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| Press Release |
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Toller honored as Burt smokes big winged car field. |
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Marysville CA - April 5, 2009 --- 2007 MRP Winged Sprint Car champion Jeremy Burt led wire to wire from his front row starting spot to claim the feature event ahead of a stellar field of competitors. Paul and Kathy Hawes welcomed 92 racecars to the grounds for the gala grand opening of the 2009 racing season. Billy Wallace, also of Grass Valley, picked up a great paycheck and a convincing victory in the Browns Valley Auto Truck & RV Performance Center Wingless Warrior Series feature. 17-year-old Corey Hall pounded the MRP Super Stock field into submission and Rookie Jason Clayton swept the MRP Mini Stock event. Tim MacLaughlin of Colusa won the inaugural MRP Pro 4 Winged Sprint Car main. In an emotional dedication to the life of our fallen friend Sherm Toller, eventual feature event winner Jeremy Burt took the traditional checkered flag lap in Toller’s memory. This observer would like to pass on the feelings of the entire racing family at MRP at Sherm’s passing. It is an immeasurable loss and I look forward to Sherm’s wife Loree’s return to her seat in the scoring tower. There was seldom a moment on Saturday that Loree’s absence didn’t resound the profound loss we all feel. Sherm’s memorial and other arrangements will be made known as the family desires. Burt kept his eye on the prize and the hammer down in evening’s finale easily pulling away from a quality field of winged sprint cars. 28 cars entered and after all the preliminary events were completed Burt had secured the pole position for the race. A relentless pounding of unusually warm temperatures on a day that was some 15 degrees warmer than predicted caused the surface to go dry-slick for the main. This abnormal condition for the usually hooked up and tacky MRP track caused drivers to finesse their way around. Burt simply figured it out better than anybody else and was uncatchable. Early race action included a car crunching flip by Marysville’ Brandon Dozier in turn 3. From that point on it was all Burt although 2008 champ Brent Dothage dropped into 2nd and applied some early pressure. Burt easily repelled the challenge. The racing gods were with Burt on this night as on two occasions, as the young charger approached fast lapped traffic, incidental yellow flag periods prevented Dothage and others from using it to their particular advantage. Seattle Washington’s Logan Forler worked into 3rd, but would finish there. 3 time Champion Korey Lovell got to 4th by the time the checkers waved. New York’s Luke Dollansky rode into 5th position in his first look at MRP. Dollansky is the son of World of Outlaws superstar Craig Dollansky who was on the grounds to watch his son’s first ride at MRP. Best passing job of the night was turned in by 2004 MRP Champ Mike Monahan as he started deep in the 20 car field and clawed his way to an 8th place position in the final tally. Monahan’s uncharacteristically poor qualifying time put him toward the rear of the pack at the start. The heat races were won by Dothage, first time lady racer Reyna Krueger and a much improved Mark Michelet. Michelet was back after a grinding crash in last year’s final event that was so wicked that it split his helmet. The helmet is now a flowerpot according to Michelet. Dollansky won the B main. Marysville Raceway Park picked up a season long sponsor for the wingless warrior sprint car series. Browns Valley Auto Truck & RV Performance Center plopped a nice stack of cash on the growing series that promoter Hawes matched and the new Browns Valley Auto Truck & RV Performance Center Wingless Warrior Sprint Car series will pay $1000 to win for the balance of the season. Coupled with the almost $1150 in Contingency Connection posted awards makes this the highest paying wingless sprint car prize in northern California. A great field of cars, some 20 strong, showed up for the festivities even before the deal was made with the new sponsor. Sutter high school 3-letter sports star Brian Souther was the pole sitter for the feature. Souther bolted into a nice lead on the opening lap before a bizarre double flip red flagged the event at the conclusion of lap 1. In two separate incidents at different parts of the track both Doug Butterfield and Mike Martins took hi-flyers with Martin flipping high in the air right in front of the grandstands. Martins came to rest at the flag stand with his car badly damaged and smoking. He was clearly shaken after being thrown around inside the cockpit. He slowly climbed from his battered machine. Martins shook it off, but were through for