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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
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RUN WHATCHA BRUNG by Norm Bogan |
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Arriving at Petaluma Speedway on Friday
afternoon, September 4, we were greeted by twenty-nine sprint cars
staged for a night of action. This
is a once a year show that enables the local racers with their low
budget teams to match their carbureted, self starting heavier
machines against the more powerful injected, lightweight cars that
race in several 360 cubic inch series throughout the state, both
with wings and without. There
are bonuses for the carbureted cars and a purse elevated above their
regular stipend. What
keeps them coming back is that every so often, one of the little
guys takes home the spoils. The few rules were that the engine had
to be a 360 cubic inch or less.
Probably over half of the field was SPEC Sprints,
carburetors, self starting and heavier.
There were several options for tire selection and none of the
regular wings were allowed, but Rich and Andy Forsberg did bring a
car with some side boards and a nose job, reminiscent of J.J.
Yeley’s ride at Oskaloosa, Iowa in 2002. Transplanted Aussie, Peter Murphy set
the standard this evening with the fast time of 14.20 seconds.
Heat race winners were Murphy, Billy Macedo Jr., Dustin
Baxter and Blake Miller. In
the second heat, Norm Johns cart-wheeled out the exit road in turn
#1 and was able to crawl out of the car under his own power. In the third heat, Ford Cook got up on the wall between turns
3 and 4, barrel-rolling to a stop.
He too, exited the car after safety workers set it back on
its wheels. Six transfers from the “B” Main
joined the sixteen who qualified through the heat races making a
twenty-two car field for a thirty lap battle.
Up front Forsberg, Brandon Davis, Josh McIntosh and Peter
Murphy were grasping for the point.
Forsberg moved to the front and led for some laps before a
bobble set him back and eventually Murphy prevailed, Miller moved up
to second, McIntosh took the show spot followed by Mark Mackay, Eric
Rossi and Josh Ford. With the support classes of Mini-Stocks
and Dwarf Cars in their final point race, the fans were treated to a
variety of auto racing disciplines.
It becomes fun for both racers and fans, when maybe once a
year, you just throw out the standard rules and have a mix and match
field of racers, just relaxed, having fun and picking up a few bucks
also. A plus tonight was that the track staff
did a good job of bringing the track along through the night and the
racing surface for the feature allowed competitors to run high and
low, giving the fans some real action to cheer for.
This is a great event to see how your local heroes stand-up
against the next level of competition.
Reluctant racers often find they can run at that level and
look to upgrade the class of their equipment.
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