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| Western
States Sprint Car Notes by Kerry Fasig |
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August 20, 2004...Stops number 7 and
8 for the Valvoline USAC Western States Sprint Cars were at Rocky
Mountain Raceway in Salt Lake City and Madera Speedway in Madera
California. The RMR event had 23 cars, 10 Western States regulars
and 13 Rocky Mountain Sprint Car series drivers. Tony Hunt scored one for the visiting team by
setting fast time over Jim Waters, Brad Bumgarner, Mike Baisch,
Jimmy Wysong and Michael Lewis. Michael Trimble picked up the win
in heat one, Jim Campbell won heat two and Michael Lewis won heat
three. Dave Fitzgerald picked up the semi main victory over Rick
Pardee, Shauna Hogg and Greg Anderson. Michael Lewis and Jeff Gardner brought the
field down to the green flag for the 40 lap main event and then
the mayhem started, I don't think I have ever seen so many race
cars destroyed, first Jimmy Wysong had a brake problem and as he
gathered it up. Mike Murgoitio and Brian McClish ran out of racing
room and McClish made contact with the back straight away wall
using up his Western Speed Racing #80. Then a few laps later Dave
Fitzgerald had a problem (maybe a stuck throttle) and hit the turn
3 wall putting a serious hurt on the Hamblin #32. Lewis grabbed the early lead and was just cruising
along when he pulled out of the lead into the infield with
ignition problems. Mike Baisch
took over the point then Mike Gollinger had motor
problems and Mel Andrus spun in the oil and crashed into the turn
3 wall. Jeff Gardner then had problems sending him to the
pits and then series point leader Brad Bumgarner had a left rear
wheel failure sending him to the pits on the hook. Baisch was
up for the task as he stretched his lead only to have numerous
yellow flags erase any sizeable lead he had built up. After the carnage was over Mike Baisch picked
up the win over Jimmy Waters, Brian Evans, Shauna Hogg and Greg
Anderson with his best finish of the season. 6th thru 10th
were Robert Beck, Tony Hunt, Jim Campbell, Rick Pardee and Ray
Bergener. 11th thru 20th was Jimmy Wysong Brad Bumgarner, Michael
Trimble, Jeff Bergener, Jeff Gardner, Mel Andrus, Mike Gollinger,
Michael Lewis , Dave Fitzgerald and Mike Murgoitio. This chain of
events closed up the points in the championship hunt as Bumgarner
stretched his lead from 8 points to 20, but Tony Hunt closed on
Brad from 52 back to 38 back it's starting to really shape up. Stop number 8 was at Madera Speedway on
August 7th with 20 cars signing in. Just about every time the
Western States sprint cars run at Madera the you can always count
on the number 71 Oval Chassis Research car to be there with
Mike McCreary behind the wheel, but on arrival it was made known
that Mike has been ill of late and that things are not looking to
good for the two time NARC champion. So keep Mike in your
thoughts and prayers. Fresh faces in the field were young Jared
Consani making his USAC debut and much to our surprise was Lee
Brewer Jr. in the Finkenbinder 3F. I don't recall ever seeing
Lee on the pavement before, but there is a first time for
everything, I guess. Craig Smith was also on hand with a nice
looking car, if my memory serves me right Craig was real fast
at San Jose Speedway on the dirt. For the second race in a row Tony Hunt set
fast time with a 13.49 over Michael Lewis, Brad Bumgarner, Nick
Rescino Jr., Tim Barber and Rick Hendrix in his own #97. Heat
races were won by Robert Beck, Michael Trimble and Greg Anderson. With no semi scheduled you had to finish
fifth or better to get your time back for the main and when Brad
Bumgarner finished 6th that allowed 7th quick Mike Murgoitio to
start along side of Rick Hendrix on the front row of the feature.
The front row kind of ran out of racing room on lap one and Tim
Barber grabbed the early lead. There was some tremendous racing
going on in the pack but the yellow flag was kept busy. It was one
of those nights where you passed someone 3 or 4 times but the
yellow flag flew and they got put back in front of you. 6th
starting Tony Hunt dropped all the way back to 9th and had to
fight to get every position back and more. Barber led thru lap 14
when Michael Lewis took over the lead and Michael started to put
some room between himself and the field, but the yellow flag kept
making appearances. The man on the move was Hunt as he used the
high groove to work his way up to 3rd behind Barber, Tony then
made a move on the bottom to get by Tim and laps later the
yellow flew again. With 10 laps to go Lewis pulled away on the
restart but Tony reeled him in and made the pass for the lead.
With all the yellows fuel was going to be a factor, so
with the laps running down Greg Taylor followed Hunt by Lewis and
on the white flag lap Barber got around a fuel starved Lewis as
did Hendrix. And that's the way they finished as Tony picked
up win number 1 of the year the 15th of his career in the USAC
Western States Sprint Car division. Robert Beck, Nick Rescino Jr who had a early race spin, Mike Murgoitio, Anthony Simone and Shauna Hogg finished 6th thru 10th. The balance of the field was Marvin Mitchell, Michael Trimble, Greg Anderson, Brad Bumgarner, Lee Brewer Jr., Brian McClish Jared Consani, Craig Smith, Alan Kaiser and Destiny Hayes. If it's a point battle you want then you came to the right place as Michael Lewis took over the lead, but by only by 4 point's over Tony Hunt, with Brad Bumgarner only 6 back of Lewis. The next race is a 100 lapper at Madera on
August 21st the Larry Triegro Sr. Classic it ought to be one
of the biggest and best races of the season, hope you can make it. |
