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| PORTE GAINS FIRST SANTA
MARIA FEATURE WIN by Gary Jacob |
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Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars |
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Santa Maria, CA -June 24, 2000--With his home town of
San Luis Obispo, Greg Porte was excited when the Bandit unwinged 360
sprint car series that he races on scheduled several events at nearby
Santa Maria Speedway for the 2000 season and he took advantage of a
front row start to pace all 30 laps to win Saturday night's main event
there. The event was the 16th Annual Bud Stanfield Memorial Race.
Porte's mount is sponsored by Greg Porte Trucking and Mattice Motors
and his one previous feature win came at Kings Speedway. He had to
fight off a series of challenges from former Santa Maria track
champion Danny Sheridan, who again was driving the John Abeytia car.
Sheridan settled for second and another Bandit star, Jerome Warmerdam,
was third ahead of visiting J Hicks. It was a rare 360 start for the
former Ventura star who now races with the SCRA unwinged 410 sprints
along with Sheridan.
Since Santa Maria runs it's own unwinged 360 sprint car program, the Bandit series enjoys solid car counts whenever it visits the 1/3 mile clay oval and tonight's 17 car field included 9 Bandits and 8 local cars. Time trials occurred on a tricky dry-slick surface and Sheridan was the fastest at 14.910 as Warmerdam ran 15.116, Porte 15.175 and Santa Maria point leader Jimmy Thompson a 15.265. The sprint car teams were surprised when the mini stock heat races brought the moisture back to the track and they faced tacky conditions for their heat races. Sheridan won heat 1 ahead of Joey Layman and Jason Yount. Bandit point leader A J Burgin had crashed spectacularly in Hanford the previous week when his throttle stuck and they didn't find the problem with the car until he dropped out of his Santa Maria heat race. Porte used a late race pass around Gary Rayburn Jr to win heat 2. Rayburn had won the first year 2000 Bandit race at the track. The third heat was decided in the final corner when Wade Griest drove around series newcomer Steve Scheidt for the honors. All 17 teams were able to start the 30 lap main event and Sheridan drew a 4 for the lineup inversion that put Jeff Fiscus and Porte on the front row with Warmerdam and Sheridan in row 2. Thompson missed being included in the inversion as he dropped out of his heat. Porte raced into the lead over Sheridan, Fiscus and Griest. Griest took over third on lap 2 and the race was red flagged when Rayburn ran over a wheel and flipped into the turn 2 catch fence. He was unhurt and his team nearly completed repairs in time for him to join the restart. Warmerdam took over fourth on lap 4 and Hicks grabbed fifth from Fiscus on lap 7. The second red flag came on lap 8 when Layman ran over a wheel on the Yount car and did a series of spectacular side for side flips down the backstretch. He also escaped unhurt, but his car was heavily damaged. Spins by Thompson and Rayburn on the next two attempts to start the race forced yellow flags and Rayburn was eliminated on the two caution rule. The top five maintained their order when green flag racing resumed and the front foursome of Porte, Sheridan, Griest and Warmerdam checked out on the field. The groove in turns 1 and 2 was up high and Porte lost much of his advantage when lapped traffic forced him low on lap 18. The caution fell a lap later as Josh Davis broke and wasn't able to limp off the track. Thompson worked his way back to sixth by lap 20 and the tight duel up front saw Griest get into Sheridan and nearly spin. Griest did lose his third place spot when he spun to force a lap 28 yellow flag. The first attempt to restart the race saw Mike Knopf get into the turn 1 fence and collect Scheidt. Knopf dropped out and Porte continued to alter his acceleration point on each restart to fend off Sheridan. Porte and Sheridan ran 1-2 with Warmerdam third ahead of Hicks, Thompson, Burgin, Yount, Griest, Scheidt and Jeff Fiscus. Summary Fast Time-Danny Sheridan 14.910 Heat 1-Sheridan, Joey Layman, Jason Yount, J Hicks, Jimmy Thompson. Heat 2-Greg Porte, Gary Rayburn Jr, Mike Knopf, Josh Davis, Keith Silva. Heat 3-Wade Griest, Steve Scheidt, Jerome Warmerdam, Jeff Fiscus, John Jewett. Main-Porte, Sheridan, Warmerdam, Hicks, Thompson, A J Burgin, Yount, Griest, Scheidt, Fiscus, Silva, Knopf, Davis, Jewett, Layman, Mark Bales, Rayburn. |
