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San Felipe Pueblo, NM....April 26.....Leading
all 30 laps from his front row starting spot, Rick Ziehl from El Paso, Texas won
the USAC Southwest Sprint Car feature Saturday night at Hollywood Hills
Speedway. It was leg 2 on the traveling series 2003 schedule and Ziehl took over
the point lead with his win. Manzanita Speedway star Bob Ream Jr joined the
series and finished 2nd in the 30 lapper after earlier claiming fast time
honors. Veteran New Mexico racer Tom Ball ran third ahead of Ricky Johnson.
The Casino built race track drew a 34 car
field and Ream's fast time effort on the 3/8 mile clay oval was 15.53 seconds.
That just nipped the 15.59 effort of Ronnie Clark and a 15.64 turned in by
Robert Hall Jr. The fastest ten qualifiers were all in the 15's, but Ziehl was
disappointed with his 15.92 lap that placed him 8th fast after he had easily
paced time trials at the season opener in Imperial, CA. Bobby Seals won the dash
from the pole ahead of Clark and Ream. The heat action saw the field split into
four heats with the top four finishers in each climbing into the A Main. Ball
beat Ream and Steve Nix in heat 1. Clark outran Matt Rossi in heat 2 as Chris
Faber settled for third. Yuma's Mike Martin won heat 3 ahead of Ron Kratz and
Johnson. Ziehl captured heat 4 as Shon Deskins and defending series champion
Mike Boat ran 2-3. Seals was placed 4th in heat 4, but flipped his car in the
process. He scratched that entry and moved over to teammate Charlie Fegan's car
for the B Main. Phoenix female star Kaylene Verville was also a heat race flip
victim as was Nick Rael. Verville was able to make repairs in time to start the
B Main that had four transfers. Hall won the B Main ahead of Verville, Beau
Binder and veteran Asa Kesterson. Just missing transfers were Bruce St James and
Dave Burns. Edward Munoz from Amarillo, Tx was a flip victim in the B Main. With
Seals switching cars and Hall having to go through the A Main, the usual USAC
six car inversion put 8th quick Ziehl and Martin on the front row. Ironically,
they are the two series point leaders.
Ziehl went on to pace all 30 laps of
the A Main for the win with Ream working his way forward to a 2nd place finish
ahead of Ball, Johnson, Hall, Binder, Deskins, Verville, Kratz and Martin. Ziehl
came out of the event with an 8 point lead on Martin and 15 in front of Kratz.
Verville is just 2 points back of Kratz and just one in front of Clark.
Summary
Fast Time-Bob Ream Jr 15.53
Dash-Bobby Seals, Ronnie Clark, Ream.
Heat 1-Tom Ball, Ream, Steve Nix, Brandon Lane, Edward Munoz.
Heat 2-Clark, Matt Rossi, Chris Faber, Russ Gossett, Kaylene Verville.
Heat 3-Mike Martin, Ron Kratz, Ricky Johnson, Robert Marfia, Asa Kesterson.
Heat 4-Rick Ziehl, Shon Deskins, Mike Boat, Seals, Leighton Crouch.
B Main-Robert Hall Jr, Verville, Beau Binder, Kesterson, Bruce St James, Dave
Burns, Seals, Steve Stone, Larry Jones, James Aragon, J C Powell, Robert Jansen,
Crouch, Munoz.
A Main-Ziehl, Ream, Ball, Johnson, Hall, Binder, Deskins, Verville, Kratz,
Martin, Boat, Gossett, Faber, Rossi, Lane, Marfia, Clark, Jon Taylor, Nix,
Kesterson.
*eot
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