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(March 29) The first ten laps in Saturday night’s Don Davis Memorial at Manzanita Speedway had the fans on their feet as Josh Pelkey and Jeremy Sherman’s race for the lead was the closest no contact racing fans had witnessed in years as the duo ran side by side through every turn on Manzanita Speedway’s half mile track.
Pelkey had a front row starting berth and was the leader at the end of the first lap with Sherman, up from fourth, running less than a car length back. Pelkey was using the top of the track and Sherman pulled even in each turn but Pelkey, had the fastest groove and held him at bay until a classic "Manzanita Slide Job" put Sherman in front on the 11th lap.
As Sherman built his lead attention turned to Charles Davis, Jr.’s drive from a seventh row starting berth. In the final half of the 30 feature Davis, who finished only fourth in his heat, may have had the fastest car on the track. He picked off cars on almost every lap and finally took over second but ran out of time and he finished 3.47 seconds in back of Sherman who notched his 99th career win. Only two yellow flags were displayed and that allowed the leaders to hit heavy lapped traffic with only 10 of the 24 cars finishing on the lead lap. Pelkey finished third with Mike Martin fourth and Mike Leslie fifth. Jeremy Reagles took the checkered flag in fifth but was penalized two positions for passing under the yellow flag. That moved Mike Colegrove, high point driver through the heat races, to sixth. Behind Reagles were Andy Reinbold, R.J. Johnson and Thomas Ogle.
The 28 car field ran four heat races with R.J. Johnson, rookie Stevie Sussex, Thomas Ogle and Reagles took the wins. Passing was at a premium as the track was a little heavy in the preliminary races. Johnson won the first eight lapper from the front row, Leslie took second after starting fourth, Sherman was third after starting fifth and pole sitter Jeff Henry was fourth. Sussex’ win came over Colegrove who found the right groove and finished second after lining up sixth. Pelkey was third ahead of pole sitter Nick Auito. Thomas started in the front row along side Martin and they finished one-two with Reinbold holding his third starting position. Davis did the only passing as he got by Shon Deskins for fourth. The fourth heat was a runaway win for Reagles who turned in the fastest eight laps since Chad Boat set the record of 2:34.62 last year. Reagles came close with a clocking of 2:34.66. Smith shared the front row and finished a straightaway behind Reagles with Casey Shuman third and Ronnie Clark fourth.
Deskins won the 10 lap semi main over Justin Fisher, Seainn Hendricsen, Bobby Taylor, Mike Bonneau, Brandon Lane, Nathan High and Chris Bonneau all of whom transferred to the feature.
Pelkey won the Arizona Race Mart trophy dash after a tight battle with High, Reagles and Shuman.
The night’s only serious accident came in turn one of the first lap as Chris Bonneau made contact and flipped bringing about a restart. Chris was not injured.
A short field of midgets shared the program with the sprint cars but the competition was fast and close. Mike Marfia started on the pole and stayed out front until he faltered in the closing laps and Chris Rahe powered into the lead with only four laps remaining in the 15 lap feature. R.J. Johnson finished second ahead of Casey Shuman, Marfia and Jeff Perry.
The 11 car field ran two heat races which were won by Perry and Robert Marfia. Johnson won the trophy dash.
A special "mini main event" for the midgets showcased the Shuman family with Ronnie, Billy, Casey and Ricky all part of the filed in the special race. Ronnie outraced his son Casey for the win.
The Western Racing Association Vintage cars did their share as eight midgets and four sprint cars were on hand for exhibition races.
SUMMARY
AMERICAN SPRINT CAR SERIES (1/2 MILE TRACK)
Main Event: (30 laps) 1. Jeremy Sherman 2. Charles Davis, Jr. 3. Josh Pelkey 4. Mike Martin 5. Mike Leslie 6. Mike Colegrove 7. Jeremy Reagles 8. Andy Reinbold 9. R.J. Johnson 10. Thomas Ogle 11. Nick Auito 12. Shon Deskins 13. Justin Fisher 14. Bernie Smith 15. Stevie Sussex 16. Ronnie Clark 17. Nathan High 18. Casey Shuman 19. Jeff Henry 20. Mike Bonneau 21. Bobby Taylor 22. Seainn Hendricsen 23. Brandon Lane 24. Chris Bonneau
Lap leaders: laps 1-10 Pelkey, laps 11-30 Sherman
1st Heat: (8 laps) 1. R.J. Johnson 2. Mike Leslie 3. Jeremy Sherman 4. Jeff Henry 5. Bobby Taylor 6. Brian Swinehart 7. Kevin Wolfe (no time)
2nd Heat: (8 laps) 1. Stevie Sussex 2. Mike Colegrove 3. Josh Pelkey 4. Nick Auito 5. Justin Fisher 6. Brandon Lane (DNS-Nathan High) (time-2:44.75)
3rd Heat: (8 laps) 1. Thomas Ogle 2. Mike Martin 3. Andy Reinbold 4. Charles Davis, Jr. 5. Shon Deskins 6. Chris Bonneau 7. Steve Tellas (no time)
4th Heat: (8 laps) 1. Jeremy Reagles 2. Bernie Smith 3. Casey Shuman 4. Ronnie Clark 5. Mike Bonneau 6. Seainn Hendricsen 7. Jay Ervine (time-2:34.66)
Semi Main: (10 laps) 1. Shon Deskins 2. Justin Fisher 3. Seainn Hendricsen 4. Bobby Taylor 5. Mike Bonneau 6. Brandon Lane 7. Nathan High 8. Chris Bonneau 9. Jay Ervine 10. Steve Tellas (time-3:24.19)
Arizona Race Mart Trophy Dash: (4 laps) 1. Josh Pelkey 2. Nathan High 3. Jeremy Reagles 4. Casey Shuman (time-1:27.17)
ARIZONA MIDGET RACING ASSOCIATION (1/3 MILE TRACK)
Main Event: (15 laps) 1. Chris Rahe 2. R.J. Johnson 3. Casey Shuman 4. Mike Marfia 5. Jeff Perry 6. Robert Ballou 7. Terry Goodwin 8. Brenden Higgins 9. Larry Gibson 10. Eric Young 11. Robert Marfia
Lap Leaders: laps 1-11 Mike Marfia, laps 12-15 Rahe
1st Heat: (8 laps) 1. Jeff Perry 2. Chris Rahe 3. Mike Marfia 4. R.J. Johnson 5. Terry Goodwin 6. Robert Ballou 7. Chris Shuman 8. Brenden Higgins 9. Robert Marfia 10. Eric Young 11. Larry Gibson (time-2:11.79)
2nd Heat: (8 laps) 1. Robert Marfia 2. R.J. Johnson 3. Chris Rahe 4. Casey Shuman 5. Mike Marfia 6. Jeff Perry 7. Brenden Higgins 8. Robert Ballou 9. Terry Goodwin 10. Eric Young 11. Larry Gibson (time-2:06.78)
Trophy Dash: (4 laps) 1. R.J. Johnson 2. Mike Marfia 3. Brenden Higgins 4. Terry Goodwin (time-1:09.12)
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