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Marysville CA - May 24, 2008 --- Spectacular side-by-side racing action was the norm at Paul and Kathy Hawes Marysville Raceway Park Saturday night. It was arguably the finest night of open wheel action this observer has seen in years. The fierce competition brought out the best in everyone as 3-time MRP Winged Sprint Car champion Colby Wiesz of Colfax parked his blue #21 on the cushion and flew to victory in the MRP Winged Sprint Car feature.
Paradise’s own Tony Richards continued his string of victories by tacking on #4 in the MRP Wingless Sprint Car program. Joel Giusti of Sutter cracked into the winner’s circle in the entertaining MRP Mini Stock portion of the show. “Quick” Nick McColloch of Sacramento won the Sprint 100 feature and Matt Land of Elk Grove won the Ford Focus Midget feature.
The wingless sprint car main was the first up and it was an outstanding auto race. In the words of feature winner Richards, “ If the fans saw just a little of what I saw, this was a great race.” Richards was perhaps even surprised that he won as he spent most of the race watching a knock-down-drag-out fight while he ran much of the race in 4th. 2004 champion Chris Magoon of Antioch shared the front row with “High Flyin’” Herman Klein and took the field into turn 1. Magoon, Klein, Cort Dozier, Richards and Jeremy Hawes locked into monster tussle for the top spots. Klein and Dozier parked on the cushion with Magoon and Richards on the bottom. But, even that seemed to change every lap as Richards and Magoon went to the top as the other two tried low. Hawes was trying everything he could to move forward. It was an eye-popping display of dirt track sprint car racing at it’s best. The racing was clean and ran to nearly ½ way without a caution with the top 5 weaving their way through traffic with abandon.
In the blink of an eye everything changed as the leaders approached the next car to be lapped, Willie Horn of Marysville. The leaders bunched up and checked up out of 4 behind Horn and 5th running Hawes was the last in the line and lost it coming to a stop in 4. A moment later, Horn hammered the front stretch wall with terrific force sending the red #4 into the air, flipping onto it’s cage and pouring fuel onto the hapless driver and the surrounding track. Rescue crews were there immediately and promoter Hawes jumped in to release Horn’s belts. After a few worrisome ticks of the clock Horn was pulled from his battered machine. He was dragged clear and track personnel went to work on Him immediately. It was some time before Horn was given the all clear, much to the relief of the hushed, concerned crowd.
If it was possible, the new green produced even more intense racing at the front. Hawes started to claw his way back to the front. At lap 12 Dozier made a slick pass of Magoon and secured the lead. Then Richards got to 3rd behind Magoon. Magoon and Richards hooked up in a scary side by side fight for the runner-up spot as Klein slipped back a couple of spots after a daring inside maneuver that didn’t quite work out. Klein went back to the cushion and again started to close on the lead trio.
Another quick yellow closed the field on Dozier again and Richards and Magoon renewed their battle. Shortly after, they collided off of 4 and Magoon folded the front end of his racer. The out of control car continued on and leaned up against the wall in turn 1, out of the race. Richards was in 2nd now, looking for his 4th consecutive win. Magoon’s yellow brought Richards right in behind the leader Dozier. But, as the racing Gods would have it, Dozier came to a stop and Richards won the prize. Dozier experienced a mechanical failure and was out of the race.
The new green carried Richards to the victory with Klein in hot pursuit. Point leader John Anderson slipped into 3rd with some late race passes and amazingly, Hawes was able to cut his way through the field to a fine 4th place finish. His run from the back went practically unnoticed, as the intensity of the race up front was remarkable. Tim Sherman Jr. took advantage of a late race miscue by Mark Hill to secure 5th.
The winged cars were pushed off next and the tacky, hooked up surface produced another outstanding event. Pole sitter Korey Lovell and Cort Dozier drag raced into turn 1 with Dozier bursting into the lead up the back chute after the pair raced side by side through 1 and 2. The drivers in the starting field represented 11 championships at MRP and the stellar field had the race you might expect with such a large amount of talent on the grounds.
5th starting Wiesz took it easy in the early laps as some wheel banging took its toll on some of the players in this contest. Mike Wasina Jr. was among the early race victims. The new green had Lovell tucked up behind Dozier with Hawaii’s Dean Freitas in 3rd. The 9 time Hawaiian champion was in the mix all night. Wiesz started to test the high side and quietly moved into 4th.
The battle at the front between Lovell and Dozier was, at times, side by side with the cars darting forward as the grip was fantastic on this cool humid night. With 8 to go 2004 champion Mike Monahan stopped in turn 4 creating one of the few yellows.
Giving Wiesz the “8 to go” sign must have lit the fire. Wiesz immediately went to the top as the new green waved. He eclipsed Lovell and Dozier in such rapid succession that the surprised crowd started to cheer as Wiesz began to pull away. Nobody had anything for Wiesz and he put an easy 100 yards on the other competitors by the time the checkers waved.
But….the last corner of the last lap chopped into the final finishing positions as a 5-car melee erupted. Lovell, Dozier and Freitas mixed it up and crashed taking a couple of other competitors with them. Dozier kept it running, then bounced and spun his way past the checkered flag grabbing 3rd. Big winner in all of this was Christian Stover who was 6th in turn 3 and then 2nd at the checkers as the others crashed to a stop. Brent Dothage slipped through the carnage to find 4th as Sacramento’s Tom Baker came across 5th. Wiesz first look at the newly configured track he used to call home was a smashing success.
In the MRP Mini Stock finale, 2006 champ Giusti outlasted a very competitive field of cars. Giusti was mired deep in the field and passed a lot of cars to get to the lead pack. As the race neared ½ way it became apparent that James Gillaspie and Giusti would slug it out for the lead. Both cars got past early leader Shaun Merritt and began to dominate the proceedings. Some great battles were being waged in the positions behind the two leaders, as Gillaspie was able to hang on to the top spot. It began to look like the race would go caution free when a quick succession of yellows slowed the pace. During a yellow for Eddie Staving, Gillaspie’s car inexplicably stopped on the back chute. It would not re-fire and Giusti cruised to victory from there.
Misty Castleberry had her best race of the new season. She was on fire by mid race and earned a great 2nd at the stripe. Her race-long duel with Mike Merritt and others were highlights of an incredible event. Merritt was 3rd followed by point leader Brent Hall and Blane Baker. Baker came from the back after an early race miscue.
Nick McColloch of Sacramento won the SORA Sprint 100 main event, passing the 2007 series champion Tim McLaughlin of Colusa on the last lap. McLaughlin had led the first 19 laps before experiencing mechanical problems on that last lap.
Matt Land of Elk Grove won the Ford Focus Midgets main event, in that division's first appearance in Marysville.
Next Saturday night Paul and Kathy Hawes will present the 9th Mel Hall Memorial Race featuring the MRP Winged Sprint Cars with a $2,000 to win guarantee plus some $1,100 in contingency bonus awards that are available. The MRP Wingless Sprints, the MRP Stock Cars and the return of the Open 4 Cylinders will round out the spectacular tribute to former promoter Mel Hall.
$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 $1150 in products or merchandise. The vouchers can be saved and traded in for larger ticket items. The bonus is a healthy addition to the weekly $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 the promoters believe are deserving of some added cash.
Pit gates always open at 3 with the grandstands opening at 5. Practice and hot laps start at 6 with qualifying and racing to follow. 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.
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