the evening. Butterfield actually restarted after the mess was cleaned up only to be involved in a scary last lap incident as the leaders took the checkered flag. The new green saw Wallace go to work on Souther. It didn’t take long for the cagey veteran to set up Souther off of turn 2 and secure a lead that he would never relinquish. Souther stayed 2nd to the end. The best move of the race was made by Tony Richards as he started to pick his way toward the front and wound up as high as 4th as the race headed to it’s conclusion. A late race yellow bunched the field for the final three laps. Scott Hall who restarted in 6th got a good run off of 4 on the restart and got off the gas way too late to make the first turn. He rode up the track hooked a wheel and it was on from there. The ensuing melee took out 5 cars and Richards in one quick moment. Ironically, Hall proceeded on as the other cars rode out the crash. Hall wound up 4th at the checkers. Cody Meyers came under the flag with a fine 3rd place finish behind Wallace and Souther when the race ended. As the checkers waved, Butterfield’s second thrill of the night came as he caught a wheel on the front chute. He got high in the air, saved it, came down on all fours, then lost control and rocketed across the infield toward turn one at very high speed. His car went inside the ring of tractor tires that protect the turn 1 officials. Everybody scattered, as all of the officials were on the ball when Butterfield’s car came their way. When the dust cleared, everyone was fine. Souther, Wallace and Meyers were the heat race winners and, in another ironic twist, all three finished in the top 3. Rookie hopeful Jason Clayton swept the program in the MRP Mighty Mini Stocks. In a cleanly run show with few yellow slowdowns, the Minis put on a whale of a program. Clayton took advantage of an early race mix-up off of turn 2 and popped out of the dust and into the lead. It wasn’t long before Misty Castleberry passed her way into the runner up spot and started reel in the Clayton 53. The final 5 circuits had fans on their collective feet as Castleberry pressed Clayton to the white flag. In a last ditch effort to claim the victory Castleberry threw her red, white and blue racer into turn 1 on the last lap. It didn’t work and it was all she could do to remain in control of the errant racer. She recovered, but Clayton was gone. Clayton was the first rookie in this class to ever put his car into victory lane right out of the box. It was a fine run and, with his heat race win earlier in the evening, Clayton will come out of night #1 with point lead in the class. Castleberry also won her heat along with veteran racer Willie Horn who stepped back into the saddle after an horrific sprint car flip almost ended his life, much less his storied and long career. Jimmy Ford was 3rd in the feature in his best ride to date and a tight knot of talented drivers fought for 5th through 8th positions most of the event. Shaun Merritt, Joel Giusti and Jamey Ollar provided the thrills in that tussle. The MRP Super Stock feature was a slugfest that created a fair amount of carnage before the checkered flag flew. A class that typically features a showcase of tight fender to fender racing and long green flag segments banged slid and crashed their way to the conclusion. The one constant in all of it was the clean smooth drive of Corey Hall. Hall showed the savvy of a veteran campaigner as he turned away some pretty quick drivers and roared to the opening night win. The constant banging and spinning left but 2 cars on the lead lap at the end as Phil Moreno came across in the runner up spot. 2-time track champ Billy Knoop finished in 3rd. In the Pro 4 Sprint Car main event, two time champion Tim MacLaughlin scored a convincing victory in the inaugural run for this 4 cylinder winged sprint car division. Jeremy Hawes finished 2nd and was closing on the leader when the event was completed. A spirited mid race duel between Hawes and Pleasanton’s Denmark Juan spiced the action. MacLaughlin also won the heat race sweeping the opening round in this division. Next week the MRP Winged Sprint Cars and the Browns Valley Auto Truck & RV Performance Center Wingless Sprint Car Series will headline a 4-division program. The MRP Mini Stocks will also reappear for their 2nd race of the 2009 campaign. The first 2009 appearance of the Nor Cal Dwarf Cars will round out the program. MRP will continue to offer it’s own form of the Economic Stimulus Plan by offering admission prices from the past all year long. The spectator gates open at 5PM with hot laps and qualifying at 6PM. This Saturday the races will start promptly after qualifying. The pit gate opens at 3PM. 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. |
