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Sherman and Madrid take feature wins Saturday night at Manzanita Speedway |
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(August 9, 2008) The favorites lived up to their reputations as both Jeremy Sherman and Anthony Madrid continued their march toward championships Saturday night at Manzanita Speedway. However they took different paths to the winner’s circle. Sherman started the 30 lap Discount Tire American Sprint Car Series (Canyon Division) on the outside of the sixth row and was patient as he methodically worked his way to the front. R.J. Johnson had what seemed to be a comfortable lead when the first yellow flag flew on the 17th lap. That allowed Sherman to get close but there were a couple of lapped cars separating the leaders. Sherman made quick work of the lapped cars but found Johnson a problem. R. J. held off repeated challenges but finally gave way on the 23rd lap. He slowed in the closing laps and dropped back to fourth. Mike Martin finished second and Shon Deskins put on a drive that had the fans’ attention. He was penalized for not going to the scales after his heat race and started last in the 21 car field. He drove a great race and finished third. Finishing behind Johnson was Andy Reinbold. Rounding out the top ten were Nathan High, Chris Bonneau, Charles Davis, Jr., Mike Leslie and Bernie Smith. Davis started fifth and was battling for third when he and Leslie made contact on the 22nd lap. Both were able to continue but lined up at the back of the field. Davis lost more ground to Sherman and now is 96 points in arrears and is only 10 points up on Martin. While the first 17 laps were run without incident the remaining 13 laps had more yellow laps than those under green. First there was the crash involving Davis and Leslie. While working the 23rd lap Justin Fisher did a series of end over end flips down the front straightaway. He managed to walk away from the crash. A lap later Jeremy Reagles, Steve Tellas and Zack Sawyer tangled in turn two. Reagles and Tellas were unable to continue. Sherman withstood a couple more yellow flags before he saw the checkered flag. His win was his ninth of the year, eighth in the ASCS and one in the USAC/CRA. His career total has him ranked fifth with 108 feature wins. Leslie drove out of the second row to win the first eight lap heat race. His position and passing points made him the high point driver through the heats. He rolled an eight with the toss of the die and the top eight drivers by points through the heats drew for starting positions. Johnson and Martin drew the front row, Nick Aiuto and Leslie were lined up in row two, Davis and Bob Ream, Jr. made up the third row and Josh Pelkey and Fisher had fourth row berths. However Pelkey had mechanical problems and dropped out before the main event was green flagged. Behind Leslie in the first heat were Aiuto, Stevie Sussex, Ronnie Clark and Sherman. Deskins led all eight laps in the second heat with Ream, Pelkey, Fisher and Lealand Michael in pursuit. The final heat went to Martin with Johnson second, Davis third, High fourth and Bonneau fifth. Fisher picked up an extra $50 from Economy Precision Grinding for his win in the Arizona Race Mart trophy dash and then the company put up $100 for the main event winner. Madrid had already put the wraps on the 2008 UMP/Barnett Dirt Car Modified title and did not need the advantage of a front row start. But just as he did Friday night when he won the factory stock car race from the pole he again led all 20 laps in the modified feature. His win was his sixth of the year in the modifieds and