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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| FIRST FEATURE WINS FOR
CORNICK AND HILL by Gary Jacob |
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Super Stocks,
Wingless Spec Sprints, Limited Late Models, |
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Watsonville, CA.....April 15......After four consecutive rainouts, Watsonville
Speedway got their 2005 season started on Friday night and Stu Cornick captured
the 24 lap NASCAR super stock feature after leading the final 12 laps. Philip
Priddy had leaped from third to the lead at the green flag, but the only caution
flag on lap 13 found him penalized back to third for a jump. That handed the top
spot to Cornick and he led the rest of the way. Defending track champion Dennis
Pelphrey ran second and Priddy was third ahead of previous week Chowchilla
winner Ray Martin and Mark Cooper. In 2004, Cornick split time in a limited late
model with Scott Fuhrman. The wingless spec sprints have been added to the 2005
schedule at the 1/4 mile clay oval and veteran racer Darrell Hanestad won their
20 lap feature that ran without a caution flag. It was Hanestad's start of 2005
and he will now be sidelined by a medical surgery after posting another win on
Saturday night at Placerville. Former dirt modified racer Steve Pemberton made
his division debut with a solid second place run ahead of Steve Mannina. The
limited late models appeared with only two cars, but three of the super stocks
decided to tag their 10 lap feature and 2004 Steitz All Star Tour champion Ken
Gregg won with the super stock of Ray Martin in second. Coming off a solid run
at Chowchilla last week, second year American Stock racer Aaron Hill of Santa
Cruz drove to his first feature win in their 19 lapper. Division rookie Tim
Clark Jr ran second and Ray Ash was third ahead of defending champion Sam
Kennedy. The debut race for the new Four Banger class was a success as 13 cars
appeared and Rich Wilson won the 15 lap feature in a car that he will turn over
to his young son in their next race. Many of the competitors in the class are 14
and 15 year old high schoolers and Ken Riley ran second ahead of Joe Padilla.
This class carries a $750 claim on the entire car and one person tried to claim
out of the grandstands on Friday night, but didn't know that the claim had to be
paid in cash. There were 13 super stocks, but Danny Scott trailered before the heat action. Outside front row starter Mark Cooper won the first heat ahead of Martin and pole starter Bill Hyland. Scott Fuhrman led the second heat wire to wire, but had forget to attach his rear panel and he was disqualified, giving that win to Pelphrey ahead of Cornick. Cornick got the dash win in front of Martin and Cooper. The feature lineup had an 8 car inversion and that placed Tony Oliveira and Mitch Lettunich on the front row ahead of Priddy and Hyland with Pelphrey and Cooper back in row 4. Priddy charged underneath Oliveira and was in front as the pack hit the flagstand for the green flag. Lettunich was out on lap 3 and Cornick took second from Oliveira on lap 4. Pelphrey was third a lap later and Richard Keldsen also fell out. Martin settled into fifth ahead of Chris Kulvicki and Cooper. Cooper had made it to sixth when Oliveira threw a wheel for a lap 13 yellow flag. The officials called Priddy's initial start a jump and placed him third in line for the restart with Cornick the new leader over Pelphrey, Priddy, Martin and Cooper. Fuhrman had to pit with a flat right rear tire just before the green flag. Cooper gained fourth when Martin slipped high in turn 1 on lap 16, but Martin reclaimed the spot on lap 20. Fuhrman stalled to force the race to be stopped one lap short of the 25 lap distance with Cornick the excited winner in front of Pelphrey, Priddy, Martin, Cooper, Patrick Sandoval, Kulvicki and Hyland. Only seven Wingless Spec Sprints showed for opening night and David Press broke in hot laps to force him to trailer home early. Hanestad came from last to win the lone heat race ahead of Mannina and Scott Merrell. The feature lineup was a complete inversion off the heat finish and Rob Hammond pitted before the green flag to leave just five cars racing. Craig Smith led the opening lap over Hanestad and Merrell. Hanestad easily took the lead from Smith on lap 2 and Pemberton was third with an outside move on lap 4. By midway, Hanestad had built his lead to 1/3 lap, but there was an exciting duel between Smith and Pemberton for second. Further back, Merrell and Mannina were dicing for fourth. Smith lost second to Pemberton when he clipped the back fence on lap 14. Smith also made contact with the front wall and elected to pit his damaged car. Hanestad was now 1/2 lap ahead of Pemberton and the flying Hanestad lapped fourth place Merrell before the checkered flag. Pemberton ran second ahead of Mannina and Merrell. The only two limited late models to appear were Gregg and Jeff Mead, who had raced in the Steitz All Star Tour events the previous two weekends in Chowchilla. Lettunich joined their heat race and Gregg won ahead of Lettunich and Mead. Their feature was originally cancelled, but brought back to life when time was available at the end of the show and the super stocks