InsideGroove - Race Report

ROBERT MILLER PERFECT IN FIRST LOOK AT PEARSONVILLE SPEEDWAY

Pearsonville, CA --

Former NASCAR Pacific Coast Regional champion Robert Miller, now living in Gardnerville, NV, spent most of the 1999 season on the pavement, but he returned to his dirt roots for a pair of late season specials. Sunday afternoon, he completed a clean sweep of the open comp modified portion of the 23rd Annual Turkey Classic in his first look at Pearsonville Speedway. Because Miller won his heat, the dash and the 35 lap main, he was able to add a $250 bonus onto his $550 winner’s check. In October, Miller collected a $1,500 win at Reno-Fernley Raceway in his first visit there. Miller wheels an Outlaw Chassis with sponsorship from Transmissions by Hal. He thanked Randy Gratzer and his family for their help on the weekend and really enjoyed having young son Mitchell in the pits with him all weekend. After breaking a transmission on Saturday, Kenny Miller took the necessary pieces off the car that Rod Brown flipped and was able to start last in the 17 car modified grid. He battled his way to a $350 second with Bill Waltman’s third worth $250. Former track champion Jack Freeland also collected the $250 bonus in the mini stock action as he won the 35 lap main after earlier winning his heat and the Turkey Dash in his potent Ford Pinto. The victory paid $350 plus the $250 bonus and Victorville star Robbie Cockrell was a $200 second.

The modified division drew a 19 car field. They were split into two heats and R Miller won his heat despite having a left front tire going flat. Bakersfield’s Dave Sweet won the other heat and R Miller kept alive his hopes for the bonus by racing to a win in the dash that rewarded him with both a free breakfast and a Thanksgiving turkey. Hobby Stock regular Rod Brown made his modified debut with a former Lakeport Speedway car, but flipped in spectacular fashion and the car was badly damaged. K Miller had injured his leg slightly when his transmission exploded, but he was able to take the necessary parts off of Brown’s car to compete on Sunday. The busy K Miller won the Road Hawg main and was leading the Hobby Stock main when his car suddenly lost all power. With their 1-2 finish in the dash, R Miller and Steve Linthicum shared the front row for the 35 lap main. Sweet and Ventura’s Chris Tonoli shared row 2 with K Miller alone in row 9. R Miller had never seen Pearsonville before Saturday and he was running tires he used at Stockton Speedway three years ago. He took the lead over Linthicum and Sweet with Reno-Fernley champion John Rogers from Lovelock, NV settling into fourth. Bill Gates pitted early and R Miller built a 1/4 lap lead in just 9 rounds. There was a tight four car duel for second and Victorville star Wayne Francis was lapped after some contact racing with Todd Howard. Pahrump, NV’s Frank Bridwell also went down a lap before Gates, Ventura champion Donald Houghton and Steve Greenland tangled for a lap 15 yellow flag. On the restart, R Miller led Sweet, Linthicum, the flying K Miller and Rogers. K Miller worked his way into third on lap 20, but lost the spot back to Rogers on lap 24. Rogers spun and second place Sweet lost his spot when he tangled with Francis to force the final yellow flag on lap 25. R Miller again ran away from the field over the remaining 10 rounds and K Miller took over second. Linthicum was shuffled from 3rd to 5th by Waltman and Houghton on lap 32. Linthicum lost spots to both Howard and Rogers on lap 33 and Houghton lost fourth with his final turn spin. R Miller won ahead of K Miller, Waltman, Howard, Rogers, Linthicum, Sweet, Bill Saltzman and Howard. The mini stocks had 22 entries. They were split into five heat races. Freeland, Santa Maria area racer Lester Mullins Jr, Victorville regular Terry Pike and Randy Smith won the heat races. Freeland then took the dash honors ahead of Mullins to earn the pole for Sunday’s 35 lapper, a Thanksgiving turkey and a free breakfast. Only the top 3 finishers in each heat advanced with the next 8 spots determined in the B Main. Paul Bender won that B Main ahead of Ron Smith, Shane Rungaitis and Pearsonville champion Terry O’Connor. The top ten transferred when two of the heat transfers scratched. In the A Main, Freeland raced into the lead ahead of Randy Smith and Rick Lapka. Lapka gained second on lap 3 and Russ Franklin was blackflagged for spinning Mullins. Lapka used an outside pass to take the lead from Freeland on lap 6 and Cockrell took fourth from Pike on lap 10. Skip Wise pitted from fifth on a lap 11 yellow flag. A spinning Tommy Fowler made heavy contact with Randy Smith on lap 13 to end Smith’s day with Cockrell moving into third ahead of Pike and Ron Smith. After leading through lap 22, Lapka lost power and drove to the pits to hand the top spot back to Freeland. Wise worked his way back to fourth behind Freeland, Cockrell and Pike on lap 30. Ron Smith had problems that forced a one lap restart at the end of the race, but Freeland held on for the rich win. Cockrell was second ahead of Pike, Wise, Don Clark, O’Connor, Scott Bulpitt, Ron Smith and Bender.

Summary Mini Stock Dash-Jack Freeland, Lester Mullins Jr, Russ Franklin. Heat 1-Freeland, Rick Lapka, Skip Wise, Ron Smith, Robert Collins. Heat 2-Mullins, Robbie Cockrell, Wayne Johnson, Martin McLaughlin, Shane Rungaitis. Heat 3-Terry Pike, R Franklin, Bill Watson, Scott Bulpitt, Tommy Fowler. Heat 4-Randy Smith, Don Clark, Gary Curtis, Paul Bender, Mike Kinkennon. B Main-Bender, Ron Smith, Rungaitis, Terry O’Connor, McLaughlin, Collins, Bulpitt, Jim Steele, Kinkennon, Fowler. A Main-Freeland, Cockrell, Pike, Wise, Clark, O’Connor, Bulpitt, Ron Smith, Bender, McLaughlin, Steele, Collins, Johnson, Rungaitis, Lapka, Mullins. Open Comp Modified Dash-Robert Miller, Steve Linthicum, Dave Sweet. Heat 1-R Miller, Chris Tonoli, John Rogers, Bill Saltzman, Bill Waltman. Heat 2-Sweet, Linthicum, Ron Barnett, Bill Gates, Frank Bridwell. Main-R Miller, Kenny Miller, Waltman, Todd Howard, Rogers, Linthicum, Sweet, Saltzman, Donald Houghton, Rex McGuire, Wayne Francis, Kathy Pierson, Tonoli, Barnett, Bridwell, Chuck DeGuevara, Gates, Steve Greenland.

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