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 California Lightning Sprints Press Release

Paul Townsend Picks Up First CLS Victory!
by Josh Williams

California Lightning Sprints - Round 11 @ Barona Speedway

Paul Townsend is always smiling as he strolls slowly through the pits visiting with the competition in spite of having some of the worst luck offered up in this business. Paul has a new reason to smile as he picked up his first feature win in front of a packed Barona Speedway house!
The evening got underway with qualifying on a very rough surface which made the 2 laps difficult for most except Ashley Walker who circled the track in 14.5 seconds. The first heat race had Greg Bragg come from the 3rd row to beat Vince Tjemeland to the finish ahead of Dylan Morris, Seth Kramer and Paul Townsend. Ernie Bartley won the second heat race from the front row ahead of Jonny Bates, Josh Williams, Karl Benefeil and Steve Cardey. Jesse Dean led most of the 3rd heat in a heated contest with his son James Dean. James beat dad for the win. David Cardey was third. Adam Householder again jumped out of his 600 Multi-Sprint and into his Lightning Sprint to take 4th. Kip McCleary was 5th. With the low car count (22) there would be no B Main. The top 5 in each heat race lined up for the A Main according to their qualifying position. A #4 pill was drawn which indicated the front 4 rows would be inverted. The A Main did not get under way until after 11pm due to several crashes throughout the evening in other classes. Adam Householder found himself on the pole for the main along side Paul Townsend. Fast qualifyer Ashley Walker suffered a mechanical problem in her heat race and had to tag the back of the field. The first lap had not been completed when Steve Cardey crashed hard flipping end over end down the front straight (Steve was OK). Upon the restart Gary Sexton and Mike Barnette tangled leaving Gary parked for the evening. Another restart. Paul Townsend led the field with Householder 2nd, Ernie Bartley 3rd, Greg Bragg 4th, David Cardey 5th. The dry track was quickly reduced to one groove around the bottom making passing difficult. Ernie Bartley passed Adam Householder for 2nd on the 3rd lap. Paul Townsend opened up a good lead on the tight running field until caution flew as David Cardey spun on lap 6. David spun quickly almost 360 degrees and had just about saved it when he got on the brakes hard to prevent contact with Josh Williams and then stalled (THANKS DAVID). Greg Bragg was the only one able to mount much of a charge on the single lane track and passed Bartley for 2nd on lap 13. The field remained close throughout the remaining laps but with little changes in position. Greg Bragg challenged Paul Townsend for the win on the final lap as the two came out of turn 4 almost even with slight advantage to Townsend. Paul won the drag race to claim his first CLS victory! Keith Janca earned hard charger moving up 7 positions to finish 11th.

Race Summary: Qualifications - 1 Ashley Walker 14.596 2 Gary Sexton 14.687 3 Josh Williams 14.949 4 Greg Bragg 14.955 5 David Cardey 14.97 6 Mike Barnette 15.008 7 Dylan Morris 15.012 8 James Dean 15.06 9 Ernie Bartley 15.132 10 Paul Townsend 15.135 11 Adam Householder 15.183 12 Jonny Bates 15.199 13 Vince Tjemeland 15.478 14 Jesse Dean 15.485 15 Steve Cardey 15.486 16 Seth Kramer 15.557 17 Kip McCleary 15.62 18 Karl Benefeil 15.679 19 Nick Nicholson 16.121 20 Steve Barnette 16.438 21 Keith Janca 16.46

Heat 1 - Bragg, V. Tjemeland, Morris, Kramer, Townsend, Nicholson, King, Walker

Heat 2 - Bartley, Bates, Williams, Benefeil, S. Cardey, S. Barnette, M Barnette

Heat 3 - James Dean, Jesse Dean, D Cardey, Householder, McCleary, G Sexton, Janca

A Main - Townsend, Bragg, Bartley, Householder, James Dean, Williams, Bates, McCleary, Morris, Jesse Dean, Janca, Walker, D Cardey, Benefeil, S Barnette, Kramer, Tjemeland, M Barnette, G Sexton, S Cardey, King DNS, Nicholson DNS

Points: Greg Bragg 1448, David Cardey 1302, Jonny Bates 993, Gary Sexton 990, Steve Cardey 953, Ashley Walker 946, Jesse Dean 892, Josh Williams 883, Danny Swanson 859, Karl Benefeil 812

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