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| MCCORMICK, CRAWFORD AND
EVANS GET OILDALE FEATURE WINS by Gary Jacob |
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TQ Midgets, Dwarf Cars and Mini Stocks |
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Oildale, CA..April 30..Wheeling the potent Greg Edenholm car built by
Dennis Hart, Richard McCormick dominated the NMRA TQ Midget action at
Bakersfield Speedway Park on Saturday night. He won his heat race from fifth,
but was penalized back to third when he got called for a jump start. That forced
him to start in the third row for the 20 lap feature, but he quickly climbed to
second in five laps. He took the lead from a greatly improved Bruce Hiroshima on
lap 8 and won by 1/3 lap. Hiroshima wheeled his new entry to second ahead of
heat winner Jody Bandfield. The two divisions of CDCRA dwarf cars raced together
and the battle for the feature win was very entertaining as both drivers were
seeking their first ever win. Young Ryan Blade took the lead on lap 2, but
bobbled on a lap 17 restart and Shawn Crawford paced the final 4 laps for his
first win. Blade settled for second ahead of Bill Didion. The senior division
winner was veteran car builder Gary Ebeling, who ran fourth. For a second
straight week, the mini stocks attracted cars from throughout Southern
California and Ventura Raceway regular Jim Evans led wire to wire to get the 20
lap feature win in his Ford Pinto. Point leader Kevin Herring battled from 12th
to finish second and Santa Maria Speedway female racer Jessica Rust edged out
Ventura Raceway star David Peterson for third. The NMRA TQ Midgets missed their first scheduled date at the 1/3 mile clay oval due to a communication problem, but they appeared 14 cars strong tonight. Top runner Scott Hansen broke in practice to end his night. McCormick won heat 1 from fifth, but the jump start penalty moved back to third behind Hiroshima and Steve Parke. Hiroshima has a new car for 2005, but still fields his old machine with Richard Ortega Jr driving. Bandfield won heat 2 from the outside front row as Steve Lambert came from last to second ahead of incoming point leader Walt Johnson. The feature was straight up off the heat results and ran the 20 lap distance without a single caution flag. Hiroshima took a quick lead over Bandfield and Parke. McCormick was fifth on lap 1, took fourth from W Johnson a lap later and third from Parke on lap 3. McCormick then drove by Bandfield for second on lap 5. McCormick and Hiroshima traded the lead with slide jobs on lap 7 and McCormick was in front for good on lap 8. McCormick stretched his lead to 1/3 lap before the checkered flag. Hiroshima and Bandfield waged an entertaining duel for second with Hiroshima coming out on top. Bandfield ran third ahead of W Johnson, Chuck West, Parke, Kenny Wiley, Lambert, West Evans and Ron Ahrendt. Next action for the TQ Midgets is their first pavement race of 2005 at Orange Show Speedway on May 14. The dwarf cars split 19 cars into three heat races. Blade came from fourth and won an exciting side by side finish with Randy Throne in heat 1 as Ebeling ran third over Glen Monk. Brent Stevens won heat 2 from the pole as third starting Didion ran second ahead of Roger Ganzer. Walt Boyd won heat 3 from the pole over fifth starting Mike VanAcker. The 20 lap feature got off to a rough start with two restarts before a lap was scored. VanAcker and Throne tangled for the first with newcomer Jay Arnsmeyer and Rick Denny also tangled. On the next try, Stevens and Denny tangled and Throne's race was over as he suffered heavy damage when he clipped the tangled cars. Stevens also parked his car. Didion led the first scored lap and Blade took over on lap 2 with his dwarf truck. Crawford settled into third over Ebeling and Ganzer. Jim Soltis fell out after spinning for a lap 4 yellow. Crawford took second from Didion on lap 9. Denny blew up on lap 13 and Jerry Cotter spun for the final yellow flag on lap 16. On the restart, leader Blade bobbled and Crawford raced into the lead. Blade recovered in second ahead of Didion and Ebeling. Crawford stayed out front for his first ever win ahead of Blade and Didion. Ebeling led the senior division in fourth ahead of Ganzer and Tom Moss. Boyd was second highest senior in 7th ahead of Arnsmeyer, J R Stout and third place senior finisher VanAcker. Tommy Astone climbed the front wall and flipped at the checkered flag, but was unhurt. The 27 mini stocks were split into four heat races. Richard Graves won heat 1 from the outside front row as Kyle Callaway ran second. Atascadero's Charlie Scovell won heat 2 from the front row over Jerry Mayall and Rick Cloud. 2004 track champion Jimmy Mason blew a tire racing in second in heat 3 and Peterson won from the pole over Rust and Lulu Strub. Herring won heat 4 from 4th and outside front row starter J Evans was second ahead of Travis Wickenden. Newcomer Roy Duncan won the B Main over Sidney Payne. Kevin Johnson spun out of third in the final turn and ran 10th as Mason placed third over Billy Zenger. Callaway and J Evans had the front row for the 20 lap feature, but Callaway blew a tire on lap 1. Evans raced into the lead over Graves, Strub and Scovell. Rust climbed to fifth on lap 3. J Evans was a quarter lap in front when the first caution fell on lap 7 for a spin by Mason. Rust got around Scovell for fourth and Herring climbed to fifth on lap 10. Scovell exited at high speed on lap 11 and Herring led Rust around Strub for the 3-4 slots on lap 12. Both Herring and Rust got around Graves for the 2-3 positions on lap 14 and Peterson was fourth on lap 17. The final 13 laps ran without a caution. Darren Akins climbed the front wall and exited on lap 18. J Evans won ahead of Herring, Rust, Peterson, Graves, Strub, Payne, Wickenden, Mayall and last starter K Johnson. Summary Mini Stocks Dwarf Cars TQ Midget |