of Martin and Pelphrey joined to provide five cars. Gregg was never headed. Mead spun out of second on lap 2 and pitted with Pelphrey now second ahead of Martin. Lettunich gained third on lap 3, but the only caution dropped on lap 5 when Pelphrey spun. Pelphrey pulled off and Gregg led the rest of the way with Martin second ahead of Lettunich. The track is giving each of the divisions a couple opportunities to run time trials in 2005 and the American Stocks got to make the timed runs on opening night. S Kennedy flirted with the track record as he paced a 26 car turnout with a 19.161 lap. Time trial expert Ash ran a 19.425 and Wally Kennedy was third at 19.622. The 8 fastest were all in the 19's as Bill Sorg ranked fourth ahead of Norm Ayers, Clark Jr, Melissa Fuhrman and John Dawson Jr. Hill ranked 10th. Britton Barr broke leading the first heat and a big last lap melee left Tim Rodriguez the winner over Brian Brammer. Ash beat Hill and Clark Jr in heat 2 and S Kennedy won heat 3 ahead of Billy Nelson II and W Kennedy. W Kennedy was a feature scratch and Barr again broke leading in the B Main.. Now sporting sponsorship from Aarons and switching his number to 99, George Fernandez Jr retook the lead from Gary Baker on the last lap and won the B Main with Baker second ahead of Jimmy Fernandez and Rodriguez. There were 22 starters in the scheduled 20 lap feature. Hill and Les Bowers shared the front row ahead of John Dawson Jr and M Fuhrman with Clark and S Kennedy in row 3. Hill took a quick lead over Dawson Jr and Bowers. Dawson Jr crashed on lap 2 and Ayers pitted with Bowers now second. S Kennedy took third from Clark Jr on lap 3. S Kennedy made contact with the front wall on lap 4 and Mike Kofnovec Jr lost a wheel for a lap 5 yellow flag. G Fernandez broke for another yellow on lap 6 and Clark Jr got around S Kennedy for third. Clark Jr took second from Bowers on lap 7 and Sorg climbed into the top 5. Lucas Farmer and Eli Mendoza Jr tangled for a lap 9 yellow and Ash was fifth on lap 10. Nelson fell out and Clark Jr made contact with the front wall on lap 13, but maintained second. Third place Bowers spun in turn 3 after contact from Ash for the last yellow on lap 17. Bowers had to pit with a flat tire and the division time limit had expired. The track elected to give them a green-white-checkered finish with a single file restart and Hill stayed in front for his first win. Clark Jr ran second ahead of Ash, S Kennedy, Sorg, Jennifer Rood, M Fuhrman, Mendoza and newcomer Jessie LaVerne. Andrew Camperud won the first four banger heat race with a last straight pass around Wilson. Padilla was third. San Francisco long tow Hawk Valentine, an Antioch regular, easily won heat 2 but was disqualified and told to load his car when he was declared to be too experienced for the class by the track officials. That gave the heat 2 win to young Hailey Fuhrman ahead of Riley. Jimmy Cook had destroyed his car with a hard series of flips on the backstretch, but he escaped unhurt and collected the generous roll over fund collected from the fans. Brandi Dalton joined Cook and Valentine on the sidelines as the remaining ten cars ran a 15 lap feature. The lineup was an invert 6 off the heat action and the Alex Bieser, Kayla Watson and Kathy Elias tangled for a restart. Kyle Camperud paced the first 5 laps. A Camperud ran off the end of the track on the first lap and Riley settled into second ahead of Wilson and Padilla. Wilson took the lead from K Camperud on lap 6 and K Camperud was flagged off the track with sparks flying from his right front wheel. Riley retook second from Padilla on lap 8 and Watson pitted. Wilson stayed in front for the historic win and Riley ran second ahead of Padilla, Brian Vandermuelen and H Fuhrman. Summary Four Banger Heat 1-Andrew Camperud, Rich Wilson, Joe Padilla, Brian Vandermeulen, Kathy Elias. Heat 2-Hailey Fuhrman, Ken Riley, Kyle Camperud, Brandi Dalton, Jimmy Cook. Main-Wilson, Riley, Padilla, Vandermeulen, H Fuhrman, Elias, A Camperud, Alex Bieser, Kayla Watson, K Camperud. American Stock Fast Time-Sam Kennedy 19.161 Heat 1-Tim Rodriguez, Brian Brammer, Terry Stanton, George Fernandez Jr, Wayne Reeder. Heat 2-Ray Ash, Aaron Hill, Tim Clark Jr, Bill Sorg, Eli Mendoza Jr. Heat 3-Kennedy, Billy Nelson II, Wally Kennedy, Ramey VanHoose, Les Bowers. B Main-G Fernandez, Gary Baker, Jimmy Fernandez, Rodriguez, Brammer, Stanton, Britton Barr, Reeder. A Main-Hill, Clark, Ash, S Kennedy, Sorg, Jennifer Rood, Melissa Fuhrman, Mendoza, Jessie LaVerne, Baker, J Fernandez, Stanton, Brammer, Bowers, Nelson, Lucas Farmer, G Fernandez, Mike Kofnovec Jr, Norm Ayers, VanHoose, John Dawson Jr. Limited Late Model Heat-Ken Gregg, Mitch Lettunich, Jeff Mead. Main-Gregg, Ray Martin, Lettunich, Dennis Pelphrey, Mead. Wingless Spec Sprint Heat-Darrell Hanestad, Steve Mannina, Scott Merrell, Steve Pemberton, Rob Hammond. Main-Hanestad, Pemberton, Mannina, Merrell, Craig Smith, Hammond. Super Stock Dash-Stu Cornick, Ray Martin, Mark Cooper. Heat 1-Cooper, Martin, Bill Hyland, Mitch Lettunich, Richard Keldsen. Heat 2-Dennis Pelphrey, Cornick, Phillip Priddy, Tony Oliveira, Patrick Sandoval. Main-Cornick, Pelphrey, Priddy, Martin, Cooper, Sandoval, Chris Kulvicki, Hyland, Scott Fuhrman, Oliveira, Keldsen, Lettunich. |
