InsideGroove - Race Report

HOOD WINS ON TRIBUTE TO GREGORY NIGHT

Oildale, CA -- Defending track champion Larry Hood moved into the season point lead for the IMCA Modifieds by scoring his second feature win of 2004 in the curfew shortened 20 lap feature Saturday night at Bakersfield Speedway Park. The track honored the memory of racer Tom Gregory who suffered a fatal heart attack while racing in the previous IMCA Modified race. Gregory was a veteran of over 30 years of action at the track, both in it's pavement and dirt days. L Hood led from lap 4 on with his Xtreme Chassis as Ventura point title contender Wes Richardson visited with a 2nd place run from 15th starting spot. Steve Morrison also came from the 8th row to finish third. The only driver with more than a single feature win in the American Stocks, Michael Johnson made it three wins in 2004 by leading the final 11 laps of their 20 lapper. Christine Carl stayed in the track title fight with a 2nd place run ahead of Chris Martin. The super fours appeared with nine cars and Ron German from Atascadero pulled off a clean sweep capped by a 12 lap feature win ahead of Mike Olivera. Mini Stock point leader Jimmy Mason got his second win in their 8 lap feature. Jumping from third to first by lap 4, Angel Figueroa got the 20 lap CDCRA Pro Dwarf Car feature win ahead of Brian Saxton and Figueroa's teammate Randy Throne. Mike VanAcker was a wire to wire winner from an outside front row start in the 15 lap CDCRA Senior Division feature. Walt Boyd ran a race long second ahead of Gary Barber.

The 20 car turnout in the IMCA Modifieds included Rick Childress in the Tom Gregory car, but it broke in the heat action. David Childress drove the Doug Thompson car from fourth to win heat 1 while fourth starter Jeff Miller took heat 2 and pole starter Marvin Leist heat 3. Miller beat D Childress in the dash. R Childress was the only feature scratch with Chris Mendenhall and Leist on the front row. Four yellow flags marred the first three laps of the race with Mendenhall leading two laps before D Childress took over. Incoming point leader Sidney Payne hit the wall hard for the fourth caution and joined visitor Lou Tompkins, Lonnie Welch and Jim Deines on the sidelines. On lap 2, L Hood raced into the lead over Richardson, Chett Reeves and Mike Scott. A flat tire sidelined top runner Miller on lap 8 and Nick Sylvester took fifth from Mendenhall on lap 10. D Childress hit the wall on lap 12 and a second spin ended Leist's race on lap 14. Two more late yellows slowed the action with Sylvester racing all the way to third before he spun for that final slowdown on lap 18. The race was checkered after 20 rounds with L Hood winning ahead of Richardson, Morrison, Mike Hood, Mendenhall, Buck Cox, Brady Bell and Sylvester. Payne's tough night dropped him to third in points as L Hood now leads uncle M Hood by 7 points and Payne by 12 points. Mike Scott is just 2 points ahead of Miller in their fourth place duel.

The American Stocks also fielded 20 cars and heat winners were Johny McKinley, point leader Sam Henry and Jason Bannister. Henry then won the dash ahead of J McKinley. Mike McInnerney and Lisa Hudnall had the front row for their 20 lap feature. McInnerney paced the first 9 laps and winner Johnson the final 11. Johnson started 4th, took third on lap 1 and passed Hudnall for second on lap 2. Bannister was third ahead of James Cecil at the lap 5 caution. Cecil raced into third on lap 7, but fell out on lap 10 as Johnson passed McInnerney for the lead. Bannister was now third ahead of J McKinley and Chris Martin. Carl broke into the top five on lap 14 and made a late charge. With Johnson out front, Carl leaped to third at the white flag and she passed McInnerney on the last lap for second. Bannister fell back as Martin nipped McInnerney for third. Henry ran fifth ahead of Michelle Childress and Mike Armitage. A tight five way battle for the point title finds Henry 13 points ahead of J McKinley, 14 in front of Carl and 44 ahead of Johnson. Martin is only 3 points back of Johnson.

The super fours have enjoyed adding the 1/3 mile clay oval to their schedule. German came from sixth to win the heat race over 8th starter Ron Martinez and front row starter Dudley Reed. German beat Martinez in the dash. The full inversion for their 12 lap feature found Olivera pacing the first 2 laps. Teammates Martinez and James Donaldson got locked together on lap 1 and German passed Bill Polk for second on lap 2. German took the lead from Olivera on lap 3 with Dudley Reed and Martinez into the 3-4 slots on lap 5. Martinez passed Dudley Reed for third on lap 7 and took second from Olivera on lap 8. Darren Reed spun for a lap 10 yellow and Martinez had a final lap problem that dropped him to fifth place with German winning ahead of Olivera, Scott Bowen and Dudley Reed. The mini stocks had just 3 cars with point leader Mason joined by newcomers Ken Farris and Jerry Mayall. Mason won the heat and led the final 6 laps to win the 8 lap feature after passing early leader Farris. Farris ran second ahead of Mayall.

