|
Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| BURGIN WINS BAKERSFIELD
BANDIT SPRINT RACE by Gary Jacob & Don Low |
|
|
|
Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars and Hobby Stocks |
|
Bakersfield, CA -April 1, 2000--Taking just 9 laps to
come from sixth starting to the lead, A J Burgin raced to a win in the
20 lap feature for the Bandit unwinged 360 sprint cars Saturday night
at Bakersfield Speedway Park. Fast timer Josh Davis had led 8 laps and
he ran second until he spun on lap 16. Larry Dietz finished 2nd and
Davis battled back to a third. Rodney Jennings started on the pole for
the 20 lap hobby stock main and he paced all 20 laps for the win with
Lee Walker a race long second. Matt Barrett made a late charge to
finish third and increase his point lead to 9 over defending track
champion Chad Johnson, who finished 5th.
It was the first non-Hanford race on the 2000 schedule for the Bandit sprints and they brought just 9 cars to the Bakersfield 1/3 mile clay oval. J Davis posted fast time honors with a 13.284. Burgin was second fast at 13.462 and Dietz ran a 13.593. Fourth fast Warren Dorathy flipped after his 13.654 run and he was unable to start a heat race. Dorathy did make repairs in time to run the 20 lap main. Gene Manhire won the first heat ahead of J Davis. Outside front row starter Dave Knott won heat 2 with Burgin third behind Matt Day. The top 4 from the heat action were inverted at the front of the 9 car lineup for the 20 lap main and that put Day and Knott on the front row. On the first start attempt, pole starter Day was rearended by Manhire. Day's car suffered heavy damage and was done while Manhire lost a couple laps making repairs. J Davis started fourth, but had the lead on the first lap. Fifth starter Bobby Davis Jr jumped to 2nd on the first lap, but lost that spot to Burgin's inside pass on lap 2. Burgin got underneath J Davis for the lead on lap 9 and J Davis strong run saw him spin for a lap 15 yellow flag. On the restart, Bobby Davis Jr was now second ahead of Knott and Dorathy. Knott hooke a rut and collected Dorathy for another yellow flag. Burgin commanded the remainder of the race and B Davis lost second when he spun on lap 19. This allowed Dietz to finish 2nd and J Davis rebounded to finish third ahead of Knott and Dorathy with the stalled B Davis falling to 7th behind the lapped car of Jason Yount. The hobby stocks had a 22 car turnout and the heat winners were Jennings, Rion Brown and Walker. Jennings and Walker shared the front row for the 20 lap main and they ran 1-2 the entire way. Troy Morris Jr and Bill Stevens were out early and Darren Hopkins, Lee Ullman and Charles McMinn crashed for a lap 3 yellow flag with Brown in third ahead of previous race winner Chris Taylor and Curtis Dietzsch. Barrett gained fifth as Dietzsch pitted. The second caution came on lap 15 as Stevens broke a motor. Barrett and Ronnie English Jr both got around Taylor on the restart and Barrett made his move around Brown on lap 19 to finish third. Brown settled for 4th ahead of Johnson, Taylor, Chad Heusdens, Laura Yeager and M'lissa Manzella. Brown's finish moved him to third in points, 20 behind second place Johnson and just one ahead of both Taylor and Jennings. Walker is just one point behind Taylor and Jennings. Summary Hobby Stock Heat 1-Rodney Jennings, Curtis Dietzsch, Lee Ullman, Ronnie English Jr, Matt Barrett. Heat 2-Rion Brown, Darren Hopkins, Bill Stevens, Charles McMinn, Chad Heusdens. Heat 3-Lee Walker, Chad Johnson, Laura Yeager, Chris Taylor, Steve McWhorter. Main-Jennings, Walker, Barrett, Brown, Johnson, Taylor, Heusdens, Yeager, James Cagle, M'lissa Manzella, McWhorter, Dietzsch, English, Gene Verbeek, Bruce Moore, Jerry Keaton, Stevens, Mike Rushing, McMinn, Ullman, Hopkins, Troy Morris Jr. Bandit Unwinged 360 Sprint Car Fast Time-Josh Davis 13.284 Heat 1-Gene Manhire, J Davis, Bobby Davis Jr, Larry Dietz.. Heat 2-Dave Knott, Matt Day, A J Burgin, Jason Yount. Main-Burgin, Dietz, J Davis, Knott, Warren Dorathy, Yount, B Davis, Manhire, Day. |
