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Chris Bonneau beats Jeremy Sherman at Manzanita
Speedway by Windy McDonald |
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Phoenix, Az (Sept. 3)...An early pit stop and a rocket fast Chris Bonneau
kept Jeremy Sherman from scoring what would have been a record tying 13th main
event in Saturday night's Arizona Sprint Car Association outing on Manzanita
Speedway's half mile track. While the rest of the Valley was being hit with dust and rain the track was one of the few areas spared and those that drove through the storm to get to the Southwest Phoenix track were rewarded with a great display of driving on Bonneau's part. Manzy did not completely escape the weather. A brief dust stop hit the track during warm-ups and a light sprinkle of rain fell during driver introductions for the feature. Bonneau started in the front row while Sherman, the overwhelming favorite, lined up eighth in the 24 car field. Chris had the lead going into the first turn and Sherman was quickly into second but the yellow flag came out when Thomas Ogle slammed the wall while working the third lap and Sherman headed to the pits to replace a right rear tire. On the restart Hood and Mike Bonneau made contact and the cars hooked together bringing out another quick yellow. Both cars sustained damaged that sidelined them. When the green flag was displayed Sherman was in 18th as several cars were out early. While he was trying to get to the front Bonneau built as much as a half lap lead over the field with Sherman even further back. Bonneau turned almost every lap in the 19 second bracket about one and a half seconds quicker than his qualifying lap. Bonneau, who lapped all but the top six drivers behind him, encountered heavy traffic and another youngster, J.T. Imperial, closed the gap. They were running less than three car lengths apart when Imperial's sprinter blew a rear end and he coasted to a stop with two laps remaining. Sherman had moved to second and made up ground with the yellow but four lapped cars separated the two leaders. That was all Bonneau needed and he sped to his first ever main event win, only his second top five finish of the year. He had a 2.76 advantage over Sherman, who had not made it past one of the lapped cars, at the checkered flag. Nathan High finished third, Seainn Hendricsen fourth and Bobby Boone fifth. Jeff Henry and Marty Miller were the only other drivers able to stay on the lead lap. Andy Reinbold, Ben Gregg and Tim Beal rounded out the top ten. Sherman was hoping to tie the record held by Bob Ream, Jr. for the most wins in a season. He has four more races to try for the record. Shermans second place finish, coupled with a 13th place for second ranked Josh Pelkey who dropped out on the 23rd lap, virtually clinched the driving title for Sherman and also the owners championship for Fred Bryan, owner of the #77 sprinter. Sherman holds an unofficial 770 point lead over Pelkey and even if Pelkey scored clean sweeps in the remaining four races he would earn only 980 points. If Sherman enters those four races he would receive 100 show up points and would need to only start three of the main events to take his first ever driving title. The car has even more points as Ream drove it the week Sherman served out a one race suspension for alleged rough driving. Ream won his heat and was fourth in the feature. Chuck Buckman turned in the night's fastest qualifying lap at 20.439 but never made it to a green flag in competitive racing. He started in the back row of the Arizona Race Mart trophy dash and shared the back row with second quickest Ricky Hood who was making a rare non winged race on Manzy's half mile track. The two cars made contact as the green flag waved and Buckman apparently ran over a wheel on the Hood car and did a series of violent end over end flips as the cars exited turn four. He was alert and talking as the paramedics helped him from the car and reportedly sustained no serious injuries. Sherman, the night's third fastest qualifier, scored his sixth trophy dash win of the year over Bobby Boone and Hood. Jay Ervine scored his third heat race win of the season in winning the first
heat. Ben Gregg made a good drive from fifth to take second and Pelkey moved
from sixth to third. Polesitter Ryan Linder earned a spot in the feature with
his fourth place finish. |
