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GRIFFIN ENJOYS HOLLYWOOD HILLS HOMECOMING |
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ALBUQUERQUE, NM, AUGUST 9, 2003 - It was a happy, and productive,
homecoming for Richard Griffin Saturday at the Hollywood Hills Speedway after he
led all 30 laps to win the first ever NAPA Auto Parts / Auto Trader Magazines SCRA race in the state of New Mexico. With track conditions rapidly changing to a bottom-hugging affair, Griffin knew that a good run in the JE Pistons Dash was paramount if he wanted to have any chance of claiming his fourth victory of the season. As it turned out, even Griffin had to be somewhat surprised that he was able to put his Ron Chaffin / Arizona Race Mart #50 Jon Boy on the pole after driving from fifth to first in the six-lap dash. "We were fortunate to have a good night of racing," said the four-time series champion. "We qualified pretty good and that deal in the dash was probably the key to the race because we knew that it was going to be tough to pass in the main event, and the track turned out to be pretty much like we thought it was going to be." "It was so slippery out there that you really had to get the car slowed down (before entering the turns) so it would stick on the bottom. Even if you thought that you were going too slow, we knew if we just stayed on the bottom and ran consistent laps that it would be tough for them to drive around us." Griffin's strategy proved to be sound right from the start. Outside front row starter Rip Williams tried to stay with Griffin coming down for the green flag, but his Sharon Jory / Tomarco Fasteners #3 Stinger was unable to find traction exiting turn four and would lose second place to Damion Gardner even before he reached the flagstand. Williams did manage to tuck in behind Gardner entering turn one and was able to keep Charles Davis, Jr. behind him. Griffin reached lapped traffic for the first time eleven laps into the race with Gardner poised for the slightest mistake. Even though the bulk of the slower cars in front of him were running his low line, Griffin was flawless in traffic and extended his lead over Gardner. Looking to make up some ground, Gardner tried the high groove on lap 14, but wound up falling further behind. Gardner received a little help two laps later after Adam Mitchell spun, bringing out at the yellow flag. During the caution period, fourth place Bob Ream, Jr. retired to the pit area with mechanical woes. With a clear race track in front of him, and two lapped cars between himself and Gardner, Griffin opened up a sizable lead shortly after racing resumed. The restart proved less favorable for Gardner than he had hoped, after he skated up the turn-one banking allowing Williams to grab the runner-up spot. With less than four laps to go, Griffin had once again reached the cars running at the tail end of the lead lap. With half a straight-away margin over Williams to play with, Griffin was committed to staying on the bottom no matter how much the cars in front of him were holding him up. "They were racing hard, and you weren't going to drive around them on the outside," Griffin later said of the predicament he was faced with. "Some of those guys didn't want to move up, and with three or four laps to go, I pretty much decided that I was going to stick to the bottom even if I had to push'em around the track. I knew that no one was going to drive around us on the outside and I knew if I opened the door that I probably would have gotten passed." Williams closed in on the final lap, but Griffin never opened the door and was able to earn his second straight SCRA win. Gardner finished third in the Harlan Willis / TCR Performance #45, ahead of the Arizona Race Mart #94 Buckley driven by Davis. Mike Kirby started ninth in the Help-U-Sell #0 Ellis and went on to give car owner Buzz Shoemaker his first SCRA top-five finish. Next to Griffin, Bobby Seals' sixth place finish was the highest for the New Mexican