Cortez, CO.....August 14.....Riding
the bottom groove from tenth starting to the lead by the midway mark, Jon Taylor
scored his second 25 lap NMMRA unwinged sprint car feature win of 2004 Saturday
night at Montezuma Speedway. The double point win came in the traveling series
second trip to the Colorado track and pulled Taylor to within two points of
season point leader Tom Ball. Taylor is the grandson of New Mexico legend Buddy
Taylor. Taylor was chased to the checkered flag by Phoenix AZ visitor Shon
Deskins and crowd favorite Aaron Spangler. Spangler is a top dirt modified racer
in the area and he was making his sprint car debut in a car owned by track
promoters Lonnie and Tracie Oliver. Spangler won the rookie trophy dash, won his
heat race and then finished a solid third in the 25 lap feature.
A solid 19
car field made the trip to the Four Corners area track and they were given a
rare time trial opportunity. Many of the teams had raced the two-day SCRA show
at Hollywood Hills Speedway the previous weekend and tuned up on their time
trial skills. Dave Burns from Santa Fe established a new track record with his
15.12 lap. Bo Baker from Grants was second at 15.28 and Albuquerque's Ball
ranked third at 15.55. Tim Jones rounded out the dash lineup with a 15.68 lap.
Ball then won the fast dash to collect the prizes awarded by NAPA Auto Parts of
Cortez and Durango along with donations from the pit area. The rookie dash went
to Spangler ahead of Steve Copeland, Paul Whitehead, Ted McAdams and Rick
Flowers. The time trials had no effect on the remainder of the racing card as
the heats were lined up in normal NMMRA manner. Whiehead won the opening heat
over Copeland and the ten lapped was called after just six rounds when McAdams
rolled in turn 2. Burns spun leading this event. Spangler impressed with his
drive from 7th to win heat 2 over Jeff Brumfield Jr, Deskins and J C Powell Jr.
Nick Rael was black flagged with an oil fire. Larry Stoerkel paced heat 3 until
he pushed high in turn 4 on lap 8 and Ball raced by for the win. Stoerkel
salvaged second ahead of Taylor and Jody Williams. All 19 cars were able to
start the main event and pole starter Whitehead paced the opening lap before
Burns took over. Taylor was coming hard from the fifth row and he passed Burns
at the midway mark. Deskins then climbed his way to 2nd ahead of Spangler, Rael,
Ball, Baker, Tim West, Copeland, Powell Jr and Williams. Ball holds a 2 point
lead over Taylor with 2003 champion Baker another 27 points back in third. Kelly
Denison is 4 points back of Baker.
Summary
Fast Time-Dave Burns 15.12
Fast Dash-Tom Ball, Burns, Tim
Jones, Bo Baker.
Rookie Dash-Aaron Spangler, Steve
Copeland, Paul Whitehead.
Heat 1-Whitehead, Copeland, Ted
McAdams, Jones, Rick Flowers.
Heat 2-Spangler, Jeff Brumfield Jr,
Shon Deskins, J C Powell Jr, Kristy Smith.
Heat 3-Ball, Larry Stoerkel, Jon
Taylor, Jody Williams, Bo Baker.
Main-Taylor, Deskins, Spangler, Nick
Rael, Ball, Baker, Tim West, Copeland, Powell Jr, Williams, Kelly Denison,
Stoerkel, Burns, Jones, Brumfield Jr, Smtih, Whitehead, Flowers, McAdams.
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