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| HammerDown Report by Bobby Gerould |
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Flock fast in blazing Bakersfield run |
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June 24, 2006 – Oildale, CA. …Robby Flock put his Mike Sala owned, Brian Matherly tuned, #19 where it needed to be and withheld the challenges of Tyler Brown to win the USAC Western Midget 30-lap feature event at Bakersfield Speedway Saturday night. The win was the second of the season for Flock, a four-time series champion from Murrieta, CA. “It was a really nice run”, said the happy winner (in 90 degree conditions at 10:30 PM) to track announcer Mike Moshier. “The restarts all went well.” Flock endured three such restarts, following caution periods, on the way to his 52nd career USAC Western Midget series win. At the drop of the green flag, two-time 2006 winner, Chris Rahe hopped into the lead on the dry 1/3-mile high banked dirt track. The high temperature in Oildale Saturday was 105 degrees Fahrenheit and the track, despite the best efforts of the maintenance crew, had no chance to stay moist. Quick qualifier Garrett Hanson suffered a mechanical failure and pulled into the infield on lap two at the same time that Brown wrestled the lead from Rahe. Flock was in hot-pursuit of Brown and passed him by diving low in turn one on lap six. Flock, and Brown pulled away from Rahe, and Greg Bragg by lap eleven but their lead was erased when rookie Alfred Galedrige stopped on the front chute to bring out the first caution flag. Flock used the low groove in turn one and turn two, and the high-side at the other end of the track, to maintain his lead over Brown in the middle stages of the race. By lap 21 the top-six cars of Flock, Brown, Rahe, Bragg, Jerome Rodela, and Brian Gard separated themselves from the rest of the racers. Brown was two-car lengths behind Flock at the checkered flag. Rahe finished third followed Bragg, Rodela, and Randi Pankratz. Gard earned the ‘hard charger’ of the race award by gaining seven positions from his 14th starting spot. Shannon McQueen, Michelle Decker, and Rick Hendrix completed the top-ten finishers. Brown, Rodela, and Rahe won heat races. Bobby Michnowicz dominated the companion USAC Ford Focus California Dirt series feature. He won the 25-lap event over Keith Janca, 18 year-old rookie Quinton Crye, Nic Faas, and Chris Veach. Veach was impressive after an early spin on lap five sent him to the back of the pack in 16th place. He rebounded supremely to earn his ‘top-five’ finish. Nick Carlson was leading the feature at lap ten but ended with a DNF due to a mechanical failure. Sixth through tenth place fell to Bobby Owens, Thomas Gray, Jenna Frazier, Cameron Veach, and Joey Fabozzi. USAC WESTERN MIDGET CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: June 24, 2005 – Bakersfield, California – Bakersfield Speedway QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Garrett Hansen, 70, Hansen-13.481; 2. Robby Flock, 19, Sala-13.511; 3. Chase Barber, 91, Barber-13.581; 4. Tyler Brown, 34, Brown-13.682; 5. Jerome Rodela, 71, Pedregon-13.892; 6. Chris Rahe, 3, Rahe-13.901; 7. Steve Davis, 2, Davis-13.969; 8. Alfred Galedrige, 26, Galedrige-14.092; 9. Stephen Graves, 86, Graves-14.095; 10. Greg Bragg, 05, Walker-14.126; 11. Shannon McQueen, 7, McQueen-14.134; 12. Alex Harris, 54, Harris-14.136; 13. Randi Pankratz, 8, Pankratz-14.153; 14. Steven Koster Jr., 01, Koster-14.193; 15. Rick Hendrix, 12, Hendrix-14.477; 16. Michelle Decker, 7m, McQueen, 17. Frank Pedregon, 50, Everhart-14.519; 18. Brian Gard, 57, Borghesani-14.574; 19. Tony Everhart, 55, Everhart-14.731; 20. Darrin Bolton, 00, Bolton-15.474. FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Brown, 2. Bragg, 3. Hansen, 4. Decker, 5. Pankratz, 6. Davis, 7. Everhart. NT SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Rodela, 2. Flock, 3. McQueen, 4. Bolton, 5. Pedregon, 6. A.Galedrige, 7. Koster. NT THIRD HEAT: (6 laps) 1. Rahe, 2. Gard, 3. Harris, 4. Hendrix, 5. Barber, 6. Graves. NT FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Robby Flock, 2. Tyler Brown, 3. Chris Rahe, 4. Greg Bragg, 5. Jerome Rodela, 6. Randi Pankratz, 7. Brian Gard, 8. Shannon McQueen, 9. Michelle Decker, 10. Rick Hendrix, 11. Steve Koster Jr., 12. Darrin Bolton, 12. Stephen Graves, 14. Frank Pedregon, 15. Chase Barber, 16. Alfred Galedrige, 17. Steve Davis, 18. Tony Everhart, 19. Garrett Hansen. NT FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Rahe, Laps 2-5 Brown, Laps 6-30 Flock. NEW WESTERN MIDGET CAR STANDINGS: 1-Rodela-500; 2-Brown-491; 3-Barber-400; 4-Rahe-371; 5-Bragg-364; 6-Hansen-339; 7-Matt Mitchell-303; 8-McQueen-292; 9-Pankratz-247; 10-Flock-241. NEXT WESTERN MIDGET CAR RACE: July 1 – Ventura (CA) Raceway USAC CALIFORNIA FORD FOCUS DIRT SERIES RACE RESULTS: June 24, 2005 – Bakersfield, California – Bakersfield Speedway FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Ricky Kirkbride (#87 Van Meter), 2. Chris Veach (#63 Veach), 3. Keith Janca (#67 Janca), 4. Keith Iaia (#26 Iaia), 5. Thomas Gray (#30 Gray), 6. Jenna Frazier (#29 Frazier), 7. Charlie Holmes (#80 Holmes). NT SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Bobby Michnowicz (#21 Michnowicz), 2. Bobby Owens (#7 Owens), 3. Gordy Edwards (#19 Edwards), 4. Joseph Fabozzi (#84 Fabozzi), 5. J.R. Williams (#74 Williams), 6. James Fryslie (#36 Gallion), 7. Dennis Howell (#62 Howell), THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Cameron Veach (#53 Veach), 2. Brett Engstrom (#5 Engstrom), 3. Nick Carlson (#44 Carlson), 4. John Nickel (#10 Nickel), 5. Nic Faas, (#17 Faas), 6. Quinton Crye (#15 Crye). NT FEATURE: (25 laps) 1. Bobby Michnowicz, 2. Keith Janca, 3. Quinton Crye, 4. Nic Faas, 5. Chris Veach, 6. Bobby Owens, 7. Thomas Gray, 8. Jenna Frazier, 9. Cameron Veach, 10. Joe Fabozzi, 11. Brett Engstrom, 12. James Fryslie, 13. J.R. Williams, 14. Keith Iaia, 15. John Nickel, 16. Nick Carlson, 17. Gordy Edwards, 18. Ricky Kirkbride. NT FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-10 Carlson, Laps 11-25 Michnowicz. NEW CALIFORNIA FORD FOCUS DIRT STANDINGS: 1-Michnowicz-425; 2-Janca-403; 3-Chris Veach-397; 4-Engstrom-336; 5-Crye-326; 6-Cameron Veach-323; 7-Frazier-275; 8-Fabozzi-220; 9-Carlson-219; 10-Faas-215. NEXT CALIFORNIA FORD FOCUS RACE (Dirt): July 1 – Ventura (CA) Raceway |
