See Also GRIFFIN AND KIRKPATRICK GET $500 HANFORD WINS 10/22/2004 SHERIDAN CONTINUES HANFORD MASTERY WITH $500 WIN 10/22/2004 ROBERT MILLER BATTLES TO HANFORD WIN 10/23/2004 BIGGEST CAREER WIN FOR YOUNG ARRON CHANEY 10/23/2004 FIRST EVER HANFORD WIN WORTH $3000 FOR STEVE DRAKE 10/23/2004

Hanford, CA --

Battling forward from an 8th row start, Bakersfield Speedway track champion Robby Sawyer led the final 7 laps to score a $1500 win in the crash shortened 25 lap super street stock main event at the Western Dirt Track Nationals Saturday night at Kings Speedway. The win made the 19 year old first year super street stock pilot three for three in his Kings Speedway appearances for 2004 and gave him 12 feature wins including another $1500 win at Bakersfield two weeks earlier. The talkative Sawyer is always quick to praise his crew in his winner’s circle interviews and it consists of crew chief and father Kelly Sawyer, Bob Amos, Brian Brown, Bruce Shirley and Mike Sawyer. A rough driving call on Billy Simkins in the Friday night heat action allowed Sawyer to get into the A Main with a 4th place finish and he methodically worked his way forward. He gained fifth on lap 8, fourth on lap 10 and third on lap 11. He passed Gary Dutton for second on lap 16 and was passing California State Street Stock Championship Series titlest Rich Denman for the lead when Denman’s left front suspension failed on lap 19, putting Denman into the front wall. 18th starting Elton Shaffer worked his way to second on lap 24 and finished there with early race spin victim Tim Randolph battling his way from the rear to third. Randolph had won the $500 Kings Clash on Friday night. Petaluma’s Mitch Machado was shuffled from 2nd to 4th on that final lap and Santa Maria Speedway champion Kenny Kirkpatrick rounded out the top five. That put three Santa Maria Speedway cars in the top five and Watsonville titlest Dennis Pelphrey was 6th ahead of another Santa Maria racer Joey Silva.

The Saturday night action opened with a 12 lap C Main that advanced the top 6 into the rear of the A Main grid. Chowchilla Speedway champion Chris Messmer led all 12 laps for that win with Shaffer coming through the pack for second. J T Contente ran third ahead of Petaluma’s Mark Ohlinger, Petaluma champion Woody Woodward and Darrell Hughes. Jacob Cavasos blew early in the action and Darren struggled to an 8th after an early race spin. Simkins was spun by Chester Kniss on the final lap.

The scheduled 30 lap feature had an 8 car inversion that placed the 2nd place heat finishers in front of the four heat winners. Denman and Johnny Cardoza shared the front row ahead of Pelphrey, Dutton and heat winners Ron D’Artenay Jr, Randolph, Silva and Preston Martin. Dutton was driving the Bill Little car. Denman took a quick lead over Pelphrey and Cardoza with Randolph into fifth behind Dutton on lap 2. Randolph spun off the end of the track in turn 1 for a lap 3 yellow flag. Dutton was able to leap from 4th to 2nd on this restart and Silva lost spots when he ran off the end of the track. By lap 7, Sawyer was 7th behind Machado and ahead of Steve Cargill. Kirkpatrick was spun by Keith Heaslet for a lap 7 yellow flag. Cargill dropped out after spinning and D’Artenay’s problems started with a stall. Sawyer was now fifth and Charlie Dowdy, Mikol Westling and Ohlinger tangled for a lap 9 caution. Sawyer took fourth from Cardoza and then passed Pelphrey for third on lap 11. Heaslet blew up and Cardoza lost a lap in the pits before Watsonville regulars Hughes and Messmer got tangled for a lap 12 yellow flag. Having announced that he is going dirt late model racing in 2005, rookie Zach Forster pitted with a flat tire and Machado took fifth from Shaffer on lap 14. Running with a broken left front suspension, Pelphrey faded out of the top five and Sawyer shuffled Dutton back to third on lap 16. Sawyer was waging a side by side duel with Denman for the lead when Dowdy, D’Artenay, Westling and Forster stacked up in turn 3 for a lap 18 yellow flag. Denman felt his left front suspension break in turn 2 on this restart and he got out of shape coming off turn 4, ending up nosed into the front fence. The race was over for Denman and Sawyer was the new leader over Dutton, Machado and Shaffer. Dutton’s car would not come to speed on the last restart and he pulled off the track. Sawyer quickly built a solid lead and Machado fought off the Santa Maria trio of Shaffer, Randolph and Kirkpatrick for second. The officials elected to shorten the race by five laps and Sawyer was out front at the lap 25 checkered flag. Both Shaffer and Randolph got around Machado on that final round for the 2-3 slots and Machado settled for 4th ahead of Kirkpatrick, Pelphrey, Silva, J Contente, Messmer and Ohlinger.

This was the final Kings Speedway race for 2004, but track manager Dave Swindell announced that a similar event will open the 2005 season on the final weekend of February.

Summary B Main-Chris Messmer, Elton Shaffer, J T Contente, Mark Ohlinger, Woody Woodward, Darrell Hughes, Tony Contente, Darren Thomas, Luis Avila, Joe Fisher, Billy Simkins, Chester Kniss, Raymond Noland, Jeremiah VanScoy, Jacob Cavasos. A Main-Robby Sawyer, Shaffer, Tim Randolph, Mitch Machado, Kenny Kirkpatrick, Dennis Pelphrey, Joey Silva, J Contente, Messmer, Ohlinger, Johnny Cardoza, Preston Martin, Gary Dutton, Rich Denman, Ron D’Artenay Jr, Zach Forster, Mikol Westling, Woodward, Hughes, Keith Heaslet, Steve Cargill.

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