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Russum, Bartlett and Grenert shine again Slam-Bang Bombers bring down curtain by Bob Burbach |
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Marysville CA - June 16, 2007 --- Paul and Kathy Hawes presented yet another outstanding program at Marysville Raceway Park Saturday night. Point leader Pat Russum passed his way to the lead from deep in the pack to win the featured 30-lap "Wingless Warriors" MRP Wingless Sprint Car main event. Yuba City's Jerry Bartlett swept the KKCY Country 103 Cup program after a spirited dice with Yuba City's Ray Benkowski in the feature. Mike Grenert of Travis AFB took the honors in Nor Cal Dwarf car action. Marysville's James Foster crashed his way to a checkered flag in the Extreme Bomber exhibition that brought down the curtain on the night's racing action. The well executed racing event concluded just after 9:30.
The MRP Wingless Sprint Car feature was a serious auto race. 30 laps was the distance and it was a thriller all the way. Point leader Pat Russum of Sacramento was seeded 8th in the field that included long tow/flight contender Tony Letterer from Honolulu Hawaii. Letterer was surprisingly quick having never driven at MRP before. Letterer was in the top 4 in qualifying and competed in the Dash for Cash event that opened the night's festivities in that class. Front row starter, and fast dash winner, Mark McKay from Cameron Park leapt from his front row starting spot to lead by a wide margin as the field flew through the first 10 laps of the feature. While McKay was lapping cars by lap 5 the 8th Starting Russum and Yuba City's Mark Hill took to the high road and started passing cars. Russum and Hill are in a tight battle for the points lead and both were on their game early on. Russum and Hill arrived in 2nd and 4th place respectively as the event neared ½ distance. Russum, Hill and Anderson who was 2nd started digging into McKay's seemingly insurmountable lead as the quartet headed into heavy lapped traffic. Then it all unraveled for McKay. He brushed a lapped car entering turn 1 at ½ way and his bright #11 slipped sideways and chugged to a stop. The yellow flashed on and Russum inherited the lead with Anderson 2nd and Hill 3rd. While the score sheets showed no changes in the top three after that, Russum, Anderson and Hill produced a mind-boggling show of great in-traffic driving as they whipped through the field. MRP was hooked up and if you were brave enough you could go fast. Russum produced a monster wheelie out of turn 2 on one of the late circuits that, while spectacular, allowed Anderson and Hill to close. He never made another mistake and took his 5th straight main event victory. Russum was obviously very pleased with his 5th straight triumph. "It was a tough race and a little rough, but it was fast and FUN!…and that is what it's all about." A long green flag segment highlighted the concluding segment of the event as 2006 MRP Champion Phillip Shelby of Yuba City clawed his way into 3rd place where he finished behind Benkowski. Point leader Heather Bartlett got by Robert Mull with but a lap remaining and secured 4th at the flag. Mull was 5th in a great ride. He lost 4th when a tire shredded, but nursed his mount to 5th. 3-time champ Jerry Bartlett was candid in victory lane. "It took a while, but once you found the groove this place was fast". Bartlett swept the program. The Extreme Bomber exhibition produced a multitude of incredibly hard hits as the field literally destroyed itself on its way to the checkers. James Foster was declared the winner after hammering everything in his sights. Promoter Paul Hawes took his enforcer Cadillac onto the speedway and was slammed time and again by the competitors. Hawes nearly had to take an 8-count after one of the solid, noisy, teeth-rattling hits. Every car was virtually destroyed in what was really a Destruction Derby in a circle. Foster's antics drew a combination of boos and cheers from the excited onlookers. It was all great fun and a real crowd pleaser. Mike "Spanky" Grenert won yet another feature event in the Nor Cal Dwarf Cars. But it was a hard fought thriller that included 3 wide racing and a stunning late race battle for the lead. A multitude of early race yellows and one red flag punctuated the first few laps of the race. Marysville's Neil Stinson flipped his bright red #20 in turn 2. Stinson was unharmed in the crash, but his car was a bit worse for wear. Then the real battle was on as Grenert, Grass Valley's Pat Weger and Escalon's Josh Hiatt slugged it out for the top spot all the way to the end. Hiatt lead the most laps with Weger and Grenert poking their noses in front every now and then. With a handful of laps to go, Grenert made a slick move that put his racer in front to stay. A last lap bid by Hiatt fell short and Weger slipped by into 2nd. Put www.marysvilleracewaypark on your "favorites" button on you computer. Watch this site for press releases and updates. Next week the Wingless Sprinters return for a full program. The KKCY Country 103 Cup Street Stocks and Mini Stocks will bring their fender to fender brand of racing back as well. The EXTREME BOMBERS will round out the evening with an exhibition of some bone-crunching, metal moving mayhem. Pit gates always open at 3PM. Pit meeting and pill draw are at 5PM. Spectator Gates Open at 5PM with racing getting underway at 7PM. Contact the promoters at 1.530.743.1327 or email as indicated on the home page. Note: Please make this observer aware of any names that are misspelled. The text is based on information we have at the time of its release. |
