Santa Maria, CA - 7/2/05...Wild 106 FM/Bandit Sprint Cars, Winged Rebel Cup Sprint Cars and Automart Wholesale Mini Stocks brought the racing action to Santa Maria Speedway Saturday night.

The 30 lap Bandit Series feature event almost came to a stop on the third circuit when Santa Maria's Darren Simas, in his first outing of the season, almost became airborne in the first turn. The event did slow on the ninth lap when another Santa Maria driver, Mike Dean, spun in the fourth turn and almost took out leader Peter Murphy of Sidney, Australia. At the mid-point of the race Bobby Elliott recovered from a front chute spin that took Simas out of the event. Mike Baker and second in points Jimmy Reeves also retired from unrelated problems. Clark Templeman III, of Santa Clarita, put on a late race charge using the high line. Templeman was able to work his was to second place and challenge for the lead the last five circuits. Murphy was able to hold him off and complete his green to checkered run with Templeman second and Rusty Carlile, of Bakersfield, third. Evan Suggs, of Scotts Valley, and Patrick Frisco, of Paso Robles, were fourth and fifth. Point leader Greg Porte, of San Luis Obispo, won an 8 lap heat race and set fast time of 15.130 seconds. Simas and Murphy captured the other heats.

Ricci Faria, of Visalia, dominated the 30 lap Rebel main event, also leading from start to finish. Action slowed on lap four when Fresno's Mike Stallings spun in the north turns, but the worst incident of the night came on lap nine when San Jose's Jeff Delte hopped over the rear wheel of Garrett Iishi, of Carruthers, and hit the front chute wall. Delte lost his front wing and a front axle but walked away from the crash. Faria's win came despite challenges from both fast timer Monty Ferriera (13.174 seconds) and Craig Stidham who tried for the lead after passing Ferriera for second. Fourth place was taken by Fresno's Tommy Tarlton and fifth by Stan Yockey. Iishi and Delte won 8 lap heat races.

After destroying his Mini Stock truck two weeks ago, Santa Barbara's Ben Caswell started on the front row for the 20 lap main event and held that lead for the first half of the event before being overtaken by the dominant Toyota of point leader Darrin Davis of Atascadero. Santa Margarita's Justin Crockett also got by for second place but Casswell regained the spot with a crowd pleasing outside pass at the checkers. Paul Terrones, of Lompoc, and James Brown, of Channel Islands, completed the top-five. Todd Burnett, of Santa Ynez, and Mike Weigel, of Lompoc, were winners in 8 lap heat races.

Next Saturday night the 410 winged sprints of the Golden State Challenge will finally see action locally after being rained out earlier in the season. Automart Wholesale Mini Stocks return for the second week and Crossroads Community Church Factory Stocks and Campus Motorsports Factory Stocks will complete the program. Gates open at four, with qualifying at six and racing at seven.

RACE SUMMARY

Bandit Sprint Cars: Fast Time - Greg Porte, 15.130. Heat 1 - Porte, Rusty Carlile, Joey Layman, Bobby Elliott, Mike Dean, Thad Bennett. Heat 2 - Darren Simas, Clark Templeman III, Mike Knopf, Patrick Frisco, Evan Suggs, Bill Jones. Heat 3 - Peter Murphy, Jimmy Reeves, Mike Baker, Jason Montgomery, John Iturriria, Mike Larson. Main Event - Murphy, Templeman, Carlile, Suggs, Frisco, Porte, Elliott, Bennett, Knopf, Layman, Jones, Montgomery, Dean, Reeves, Simas, Baker, Larson (DNS), Iturriria (DNS).

Rebel Sprint Cars: Fast Time - Monty Ferriera, 13.174. Heat 1 - Garrett Iishi, Ricci Faria, Ferriera, Andy Ferris, Joe Masara. Heat 2 - Jeff Delte, Stan Yockey, Craig Stidham, Tommy Tarlton, Mike Stallings. Main Event - Faria, Stidham, Ferriera, Tarlton, Yockey, Ferris, Iishi, Masara, Stallings, Delte.

Mini Stocks: Heat 1 - Todd Burnett, Darrin Davis, Justin Crockett, Robby Claborn, Ben Caswell, Chris Fletcher, Dave Biddle, Kristy Gilbertson, Paul Terrones, Frank Nyback. Heat 2 - Mike Weigel, James Brown, Mike Herlihy, Mike Leland, Lulu Van Nuys, Rob Gilbertson, Jeff Biggs, Bill Jewell, Debby Ferrara. Main Event - Davis, Caswell, Crockett, Terrones, Brown, Weigel, Fletcher, Burnett, Nyback, R. Gilbertson, Claborn, Leland, Biddle, Ferrara, Jewell, K. Gilbertson, Herlihy, Biggs, Van Nuys.