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Murphy Motors Past Pombo and Bragg In Bandit Victory |
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Peter Murphy flew through lap traffic in a scorer's nightmare shaking off runner-up Greg Bragg and "Big Daddy" Davey Pombo in the process to win Saturday nights Bandit feature at Santa Maria Speedway before a large crowd. Visalia's Greg Bragg used his outside front row starting spot to motor around pole-sitter Jonathon Logan to an initial lead. The Kerman express, Davey Pombo use the same power move and blasted around Logan and Bragg with Murphy in tow. As Murphy's blackjack 21 dove into second and then around "Big Daddy" Pombo in the hot and furious initial laps Bragg found himself being challenged by the absolutely flying machine of Richard VanderWeerd. The two Visalia racers tangled on the 13th go around with VanderWeerd getting wrecked setting up a horrendous wreck that affected about half of the 22 car field. Young VanderWeerd was very upset and left no doubt as to his feelings over Braggs maneuvers in the racing accident. The ensuing red flag was a festivous miracle as it was an opportunity for confused and anguished team members to air grievances and scorers trying to assign positions as all cars less the VanderWeerd 10 restarted. Bakersfield pilot Rusty Carlile's bright red 51 pulled to the infield on the restart with damage from the incident. When the track went green, it set into motion an event to remember as those tangled up in the incident were rapidly trying to maneuver from the back to the front just as Murphy, Pombo, Bragg and the resurgent Greg Porte rapidy caught the massive pack of cars. "Big Daddy" Pombo and the determined Bragg worked to get around elbows up crowd pleaser Murphy. As the Clovis wheelman pulled a few lengths ahead, the crowd went to their feet. Murphy zigged through traffic as Pombo got picked Bragg zagged around into second place. Then the top few started through the coagulated pack with little room to maneuver. No wrecks but dozens of "almosts" found the standing fans hooting and hollering in approval while every racer was embroiled with their own battle the war was raging around them! A cushion of lapped cars was no solace for Murphy because there was constantly another car to pass up to the white flag and then the uncontested checkered. Bragg was never free from traffic as he had wedged a few competitors between him and nemesis Pombo. But Pombo had the very aggressive and fast Greg Porte breath on his collar as they crossed the checker amidst a gaggle of on the wheel warriors. A few lengths back was Justyne Hamblin with a very good drive to miss the wrecks and negotiate traffic with Jace VanderWeerd threatening to pass as the triple 8's crossed under the checkered flag. The last lead lap car was the always flying four time champ "Junkyard" Jimmy Thompson worked a 17th place starting spot to a 7th place finish piloting Mike Larson's beautiful Santa Maria Masonry's 7L machine. Stuck in the pack and struggling to make their way back to the head of the group was Bandit second place point contender "Fast" Albert Pombo who lost another 13 valuable points to the Murphy machine. Taft's popular veteran Jayson May and newcomer 16 year young rookie talent Tyler Schmidt of Hollister rounded out the top 10. With all of the battles and duels, 18 of the 22 starters were still slinging clay as the laps ran out of the 30 lap extravaganza. Fresno's "fast" Albert Pombo went straight to the lead from his 3rd place starting spot in the first corner over Santa Maria veteran Steve DeMott and never looked back because he knew fast timer Peter Murphy and the always charging Bragg were coming. DeMott found himself with the last transfer spot being contested by "Junkyard" Jimmy and the red VanderWeerd 88 while Fresno's Rick Eberhardt battled with Idahoan visitor and former Santa Maria driver Donnie Kithcart piloted the Jeff Fiscus 13 car. Greg Porte sent a message in the second heat as he launched passed Justyne Hamblin and defending champion Jessie Mack to take the lead. When the caution flew for the tangle of Davey Knott and the mad professor Jeff Culver, "Big Daddy" Pombo missed seeing the yellow and tangled with Mack on the front straight with the 71M picking up a flat left rear. Porte flew to the win as Pombo worked himself into second while Logan out battled Hamblin for the 3rd spot. Missing the transfer was the on the wheel Mack as he searched for a path around the Logan-Hamblin duel to no avail. The third heat saw the trend of all heat winners coming from the 3rd position prevail as Jayson May slid under the spinning pole sitter Schmidt to win his heat. As the green flag waved Schmidt sped into turn one. The hanging tail caught the front bumper of Fresno's Kevin Barnes sending Schmidts 49 to the infield where he was collected by 3rd fast timer Richard VanderWeerd and Bakersfield good guy John Iturriria. Avoiding the carnage and racing to second behind May was Rusty Carlile, Barnes and Santa Maria's Bill Jones 16J to round out the transfers as the Schmidt, VanderWeerd and Iturriria machines were sent to the infield for repairs. Again the track was very quick as the rare hot coastal temperatures challenged Dave Sneed, Dave Swindell and John Hansen's track preparation through the week. The track saw a high temperature of 120 degrees during the week as long standing temperature records fell on the central coast. But the effort to overcome the challenges proved fruitful for racers and fans because the track held up through out the full four program show. Cold beverages kept the fans refreshed and great action kept them thrilled. As the evening temperature dropped the comfort level grew and the evening ended up to be a great success overall. Next on the schedule is the Grand Slam the historic Bakersfield Speedway as the Schweitzer family welcomes the best sprint car drivers in the state to battle it out on the fast 1/3 mile oval. The best Bandits will be joined by the best Ventura Racing Association warriors to make for a fantastic event that will be amazing to watch. See you there. |
