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Eric Wilkins Dominates Manzy Sprints |
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Phoenix, AZ (April 13) Eric Wilkins proved once again that he is in a
class by himself as he decimated the 30 car field of non winged sprint cars at
Manzanita Speedway in scoring his third win of the year. His only loss this year
came at the hands of a non regular on the circuit, SCRA's Charles Davis, Jr.
No one could come close to Wilkins who lined up in the third row and chased down Marty Miller who led laps 2-8. Following a yellow flag brought about by a rare spin by five time champion Ricky Johnson, Miller missed the ensuing green flag and his failure to stand on it cost him four positions as Wilkins roared to the front. Once there, only yellow flags could keep the field close. The final yellow flag was waved at the midpoint of the race and then Wilkins kept it smooth as he pulled away from a seven car battle for runnerup honors. Kent Rosevear, making his first start of the year, kept the six car freight train behind him while Josh Pelkey, Josh Ford, a visitor from Camarillo, CA, Miller, Davey Bateman, Terry Belcher, Jr. and Terry Belcher were swapping positions. Wilkins had a commanding 6.67 second advantage over the field when he brought the Canyon Aparrel/ACM Equipment Rental Buckley under the checkered flag. Rosevear led the parade to the line for second with Pelkey edging Ford for third. Miller, whose crew protested the green flag start that saw him lose the lead, was fifth. The rest of the top ten were Bateman, Belcher, Jr., Belcher, Paul Norbury and Jason Sutphen. Johnson was involved in a multi car crash on the first lap and his second problem put him in the pits and broke a streak of 21 straight top ten finshes. It was his first non finish on the one third mile track since the 1998 season. Bob Ream, Jr. entered the race with three top five finishes and was ranked second in points but failed to make the feature. Ream, the ‘98 champion and winner of 45 ASCA features, drove it in deep into turn three in the first heat trying to get by Johnson for the final main event transfer spot. He pushed into Johnson moving him out of the groove. In a major show of sportsmanship he backed off on the front straightaway giving the transfer spot back to Johnson and relegating himself to the semi main. He uncharacteristically spun while leading and could not get back into the top four to make the feature. Sutphen inherited the lead when Ream spun and then held off Belcher, Jr., Jeff Henry and Brandon George who all transferred. Mike Martin won the first heat race over Norbury and Rick Byler who returned to the racing wars after a two year absence. Miller won the second heat over Michael Bryan and Chris Rhein as they were the only three cars to finish. Pelkey and Ryan Linder pitted with mechanical problems while Theo McCarty and Clint Haulot were eliminated when McCarty pushed into Haulot. McCarty did a couple of snap rolls and Haulot's throttle stuck and he shot off turn four, barley missed a light pole and hit the wall on the half mile track and almost slammed a push truck. Wilkins easily beat Ford and Rosevear in winning the third heat and Fred
Bryan, who had earlier won the trophy dash, bested Chris Bonneau and Belcher in
the fourth heat. Michael Bryan flipped in the first turn of the main event and he, too, was
not injured. SUMMARY ARIZONA SPRINT CAR ASSOCIATION ICKE BEATS LESLIE IN BG CHEMICALS MIDGET FEATURE Icke, who now has two seconds to go with his wins was trailing race long leader Bugs Norbury who was trying for this first career win when the race was slowed by a yellow flag with only two laps remaining. As he had done on a couple of previous occasions, Icke drove to the bottom of the track entering turn one but this time he managed to move to the front as Norbury's machine faltered and he was dejectedly pushed to the pits. Mike Leslie and R.J. Johnson tried to overtake the Colorado driver on the final laps but, after they traded the second spot a couple of times, Leslie, who had earlier won the BG Chemicals trophy dash, got to the line in second with the 14 year old highschool freshman in third. Adam Young finished fourth and Shane Parker was fifth at the checkered flag. Rounding out the top ten were Steve Sussex, Jr., Dustin Burkhart, Dean Daly, Doug Elliott and Dale Daly. The defending AMRA champion David Birmingham, Jr. beat Icke and Parker in the
first heat race while Mike Welker bested Leslie and Johnson in the second heat. ARIZONA MIDGET RACING ASSOCIATION |
