigned the rear suspension on his mount and his crew for their long hours repairing damages sustained at Santa Maria the previous Saturday. Shepherd also noted the feature laps led were his first main event laps in front on his busy 2003 season schedule. R Bartels was impressive all night with sixth fast time, another $100 Little Darlin’s ChildCare heat race win and the $900 feature runnerup payoff. He had borrowed an engine from father B Bartels for the race, putting powerplants built by Paul Cowan and Scott Kuster in the 1-2 finishing slots. Fast timer Eric Jacobsen ran a $650 third and also pocketed $150 from Little Darlin’s ChildCare for his fast time effort. The car that Jacobsen is currently driving in the Rayburn that Scott Pounds drove in the January Early Thaw action, not the Chris Sivesind owned car that Pounds finished the 2002 point season in. Despite two costly infield excursions, Steve Drake battled back to a $500 fourth and Billy Griffin was a $400 fifth in his Fringer Motorsports Warrior.

Jacobsen was easily the quickest of the 16 dirt late models with a 14.201 qualifying run on the 1/3 mile clay oval. Jacobsen also now owns the Warrior mount that Matt Barrett drove in the earlier Mac Tools events and he has practiced that car on Mondays at the Oildale track. Santa Maria Speedway point leader Devin Crockett was second quick at 14.744 and Scott Pounds ran a 14.797 lap in his Warrior. Shepherd was the final 14 second car at 14.967 and Drake put his Drake Farms Rocket in fifth at 15.019. The four fastest qualifiers got to run in the $200 to win dash. Shepherd pocketed the $200 for his win from the pole over Pounds, Jacobsen and Crockett. The heat races were started straightup and wins went to Shepherd, Drake and R Bartels. Crockett had a rear wheel and tire fly off his mount when the wheel broke, relegating him to 14th starting spot in the 50 lap special. Jacobsen and Griffin chased Shepherd in heat 1 and Jeff Decker made his Mac Tools debut with a second behind Drake. Pounds and Mike Corwin were 2-3 in heat 3.

The 50 lap main event started straight up off the heat race finishes and the talented field ran the long distance race with just 3 yellow flags and the one red flag. Shepherd beat Drake on the start for the early lead. Jacobsen settled into third over R Bartels and Pounds. R Bartels took third from Jacobsen on lap 7. Drake took a flying leap over the berm into the turn 2 infield on lap 11, following back to fifth place. Dino Napier made contact with the front wall for the first yellow flag on lap 12. Drake lost a few more spots when he got into the backstretch infield on lap 17 with Decker climbing into fifth. Decker had lost his front brakes just five laps into the race. Shepherd and new runnerup R Bartels checked out with a half-lap advantage over third place Jacobsen when rookie Donnie McGowan got out of shape on the front stretch triggering a melee that included Napier, Robbie Witwer, Brian Kuhn and Corwin. Shepherd couldn’t stop without making minor contact and the safety workers straightened his damaged body work. R Bartels just missed contact and was the new race leader on the restart. A J Kirkpatrick had to pit during the caution period. R Bartels led Jacobsen and Pounds on the restart with Griffin getting around Decker for fourth on lap 23. Witwer and Ron Barnett tangled for a lap 25 yellow flag. Drake began his move forward on this green flag, taking fifth from Decker on the restart. Drake grabbed fourth from Griffin on lap 27 and third from Pounds on lap 30. Drake then went underneath Jacobsen for second on lap 33. Drake quickly reeled in leader R Bartels as R Bartels was having trouble lapping McGowan. Drake ended up making contact with the inconsistant McGowan in turn 4. That again put Drake in the infield and he recovered in fourth place behind R Bartels, new runnerup Shepherd and Jacobsen. Shepherd had been mirroring Drake’s climb through the standings. The flat tire on the B Bartels car forced that final caution on lap 42 and Corwin dropped out. The yellow gave Shepherd his opening as he had discovered a useable bottom groove in his climb back through the field. R Bartels was still rim riding on the rutted, dry slick and dusty track. On lap 47, R Bartels jumped the cushion in turn 3 and made minor contact with the fence to give Shepherd a shot to make his inside winning pass. The track radios were out and flagman Ron Ybarra misread the scoreboard, throwing the checkered flag one lap early as Shepherd won ahead of R Bartels, Jacobsen, Drake and Griffin. Griffin gained fifth on lap 46 and Crockett passed Pounds on the last lap with the rim riding Pounds also making contact with the fence. Decker struggled with a broken front suspension and faded to 10th in the closing rounds as the top 11 cars were lead lap. Crockett was sixth ahead of Pounds, Witwer, B Bartels, Decker and Kirkpatrick.

It had been ten weeks since leg two for the Mac Tools Series, but leg four occurs quickly as the teams return on July 12. A special $2,000 to win purse is set for August 2.

Fast Time

Eric Jacobsen 14.201

Dash

Dick Shepherd, Scott Pounds, Jacobsen

Heat 1

Shepherd, Jacobsen, Billy Griffin, Dino Napier, Robbie Witwer

Heat 2

Steve Drake, Jeff Decker, Bill Bartels, Donnie McGowan, Devin Crockett

Heat 3

Ron Bartels, Pounds, Mike Corwin, A J Kirkpatrick, Ron Barnett

Main

Shepherd, R Bartels, Jacobsen, Drake, Griffin, Crockett, Pounds, Witwer, B Bartels, Decker, Kirkpatrick, Barnett, Corwin, McGowan, Brian Kuhn, Napier