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NEVADA SWEEPS FIRST NIGHT AT CHOWCHILLA WITH GARDNER AND RAMEY

Chowchilla, CA -- Colorado racer J D Gardner wheeled his Ewing Towing mount from Las Vegas NV to a win in the Friday night preliminary Pro Division A Main as the CDCRA dwarf cars hosted their WSDCA Nationals event for a second straight season at Chowchilla Speedway. 51 cars appeared in the Pro class and Gardner was chased to the feature win by the North Bay duo of Howie Ross and Zack Hurst. Oregon’s Jerry Apland ran fifth and NorCal’s Mike Grenert rounded out the top five. For the first time in 2005, the Senior Division racers are being given their own show at the Nationals races. Las Vegas based Mark Ramey won their Friday night feature ahead of Casper WY long tow Bob Burback and Bay Area racer Bill Martinez. A pair of CDCRA racers, Walt Boyd and Gary Ebeling rounded out the top five.

The pros were split into six heat races with just the top two finishers in each advancing into the Friday night A Main. Apland beat CDCRA racer Randy Throne in heat 1 with Oregon’s Tom Palazzolo in third. Gardner won heat 2 and sprint car racer Scott Nail came out of retirement to wheel the Al Ghiorso car to 2nd. Ghiorso was driving the car normally wheeled by Mark Chaves on the weekend. Scott Carneau was third in heat 2. NorCal racers ran 1-2 in heat 3 with Scott Dahlgren beating Ross and Bay Area charger Ryan Ameln. Hurst beat Oregon’s Brian Merriman and Pat Weger in heat 4 and Bay Area charger Gilbert Toste won heat 5 ahead of fellow club members Matt Sargent and Rylan Hansen. The final Pro heat saw Bay Area racers Howard Fergerson and Dave Penny getting the transfers ahead of the lone Arizona entrant Dean Riggs. CDCRA racer Ryan Blade was the D Main victor ahead of Chris Thrasher and Ghiorso. Las Vegas hard charger Ryan Cotrell had problems in his heat race, but won the C Main ahead of CDCRA racers Brent Stevens and Eric Lopez. Thrasher was fourth ahead of Daniel Weger. Oregon’s Palazzolo won the B Main in front of Grenert, Riggs, Cotrell, Carneau and Ameln. The A Main had 22 starters and the top ten earned the right to race in Saturday night’s dash that set the starting order for the front five rows in the $1200 to win 30 lap championship race. The six heat winners drew for their starting order in the front of the 22 car A Main and Dahlgren drew the pole with Gardner alongside. Apland and Hurst shared row 2 ahead of Toste and Fergerson. Outside front row starer Gardner won the 20 lap A Main ahead of 9th starter Ross, Hurst, Apland, 14th starter Grenert, Fergerson and Dahlgren. Also moving into the Saturday night feature were Throne, Toste and Riggs. The highly competitive nature of the field is shown in the fact that just two of the B Main cars made it into the top ten. Just missing the transfer were Cotrell, Sargent, Merriman and Carneau. It was a tough night for Pahrump Nationals winner Ronnie Williams as he fell out of the B Main. It was also a tough night for the Alberdi clan as Steve Alberdi Sr broke in hot laps and Steve Alberdi Jr’s weekend ended in his heat race.

The Senior action had 17 entries and Martinez beat long tow Burback in heat 1 with Pahrump winner Mike VanAcker in third. CDCRA’s Tom Major won heat 2 ahead of Ramey and Ted Stinson. Martinez and Major shared the front row for the main event and fourth starter Ramey drove to the win ahead of third starter Burback. Car builder Gary Ebeling crossed the line in third, but got a two position jump start penalty and was placed in fifth behind Martinez and Boyd. Danny Weger and Bobby Meek also got jump start penalties. In this class, the top 8 earned the right to race in Saturday night’s dash and Major ended up sixth ahead of D Weger and Gordon Brand. Meek’s penalty put him out of the transfer in 9th ahead of Larry Smith.

Summary Senior Dwarf Heat 1-Bill Martinez, Bob Burback, Mike VanAcker, Ed Niedzwiecki, Gary Ebeling. Heat 2-Tom Major, Mark Ramey, Ted Stinson, Dave Quigley, Gordon Brand. Main-Ramey, Burback, Martinez, Walt Boyd, Ebeling, Major, Danny Weger, Brand, Bobby Meek, Larry Smith, Walt Hotchkiss, Niedzwiecki, Glen Monk, T Stinson, VanAcker, Quigley, Tom Bellinger. Pro Dwarf Heat 1-Jerry Apland, Randy Throne, Tom Palazzolo, Dan Zuger, Todd Damron. Heat 2-J D Gardner, Scott Nail, Scott Carneau, Neil Stinson, Jeff Connors. Heat 3-Scott Dahlgreen, Howie Ross, Ryan Ameln, Mike Grenert, Mark Dillie. Heat 4-Zack Hurst, Brian Merriman, Pat Weger, Ronnie Williams, Ryan Cotrell. Heat 5-Gilbert Toste, Matt Sargent, Rylan Hansen, Angel Figueroa, Skip Hempler. Heat 6-Howard Fergerson, Dave Penny, Dean Riggs, Chris Dorto, Eric Lopez. D Main-Ryan Blade, Chris Thrasher, Al Ghiorso, Dave Mosier, Ryan Winter, Daniel Weger, J R Stout, Gene Pires Jr, Nick Sagmiller, Renee Cotrell. C Main-Ryan Cotrell, Brent Stevens, Eric Lopez, Thrasher, D Weger, Connors, Dillie, Stout, Mosier, Winter. B Main-Palazzolo, Grenert, Riggs, Ryan Cotrell, Carneau, Ameln, N Stinson, Figueroa, P Weger, Stevens. A Main-Gardner, Ross, Hurst, Apland, Grenert, Fergerson, Dahlgren, Throne, Toste, Riggs, Ryan Cotrell, Sargent, Merriman, Carneau, Penny, Figueroa, Nail, P Weger, N Stinson, Ameln, Palazzolo, Stevens.

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