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Mack Wins in His Second SC Feature by Peter Curto |
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June 3, 2006 -
Santa Maria, Ca.-
We would like to thank all of the teams for making this Bandit race a success.
It was a fantastic and entertaining evening for the full house. Fans were
thrilled and enthusiastic with the whole performance. Jesse Mack won his first sprint car feature of the year and of his career on only his second outing. His masterful drive from the front included heavy lapped traffic at times had only one visible miscue which could have cost him the race. Mack pulled through like a veteran, recovered and kept charging forward and kept extending his lead while battles raged behind him until a late caution caught the field up for Mike Larson?s lap 22 spin. Mack, a 600CC micro-sprint veteran was humble and surprised in victory lane during his interview with announcer Jay Schlemer. "I never thought I'd win a race in my first season in a Sprint Car let alone my second race" exclaimed a jubilant Mack. He won his very first heat race in his very first race at Bakersfield during the May 20th Grand Slam against the best 360 sprint car drivers in the USA. Jayson May, defending champion Greg Porte, Jeff Fiscus and Joe Layman were in tow on the restart with a gaggle of lapped cars dispersed in between the top five. This played heavily into the finish as Fiscus used the high line and lapped cars t trap Porte on the bottom behind traffic and steal third behind May. Mack won with May, Fiscus, Porte and Layman rounding out the top 10. Jayson May drove a great race in a comeback from a violent flip at Santa Maria two seasons ago to finish 2nd but must have seemed to be a victory as they were happy with the effort and the result. Jayson was seriously injured and took a while to fully recover and the car to be rebuilt. We are happy to have him and his family back. D-Rod, Dennis Rodriguez Jr. set fast time, cruised to a smooth heat race finish only to draw an eight inversion pill. Undaunted the veteran was confident in his cars speed and his ability to work his way to the front. He said his car was really working and the former SCRA 410 series Rookie-Of-The-Year was prepared to make a charge to the front. This was not to be as he stood on the gas to take the green; his rear end broke ending his night before lap one was in the books. He is sure to be bake and the Camarillo native could be a contender for the championship. Charles Turner drove the race of his life although he finished down he drove smoothly and remained fairly competitive through out the evening. Turner turned in a competitive qualifying time and credited his improvement to help he received from some veteran VRA teams down south. It looks to be successful from every side. Keep it up Charles. Mike Larson, Rusty Carlyle, and Jeff Culver all did a great job of repairing cars damaged in practice to run the feature. Carlyle is a definite contender for the championship showed their team form to even get his car back into competition. Culver, a VRA Senior and local high school teacher and mentor to high school racers is a ?class act? as they repaired damage in short order. Larson and his crew replaced a rear end loaned to him by the Fiscus team allowing him the opportunity to run the feature. Thad Bennett tried out new equipment and was getting a handle on it on his way to a seventh place finish. This three time stock car champion will be a contender shortly. The same with Steve DeMott, this National Guard veteran missed last season serving in Guantanemo Bay, Cuba is glad to be back. He will be running competitively very soon also. When he left he was taking his under funded team to podium finishes. John Iturriria also had a successful run getting back into form. Iturriria was his trademark smooth and near flawless drive as he lapped the track. All in all a great evening of racing ending at 9:41 PM. Honorable mention to former Bandit star Jimmy Reeves who dominated the IMCA Modified show for his second (or third) SMS Modified victory. Congratulations to Mack and Reeves and their teams. We are sure more victories are to follow as the field is sure to grow as teams are completing cars for the next events. See you soon. |