The traveling CDCRA dwarf cars brought 13 Pros and 9 Seniors. Top runners Rob Anderson and Jason Tomlinson both broke before the main event. Saxton beat Figueroa in the first pro heat race while VRA star Jeff Shelton won heat 2 over Bill Didion. The Pro 20 lap feature had a six car inversion. Brent Stevens led the first 3 laps from the pole with Figueroa into second on lap 3 and first on lap 4. Didion fell out early and Throne took second from Stevens on lap 7. Carl Behmer was now fourth ahead of Saxton. Behmer lost fourth to Saxton on lap 15 and spun for a lap 16 yellow with Figueroa leading teammate Throne and Saxton. Saxton raced into second on the restart and chased Figueroa to the win. Throne ran third ahead of Shelton, Stevens, Behmer and Rob Brown. On the Senior side, Boyd beat Glen Monk in heat 1 and VanAcker outraced Barber in heat 2. The 9 car, 15 lap feature had a straightup start and outside front row starter VanAcker was never headed. Pole starter Boyd was a race long second. Just after taking third from Barber, Bruce Fanshaw stalled for a lap 6 yellow. Dave Quigley raced into third, but hit the wall for a lap 8 yellow. Boyd had been challenging VanAcker on the inside but couldn't finish a pass. VanAcker won ahead of Boyd, Barber, Monk and Taft's Rick Denny with Marv Tomlinson in sixth. The CDCRA club next races in Santa Maria on June 5 and has a June 12th combo show with the Bay Area dwarf cars at Chowchilla on June 12. CDCRA is also hosting leg 2 of the Western Nationals at Chowchilla on June 24-26 with nearly 100 cars chasing a $12,000 purse.

Summary Senior Dwarf Car Heat 1-Walt Boyd, Glen Monk, Bruce Fanshaw, Dave Quigley, Rick Denny. Heat 2-Mike VanAcker, Gary Barber, Marv Tomlinson, Jim Soltis. Main-VanAcker, Boyd, Barber, Monk, Denny, Tomlinson, Quigley, Fanshaw, Soltis. Pro Dwarf Car Heat 1-Brian Saxton, Angel Figueroa, Brent Stevens, Carl Behmer, Ryan Blade. Heat 2-Jeff Shelton, Bill Didion, Randy Throne, Ross Millar, Roger Ganzer. Main-Figueroa, Saxton, Throne, Shelton, Stevens, Behmer, Rob Brown, Millar, Ganzer, Blade, Didion. Mini Stock Heat-Jimmy Mason, Ken Farris, Jerry Mayall. Main-Mason, Farris, Mayall. Super Four Dash-Ron German, Ron Martinez, Darren Reed. Heat-German, Martinez, Dudley Reed, Darren Reed, Scott Bowen. Main-German, Mike Olivera, Bowen, Dudley Reed, Martinez, Bill Polk, Darren Reed, Allen DeLoura, James Donaldson. American Stock Dash-Sam Henry, Johny McKinley, Michelle Childress. Heat 1-J McKinley, Childress, Lisa Hudnall, Christine Carl, Wayne Dotson. Heat 2-Henry, Chris Martin, James Cecil, Michael Johnson, Mike Armitage. Heat 3-Jason Bannister, Mike McInnerney, Roy DeGeer Jr, Mike Boyd, Dan Kennison. Main-Johnson, Carl, Martin, McInnerney, Henry, Childress, Armitage, J McKinley, Hudnall, Jesse Bowles, Adam Watkins, Kennison, Conrad Feliks, Bannister, Boyd, Cecil, DeGeer, Dotson, Kenny Kerr. IMCA Modified Dash-Jeff Miller, David Childress, Marvin Leist. Heat 1-D Childress, Mike Hood, Lonnie Welch, Chett Reeves, Lou Tompkins. Heat 2-Miller, Larry Hood, Chris Mendenhall, Lin Deines, Jim Deines. Heat 3-Leist, Nick Sylvester, Sidney Payne, Mike Scott, Wes Richardson. Main-L Hood, Richardson, Steve Morrison, M Hood, Mendenhall, Buck Cox, Brady Bell, Sylvester, Reeves, Jimmy Goldsmith, L Deines, Scott, Miller, Leist, D Childress, Payne, Tompkins, Welch, J Deines.

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