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May 11, 2002... In his 3rd season racing with the California Lightning Sprints Tyler Brown has become a steady figure among the top 5. In fact, since his first victory last year at Barona Speedway he has finished in the top 5 ten times. With this consistency the only
surprise is that he hasn't won more often! "Smooth" Tyler Brown made his first return to victory lane at the fast Bakersfield Speedway.
This race kicked off the first of a five race CA State Championship Series sponsored by Gugielmo Winery. The series drew cars from Northern CA & Las Vegas. The first heat race went to Chris Rahe followed by Ashley Walker, David Cardey and Brent Sexton. The 2nd heat race was won by Danny Swanson ahead of Ernie Bartley, Greg Bragg and Steve
Cardey. The 3rd heat race was won by 2nd year driver Karl Benefeil for the 3rd time this season! Karl was followed by Las Vegas resident Wendel Gentry, Gary Sexton and Gary Guglielmo. Heat race 4 was won by Donny Gansen ahead of Tyler Brown, Jesse
Dean and Lonnie Lopez. The B Main went to Keith Janca from the pole ahead of Paul Townsend Jonny Bates and Wink Schweitzer.
Chris Rahe paced the field to the cone from the pole position. Chris got the hole shot into the first turn ahead of Danny Swanson. Chris quickly opened up a large lead on the tight
running field. The scorers really had their work cut out for them as the entire field (except Chris Rahe) was two-wide and nose-to-tail. Daytona on dirt? Brent Sexton used the high line to move up from 13th to 7th until lap 4 when he lost steering, hit the turn 1 wall and flipped several times. Brent was ok. Rahe again led the restart while Donny Gansen moved into 2nd ahead of Danny Swanson. Tyler Brown had already started his charge toward the front getting by Ernie Bartley for 5th. Caution flew 3 laps later as the restart cone was tangled around Greg Bragg's front wheel. Danny Swanson drifted just a little loose entering
turn 1 and paid dearly as Greg Bragg, Tyler Brown and David Cardey each passed Swanson. Rahe padded his lead until he met lapped traffic on lap 12. Gansen then began to cut away at Rahe's lead while Greg Bragg, Tyler Brown and David Cardey put on quite a show battling for 3rd. Bragg retained his position long enough to be the first to challenge Gansen for 2nd. Tyler used this to his advantage and passed Greg for 3rd then went
after Gansen just as Gansen caught Rahe on lap 18. Tyler quickly moved set after Rahe to pressure him on lap 19 deep in heavy lapped traffic. Karl Benefeil got loose coming off of turn 4 while battling Wendel Gentry for position leaving Chris Rahe nowhere to go. As the two tangled Tyler Brown was able to bounce off of them and continue. Upon the restart Greg Bragg and David Cardey both pounced on Gansen dropping him to 4th. Then David Cardey set after Greg Bragg and passed him 2 laps later. It was now Cardey's chance to chase the leader in lapped traffic and pressured Tyler for the win. Tyler would withstand the charge to take home the checkered flag!
Rookie of the Year points leader Jonny Bates earned the hard charging honor moving up 10 positions to finish 9th. Donny Gansen leads the CA State Championship Series by 2 points ahead of David
Cardey.
Race Summary:
Heat 1 - Chris Rahe, Ashley Walker, David Cardey, Brent Sexton, Keith Janca, Wink Schweitzer, Pat Hickey, Bill Hopper
Heat 2 - Danny Swanson, Ernie Bartley, Greg Bragg, Steve
Cardey, Jonny Bates, Josh Williams, Jim Henderson, Denise Cline
Heat 3 - Karl Benefeil, Wendel Gentry, Gary Sexton, Gary
Gugliemo, Scott Klopf, Carl Cosico, Steve Barnette
Heat 4 - Donny Gansen, Tyler Brown, Jesse Dean, Lonnie Lopez, Paul Townsend, Dylan Morris, Rob Sczymczak
B Main - Keith Janca, Paul Townsend, Jonny Bates, Wink Schweitzer, Dylan Morris, Jim Henderson, Rob Sczymczak, Denise Cline, Pat Hickey, Scott Klopf, Bill Hopper
A Main - Tyler Brown, David Cardey, Greg Bragg, Donny
Gansen, Danny Swanson, Ashley Walker, Gary Sexton, Wendel Gentry, Jonny Bates, Jesse Dean, Paul Townsend, Karl Benefeil, Steve
Cardey, Gary Gugliemo, Ernie Bartley, Lonnie Lopez, Chris Rahe, Wink Schweitzer, Keith Janca, Brent Sexton
CLS Points Summary (5-11-02)
1.Greg Bragg 781 2.Tyler Brown 632 3.David Cardey 616 4.Chris Rahe 539 5.Danny Swanson 503
CA State Championship Series (5-11-02)
1.Donny Gansen 125 2.David Cardey 123 3.Greg Bragg 118 4.Ashley Walker 104 5.Gary Sexton 98
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