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Marysville CA - August 17, 2008 --- Paul and Kathy Hawes hosted another gem of a race program on a hooked up Marysville Raceway surface Saturday. Yuba City’s Korey Lovell took a big chunk out of Brent Dothage’s point lead in the MRP Winged Sprint car feature. Jeremy Hawes put together a wire-to-wire win in his “Flyin’ Ford” Wingless Sprint Car. Jamey Ollar won his third consecutive feature event win in the MRP Mini Stock feature and “Flyin’” Brian Quilty won a very competitive Nor Cal Dwarf Car main. A monster field of EXTREME BOMBERS crashed their way to a crowd-satisfying conclusion.
It was the eighth annual Yuba City Scrap and Steel Ice Cream Night and Lovell Bros racing had Korey Lovell on the pole for Winged Sprint Car feature event. The green flag waved and Lovell took off to a big lead in the early laps. Behind Lovell tight packs of cars diced effortlessly on the lightning fast ribbon of clay. Grass Valley’s Jeremy Burt got into second with a nice move and separated from the pack just behind. Dothage was third and leading that pack.
Burt started turning laps that were significantly quicker than Lovell’s and he started to close. Lovell must have sensed somebody was coming and started to click off some pretty impressive laps shortly thereafter and reclaimed some ground on Burt.
The mid pack battle got ugly near half way as David Sprigg turned around in turn two and Derek Dozier used him as a ramp and dumped his car over as other cars darted left and right to avoid the trouble. The red flag was a wake up call for Dothage who seemed content with a distant third prior to the stoppage.
At the new green Dothage was a rocket. He went high and low and became a factor as he pressed the leaders hard. In fourth was a vastly improved Tom Baker and he started to press Dothage. The top four cars were in a gigantic tussle though Lovell never gave up the lead. Lovell’s impressive heat race win was turning into a possible Lovell sweep. Dothage and Lovell are in a great race for the series championship and for Lovell to have a realistic shot at his fourth title he would have to cut Dothage’s lead in half in this event. Dothage’s renewed aggression presented a real challenge to Lovell’s championship hopes.
Then it all unraveled for Dothage. With seven to go Baker made a slick move off of four and pulled along side Dothage on the inside for third. The pair backed into one and touched wheels. Dothage headed skyward into a dizzying series of end over end flips landing on top of the wall in two. The red flag brought the race to a stop and Lovell was stopped in a perfect position to see the Dothage wreck being removed from the turn two wall.
The new green was displayed with seven remaining and Lovell ran away. Burt wheelied his way to an impressive second place with Brandon Dozier following into third. It will be very interesting when the points are tallied and the race becomes official at the close of business on Tuesday. Lovell was 28 points behind when the evening started. Lovell scored the maximum available and if this observer is doing the math correctly he will only be 13 points out of the lead when the Winged Sprint Cars return in a couple of weeks.
Marysville’s Jeremy Hawes went wire to wire in a another thrilling MRP Wingless Sprint Car Series main event. Hawes jumped to an early lead and seemed to be on cruise control leading Tim Sherman Jr. and Doug Butterfield who was showing uncharacteristic strength. Jr. had made a spectacular move to secure the runner up spot. Tony Richards who has won eight of the last ten races he entered was mired in the back. Jr. started to close on Hawes as the race moved in on half way. Then, incidental yellow flag periods allowed the hard charging Richards to close the gap on the leaders.
Sherman’s night came to an end moments after point leader John Anderson slowed to a stop with Anderson experiencing his first mechanical failure in nearly two years of competition. Sherman, who is second in points needed Anderson to have a failure. Within two laps Sherman joined Anderson in the pits with a smoked motor.
At the new green Butterfield aggressively pursued race leader Hawes. On a couple of occasions Butterfield showed Hawes his wheel. Hawes fought back every challenge. Soon, Richards was on top of Butterfield and got by into second. Then Richards cranked it into one way too hot and it cost him three positions. Butterfield was relentless and Richards started to fight back toward the front. It was a fan’s race loaded with hard fought racing action.
Hawes prevailed in arguably one of his finest runs. It’s hard to lead with so much pressure coming from so many different competitors. Butterfield hung on to second and Richards clawed his way back to third at the checkers.
Jamey Ollar is putting together a stunning series of feature event wins here as the season begins to wind down. Once again, Ollar threaded his way through traffic and popped out of the pack into the lead with a great high side move near half way. The race for the lead was over. Period. Ollar was that quick. Only lapped traffic near the end allowed second finisher Joel Giusti to make it look close.
The race itself was a good one as side-by-side dices at the front AND the back of the pack kept everybody’s heartbeat at full tilt boogie. Billy Patterson and Blane Baker were factors in the race but were disqualified in post race technical inspection. Rookie star Nathan Mayo finished third after starting deep in the field. Alan Furuta was fourth with an ever-improving Scott Kames flashing under the checkers in fifth.
Former Nor Cal Dwarf Car champion Brian Quilty held off a snarling group of competitors to win the main event. Challenges, late, from Dan Weger fell short, as Quilty made no mistakes in the tight, well-run twenty lapper. Mike Grenert got to third after being mired in traffic for much of the event.
A field of some 20 EXTREME BOMBERS brought down the curtain on the night’s action…and ACTION it was. The bombers had to run the track in reverse after it had been watered by promoter Hawes. The three-wide, standing start created a log jam of bent, twisted and in some cases flaming bundles of smashed metal. The school bus was back and ran much of the race in REVERSE gear BACKWARDS mangling it’s way around the track. Once again a great time was had by all…and if the winner of the event would care to let himself/herself be known to me, I’ll see to it that you are mentioned in the results.
Next week, perhaps the biggest night of the year that will celebrate MRP’s 40 years of Stock Car Racing history. In 1968 the Northern Auto Racing Club created a stock car division. It was headquartered at MRP. We’ve got documents, photos and a lot of additional information that alludes to its bold stock car heritage. Promoter Paul Hawes will host a number of the stars of yesteryear that did battle at Marysville Raceway Park in years gone by. This is a must-see event.
The MRP Street Stocks will return on Saturday with the MRP Wingless Sprint Car Series, the MRP Mighty Mini Stocks and a return visit from the Sprint 100s. There will be celebrating all night long. Be there and share your memories or just absorb the culture that is MRP over the last 40 years.
Remember, MRP is just a few miles from anywhere in the Yuba Sutter area. Stay close to home, save your gas and experience Yuba-Sutter’s only professional sports series. Only at MRP. 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.
$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. You must be a member of the association, but you can buy a membership at any event throughout the year.
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.
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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