Antioch, CA -- Finding a useable second line on a dry slick bottom feeder track, current Western Dirt Late Model Tour point leader Bobby Hogge IV raced from third to the lead on laps 16-17 and gained the $3000 win in the 25 lap special at Antioch Speedway on Saturday night. Event sponsor Asphalt Surfacing Inc from Milpitas provided the dash purse and feature win trophy for this race. Hogge has now won his last three dirt late model starts as he scored Western All Stars wins on both Memorial Day weekend and last week at Bakersfield Speedway in his Hendren powered Victory Circle mount. He also won a $1000 IMCA Modified feature at Ocean Speedway on Friday night from an 8th row start. Also in June, Hogge flew to The Dream at Eldora Speedway to crew for friend Eric Jacobsen. Hogge fell in love with that high speed facility and likes the two compound tire rule that Eldora uses for it’s specials. Having made a very successful trip to the Boone SuperNationals for IMCA earlier in his career, Hogge now plans a trip to represent California at the World 100 in September. Hogge won the Western Dirt Late Model Tour title in 2005 and this was his second win in five 2006 events with the traveling series. Hogge and his crew chief father Bobby made extensive changes to the car after a third place dash finish. Having won five of the six dirt modified races at the track in 2006, Kellen Chadwick started outside front row in the 25 lapper and led the first 16 laps. Hogge took second from Jeff Decker on lap 16 and the lead from Chadwick on lap 17. Chadwick timed last in a 25 car turnout and could only manage 13th quick time. Chadwick won $1500 for his second place finish in his Rayburn. Decker timed in third quick and scored wins in both his heat and the dash to sit on the pole for the 25 lapper. He settled for a $1000 third in his Victory Circle. Decker had scored another $500 Ocean Late Model win in the Paul Salaiz car on Friday night at Ocean Speedway. Having won three of the first four WDLMT races in 2006, Mike Johnson switched to his Rayburn for this race night. He wanted to put laps on the car before loaning it out to Mike Corwin for the July 1 $5000 to win Firecracker 50 at Bakersfield. Contact from Richard Papenhausen in his heat win left M Johnson with a damaged battery mount and he had to sit out the dash. M Johnson raced to 4th in the 25 lapper ahead of Papenhausen. The high dollar Antioch special was scheduled for 40 laps, but shortened to 25 laps by track promoter John Soares Jr just minutes before the field pulled on the track due to the deteriorating track conditions on an extremely warm night.

The 25 car turnout included Bakersfield youngster Larry Hood who arrived after time trials and he and crew chief Terry Henry were busy at the NASCAR Infinion race that afternoon. The track time trialed their limited late models in front of the late models. That division threatened their track record, but the extremely dry conditions found the dirt late models running two seconds off of their record time for the ¼ mile clay oval. The first car to run, Shawn DeForest, turned in quick time with a 15.480 lap in his Dodge powered Rocket. DeForest just returned from a two race trip to Kansas. Ron Bartels was second quick at 15.665 and Decker was just a tick behind him at 15.667. Hogge ranked fourth with his 15.675 lap and M Johnson ran a 15.877. Corona long tow Dino Napier posted a 15.905 and Randy Shafer had a 15.940. Previous week $1500 Petaluma winner Nick Perivolaris ran a 15.950 and A J Kirkpatrick was the final 15 second entry at 15.971. Impressive Petaluma Speedway rookie Norman Beck was 10th at 16.003. Saddled with high numbers, top runners Papenhausen and Chadwick both timed in out of the top ten. The heat races were the normal invert 3, ten lappers with the top two from each moving into the dash and the top four advancing into the 25 lap A Main. DeForest was forced to restart in the rear of heat 1 when he spun on the opening lap and collected Beck. Outside front row starter Hogge won with a best lap of 15.56 as Chadwick ran second ahead of Shafer and Jeffrey Priddy. M Johnson also turned an outside front row start into a win in heat 2 with a best lap of 15.93. Once, he slowed dramatically and got rear-ended hard by Papenhausen. The impact buckled the hood on Papenhausen’s Rocket and led to damage that saw the battery fall out of the M Johnson’s car on his way to the scales. Papenhausen ran second, but barely made the call for the dash after making repairs. M Johnson did miss the dash. Pole starter Kirkpatrick spun back to fourth in heat 3 as Decker won with a best lap of 16.06. Dino Napier ran second ahead of Bill Bartels and Kirkpatrick. The B Bartels had to regroup in midweek when key crewman Chris Laney was arrested for his involvement in a multi-year auto theft ring. Decker and Chadwick held down the front row for the dash and Decker ran a best lap of 15.83 in his $100 win. A fan out of the grand stands added another $100 to Decker’s dash winnings. Chadwick ran second ahead of Hogge and Papenhausen. The dash sets the starting order for the front three rows in the A Main.

