Tracy, Ca. April 3...Gordon Rodgers of Winton won the 25 lap
feature at Altamont Motorsports Park on Saturday, April 3 from his
front row starting spot, taking the lead from J & J Dairy's Ed
Amador around lap 6 and holding it to the checkers with hard
charging TBS's Scott Holloway on his tail. Rodgers also took the
trophy dash win in his first visit with the NCMA in a number of
years.
Bill Zarevich of Lathrop took over driving duties for Sam Davies and
had a great run, winning his heat race from a front row start.
Bill's son Michael ran in the same heat race, a first time for the
father and son drivers. Modesto's Ed Amador won his heat race and
held off fast qualifier Alum-Line's Pat Ariaz.
The freezing Altamont winds cooled off the track drastically and
made chassis set up a challenge for many teams. The Holloway team
was the first to experience problems, qualifying while running
on only 6 cylinders. The crew was busily making repairs wearing
allergy masks, making it look as if they were performing surgery.
The Holloway team
missed their heat race, but made it out for the trophy dash as an
alternate when the Shipherd team had to scratch from the dash with
front end repairs underway from a heat race incident.
J & J Dairy's Ed Amador took the lead at the green in the
feature, Rodgers overtook him early in the race, and TBS's Scott
Holloway progressed up the field. 420 Garage's Shipherd pulled in to
the pits with handling problems from heat race damage, and by lap 12
the leaders began lapping traffic. Charging hard to overtake
Holloway in second, Alum-Line's Ariaz clipped the wall on the
back straight, then lost a wheel on the front straight, with
Manteca's Michael Zarevich spinning to avoid hitting him. New driver
John Silva powered his Dan's Racer Safety sprinter in a smooth line,
keeping up with the fast paced leaders, and at the checkers, it was
Rodgers, Holloway, Amador, Silva, and Bill
Zarevich in the top five. The NCMA sprints will have the next
weekend off for Easter, and return to Altamont on Saturday, 4/17,
followed by the 2nd race in the West Coast Select Series on
Saturday, 4/24 at Chowchilla Speedway. Drive safe, have fun, and
take care.
Summary:
Fast Qualifier: Pat Ariaz 18.938
Heat 1: Ed Amador, Pat Ariaz, John Silva, Burt Siverling
Heat 2: Bill Zarevich, Gordon Rodgers, Michael Zarevich, Keith
Shipherd
Dash: Gordon Rodgers, Scott Holloway, Pat Ariaz, Ed Amador
Main: Gordon Rodgers, Scott Holloway, Ed Amador, John Silva,
Bill.Zarevich, Burt Siverling, Michael .Zarevich, Pat Ariaz, Keith
Shipherd
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