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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| Four Divisions Invade Kings by Ron Rodda |
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Sprints, IMCA Modifieds, Hot Stocks |
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Hanford, CA...August 23...When the nonwing Sprint Bandits were added to the evening's menu, Kings Speedway in Hanford raced their four regular divisions on Saturday. The excellent track surface produced fast paced main event wins for J. T. Contente in Hot Stocks, Lonnie Lacy Jr. won the IMCA modified portion, Arron Chaney was victorious in nonwing Sprint Bandits, and Davey Pombo Jr won the winged Rebel Sprint main event. It was the first win ever for youg Chaney and Pombo Jr won in just his second winged appearance as he wheeled the car driven earlier this year by Bobby Elliott. Pombo Jr dedicated his win to the memory of his father Davey Pombo who died in July. Ferris' excellent drive had one last attempt at a winning pass as the field was coming out of turn four for the 29th time. Ferris drove high to try to sweep around a lapped car and Pombo at the same time, but the slower car and Ferris made contact and the challenge came to an end. The yellow flew to push Ferris' wounded mount off and Pombo easily held off the challengers the final lap for the win. Pombo usually runs a nonwing class and was driving the 22S car that had been driven by Bobby Elliott in the nonwing class a week prior. Day, Robertson, R. Faria, and Edlund filled the top five. Point leader Tim Worth ran sixth ahead of Erik Folger, Barroso and Ricky Wondergem. Worth's point lead is 62 over Barroso and 83 ahead of Ferris. The nonwing Sprint Bandits brought 18 cars with Gene Manhire's 16.285 best against the clock. Their trio of heats saw wins going to Terry Shank Jr., Jerome Warmerdam, and Brad Evett before all 18 cars started the invert ten main event set for 25 laps. Jason Montgomery and Arron Chaney had the front row for the all green race that featured a great drive from a normally winged car. In his 2nd ever Sprint Bandit start and one of a handful of nonwing starts, Rick Williams started 7th and ran a very smooth race, coming a few laps short of challenging the fleet Chaney for the win. Williams had raced the opening night of the rich VRA 360 Nationals at Perris on Friday, but elected to tow to Hanford to race on Saturday. Chaney led all 25 laps with Montgomery initially chasing him. By lap 12, A. J. Burgin has grabbed the 2nd slot with Montgomery 3rd as the lead trio were pulling away from 4th place Williams. On lap 18, Williams got around Montgomery on the top of turn 2 and used the lower area of turn 4 to earn 2nd on lap 22. Williams then started to close on Chaney, but with the lack of a yellow flag and only 3 laps left, time ran out on his charge. Chaney's smooth run earned the win with Williams, Burgin, last week's winner Jerome Warmerdam, and Montgomery filling the to five. Double division racer Pombo ran sixth ahead of John Burnett, point leader Greg Porte and point runnerup Aaron Altaffer. Porte's point lead is just 2 over Altaffer, 25 ahead of Richard Harvey Jr and 33 ahead of Burgin. Pombo stands fifth, 44 points out of the point lead. Twenty IMCA modifieds were on hand and heat wins went to Bill Wilker, Dave Soito Jr, and Joe Chapman before 19 cars started their scheduled 25 lap main. Jason Selvidge and Jack Stanford shared the front row and Stanford led until lap 10 when Lonnie Lacy Jr powered around the leader on the top of turns 3 and 4, coming from his 5th starting spot. Three yellows and a time consuming red when Chad Patterson rolled his car used up enough clock that the race was cut short at 16 laps. Lacy led the last 7 circuits with Soito earning 2nd with a last lap pass of Stanford on the top of turn four. Rodney Freitas was 4th ahead of Bryan Burnes at the conclusion. Ed Nichols ran sixth ahead of Wilker, Selvidge and Todd Hermosillo. Last week's winner, Paul Stone, was 10th after having to pit with A frame damage and a flat and then getting collected in a lap 15 yellow when Hermosillo spun while trying to pass Stanford for 2nd. The track title fight remains close with Burnes now 8 points ahead of Stone and 11 in front of Freitas. Jimmy Reeves ran 13th and dropped 23 points behind the point leader. The Hot Stock class has struggled with car count issues and only 8 cars appeared this night. Paul Pelletier won the heat before all but Johnny Cardoza started their 20 lap main. J. T. Contente got the jump off of the pole as the field took Douglas Manhire's green flag and led all 20 circles. Pelletier ran 2nd the entire distance while Roy Hart, Jr. was 3rd the same distance. The top three cars ran together the entire race, an all green show, even lapped traffic was not enough for a pass among the top three. Normally top running Rich Denman ran a slow pace with engine problems and finished 7th. Denman's point lead is now 14 over Hart Jr, 15 ahead of Pelletier and 24 ahead of J Contente. The next Rebel Cup and Bandit Sprint appearance at Kings will be the huge show on September 13th with the Civil War cars included. Rebel Sprints---fast time Ricci Faria 14.247 |