The B Main had 13 starters chasing 8 transfer slots into the 25 lapper. The event saw four caution flags in the first five laps. Beck was a wire to wire winner and another dirt late model rookie Marcus Aue impressed by racing second until his lap 11 attempt to make an outside pass for the win. Aue made heavy contact with the turn 1 fence and his night was over. The field received a checkered yellow finish and Hood impressed with his drive through the pack to get second ahead of fast timer DeForest, Jeremy Petrell, Derek Nance, Michael Paul Sr, Paul Guglielmoni and Gary Johnson. A pair of spins each for Marysville veteran Leroy Perry and Clark Guglielmoni ended the night for both. The two John Soares Jr owned mounts driven by John Silva and David Newquist, both broke during the B Main.

The feature got the green flag at 10:10, but promoter Soares Jr had already made the call to drop the race length from the scheduled 40 laps down to 25 laps as the racing surface had become very dusty and he had no time to correct the situation before curfew. The dust was especially bad on the turn 1-2 end of the race track and the conditions were blind for the majority of the field as they took the green flag. Paul made hard contact with the outside fence and his night was over with damaged steering. Priddy lost a lap making repairs and Chadwick raced into the lead over Decker, Hogge, M Johnson and Papenhausen. Shafer settled into sixth ahead of R Bartels, Hood, Kirkpatrick and Napier. The front threesome were locked in a duel with Kirkpatrick broke and spun to a stop in turn 4 for a lap 10 caution. B Bartels had climbed to 9th when Hogge made his winning moves. Hogge moved to a middle line as the remainder of the pack was hugging a bottom line. Hogge drove around Decker on the outside for second on lap 16 and he wasted little time using the same procedure to take the lead from Chadwick on lap 17. Hogge did have a scary moment as he made contact with G Johnson while putting a lap on the San Jose veteran. R Bartels had taken sixth from Shafer when debris forced a lap 21 yellow. On this restart, Shafer got out of shape in turn 2. This forced Hood to dart through the infield. The officials ruled that Hood had endangered the infield personnel and sent him off of the track for the final 3 laps. Beck had stalled to force the final caution. Hogge stayed out front for his fourth dirt late model win of 2006 as he also won at Ocean Speedway. Chadwick ran second ahead of Decker, M Johnson and Papenhausen. R Bartels got sixth ahead of Shafer, B Bartels, Perivolaris, Petrell, DeForest and Napier. Fifteen cars finished on the lead lap.

Next action on the WDLMT schedule for 2006 is a July 8th date at Santa Maria Speedway, but many of the teams are headed to Bakersfield for that $27,000 race on July 1. Only the three Southern California teams and Hood took advantage of Soares offer of adding $100 tow money to any teams towing over 250 miles for this race. Another interesting development found track security vacating a large portion of the stands right in front of the announcers stand until animal control officials could come and remove a racoon that was living there.

Time Trials Shawn DeForest 15.480, Ron Bartels 15.665, Jeff Decker 15.667, Bobby Hogge IV 15.675, Mike Johnson 15.877, Dino Napier 15.905, Randy Shafer 15.940, Nick Perivolaris 15.950, A J Kirkpatrick 15.971, Norman Beck 16.003, Richard Papenhausen 16.020, Bill Bartels 16.032, Kellen Chadwick 16.034, Clark Guglielmoni 16.314, Paul Guglielmoni 16.330, Jeffrey Priddy 16.392, Gary Johnson 16.413, Jeremy Petrell 16.625, Michael Paul Sr 16.786, David Newquist 16.812, John Silva 16.844, Derek Nance 16.910, Leroy Perry spun, Marcus Aue NT, Larry Hood late. Heat 1-Bobby Hogge IV, Kellen Chadwick, Randy Shafer, Jeffrey Priddy, Norman Beck, Shawn DeForest, Derek Nance, Michael Paul Sr. Heat 2-Mike Johnson, Richard Papenhausen, Ron Bartels, Nick Perivolaris, Gary Johnson, Leroy Perry, Clark Guglielmoni, David Newquist. Heat 3-Jeff Decker, Dino Napier, Bill Bartels, A J Kirkpatrick, Marcus Aue, Jeremy Petrell, Larry Hood, Paul Guglielmoni, John Silva. Dash-Decker, Chadwick, Hogge, Papenhausen, Napier. B Main-Beck, Hood, DeForest, Petrell, Nance, Paul, P Guglielmoni, G Johnson, Aue, Silva, C Guglielmoni, Newquist, Perry. A Main-Hogge, Chadwick, Decker, M Johnson, Papenhausen, R Bartels, Shafer, B Bartels, Perivolaris, Petrell, DeForest, Napier, Nance, P Guglielmoni, Beck, Priddy, G Johnson, Hood, Kirkpatrick, Paul

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