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Oildale, CA..Sept 18...VRA
unwinged 360 sprint car point leader Tom Stansberry, a Bakersfield
resident, battled from 10th starting to take the lead on lap 12 and
win their 30 lap main event at Bakersfield Speedway Park on Saturday
night. Clark Templeman III also put on a show as he lined up 14th
and wheeled to a 2nd, gaining that spot on lap 18. The final 24 laps
were run without a caution and Kevin Kierce ran third behind the
$1000 winner. Shaun Kautz was fourth ahead of Bill Welch. A J Felker
got his first ride in one of the potent Greg Edenholm TQ Midgets and
put on a show. He won his heat race from 7th starting and then
charged into the lead on lap 7 of their 25 lap feature. That event
was run without a single yellow flag and Felker's teammate Scott
Hansen came from the back row to second on lap 21. Behind Felker and
Hansen at the checkered flag were Chuck West and Walt Johnson. The
VRA dwarf cars combined their pro and senior divisions for their 20
lap feature. Senior heat winner Bill VanPraag led the first 10 laps
before CDCRA regular Brian Saxton drove by him on the outside to
win. Again, a clean race with just three yellow flags and Saxton got
the Pro win with feature runnerup VanPraag taking the senior honors.
Seniors Ed Niedzwiecki and Mike Sweeney ran 3-4 with Ryan Blade's
fifth the second best Pro run. The final mini stock point race for
the track in 2004 found Santa Maria regular Mike Weigel leading the
final 13 laps to win the 20 lapper ahead of Kenny Farris, Kyle
Calloway and Tina McGowan. Jimmy Mason finished off his track
championship season with a fifth and Van Nuys long tow Lulu Strub
achieved her goal of finishing 2nd in points, 24 ahead of McGowan.
With the Bandit unwinged 360 sprint cars in action just an hour away
in Hanford, the VRA group brought 16 cars to the 1/3 mile clay oval.
Ron Wade won heat 1 from an outside front row start with pole
starter Steve Conrad second ahead of Bakersfield's own Rick Gifford.
Ryan Devitt also turned an outside front row start into a win in
heat 2 with pole starter Mike Knopf second. Former dwarf car star
Stansberry lined up 7th and finished fifth in the second heat. The
30 lap feature had three cautions early in the race, then went for
the long green flag period at the end. Outside front row starter
Kautz led the first 11 laps. Bill Welch settled into second ahead of
Kierce and Conrad. Stansberry got to fifth to on lap 5 and Chris
Wakim stalled for a yellow flag. Devitt suffered his second right
rear flat tire and Stansberry passed Conrad for fourth and Kierce
for third. Stansberry took second from Welch on lap 10 and grabbed
the lead from Kautz on lap 12. Gifford raced into fifth on lap 7. On
lap 14, Kierce and 18th starter Templeman shuffled Welch back to
fifth. Templeman took third from Kierce on lap 17 and both he and
Kierce drove around Kautz for the 2-3 slots on lap 18. They could
only chase Stansberry to the checkered flag as Stansberry won ahead
of Templeman, Kierce, Kautz, Welch, Gifford, Knopf and Wade, the
final lead lap finisher.
There were 14 TQ Midgets and Felker won heat 1 from 7th starting
ahead of West Evans and point leader Steve Lambert. Chuck West won
heat 2 from third starting with pole starter Steve Parke. Long tow
Ken Bonnema pitted on the start of their 25 lap feature and Walt
Johnson led the first 5 laps. Felker was third on lap 2 and he
passed Evans for second on lap 3. Felker got inside Johnson for the
top spot on lap 7 and teammate Hansen had worked his way from last
to fifth. Hansen grabbed fourth from Lambert on lap 9 and he took
third from Evans on lap 14. Parke fell out and Hansen drove around
Johnson for second on lap 21. Felker won ahead of Hansen, a late
move forward by West, Johnson, Evans and Lambert, the final lead lap
car. Kenny Wiley was 7th over Bruce Hiroshima.
The 7 Senior and 6 Pro
Dwarf cars ran separate heat races. VanPraag won the senior heat
from the pole with Niedzwiecki second over Gary Conditt. Saxton came
from sixth to win the pro heat over point leader Jeff Shelton and
rookie Ryan Blade. The classes were combined for the 20 lap feature
and VanPraag took a quick lead from his outside front row start.
