|
Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| Press Release |
|
|
|
OLMSTEAD BREAKS THROUGH |
|
Quincy, CA, July 9...The old saying “Good things happen to those who wait” became a reality on Saturday night when Danny Olmstead finally broke into the winner’s circle, capturing the 30-lap SCRA 360 main event at American Valley Speedway in far away Quincy. Olmstead has been close to victory on several occasions but his best chance occurred when he grabbed the pole position by way of capturing the Passing Masters Dash earlier in the evening. He didn’t waste it; on the contrary, he led wire-to-wire although it was not as easy as it sounds. Olmstead was dogged by point’s lead Chad Boespflug, who made several valiant attempts to garner victory number four on the season. However, it wasn’t to be as Olmstead hugged the bottom groove and avoided any trouble on his way to the checkers. Newcomer Robert Stice was the surprise of the evening as he raced from his eighth starting position to grab the third-place payoff and earn the Hard Charger Award all at the same time. Chris D’Arcy and Steven Williams finished fourth and fifth respectively. The two battled and swapped the position a few times during the event, with D’Arcy finally prevailing on the final lap. With the track providing only one groove, there was a lack of passing but the battles were terrific none-the-less. Everyone ran nose-to-tail, bumping one another in attempts to ”nerf” a competitor out of the groove and gain a position. The single groove didn’t seem to dampen the crowd’s enthusiasm, the largest in the track’s history, as they cheered wildly throughout the 30-lapper. Jim Richardson, who sits third in the season’s points, lost ground to Boespflug and Williams in the standings and at the same time, saw his 53-point lead over fourth-place Tyler Spath reduced to 33 points when both failed to finish the feature. The two battled each other continually until they invoked the two stop per event penalty after spins, relegating them to the pits for the remainder of the evening. But the hard luck driver of the evening was veteran Richard Harvey. Poised for a big night after qualifying second to Williams, Harvey proceeded to finish third in his heat. Following that strong finish, he gained three positions in the 6-lap dash, jumping him from 14th to 4th in the Dash points. However, that’s where it ended as the motor in his No. 59 Stinger Chassis machine expired for the second time in the last three outings. Williams and Harvey topped the qualifying charts, each with the identical time of 19.03-seconds. Olmstead and Spath and Logan were next. The two heats were captured by Stice and Spath. Heat #1 Spin Tech Mufflers, 10 Laps: 1st #11S
Robert Stice, 2nd #98 Chad Boespflug, 3rd #32 Jonathan
Logan, 4th #11D Danny Olmstead, 5th #93 Steven Williams,
#37 Troy Hovey Heat #2 Awards & Signs Heat 10 Laps: 1st #35
Tyler Spath, 2nd #71 Johnny Gray, 3rd #59 Richard Harvey,
4th #77 Chris D’Arcy Forest Transportation Dash 6 Laps: 1st #11D
Olmstead, 2nd #98 Boespflug, 3rd #59 Harvey, 4th
#35 Spath, 5th #32 Logan, 6th #77 D’Arcy Main Event, 30 Laps: 1st #11D Olmstead, 2nd
#98 Boespflug, 3rd #11S Stile, 4th #77 D’Arcy, 5th
#93 Williams, 6th #37 Hovey, 7th #32 Logan, 8th
#71 Gray, 9th #35 Spath, 10th #8 Jim Richardson, 11th
Harvey Qualifying: 1st #93 Williams 19.03, #59 Harvey 19.03, 3rd #11D Olmstead 19.12, 4th #35 Spath 19.15, 5th #32 Logan 19.35, 6th #77 D’Arcy 19.41, 7th #98 Boespflug 19.88, 8th # Gray 20.22, 9th #11S Stice 20.72-#37 Hovey, #8 Richardson, No Times |
