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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
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And Boespflug Win Exciting Mains by Ron Rodda |
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winged 410 and nonwing 360 sprints |
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Tulare, CA...April 30...Ronnie Day made his first start in a winged 410 sprint in many months memorable when he led all 30 laps at Tulare Thunderbowl on Saturday night to win the Golden State Challenge main. In accompanying action, the nonwing SCRA 360 sprints main event was taken by Chad Boespflug, also leading each lap on the 3/8 mile surface at the fairgrounds. A field of 28 GSC entries appeared with quick time honors going to Jonathan Allard as his 13.650 edged Mike Faria at 13.728. Four heats inverted six by time and sent the top four directly to the main event. Tommy Tarlton, Kyle Hirst, Blake Robertson, and Monte Ferriera won these ten lap races. Danny Faria, Jr. won the B main, used to move the top six into the main with the front four retaining their qualifying time. The 22 car field inverted six, assigning Ronnie Day and Steve Kent to the front row. A series of five yellows and two reds prolonged the race, but those delays were the only things slowing Day on his 30 lap run to the win. Hirst found the frontstretch wall after two laps, Jim Skinner spun on lap 9, and Stan Yockey followed suit a lap later as the first third of the race unwound. Day was pursued by Kent, Brent Kaeding, and the dueling pair of Andy Forsberg and Jonathan Allard. Forsberg and J. Allard were very entertaining in the position swapping efforts for fifth.
J. Allard climbed to 4th on lap 10, driving under Forsberg in
turn 2, and was 3rd a lap later, passing Kaeding on the backstretch.
The leading trio of Day, Kent, and J. Allard continued until dramatic
happenings created huge changes in the top five. On the 16th tour, Kent had a steering malfunction send him into the wall coming out of turn four, flipping in the process. Lap 16 created more drama when Mike Faria and Kaeding got together on the frontstretch on the restart with Faria losing a wheel and flipping and Kaeding pitting with a flat, sending three of the top running cars to the pit area with only Kaeding able to return. Coming from 13th starting, Jason Statler was the major benefactor of these troubles and the San Jose driver spent the last 14 laps in a magnificent tussle with J. Allard for the runnerup spot. Day regained his large advantage after each restart so the focus was on the great battle for 2nd, a spot J. Allard earned with a strong pass on the top of turn four as lap 26 ended. Statler settled for 3rd ahead of Sean Becker and Danny Faria Jr. Day’s win keeps the no repeat winners in Golden State competition streak alive. The 18 car field of SCRA nonwing 360’s also tested the clocks and 17 year old outlaw kart graduate, Tyler Spath, was the quickest at 16.556 while heat wins went to Forsberg, Steven Williams, and Danny Olmstead. A six lap dash for the fastest six cars to make a top four heat finish is used to set the first 3 rows and Chad Boespflug captured that honor while Chris D’Arcy was 2nd to set the first row of their 25 lap main. While the charts will show that Boespflug led all 25 laps, the main was superbly competitive with a spin and go along and driving deep into corners by Boespflug adding to the excitement. After the initial try to start did not work, the 2nd try got the field going and only 3 yellows slowed their action. Boespflug was chased initially by D’Arcy, Forsberg, Aaron Chaney, and Spath until D’Arcy went high in turn 2 on lap 5 to relinquish 2nd to Forsberg, the only driver in both divisions this night. However, when Forsberg and Chaney got together on the frontstretch a wheel was taken off Chaney’s car and Forsberg parked in the infield before the green reappeared. While both chased Boespflug just feet behind the Hanford driver, Spath and D’Arcy had a superb battle for 2nd, creating no position changes at the line over the last 20 laps, but passing each other repeatedly around the 3/8 mile only to have the other driver regain the spot by the time the flag stand reappeared. By lap 17 Boespflug had pulled away from the Spath and D’Arcy as the dealt with each other for 2nd, allowing Boespflug to spin in turn 2, complete the 360, and keep going without too much ground lost. Two late yellows saw Boespflug keep his lead once the green flew and the raging battle for 2nd continued until the checkers flew with Spath getting the spot over D’Arcy while Jim Richardson and Williams filled the top five. Richardson’s effort was noteworthy as he started 15th while Williams came from 10th. Golden State ChallengeFast time—Jonathan Allard 13.650 Heat one—Tommy Tarlton, Lawrence Edlund, J. Allard, Ronnie Day, Jason Statler Heat two—Kyle Hirst, Brian Coelho, Stephen Allard, Brent Kaeding, Mike Faria Heat three—Blake Robertson, Ricci Faria, Steve Kent, Sean Becker, Jim Skinner Heat four—Monte Ferriera, Andy Forsberg, Garrett Ishii, Stan Yockey, Kevin Pylant B main—Danny Faria Jr., M. Faria, Statler, Pylant, Skinner, Shain Matthews, Tom Fogarty, Doug Moles, Charlie Lowder Main—Day, J. Allard, Statler, Becker, D. Faria, Robertson, Forsberg, R. Faria, Ishii, S. Allard, Pylant, Edlund, Matthews, Kaeding, Coelho, Skinner, Yockey, Tarlton, Ferriera, M. Faria, Kent, Hirst SCRA sprints |
