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Dothage and Richards thunder to sprint car $; |
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Marysville CA - May 4, 2008 --- A beautiful evening, a packed house and 107 racecars graced Paul and Kathy Hawes’ Marysville Raceway Park Saturday night for point race #7 on the 2008 schedule. Wingless sprint car veteran Tony Richards of Paradise won the MRP wingless sprint car feature event. Brent Dothage of Kelseyville, a two-time tack champion (’05 & ’06), won the MRP winged sprint car main event. Eddie Staving of Marysville finally won an MRP mini-stock main event after knocking at the door all season with numerous fast times and a handful of top 5 finishes. It was only a matter of time for Staving and Saturday he knocked the door in. Staving fell into 2nd place behind pole sitter and point leader Joel Giusti at starter Robin Davies green flag. It remained that way up front with a gargantuan tussle going on for everything behind them. It was a most entertaining dice that included Mike Merritt, Brent Hall, Misty Castleberry, Olin Crane and others. With 4 to go Staving got a great run on Giusti off of 4 and up the front stretch. It’s hard to tell whether Giusti got a little sideways or Staving gave him a bump & run tap from the back, but Giusti began a lazy slide that he corrected and that shot the #17 up the track in front of the fast closing traffic. Castleberry hammered the errant Giusti and straightened him up, but Giusti dropped through the field like a rock before he could recover for an eventual 7th place finish. Hall and Merritt battled for the runner-up spot for the final 3 rounds with Merritt coming in 2nd followed by Hall, Castleberry and Crane. Merritt did not pass post race technical inspection and was disqualified from the event moving everyone else up a spot. Staving’s emotional thank yous to his crew and helpers made victory circle a happy place for the white #7, it’s driver and his well-wishers. Local product Chris Glass of Marysville ran wire-to-wire to win the Bay Cities Racing Association's Midget Lites main event, leading all 20 laps of a caution free event. The MRP wingless sprint car field produced a full field of racers with 24 of the sleek racers on the grounds. Brett Youngman of Grass Valley started on the pole and snatched the lead at the drop of the green flag. Youngman has been one of the pleasant surprises in the 2008 campaign. Richards secured 2nd right away, followed by point leader John Anderson of Sacramento, Cameron Beard and Jeremy Hawes. Richards slipped under Youngman on lap 11 when Youngman left the door open in turn 4. The race continued relatively caution free on the smooth MRP clay. Josh Vieira of Marysville got into some trouble in turn 3 with Pat Couch and flipped hard as the race was getting into its final 3 laps. Vieira popped out of the top of his beautiful hot rod and, with the exception of some obvious front-end damage, the car seemed ok. Richards never ran away over the final three laps, finishing ahead of Youngman, Anderson and Hawes. Richards’ take was $1100 after bonus money was added in. Not bad for his 1st appearance of the season. There was drama before the green flag ever waved on the MRP winged sprint car feature. Korey Lovell of Yuba City, a three-time track champion who won the MRP winged sprint car main event last time out, failed to take the green flag after he went into the pits on the pace lap. Lovell was situated 2nd in points when the night began and blew past everyone in his heat coming from row 3 to an impressive victory. Pole sitter Mark Michelet of Marysville grabbed the lead in the MRP winged sprint car feature event. Then, David Sprigg in a remarkable inside move in turn 1 flashed past Michelet and captured the top spot. 2nd row starter Dothage quickly dispatched Michelet and reeled in Sprigg. He ducked inside on turn 4 to take the lead on the 4th lap. Point leader Cort Dozier was 3rd after a couple of nifty passes early on. Sprigg and Dozier put on quite a show as they battled for the runner-up spot. As the pair approached turn 3 at mid race, Dozier got the left rear of Sprigg and nearly flipped it. He recovered and the pair collided again and Dozier laid it on its side as Sprigg spun to a halt. Dozier got his car upright and resumed racing, as did Sprigg. Both cars started to re-pass cars immediately after the new green was displayed. A few circuits later Sprigg was collected again in a mid-pack confrontation that sent him into the backstretch wall with terrific force. Sprigg nearly flipped it as the blue and silver 44 ricocheted off the wall. Sprigg’s night was finished after his most notable ride in recent memory came to an end. Dothage held on for the win, followed by quick timer Troy Degaton of Rio Linda and Shawn Amos of Gridley. Amos was on the move when the checkers flew. The track obviously came to him but he ran out of laps before he could catch the lead duo. Dozier finished sixth. Zach Johnson of Marysville won the mini-stock B main event, which saw mini truck driver Richard Gale of Orland flip on the backstretch while challenging for 2nd. He was OK. Heat race winners were Jeremy Burt of Grass Valley and Lovell in the MRP winged sprints, Rick Eversult of Rio Linda, Buddy Olschowka of Marysville and Richards in the MRP wingless sprints, Olin Crain of Orland, James Gillaspie of Olivehurst, Castleberry and Hall in the mini-stocks, and Glass and Doug Nunes of Kingsburg in the BCRA Lites. The EXTREME BOMBERS once again brought down the curtain and had the crowd roaring as 16 of the crash and burn daredevils took to a newly watered, slick obstacle course. 10 laps later the track was littered with bent and smoking racecars. It was impossible to find a straight fender in the place. Jason Clayton brought his visibly battered machine home 1st to claim the rather unusual trophy. Next Saturday night Paul and Kathy Hawes will present point race #8 featuring The MRP Wingless Sprints, the return of the Mighty Modifieds, The MRP Stock Cars, the Nor Cal Dwarf Cars, and the Winged 600 Lites $300,000 in contingency rewards ongoing through 2008: Remember, our racing program will get $150,000 worth of contingency dollars for our winged and wingless sprint cars. The way it works is that Contingency Connection has signed up 181 sponsors nationwide who contribute products or merchandise each race to the winner. The only catch is that drivers must be sporting the decal of that sponsor to earn the bonus. If a driver who wins the MRP Winged or Wingless feature race has every decal on his car, he could receive some $450 in products or merchandise. The vouchers can be saved and traded in for larger ticket items. The bonus is a healthy addition to the $1,000 promoter Hawes already pays to the winner of MRP winged sprint car main events and the $750 he pays to MRP wingless sprint car feature winners. In addition to the $150,000 Contingency Connection is providing during the regular season, the program also has earmarked another $150,000 toward a year-end bonus for the top two drivers as well as four other "at-large" drivers whom track officials believe are deserving of some added cash. Pit gates always open at 3 with the grandstands opening at 5. 1st race runs off at 7PM. Put www.marysvilleracewaypark.com 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 or incorrect. The text is based on information we have at the time of its release. Complete finishes, stats and points become official and available at the close of business on Tuesday and will be posted to the web site. |
