InsideGroove - Race Report

EIGHT WINS FOR BRAD POUNDS, FIRST EVER FOR BARTLEY AND CARL

Oildale, CA --

Taking the lead from new track point leader Larry Hood on lap 18, Brad Pounds raced to his 8th 30 lap IMCA Modified feature win of 2003 Saturday night at Bakersfield Speedway Park. The win climbed Pounds to within a single point of Gary Dutton in their duel for 2nd place in points, 37 behind point leader L Hood. It was another busy weekend for L Hood team as they raced Friday night in Winnmucca NV and Sunday night in Merced. L Hood ran second in the 30 lapper with Buck Cox in third. Both Pounds and L Hood run new Xtreme Chassis that are the work of Terry Henry and Scott Pounds. A grueling season long schedule saw the California Lightning Sprints bring a record low 14 car field to the 1/3 mile clay oval. After only managing a fifth in his heat race, Ernie Bartley took advantage of the ten car inversion for the 20 lap feature and he paced all 20 laps from his outside front row start to collect his first career feature win. Point runnerup Keith Janca came from 4th to finish second ahead of Jonny Bates and Jim Henderson. Point leader David Cardey won his heat race from 7th, but could only climb from 10th to starting to 5th in the caution free 20 lap feature. Christine Carl from Buttonwillow got her first feature win in the American Stocks and did it in impressive fashion as she swept the dash, heat and 25 lap feature. Point leader Mark Hogue was second ahead of Amy Hedden and Carl's boyfriend Jesse Bowles. Bakersfield gives the stock car classes the option of racing topless in August and the top four American Stock finishers were all racing without roofs.

The IMCA Modifieds split a 21 car turnout into three heat races. The 17 year old L Hood had earlier came from 4th starting to win the dash with fellow back row starter Chett Reeves second. Jeff Miller turned a front row start into a win in heat 1 over sixth starter Cory Turner. L Hood again impressed as he came from 6th to win heat 2 over father Darrell Hood, the track super street stock point leader. Gary Dutton came from 5th to win heat 3 over 7th starter Cox and Ventura long tow Kathy Pierson. With Billy Griffin busy in the dirt late models at Santa Maria, former Ascot Park star Ron Meyer subbed but he broke in the heat action to end his night. Reeves and Miller shared the front row for the 30 lap feature, but third starter Chris Mendenhall took an early lead over Miller and Reeves. Turner spun for the second yellow flag on lap 8 and Mike Scott was blackflagged to the rear of the field. Mendenhall pitted with Miller the new leader over L Hood, Cox and Pounds. Pounds and Cox traded third as Rick Childress stalled for a lap 10 yellow and D Hood spun for a lap 12 caution. L Hood grabbed the lead from Miller with an inside pass on lap 16, but Pounds was second a lap later. Pounds took the top spot from L Hood on lap 18. Dutton settled into fifth and a smoking Mike Hood was blackflagged. Cox grabbed third from Miller on lap 26 and three cautions slowed the action before lap 29 was scored. Pounds won ahead of L Hood, Cox, Dutton, D Hood, Miller, Turner, David Childress, Scott and Morrison. R Childress has dropped 19 points back of Dutton in the duel for 2nd in points.

The smaller field of Lightning Sprints used two heats to set their main event grid. Karl Benefeil had broken in hot laps to end his night. Coming off his 8th straight Perris win, Cardey won heat 1 from last starting as pole starter Mike Barnette ran second. Jesse Dean took heat 2 from the pole with third starter Mike Barnette second. The 20 lap feature had a ten car inversion, then ran the distance without a yellow making it very tough for the top heat finishers to advance. Bartley led Henderson on the first lap, but Janca raced into second on lap 2. Bates settled into fourth and Cardey finally gained fifth when M Barnette stalled for a lap 13 yellow after being a race long fifth. Bates was able to take third from Henderson on lap 15, but Bartley ran a flawless 20 rounds to win ahead of Janca, Bates, Henderson, Cardey, Paul Townsend, visitor Ryan Silva, Dean and M Barnette.

The American Stocks split 12 cars into two heat races. Carl beat boyfriend Bowles in the dash after starting outside front row. Bowles came from 4th to win heat 1 over front row starter Rose Tyack. Carl lined up outside front row for heat 2 and won with Hogue second. The main event lineup put Conrad Feliks and Steve McKinley in the front row. Feliks led three laps with McKinley pitting from 2nd on lap 2 to hand that spot to Bowles. Riding the high line, Bowles, Carl, Hedden and Hogue all passed Feliks on lap 4. Hogue was third a lap later and Feliks pitted on lap 9 after getting lapped. Hogue tried an inside line on second place Carl, but couldn't make a pass. Carl was able to use the bottom line to take the lead from Bowles on lap 20. Hogue raced into second on lap 22 and Hedden was back to third on lap 23. Carl won ahead of Hogue, Hedden, Bowles, Tyack and final lead lap finishers Eric Jones and Lisa Hudnall. Hogue's point lead is now 62 over Tyack and 104 ahead of Bowles. Carl is just 12 points back of Bowles.

Summary American Stock Dash-Christine Carl, Jesse Bowles, Lisa Hudnall. Heat 1-Bowles, Rose Tyack, Conrad Feliks, Hudnall, Eric Jones. Heat 2-Carl, Mark Hogue, Amy Hedden, Richard Chambers, Kari Haislip. Main-Carl, Hogue, Hedden, Bowles, Tyack, Jones, Haislip, Hudnall, Chambers, Feliks, Steve McKinley. Lightning Sprint Heat 1-David Cardey, Mike Barnette, Paul Townsend, Keith Janca, Ernie Bartley. Heat 2-Jesse Dean, Steve Barnette, Ryan Silva, Jonny Bates, Jim Henderson. Main-Bartley, Janca, Bates, Henderson, Cardey, Townsend, Silva, Dean, S Barnette, Donny Gansen, Robert Early, Dale Gamer, M Barnette. IMCA Modified Dash-Larry Hood, Chett Reeves, Darrell Hood. Heat 1-Jeff Miller, Cory Turner, Brady Bell, Paul Cook, Rick Childress. Heat 2-L Hood, D Hood, Reeves, Chris Mendenhall, Brad Pounds. Heat 3-Gary Dutton, Buck Cox, Kathy Pierson, Mike Scott, David Childress. Main-Pounds, L Hood, Cox, Dutton, D Hood, Miller, Turner, D Childress, Scott, Steve Morrison, Mike Hood, Robert Sanders, Bell, R Childress, Marvin Leist, Cook, Pierson, Reeves, Mendenhall.

InsideGroove Latest Reports | InsideGroove Archives
About InsideGroove