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| HammerDown Report by Bobby Gerould |
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Ryan Kaplan records first USAC Midget win in Western Oildale thriller |
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Oildale,
CA. 05/14/05
- …Sophomore midget racer Ryan Kaplan of Chico, CA.
snookered two men with an outside pass in turn four on lap-24
Saturday night at Bakersfield Speedway en route to a 30-lap feature
victory. The USAC Western States Midget main event win was the first
for the 18 year old since he moved up from Ford Focus midget racing.
On a lap 24 restart, Kaplan lined up behind leader Tyler Brown, and
second place running Robby Flock. As the trio took the green flag
and hauled down the backchute, Kaplan used the additional bite from
his adjusted shocks to power into turn three on the high side. He
drove around both Flock, and Brown with just inches to spare and
powered into the lead as the cars raced off turn four. “Before the restart, I thought to myself,
‘this could be good or bad’”, said Kaplan in the pits
post-race. “I adjusted my shocks during the yellow (flag), and
thought I could push it up higher and just see what happens, and it
worked!” The race started with Matt Mitchell out
muscling fellow front-row starter Brown for the initial race lead.
Mitchell, however, suddenly lost power on his A red flag appeared on lap eleven when Wally
Pankratz clobbered the back-chute wall. Pankratz rode back to the
pits in the tow-truck passenger seat – his night done. 2003 USAC
Western Midget Champion Steven Paden dropped from the race with
mechanical problems at the same time. As the feature approached the midway point, the
dirt surface had collected a groove of rubber. Leader, Brown was
clearly fighting a car that was getting tighter, and tighter, while
runner-up Flock was getting faster, and faster. Flock reduced a
lap-15 half-straightaway Brown lead to one car length by lap-19. The
were nose-to-tail on lap 20, with Flock probing inside and
outside for a way by Brown. The two bumped on lap 22 – when Flock
ran up on the rear-nerf of Brown’s TCR
#34. Just as the excitement of a great race for the lead was hitting
a fever pitch – Jimmy Christian’s right rear tire popped, and
Ryan Pace spun to avoid contact. The caution set up the winning move
by Kaplan. The final drama of the feature occurred on lap
28 when Flock spun out trying to gain second place from Brown. At
the checkered flag it was Kaplan, followed by Brown, Travis
Berryhill, Jerome Rodela, and Chris Rahe. Rodela paced qualifying
with a lap of 13.460 seconds on the 1/3-mile dirt oval. Flock,
Christian, and Brad Galedridge were heat race winners on the warm
night.
Midget Heat One: 1. Galedridge, 2. Koster, 3. Midget Heat Two: 1. Flock, 2. McQueen, 3.
Pankratz, 4. Hendrix, 5. McKenney, 6. Berryhill, 7. Pierovich. Midget Heat Three: 1.Christian, 2. Pace, 3.
Mitchell, 4. Hansen, 5. Lakatos, 6. Paden, 7. Trimble FEATURE:
(30 laps) 1. Ryan Kaplan, 2. Tyler Brown, 3. Travis Berryhill, 4.
Jerome Rodela, 5. Chris Rahe, 6. Robby Flock, 7. Stephen **Pankratz flipped during the feature. …Michel Trimble scratched from the feature with a bent front axel. FEATURE LAP
LEADERS: Laps 1-2 Mitchell, Laps 3-23 Brown, Laps 24-30 Kaplan. NEW WESTERN
MIDGET CAR STANDINGS: 1-Flock-195; 2-Paden-152; 3-Kaplan-147;
4-Rodela-143; 5-McQueen-141; 6-Brown-131; 7-Hansen-120;
8-Pierovich-108; 9-Graves-101; 10-Lakatos-101. NEXT WESTERN MIDGET CAR RACE: June 11 – Ford
Focus entrants: (no qualifying) 91 – Chase Barber, 53
– Cameron Veach, 32 – Randi Pankratz, 11 – Jake Vail, 63 –
Chris Veach, 82 – Robbie Whitchurch, 39 – Cal Smith, 59 – Jet
Davison, 17 – Audra Sasselli, 5 – Bret Engstrom, 67 – Keith
Janca, 2 – Mike Collins, 44 – Nick Carlson, 54 – Alex Harris,
74 – JR Williams, 01 – Focus Heat One – 1. Whitchurch, 2. Carroll,
3. Chris Veach, 4. Kershaw, 5. Pankratz, 6. Engstrom, 7.Iaia, 8.
Carlson, 9. Williams, Focus Heat Two – 1. Barber, 2. Janca, 3.
Sasselli, 4. Vail, 5. Davison,
6. Smith, 7. Frazier 8. Cameron Veach 9. Harris, FEATURE:
(20 laps) 1. Rob Kershaw, 2. Keith Janca, 3. Chase Barber, 4. Alex
Harris, 5. Bret Engstrom, 6. Audra Sasselli, 7. Williams
flipped during the feature. Iaia flipped during the feature. FEATURE LAP
LEADERS: Laps 1-20 Kershaw. NEW |