Mike Bradley spun for a lap 2 yellow and pole starter John Lynch
dropped out. Niedzwiecki spun out of second on lap 4 with Blade
gaining the spot over Shelton. Saxton had lined up 7th and he broke
inot the top five on lap 4. Saxton passed both Shelton and Conditt
for third on lap 5 and he took second from Blade on lap 8. Saxton
then drove around VanPraag on the outside fro the lead on lap 11.
Shelton and Blade traded third and Mike Sweeney worked his way to
fifth. Conditt hit the wall for a lap 18 yellow flag and Jerry
Doolittle pitted. On the restart, Blade spun and Shelton stalled to
shuffle the standings. Niedzwiecki found himself back in third
and he chased Saxton and VanPraag to the checkered flag. Sweeney ran
fourth ahead of Blade, Rick Denny, Bradley and Doolittle.
There
were 16 mini stocks, but Eric Farris, Tulare's Johnny Wood and David
Escobedo were racing for no points or money when they were found
with illegal parts before the racing started. Weigel won heat 1 from
third starting with fellow Santa Maria racer Jessica Rust second
over Kevin Herring. Strub also came from third to win heat 2 over
pole starter McGowan and Calloway. Weigel had a perfect night as he
won the dash from third with McGowan second. Herring led the first
five laps of the 20 lap feature from the pole as McGowan took third
on lap 3 and passed Rust for second on lap 5. Both McGowan and Rust
drove around Herring for the top two spots on lap 6, but Weigel had
worked his way to fourth from 12th starting. Weigel raced into
second on lap 7 and took the lead from McGowan on lap 8. Rust and
McGowan traded second on laps 12 and 13 before Rust got spun by
Mason. The yellow fell on lap 16 to penalize Mason to the rear of
the field. K Farris was now third and he took second from McGowan on
lap 17. Weigel won ahead of K Farris, Calloway, McGowan and Mason,
the final lead lap car. E Farris was a lap down in sixth ahead of
Delbert Hill and Richard Graves. The winner of four features, Mason
easily won the track championship with a 247 point lead on Strub.
Strub was only 24 points up on McGowan and 30 ahead of Graves.
Summary
Mini Stock
Dash-Mike Weigel, Tina McGowan, Lulu Strub.
Heat 1-Weigel, Jessica Rust, Kevin Herring, Jimmy Mason, Kenny
Farris.
Heat 2-Strub, McGowan, Kyle Calloway, Richard Graves, Chris McKellar.
Main-Weigel, K Farris, Calloway, McGowan, Mason, Eric Farris,
Delbert Hill, Graves, Darren Akins, Strub, Rust, Herring, Anthony
Miller, McKellar, Johnny Wood, David Escobedo.
Senior Dwarf
Heat-Bill Van Praag, Ed Niedzwiecki, Gary Conditt, Mike Sweeney,
Rick Denny.
Pro Dwarf
Heat-Brian Saxton, Jeff Shelton, Ryan Blade, John Lynch, Mike
Bradley.
Combined Feature-Saxton,
VanPraag, Niedzwiecki, Sweeney, Blade, Denny, Bradley, Jerry
Doolittle, Shelton, Wes Harris, Cindy Addison, Conditt, Lynch.
T Q Midget Heat 1-A J
Felker, West Evans, Steve Lambert, Walt Johnson, Ron Ahrendt. Heat
2-Chuck West, Steve Parke, Kenny Wiley, Nick Carlson, Michael
Bliffen. Main-Felker, Scott Hansen, West, Johnson, Evans, Lambert,
Wiley, Bruce Hiroshima, Carlson, Bliffen, Ahrendt, Linda Taylor,
Parke, Ken Bonnema. Unwinged
360 Sprint Car
Heat 1-Ron Wade, Steve Conrad, Rick Gifford, Shaun Kautz, Mike
Broome.
Heat 2-Ryan Devitt, Mike Knopf, Kevin Kierce, Bil Welch, Tom
Stansberry.
Main-Stansberry, Clark Templeman III, Kierce, Kautz, Welch, Gifford,
Knopf, Wade, Broome, Rob Kershaw, Brandon Thomson, Hobie Conway,
Devitt, Conrad, Chris Wakim, Blake Miller. |
