|
Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| HammerDown Report by Bobby Gerould |
|
|
|
Lewis is hot! Four for six in USAC Western States |
|
July 17,
2004 – Monroe, WA. …To say Michael Lewis was dominant would
be a huge understatement. The Noblesville, IN. pilot lapped up to
sixth place in the 40-lap feature race at Evergreen Speedway
Saturday evening. The victory in the United States Auto Club Western
States Sprint Car Series was the fourth of the year for Lewis.
Considering there have been only a half-dozen races so far this
season, you could call Lewis red-hot! “We got a little tight there late”, said
the winner and defending series champion. “But overall it was
awesome. That’s three
wins for me in the state of Washington so I like it!” Six cars were inverted by their qualifying
times to start the 23-car non-wing sprint feature race under warm
and muggy early evening conditions. Randy Dubois of Paulsbo, WA
jumped into the lead from the pole at the drop of the green flag.
Rick Hendrix, who shared the front row with Dubois, settled into
second place driving the Pontiac powered Ted Finkenbinder #3F. The race was slowed on lap four when Alan
Goetz, and J.R. Ray tangled in turn four on the fast and abrasive
5/8’s-mile gravel oval. On
the restart Lewis moved his Western Speed Racing Eagle Wes-Mar #40
to the high groove in turn one. He moved from fifth to third in
turns one and two and had second spot locked coming into turn three.
The huge crowd responded as Lewis displayed his skill. One lap
later, Lewis overtook Dubois for the race lead in turn four. As Lewis drove away, a tremendous battle for
second erupted between Dubois, Hendrix, Brian McClish, Brad
Bumgarner, Tony Hunt, and Greg Anderson. Hendrix dropped from the
race with a mechanical ill on lap eleven. Bumgarner took the
runner-up position on lap 16, dropping Dubois back. McClish also
moved by Dubois one lap later. McClish tracked down Bumgarner and gained
second for good on lap 24. Anderson was forced to the pits with an
overheating #2 just six laps from the finish. The race ended with
Lewis a straightaway ahead of teammate McClish. Bumgarner ran
strongly with a solid third place finish in Grandpa Roy’s #88
Beast but his series standings lead over Lewis was narrowed over the
weekend to just eight points. Hunt fought his racecar to a fourth
place result. Dubois was fifth in his own Dubois Construction /
Eagle #79. Shauna Hogg of Roseville, CA did a fantastic
job of hustling her All Phase / Eagle #5 from the final starting
spot on the 23-car grid all the way up to sixth at the checkered
flag. Lewis earned quick-qualifying honors with a lap of 22.198
seconds. Up next for the USAC Western States Sprint Car
Series is a trip to Salt Lake City for race seven of 15 in 2004. The
Rocky Mountain Raceways event is scheduled for July 24, 2004. Time Trials: 1. Michael Lewis, 40, Western
Speed-22.198; 2. Brad Bumgarner, 88, Bumgarner-22.329; 3. Brian
McClish, 80, Western Speed-22.523; 4. Tony Hunt, 60, Western
Speed-22.569; 5. Rick Hendrix, 3, Finkenbinder-22.643; 6. Randy
DuBois, 79, DuBois-22.677; 7. Mike Roberts, 2x, Roberts-22.751; 8.
Greg Anderson, 2, Anderson-22.795; 9. Chad Nichols, 7, Scott-22.876;
10. Michael Trimble, 15, Trimble-22.951; 11. Greg Taylor, 47,
Taylor-23.105; 12. Mike Murgoitio, 19, Murgoitio-23.150; 13. Rick
Brown, 98 Marquardt-23.164; 14. Axel Walker, 63, McLees-23.362; 15.
J.R. Ray, 8, Ray-23.367; 16. Brian Geiszler, 44, Geiszler-23.477;
17. Allen Goetz, 50, Goetz-23.500; 18. Craig Deaver, 15x,
Deaver-23.559; 19. Chris Peterson, 18, Peterson-23.610; 20. Destiney
Hays, 28, Hays-23.835; 21. Robert Beck, 03, Beck-23.893; 22. Don
Powell, 12, Powell-24.015; 23. Shauna Hogg, 5, Hogg-24.175; 24.
Marvin Mitchell, 68, Mitchell-26.043; 25. Michael Newman, 9,
Newman-NT. Main Event (40 laps) – 1. Lewis, 2. McClish,
3. Bumgarner, 4. Hunt, 5. Dubois, 6. Hogg, 7. R. Brown, 8. Beck, 9.
Geisler, 10. Taylor, 11. Murgoitio, 12. Mitchell, 13. Anderson 14.
Powell, 15. Hays, 16. Walker, 17. Trimble, 18. Roberts, 19. Nichols,
20. Hendrix, 21. Petersen, 22. Ray, 23. Goetz. Lap Leaders: Dubois 1-5, Lewis 6-40. NEW
WESTERN SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1-Bumgarner-340; 2-Lewis-332;
3-McClish-303; 4-Hunt-288; 5-Trimble-258; 6-Murgoitio-232;
7-Anderson-232; 8-Hogg-231; 9-Taylor-214; 10-Barber-182. NEXT
WESTERN SPRINT CAR RACE: July 24 – Salt Lake City, UT – Rocky
Mountain Raceways |