his two wins over the weekend raised his career win total to 121, third on the list. Madrid is the only Arizona driver ranked in the top ten in UMP national points. He is ranked ninth but has run three less races than those ahead of him. While Madrid was pulling away the race for the lesser positions were hotly contested. Tim Ward moved into second on the second lap and ran there until Ricky Thornton, Jr., the defending champion, slipped past. Ward, a fourteen year old rookie, had his hands full but was up to the challenge as he held off Terry Belcher, Jr. and Reeve Staley. Rounding out the top ten were Don Irvin, Chuck, The Kuehl-Aid Kid, Kuehl, Ricky Thornton, Sr., Kenny Wyman and Vince Lucas. The modified race was run honoring Larry Gabbard, a flagman for 17 years at Manzy, who passed away earlier in the week. Many family members were on hand and Doug Gabbard, the manager of Canyon Raceway and Pete Steele shared flagman duties along with Robby Gabbard in the feature race. Two flagmen were working the final lap and Madrid blazed under four checkered flag with both Doug and Robby each shaking two of the finishing flags. Manzanita will be dark next Friday and will be hosting the ASCS Soutwest Division winged sprint cars for the first time Saturday night August 16 when they share the one third mile track with the Arizona Mini sprints. Ward scored his second heat race win by beating Belcher, Staley and Irvin in the first eight lapper. Jay Foster became a four time heat race winner when he finished ahead of Madrid, Thornton, Jr. and Greg Bedia in the second heat. The final heat went to Jason Noll over Wyman, Mark Goodfarb and Dan Collinsworth. SUMMARY DISCOUNT TIRE AMERICAN SPRINT CAR SERIES Main Event: (30 laps) 1. Jeremy Sherman 2. Mike Martin 3. Shon Deskins 4. R.J. Johnson 5. Andy Reinbold 6. Nathan High 7. Chris Bonneau 8. Charles Davis, Jr. 9. Mike Leslie 10. Bernie Smith 11. Stevie Sussex 12. Zack Sawyer 13. Jody Wirth 14. Ronnie Clark 15. Jeremy Reagles 16. Steve Tellas 17. Justin Fisher 18. Brenden Higgins 19. Nick Aiuto 20. Lealand Michael 21. Bob Ream, Jr. Lap leaders: laps 1-22 Johnson, laps 23-30 Sherman 1st Heat: (8 laps) 1. Mike Leslie 2. Nick Aiuto 3. Stevie Sussex 4. Ronnie Clark 5. Jeremy Sherman 6. Andy Reinbold 7. Jeremy Reagles (time: 2-05.98) 2nd Heat: (8 laps) 1. Shon Deskins 2. Bob Ream, Jr. 3. Josh Pelkey 4. Justin Fisher 5. Lealand Michael 6. Steve Tellas 7. Jody Wirth (time: 2:02.90) 3rd Heat: (8 laps) 1. Mike Martin 2. R.J. Johnson 3. Charles Davis, Jr. 4. Nathan High 5. Chris Bonneau 6. Zack Sawyer 7. Bernie Smith 8. Brenden Higgins (no time, yellow flag) Arizona Race Mart Trophy Dash: (4 laps) 1. Justin Fisher 2. Charles Davis, Jr. 3. Stevie Sussex 4. Shon Deskins (time: 1:02.13) BRA DIRT CAR MODIFIEDS Main Event: (20 laps) 1. Anthony Madrid 2. Ricky Thornton, Jr. 3. Tim Ward 4. Terry Belcher, Jr. 5. Reeve Staley 6. Don Irvin 7. Chuck Kuehl 8. Ricky Thornton, Sr. 9. Kenny Wyman 10. Vince Lucas 11. Ryan Ledbetter 12. Jay Foster 13. Steve Carter 14. Greg Bedia 15. Jason Noll 16. Chris McCurdy, Jr. 17. Dan Collinsworth 18. Jerry Walters 19. Glen Thurman 20. Lupe Gomez Lap leaders: laps 1-20 Madrid 1st Heat: (8 laps) 1. Tim Ward 2. Terry Belcher, Jr. 3. Reeve Staley 4. Don Irvin 5. Steve Carter 6. Vince Lucas 7. Lupe Gomez (no time, yellow flag) 2nd Heat: (8 laps) 1. Jay Foster 2. Anthony Madrid 3. Ricky Thornton, Jr. 4. Greg Bedia 5. Ricky Thornton, Sr. 6. Chuck Kuehl 7. Ryan Ledbetter (time: 2:18.59) 3rd Heat: (8 laps) 1. Jason Noll 2. Kenny Wyman 3. Mark Goodfarb 4. Dan Collinsworth 5. Chris McCurdy, Jr. 6. Glen Thurman 7. Jerry Walters (no time, yellow flag) |
