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“Gentleman Jim” Does It Again!
NCMA Sprints | Madera Speedway | Madera, CA | June 9, 2007
Jimmy Lavell enjoys the pavement and apparently knows how to make it work for him. He had a great evening and now has a win at both pavement tracks that NCMA Sprints race on.
After several weeks of “playing in the dirt”, the sprints returned to the asphalt of Madera Speedway to have one of the highlight runs of the 2007 season to date.
Qualifying gave Lavell of Brentwood a feather in his cap as he broke his own fast time record. The Trophy Dash was set up with the four fastest times in tonight’s field. Justin Funkhouser, rookie pavement driver, traveled from Paradise to participate this evening and went home the winner in tonight’s dash. Gary Koster, gave him a go but just could not get around him. Lavell came in third and Rob Hammond finished it up in fourth. Quick, smooth and exciting!
Two heats were held, with Napa’s “Driving Dentist” David Goodwill coming out on top. Goodwill driving his Napa Auto Parts 3G, is getting the grip on pavement after very few starts! This is the dirt driver’s initial year at trying it on the asphalt. On the other hand, Ed Amador, a master of the pavement, blew by son Steve on the very last lap, coming out of turn four to win the second heat. Fans yelled their approval at the surprise outcome. The younger Amador was doing a great job up until then holding off all comers.
The thirty lap Main Event was set with a complete invert of the field. Michael Zarevich and Mike Funkhouser (traveling from Magalia) made up the starting row. Jeff Burrows and Lavell made up row two and the two #17’s made up the third row, #17K-Koster and 17H-Hammond. Funkhouser made that big tow only to have something go wrong and put him out before the first lap was completed.” I didn’t want to put anyone else or myself out.” When asked what went on at the completion of the race. This moved Lavell into the outside front; he got a better start than Zarevich and went right to the front spending the entire race about a half track lead on the rest of the pack. This was a great evening of racing as not one yellow flew. Ed Amador had an issue about two-thirds of the way in and pulled to the infield to keep the yellow from coming out, until that he was totally competitive. Little fireworks were going on all over the track as Burrows and Koster were duking it out with Koster finally ending the evening in second. Burrows was still third. Even though Zarevich was having some set up problems in his Kaos Motorsports sprinter he still came in fourth, and Rob Hammond did a nice job of rounding out the top five.
Asphalt racing at its best as NCMA Sprints return to the “Fastest Half Mile in the West” Altamont Motorsports Park next Saturday night, June 16. For further information check out websites at AltamontMotorsportspark.com and NCMAsprints.com.
Summary:
HeatI-Goodwill, Funkhouser, Koster, Burrows, Zarevich
Heat II-E. Amador, S. Amador, Hammond, Lavell, M. Funkhouser
Dash-J. Funkhouser, Koster, Lavell, Hammond
Main-Lavell, Koster, Burrows, Zarevich,m Hammond, J. Funkhouser, Goodwill, S. Amador, E. Amador, M.
Funkhouser.
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