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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| LATE PASS FOR WARMERDAM,
JOHNSON TWO WIN WEEKEND by Gary Jacob |
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Bandit Sprint Cars and IMCA Modifieds |
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Hanford, CA -April 8, 2000--On a rare dry slick Kings
Speedway surface, Jerome Warmerdam dove underneath A J Burgin on lap
17 to win the 20 lap feature for the Bandit unwinged 360 sprint cars
Saturday night. It was Warmerdam's second straight win at Kings, while
Burgin is running away from the pack in the series points with a win
and three seconds in the first four races. Warmerdam pulled away over
those final 3 laps to win by 1/2 straight in his mount sponsored by
Sizzler and Warmerdam Farms. Taking just 8 laps to take the lead from
10th starting, Mike Johnson from Clovis made it another two win
weekend by capturing the 20 lap feature for the IMCA Modifieds. With
the win in his Larkins Chassis, Johnson has made his 2000 IMCA
sanctioned record 4 wins in 10 starts and he also is battling for the
championship at the unsanctioned Chowchilla Speedway, where he won on
Friday night. His work schedule has put Colorado racer Shane Schaben
in Southern California for 2000 and he has been racing at Ventura,
Bakersfield and Kings. Saturday night, he finished a strong second
behind Johnson and ahead of Wayne Coffman.
For the second straight weekend, the traveling Bandit sprint car series drew 9 entries and Burgin posted fast time with a 16.080 lap to just nip the 16.115 effort of Warmerdam. Second year racer Brian Schuler was third fast at 16.695 and Warren Dorathy timed fourth fast. Burgin won the first heat by 1/4 lap over Manhire and Warmerdam raced to victory in heat two as Josh Davis ran second. For their 20 lap main, an invert 6 lineup was used, but Dorathy's tough night saw him exit when a restart was called. Despite the small field, the crowd was thrilled as the first four laps produced four different leaders. Warmerdam moved up a row with Dorathy's exit and he blasted into the lead by the time they hit start-finish on the initial green. On lap 2, Warmerdam ran off the top of the track in turn 2 and rookie Keith Silva was the new leader. Silva then spun in turn 1 for a yellow flag. Davis inherited the lead, but paced only lap 3 before Burgin got underneath him in turn 3 for the top spot. Both Gene Manhire and Warmerdam had got past Davis for the 2-3 slots before Jimmy Phelan stalled for the final caution flag on lap 5. While Burgin cruised in front, Warmerdam's up and down race continued as he got inside Manhire for 2nd on lap 7 only to slip too high a lap later and give the spot back. Warmerdam charged back to regain second with another inside move on lap 9. Burgin's big lead disappeared with an infield excursion on lap 12, but he stayed in front of Warmerdam. In the closing rounds, Burgin stayed with the disappearing outside groove and Warmerdam was able to drive underneath at the start-finish line on lap 17 to take the win. Warmerdam won by 1/2 straight over Burgin with Manhire third ahead of Davis, Schuler, Silva and Larry Dietz. With the division idle at both Bakersfield and Ventura, the IMCA Modified car count improved to 25 cars and they were divided into three heat races. Jeff Heusdens easily won heat 1 from the pole with Coffman coming from sixth to finish 2nd. Schaben won heat 2 from an outside front row start and Steve Smothermon outdueled Johnson for 2nd in a crowd pleasing effort. Charles Paul charged from sixth starting to win heat 3 with Ed Nichols second ahead of Jim Keister. All 25 cars were able to start the 20 lap main, but Chad Patterson had major engine woes and wanted just to see the green flag. The race was restarted after Rex Porterfield spun and Keister took a wild ride on the top of the front fence. Keister was done for the night and Heusdens again raced into the lead from the pole. Bill Saltzman settled into second ahead of Schaben. Johnson was fifth in two laps and third on lap 4 as Smothermon and Coffman fell back in a tangle. Johnson took second from Saltzman on lap 5 and Schaben gained third on lap 7. After leading 7 laps, Heusdens clipped one of the infield tractor tires and lost his steering. Johnson was the new leader over Schaben, Saltzman and Dave Sweet. On the next restart attempt, Saltzman went inside the cone on the front straight and was penalized to the rear of the field. A lap 9 yellow saw a spun Gary Pugh clipped by Tom Bowser and the restart saw Smothermon spin in turn 3 where he was clipped by last week's winner Jimmy Reeves. On lap 11, Lonnie Lacy Jr and Coffman had moved into the 3-4 slots ahead of Paul. Coffman took third from Lacy on lap 15 and Paul fell back with an off track excursion on lap 17. Saltzman began to smoke heavily at the end and Johnson won by 1/4 lap over Schaben, who was challenged hard on the final round by Coffman. Lacy spun wildily off the final corner and came up just short of the checkered flag as Bowser charged back to 4th ahead of Sweet, Paul, Joe Chapman, Richard Vandersteen, Smothermon and Reeves. Summary IMCA Modified Heat 1-Jeff Heusdens, Wayne Coffman, Bill Saltzman, Gerard Felipe, Ray Arena. Heat 2-Shane Schaben, Steve Smothermon, Mike Johnson, Joe Chapman, Richard Vandersteen. Heat 3-Charles Paul, Ed Nichols, Jim Keister, Rex Porterfield, Gary Pugh. Main-Johnson, Schaben, Coffman, Tom Bowser, Dave Sweet, Paul, Chapman, Vandersteen, Smothermon, Jimmy Reeves, Arena, Lonnie Lacy, Saltzman, Nichols, Eddie Stewart, Porterfield, Art DeVults, Pugh, Harris Goodkind, Lee Phillips, Felipe, Heusdens, Tom Stidham, Chad Patterson, Keister. Bandit Sprint Car Fast Time-A J Burgin 16.080 Heat 1-Burgin, Gene Manhire, Brian Schuler, Larry Dietz, Jimmy Phelan. Heat 2-Jerome Warmerdam, Josh Davis, Keith Silva, Warren Dorathy. Main-Warmerdam, Burgin, Manhire, Davis, Schuler, Silva, Dietz, Phelan, Dorathy. |