contingency. Another local driver, Steve Nix, won the KSE Hard Charger Awards after his 21st to tenth place drive. In time trials, rookie Josh Ford won his first career Sander Engineering Fast Time Award. Unfortunately, Ford's night came to an abrupt end after heavy contact with the turn one wall in his heat race. Fellow rookie Alan Ballard was the first car out the feature and was given the Hedman Hedders Hard-luck Award. ### RACE #18 - HOLLYWOOD HILLS SPEEDWAY, ALBUQUERQUE, NM Date of Race: 08/9/03 SANDER ENGINEERING TIME TRIALS 1. Josh Ford, (R) Willis/Ford 54, 14.702, 2. Mike English, Jory 6, 14.838, 3. Richard Griffin, Chaffin 50, 14.998, 4. Damion Gardner, Willis 45, 15.050, 5. Charles Davis, Jr., Davis 94, 15.173, 6. Bob Ream, Jr., BRAT 8, 15.239, 7. Rip Williams, Jory 3, 15.254, 8. Tony Jones, Vermeer 2, 15.347, 9. Mike Martin, Martin 57M, 15.347, 10. Mike Kirby, Shoemaker 0, 15.443, 11. Bobby Seals, Fegan 48, 15.452, 12. Alan Ballard, (R) Ballard 97, 15.494, 13. Seth Wilson, (R) Racing Optics 17, 15.519, 14. Robert Marfia, Marfia 6NM, 15.564, 15. Ronnie Clark, Clark 33, 15.590, 16. Adam Mitchell, Lancaster 14, 15.617, 17. Bobby Graham, Crossno 38, 15.647, 18. Troy Rutherford, Priestley 7, 15.692, 19. Jimmy Crawford, (R) Crawford 18, 15.715 ., 20. Tom Ball, Mach 2, 15.764 21. Joe Larkin, Jr., Larkin, Jr. 36L, 15.933, 22. James High, High 23H, 15.984, 23. Mel Murphy, Murphy 62, 16.019, 24. Robert Hall, Hall Sr. 16AZ, 16.209, 25. Kelly Denison, Denison 9, 16.298, 26. Steve Nix, Hines 0X, 16.301, 27. Brandon Lane, Lane 97X, 16.326, 28. David Burns, Burns 52, 16.377, 29. Jeff Brumfield, Brumfield 5J, 16.387, 30. Miles Merritt, Merritt 75X, 16.395, 31. Mike Spencer, Engstrom 44, 16.424, 32. Jimmy Scott, Scott UFO, 16.523, 33. Ron King, King 17NM, 16.923, 34. Jon Taylor, Taylor 93, 17.199, 35. Chris Faber, Faber 62X, 17.271, 36. Tony Everhart, Everhart 55, 17.862, 37. Jared Scutt, Scutt 25T, 17.862 C-MAIN 1. Brumfield, 2. Merritt, 3. Spencer, 4. Scott, 5. Scutt, 6. Everhart, 7. Faber, 8. King SO-CAL PERFORMANCE HEAT 1 1. Davis, 2. Graham, 3. Martin, 4. Larkin, 5. Denison, 6. Wilson, 7. Brumfield, 8. Ford. SHAVER ENGINES HEAT 2 1. Rutherford, 2. Kirby, 3. English, 4. Ream, 5. Nix, 6. High, 7. Merritt, 8. Marfia, SPIN TECH MUFFLERS HEAT 3 1. Williams, 2. Griffin, 3. Seals, 4. Crawford, 5. Lane, 6. Murphy, 7. Clark, 8. Spencer. STINGER CHASSIS HEAT 4 1. Hall, 2. Gardner, 3. Jones, 4. Ball, 5. Burns, 6. Mitchell, 7. Ballard, 8. Scott. JE PISTONS DASH 1. Griffin, 2. Williams, 3. Gardner, 4. Davis, 5. Ream, 6. Jones, 7. English, 8. Martin. SIMPSON B FEATURE 1. Ballard, 2. Clark, 3. Nix, 4. Mitchell, 5. Burns, 6. High, 7. Wilson, 8. Denison, 9. Murphy, 10. Spencer, 11. Lane, 12. Brumfield, 13. Scott, 14. Merritt. A FEATURE (30 Laps) 1. Griffin, 2. Williams, 3. Gardner, 4. Davis, 5. Kirby, 6. Seals, 7. Jones, 8. Rutherford, 9. Ball, 10. Nix, 11. Graham, 12. Crawford, 13. Hall, 14. Clark, 15. Larkin, 16. Burns, 17. Mitchell, 18. High, 19. Ream, 20. English, 21. Martin, 22. Ballard Laps Led: Griffin 1-30 DIVISION: SCRA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CAR NAME HOMETOWN STARTS POINTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 50 Richard Griffin Silver City NM 18 1232 2. 7 T'roy Rutherford Ojai CA 18 1163 3. 45 Damion Gardner Concord CA 18 1129 4. 3 Rip Williams Yorba Linda CA 17 1025 5. 29 Steve Ostling Corona CA 17 859 6. 4 Rickie Gaunt Torrance CA 16 803 7. 44 Mike Spencer Temecula CA 17 756 8. 2 Tony Jones Garden Grove CA 17 644 9. 99 Adam Mitchell Escondido CA 17 622 10. 6 Mike English Norwalk CA 16 608 11. 54 Josh Ford (R) Camarillo CA 18 523 12. 97 Alan Ballard (R) Bakersfield CA 18 446 13. 98 Verne Sweeney Lomita CA 16 431 14. 85 Lance Gremett San Marcos CA 15 385 15. 38 Levi Jones Olney IL 9 374 16. 18 Jimmy Crawford (R) Ventura CA 18 342 17. 41 Bobby Cody Costa Mesa CA 16 342 18. 17 Seth Wilson (R) San Clemente CA 18 339 19. 47 Brian Venard Irvine CA 12 335 20. 14 Bryan Stanfill (R) Bakersfield CA 16 330 |
