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Chargin’
Charlie roars to victory by Bob Burbach |
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Marysville, CA - July 31, 2005...Chargin’
Charlie Marrs drove past one of northern California’s great speedway sprint
car drivers to secure his first ever victory in the Hunt Magneto Speedway Sprint
Car division Saturday night at Twin Cities Speedway. Versatile hot shoe Phillip
Shelby beat an outstanding field of TCS Mini Stocks to win his second feature in
a row. Last week he did it in the Riebes Racing Series Stock Cars, a division he
leads in the point standings.
On this wickedly hot summer evening with the mercury floating at around 105, Charlie Marrs took the measure of Antioch Speedway Sprint Car champion Bob Newberry with a daring move late in the race and motored on to a convincing victory. At the start of the featured event a five car pileup changed the look of the field. Auburn’s Jimmy Steward lost it in turn three and created the chaotic crash that parked Steward and vastly improved rookie Jay Youngman of Grass Valley. Stockton’s John Sarale landed on top of Youngman’s disabled racer after a ride through the air. Sarale, Steve Stein and Mark Hill all restarted. The race resumed with a surprise as rookie contender James Castleberry passed his way into an early lead at the conclusion of lap one and started to pull the field. Marrs, Jeremy Hawes, Newberry and Charles Williams slugged it out from second on back. Driver of the evening for the Rick Eversult team, Sarale, started to climb through the field early on after the crash with point leader Stein in tow. The race was remarkably caution free considering the hard slick conditions that prevailed by feature time. As the race approached half way, Newberry muscled by Castleberry and started to put distance of his own on the field immediately. For all intents and purposes the race seemed over…but not for Marrs. Marrs worked hard darting high and low as he made his way to second. Once Marrs grabbed second it became apparent that he was slowly closing the distance on Newberry. Newberry still seemed an easy winner as the race reached its concluding ten circuits. Then Marrs got up on the wheel and turned some great laps. He cut the distance between himself and Newberry with astonishing ease and in great whopping chunks each lap. Marrs went high and low and went forward fast. He was nipping at Newberry’s heels within four laps and showed the veteran his front wheels both high and low. It was a great, but brief battle as Marrs cruised on by with a daring move with a handful of laps left. Newberry seemed surprised by Marrs nifty slide into the lead and tried in vain to retake the lead. Marrs was more than a match and picked up victory number one in the series. Marrs’ learning curve has included one of the most violent crashes of the year early in the season. He also flipped in warm-ups for a feature event recently, landing on his wheels, never losing fire, hammering the throttle and motored on to a start in that event without missing a beat. Always controversial, but still a remarkable hard charger, Marrs led Newberry, a fast closing Sarale, Hawes and Castleberry across the line. Youngman’s misfortune along with Marrs victory may well move Marrs into the top five when the points are tabulated later this week. In the TCS Mini Stock main event, Shelby simply kept the field at bay after taking an early lead. TCS champion, Kevin Sprague was securely fastened to Shelby’s rear bumper but could not get by. Kevin tried everything he could to get to the front with no positive result. Robert Luster found third and stayed there for a solid finish. Shelby’s expertise on the restarts, of which there were many, allowed him to take Blane Baker’s #40 to the checkers with relative ease. Point leader Ken Reische couldn’t buy a break in the feature after an easy heat race victory. Reische was an early out with mechanical ailments that parked the orange #20 in turn two, never to start again. Hammer-down Shaun Merritt had a great run to finish fourth. Brother Mike Merritt had to make a banzai run from the back after an early race spin put him there. Arguably, Mike may have been the fastest guy on the track. Mike got back to fifth when the checkers dropped. Young Shelby’s versatility is beginning to impress as his abilities seem to be easily transported from one class to another. Shelby’s dad Phil indicated that his well known #63 may well wear the #86 numbers when the Riebes Racing Series Stock Cars return for their late season assaults on the famous clay quarter mile. The point race is the hottest in recent memory. Only 22 points separate the top six racers in the standings. The BCRA Midgets and Midget Lites were also presented with Jimmy Christen and Tyler Franklin securing the respective victories. For more on the BCRA event go to bcraracing.com. TURK’s
Smog
& Auto $100 to win Heat Race Shootout:
Wayne Turk, owner of Turk’s Smog and Auto Repair in Yuba City will put up $100.00 to win in each of the heat races scheduled in the Riebes Racing Series Stock Cars this Saturday night August 6th at TCS. Wayne will also sponsor a free drawing that will allow several lucky kids to race Wayne at the Go Cart track adjacent to the track. Each of the winners will get a t-shirt commemorating the race against Turk, which will take place later during the week. Turk will present the heat race winners their checks during intermission at the speedway Saturday night. The drawing for the go-cart race opportunity will take place at the same time. Wayne was unsure if he would bring his familiar black #3 to compete. The Riebes Racing Series Stock Cars and Pacific Sprint Cars will return to TCS on Saturday. The point races in both divisions are red hot. The Wingless Warriors of the Hunt Magneto Speedway Sprint Cars will return, as will the TCS Mini Stocks. |
