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(Lake Pleasant, AZ.....March 23)
After several years of absence, the sprint cars and midgets returned to the 3/8 mile clay oval at Canyon Raceway Saturday night. At one time, the track even held nationally televised World of Outlaw events during the early years of Winter Heat. Dash winner Eric Wilkins won the 25 lap main event for the ASCA unwinged 360 sprint cars and was chased to the line by Marty Miller and Bob Ream Jr. The 20 lap feature for the Kenz and Leslie BG Midget Series saw Iowa’s Kevin Doty the winner over Luke Icke.
The unwinged 360 sprint cars are enjoying very large car counts and they brought 33 cars to Canyon for their return. Wilkins won the dash and heat winners were Josh Pelkey, Mike Martin, Theo McCarty and defending champion Ricky Johnson. The B Main helped fill out the A Main grid and Terry Belcher Sr posted that win. Both Belcher Sr and Terry Belcher Jr have solid unwinged 360 sprint car programs in 2002 and they both finished in the top 4 in the IMCA Modified main on this track on Friday night. The night saw six different drivers flip, four in the sprint cars and two in the midgets. The action drew a packed grandstand and Davey Bateman took an early lead in the 25 lap feature. Miller was riding second and the red flag fell on lap 3 for a flip by Belcher Sr in turn 2. On the next lap, both Miller and Ream drove by Bateman for the 1-2 slots. Wilkins was also working his way to the front and he was up to second at ten laps. On lap 12, Wilkins took the lead from Miller and the next yellow did not fall until lap 20. Wilkins paced the remainder of the race to emerge a very happy winner. Miller was second ahead of Ream, Johnson, Belcher Jr, Bateman, Paul Norbury and Jason Sutphen.
Chris Edwards was the dash winner in the midget action and heats went to Steve Sussex Jr and Icke. Their 20 lap feature was slowed 8 times for caution flags. Michael Welker led a lap and then Adam Young paced one. Young spun to cause a yellow and Doty was now out front. Doty was stretching his lead when another yellow fell on lap 7. Doty was then challenged by Shane Parker and Icke. With one lap to go, a final caution flag fell and Doty managed to stay out front to win over Icke, Parker, Bugs Norbury, Justin Fisher and Dustin Burkhart.
Summary
Midgets
Dash-Chris Edwards.
Heat 1-Steve Sussex Jr.
Heat 2-Luke Icke.
Main-Kevin Doty, Icke, Shane Parker, Bugs Norbury, Justin Fisher, Dustin Burkhart, David Birmingham Jr, Doug Elliott, Sussex, Dean Daly.
Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars
Dash-Eric Wilkins.
Heat 1-Josh Pelkey.
Heat 2-Mike Martin.
Heat 3-Theo McCarty.
Heat 4-Ricky Johnson.
B Main-Terry Belcher Sr.
A Main-Wilkins, Marty Miller, Bob Ream Jr, Johnson, Terry Belcher Jr, Davey Bateman, Norbury, Jason Sutphen, McCarty, Fred Bryan.
*eot
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