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Tyler Walker, Peter Murphy and Brad Pounds win Chris & Brian Faria Memorial features By Gary Thomas |
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Tulare, CA – May 16, 2009…Withstanding all challengers on Saturday night Los Angeles, CA's Tyler Walker charged to his fourth Golden State Challenge Series win of the season and second consecutive in the Chris & Brian Faria Memorial at the Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway. Also sharing victory lane during the night were Peter Murphy in the Bandit Sprints and Brad Pounds in the Western States Modifieds. The win for the current Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series point leader marked his ninth career with the tour, moving him into a tie for eighth with Ronnie Day on the all-time win list. "Lee Lindgren had this car perfect for the A-main and I just have to thank Scott & Kathy Chastain because we're having a great time right now," said the jubilant Walker. "It's great to get our fourth win of the year and we'll be trying for more next weekend." The 30 lap Golden State Challenge Series main event started out with pole sitter Tim Kaeding of San Jose and Walker drag racing down the front stretch for the top spot. Walker was able to keep his foot in it and come out of turn two with the lead aboard his SC Motorsports, NMI Industrial No. 24. Kaeding would keep pace with Walker, but a few early cautions, mixed with Walker hitting his marks perfectly kept the driver of the Roth Motorsports, HR Cattle No. 83jr at bay. Easton's Tommy Tarlton began to show his strength on lap seven as he made the move to get by Chico's Jonathan Allard for the third spot entering turn three. Cautions on lap 11 & 12 kept the field bunched up and on the restart Tarlton through a wicked slide job to move by Kaeding for second, but exiting turn two Kaeding was able to cut it back underneath the Tachi Palace, Tarlton & Son No 21 to get the position back. Heading into turn three though Tarlton powered to the low side and re-claimed the spot off four, but as Kaeding tried to slide him again in turns one and two, contact was made and it spun Tarlton around. As the black 21 was doing a 360 spin, young Cory Elliason, who had made his way up to the top five, came to a stop to avoid the spinning car. After all that Tarlton was able to keep going and miraculously kept his spot in the running order with 13 laps down. Kaeding however, suffered a flat tire during the incident and was forced to pit and restart at the tail of the field. With Tarlton in second now he wasted no time trying to do something with Walker as he charged to the bottom in turn one on the restart and slid up in front of the green 24, but Walker proceeded to cut back down and zoom back into the lead. Another yellow on lap 15 gave Tarlton another shot however, and it played out exactly the same as the previous restart, but this time Tarlton was able to make it stick a little better, but Walker was not to be denied as he made a terrific move to diamond the corner and rocket back into the top spot. The final half of the race was all about Walker out front and the Los Angeles driver had no troubles as he drove away to pick up his second straight win at the Chris & Brian Faria Memorial, as well as extend his lead in the GSC standings at the same time. Tarlton was able to hold off a strong last lap challenge from Allard to score second at the line by a car length, with Allard, Campbell's Brent Kaeding and Fresno's Craig Stidham completing the top five. Clovis' Peter Murphy, Elk Grove's Kyle Larson, Selma's Charlie Louden, Tim Kaeding and Ripon's Brandon Carey rounding out the top 10. Clovis' Peter Murphy continued his dominance of the Bandit Wingless 360 Series over the last few years and drove to victory in the 25 lap main event on Saturday. The first event of the season at the Thunderbowl on April 11 saw Murphy run second to Danny Sheridan, but this time the roles were reversed with Sheridan crossing the stripe in second. "It feels really good to get a win here in Tulare and it came on a night when we had a lot of people from Turner Construction on hand so hopefully they enjoyed the show," Murphy said. "I have to thank the Tarlton family for giving me the chance to come out here and we'll look forward to coming back on May 30 for the USAC event." Murphy wasted no time moving into the top spot in the feature as he got around Tyler Edwards for the lead on a lap one restart. Tipton's Danny Faria Jr. moved into second after a few laps and hounded Murphy over the early circuits, until he got sideways in turns one and two, which collected the third place car and also resulted in Faria receiving a flat right rear tire. With the laps winding down the man to watch was the No. 62h of Dennis Howell as he charged around the high-side banging off the wall of the 1/3 mile clay oval. Howell got up to as high as second at one point, but dropped a couple of spots to end the feature in fourth. Sheridan moved into second on lap 16 and tried everything to chase down Murphy over the final few laps, but couldn't make it happen as Murphy crossed the stripe in first aboard his Tachi Palace No. 21 and Sheridan settled for a runner-up finish. Davey Pombo, Howell and Greg Taylor rounded out the top five in the feature. The 20 lap Western States Modifieds main event was all about Brad Pounds in the No. 15b machine as he took the lead from Paul Stone on lap six and never looked back to pick up his first career win at the Thunderbowl Raceway. The runner-up spot was a race long battle between the Hogge's as Bobby Hogge IV and Bobby Hogge III crossed the checkered flag in second and third, with Stone and defending Western All Stars Late Model champion Chris Shannon completing the top five. Pounds received a nice $1,200 for his victory and the main event payout as a whole featured extra money on the line courtesy Little Darlin's Child Care, who we can't thank enough for their continued support of the Western States Modifieds. A stacked field of 31 modifieds were on hand for the night of the racing. Results can be found at http://www.goldenstatechallengeseries.com and http://www.westernracer.com as well as http://www.thunderbowlraceway.com Next up- The next event for the Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway will be Saturday night May 30 when the USAC/CRA Wingless 410 Sprint Car Series and the Western States Modifieds take to the 1/3 clay oval for action packed evening of racing. |
