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Marysville CA. 2005 “Wingless Warrior” Sprint Car
Champ Steve Stein of Davis scored a fantastic feature event victory at Paul and
Kathy Hawes’ Marysville Raceway Park Saturday. Yuba City’s Phillip Shelby
was a rocket in the KKCY Street Stock feature and padded his point lead with an
outstanding passing display. Robert Luster of Marysville was quick all night and
won the KKCY Mini Stock main event that was peppered with drama both on and off
the track. The Figure 8 event that capped the nights festivities was a
rollicking good time that had the fans screaming for more.
The KKCY Country 103 Cup feature was presented first and it was worth the price
of admission. 7th starting Phillip Shelby put on a driving clinic in his run to
the front. In a race that saw few yellow flags, Shelby made the pass for the
lead on Marysville’s Ryan McDaniel with a slick inside move off of turn 4.
Shelby needed 14 of the 20 scheduled laps to get through the highly competitive
field.
Rio Oso’s Jake Cavasos led the first few circuits that included a yellow flag
for teammate Jeff Olschowka when he came together with another car. One of the
favorites, Olschowka was done for the night. As the race approached lap 5
McDaniel closed rapidly and eclipsed Cavasos with a turn 2 run that sent
McDaniel’s #73 into the lead as the pair approached turn 3. While all this
action was going on at the front at the front, Shelby was up on the wheel and
passing cars. The 2006 champ was relentless in his pursuit of the leaders.
Yuba City’s Jerry Bartlett slipped into 2nd and gave chase to McDaniel and
began to close as the race neared ½ way. A series of wildly entertaining passes
by Shelby put him on Bartlett’s bumper in 3rd. Cavasos and 5th running Ray
Benkowski were in a fine duel when they both slipped sideways in turn one
creating a mad scramble behind them. Heather Bartlett missed the melee and
advanced. Cavasos and Benkowski recovered and motored on. During that jumble in
turn 1 Shelby slipped by Jerry Bartlett on the other end of the raceway and set
his sights in McDaniel. When Shelby got to McDaniel they raced side by side for
a circuit or two and just as quickly as he got here, Shelby began to motor away
after a clean, daring pass. He flew under starter Robin Davies checkers with a
commanding lead. Heather Bartlett had a great last few laps and found 3rd in the
end ahead of dad Jerry who led Cavasos across the stripe.
Robert Luster was in victory lane before this observer knew there was a problem
with the original results in the KKCY Mini Stock feature. 2006 Champion Joel
Giusti had pretty much dominated at the front of the wild 20 lapper once
Marysville’s Shaun Merritt was eliminated in a bizarre accident of off turn 4.
But, the all-watching eye of promoter Paul Hawes’ technical team found
Giusti’s car out of compliance with the rules and disqualified the series
point leader. 3rd place finisher Jamey Ollar was also summarily disqualified and
hard charging Lisa Shelby was declared the runner up.
The race itself was a crowd pleasing, chaotic event that had multi grove passing
all event long. In fact, 2nd place Shelby was the show in late race action as
she clawed her way to the front after a flat tire and a late race spin in turn
4.
Quick qualifier, Merritt was the class of the field and led until nearly ½ way
when Guisti quickly approached Merritt. It seemed that Merritt had a mechanical
issue that allowed Giusti to catch him. When Giusti caught Merritt in turn 3
Merritt tried to respond with a high side maneuver that didn’t work. Merritt
began a lazy slide in turn 4 that collected 3rd running James Foster. Foster and
Merritt headed for the wall and Merritt hit it with enough force to send his
quick racer to the pits for good. Shelby got a flat and had to visit the pits.
She had been quickest to that point along with teammate Blane Baker.
Mike Merritt had also been on the charge and quickly got to the top five. The
new green had Giusti virtually run away from the rest with Foster losing ground
each lap and Luster gaining ground on the leaders. Shelby was flying through
traffic from the back as the race got to its final few laps. Baker was in the
mix, too, and going forward. It was a grand dice as the top six cars thundered
toward the end. Luster got by Foster for 2nd, and then Foster chugged to a crawl
with but 2 laps to go. Shelby was 4th already and still rushing quickly toward
the leaders. The field came to the final flag in a cloud of dust and to a yellow
checkered as Baker headed toward the infield after Luster cranked it sideways
leaving turn 4. Giusti took the checkers 1st with eventual winner Luster in tow.
Post race penalties for unsportsman-like conduct were handed out to Foster and
Floyd Youngblood for altercations in the pits after the event. The no-tolerance
rules for unsportsman-like conduct set both drivers down for 2 weeks and each
received $50 fines.
The drama in the Wingless warriors Wingless Sprint Car Series started before the
green flag ever fell. Steve Stein was sent to the rear when his potent #34 would
not fire on the original call to start the engines.
Marysville’s Cort Dozier and Tim Sherman Jr. shared the front row and Dozier
jumped to an easy lead. Shaun Ternora from Ewa Beach Hawaii started in row two
and quickly moved up to challenge Dozier. Mark Hill was in tow riding 3rd. On
lap 2 Ternora slipped past Dozier and led at the line. A couple of early race
miscues cost point leader Pat Russum a few positions as Jeremy Hawes and he
dueled in mid pack. Stein meanwhile was on the move. He was clicking off
positions at will as he came to the front in a big hurry. A lap 5 yellow flag
found Stein in 4th!
Ternora was quick however and pulled a nice lead as the new green waved. A few
laps later a car having obvious mechanical and handling problems checked up in
turn 2 causing Ternora to take evasive action. Dozier, Hill and Stein slipped by
before Ternora could recover.
2 laps later Stein was by Hill and set his sights on Dozier. Stein was camped on
Dozier’s tail, as ½ way became history. Stein then flashed by Dozier only to
have the move negated by an incidental yellow flag. At the new green Stein went
back to work and, in 3 turns of the ¼ mile, grabbed the lead for good.
The race itself got better in the late laps as first Hill, then a resurgent
Ternora got by Dozier. Then, Ternora turned up the heat on Hill and it was a
fine race for 2nd at the end. Ternora finally got by Hill for the runner up spot
with Dozier hanging on to 4th. Stein ran away in the late laps showing the
smooth, aggressive style that got him the championship laurels here in 2005.
“That was fun….” was Stein’s assessment of his drive from last to 1st
place in the 30 lapper. Stein’s car and crew stayed on the front chute long
after the race was over savoring the moment. A tip of the hat from this observer
on a great drive to the front by the former champ.
The 1st EVER Extreme Bomber Figure 8 race brought down the curtain on the
festivities with a slam-bang, no holds barred, slugfest that had the fans
screaming for more. In the end only 3 cars were running and the rest were
battered and smoking after taking relentless hits during the race. At his
writing this observer has no idea who won the race, or who his fearless
companion might have been. But, the event itself was an unqualified success and
NOBODY left the speedway until this one was over.
Next week is the Yuba City Dairy Queen’s Dilly Bar night. All those in
attendance will get free ice cream. The final drawing for the Jimmy Sills Sprint
Car rides will be staged and a full program of racing is also in store.
The “Wingless Warriors” Wingless Sprint Car Series will be back for a
complete program of their heart-stopping wheel-to-wheel action. The Mighty KKCY
Stock Cars will be back with their slam-bang form of all out action. The Winged
Pacific Sprint Cars will headline the program that will also have the SORA
Sprint 100s on the card.
Pit gates always open at 3PM. 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. Put www.marysvilleracewaypark on your “favorites” button
on you computer. Watch this site for press releases, updates and complete
results.
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.
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