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| Cowboy
Craig Smith Ends Rescino’s Streak With First CASA Win by Glenn Hopper |
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9-11-04
– Tracy, CA. “Cowboy” Craig Smith’s first year of pavement racing
already has a highlight to remember as he won his first California Asphalt
Sprintcar Association feature event at Altamont Motorsports Park’s big
half-mile on a warm and pleasant evening. Smith, in the Joe Kuderca #32, has had
some early season struggles with the new car but has shown good speed and steady
performance improvements. With an improving race program, all Smith needed to do
to win his first CASA race was find a way to stop Nick Rescino Jr’s
relentless, season-long domination. Rescino
started the evening off posting his ninth fast time of the year at 17.584
and 102.336 MPH but Smith posted second quick time to show he was a
serious contender as well. The CASA heat got off to an unfortunate start when
veteran driver Marvin Mitchell suffered a rear end problem and oiled down the
track. Track clean up used all of the allotted time for the 8-lap event and the
event was scratched. The Mike Coy Concrete Construction trophy dash, however,
provided further evidence that Smith was up to the challenge of stopping
Rescino’s streak as Smith took home the hardware from his first CASA dash win
over Rescino, Glenn Hopper, and Chad Ede. In
the 20-lap feature, Mitchell, though having made repairs, opted to start at the
rear of the field moving his inside row up and bringing Hopper to the pole,
along side Scott Clough for the start of the main event. At the drop of the
green, Hopper edged past Clough coming down the back straight to lead the first
two laps, however Smith powered past Hopper at the completion of lap three.
Rescino passed Hopper for second in the next corner and set off to battle Smith
for the lead. Mitchell’s
rear end repair was short lived, and although he quickly took to the pits, some
oil was detected on the racing surface and the caution flew on lap four. During
the caution, it was suspected that Smith might have also been trailing some oil.
Smith was ordered to stop for a safety inspection where after careful
inspection, no oil was detected from his car and he was allowed to restart in
the first position. Smith maintained his lead over Rescino on the restart but
unknown and invisible to race officials, was the fact Smith was misting some oil
under racing conditions. The slick conditions hampered Rescino’s bid to
overtake Smith, but either way “Cowboy” was not to be deterred as he
completed a flawless drive to the checkered flag. “Hey man, that was fun!”
said Smith while being congratulated after his excellent run. Finishing second
was a disappointed Rescino who, while upset to have his winning streak broken at
ten, understood that the mist was undetectable to probably everyone but himself.
“I hate it because I come to win, but hey, you can’t win ‘em all…” he
said. Finishing third was Hopper after a very spirited battle with Ede aboard
the M&L Plumbing mount. Ede made several passing attempts, pulling even at
one point but Hopper managed to maintain the position. Clough had one of his
best runs of the season with a well-earned top five finish.
The
“California Sprint Cars” return to Nevada for another 100-lapper, as the
next CASA race will be the final round of the Nevada State Sprint Car
Championship Series at the high-banked quarter-mile Champion Speedway on
Saturday, September 11th. It is also the special “40 years of Excellence”
salute to the great racing career of two-time NARC Champion and CASA founder,
Mike McCreary. The festivities start with a free barbeque in the pit area from
11 am through 2 pm before the races start. 9-11-04
CASA Results FAST
TIME COY
CONCRETE TROPHY DASH 20
LAP MAIN EVENT POINT
STANDINGS 9/11/04
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