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September 10, 2006...“Gentleman”
Jimmy Lavell doesn’t have anything left to prove this season as he has won
half of the asphalt races scheduled.
Altamont
Motorsports
Park
seems to be his second home. He has been the only repeat winner on pavement and
looks like he was born there. He
also seems to have the patience to wait for just the right moment.
Qualifying
brought the lineup for the Trophy Dash. Jeff
Borrows from Manteca was fourth quick and sat on the pole, Pat Ariaz (third
quick) another Mantecan was the out side pole. Zarevich and Lavell ran third and
fourth. Lavell had the quickest
time ever in a sprint car at
Altamont
. The pole belonged to Burrows from
start to finish.
Heats
got everyone up and going.
Gary
Koster from
Woodland
and
Manteca
’s Michael Zarevich filled the first and second positions at the end of the
first go.
Brentwood
’s Lavell and Rob Hammond from
Morgan Hill
took the one-two spots from the second heat.
The sad outcome was that Jeff Burrows had a run up on another sprint’s
wheel and ended up in the wall, leaving him out of competition for the night.
Main
Event time was a total an invert with Hammond and Koster leading the way, Ed
Amador and Ariaz filling the second row. Zarevich, Lavell and Mark Amador
completing the field. Dropping of
the green brought the front runners into turn three with a big problem.
Hammond
felt something go on the car and he headed for the inside line to get out of
the way. Koster had no idea what
was happening and headed there too to keep in the front of the pack.
Both looking for the same spot, gave
Hammond
a soft roll in the dirt landing on his feet.
He later threw out “That didn’t even hurt, that was soft dirt.” It
did put him out for the night. Koster
kept on the move as a total restart ensued.
It wasn’t long and Koster left the track with mechanical problems.
Ariaz made it to the front and it looked as usual with Ariaz
leading the way. Lavell has made a
point this season of being the leader at Altamont and with only two races left
he was not going to let Ariaz take a win without an all out effort.
About the halfway point, Ariaz pushed up into turn one, and Lavell
was right there to slip under him for the lead.
A couple more laps and Zarevich suffered engine problems retiring for the
evening. The race ended after
thirty laps of pure speed. Lavell
took the checkered for the fourth time this season, Ariaz finished second, Ed
Amador finished third and Mark Amador was fourth.
Altamont
will host the final pavement race for NCMA on Saturday, September 30.
The point’s race has been heating up and seems to change after every
race. Zarevich is only six points
ahead of Lavell and Koster is only four points
behind Lavell. Please join us for
the Grand Finale. Details at NCMARacing.com.
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