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| Paquette, Halleib and Koster triumph at TCS |
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Marysville CA - May 10, 2004. The FEATHERLITE Pacific Sprint Cars couldn’t have put on a more thrilling show than the one presented last night. Jeff Halleib of Lake of the Pines won an outstanding main event. Halleib outdistanced Reno Nevada’s Mike Monahan and Sacramento’s Herman Klein at Twin Cities Speedway. Outside pole sitter Halleib outgunned pole sitter Dave Sprigg into turn one and led the 1st lap of the main event when Sprigg wheelied on the back stretch. The proceedings ground to a halt on lap 3 when Geoff Duppman of Sacramento got together with Citrus Height’s Rick Krausher. Duppman flipped hard on the front chute and nearly destroyed his car. He was unhurt. The race restarted and a remarkable struggle ensued when point leader Klein, Monahan, Kevin Lovell, Korey Lovell, impressive newcomer Heath Hall and Halleib started a long green flag run to the delight of the crowd. The cars raced high and low on the sticky surface. Hall, of Oroville, started to pick off cars and ran up to second with Klein in tow. Monahan held 4th with Kevin Lovell just behind. With 5 to go second place runner Hall collided with a lap car and allowed Klein and Monahan by. The green stayed on and Hall dropped to 6th. Klein used the opportunity to his advantage. He started to reel in Halleib using the high side around lapped traffic. With one to go Klein was within striking distance as the pair approached lapped traffic once again. Klein made up 40 yards in ½ of a lap. Racing off of turn 4 to the checkers Klein lost it, slid sideways, and Monohan flashed by for second. Klein recovered for 3rd with fast qualifier Brent Dothage concluding a nice late race effort grabbing 4th. Kevin Lovell came across in 5th. “This was a racy place tonight,” noted Halleib in victory lane. “Clyde really did a great job. The high side was back”. 3rd place Klein and 2nd place Monohan also chimed in with their assessment that a sticky high side made this an easy place to pass. Racing legend Gary Koster from Woodland, California dodged two flipping cars and trounced the Wingless Warriors of the Speedway Sprint Car Series into submission as he won the featured event. Koster was running 3rd when early race leader Mark Orth and 2nd running Steve Fletcher Jr. crashed together and both started flipping entering turn 1. Koster rolled to a stop near the crash as the red flag was displayed. Orth and Fletcher were not seriously injured in the spectacular looking melee, but both were out for the evening. The new green appeared and Koster was never headed. A great 4-car battle was waged in the race that went green all the way after the red waved for the crash. Point leader Chris Magoon made two slick passes in the late going to finish 3rd. He ran out of time as he approached runner up Rick Eversult. Eversult had a great ride after two consecutive feature event flips in the last two events at TCS. Sophomore racer Chris Paquette of Yuba City headed a great field of Twin Cities Speedway Stock Cars and won his first ever-main event. Paquette entered the event 3rd in points and was due for a visit to victory lane. The victory was hard fought and well deserved. When the green flag waved on the main event Charlie Duffey cruised to an early and commanding lead. Paquette, last week’s main event winner Jerry Bartlett, Jake Cavasos and Donnie Fortney started to play their respective hands. Paquette showed up in second place, but Duffey was gone. Bartlett, Cavasos and Fortney were having a renewed battle reminiscent of last week’s great struggle for the lead. A mid-race yellow for a minor incident closed the pack, but Duffey was doomed. He had a flat tire and had to go to the pits to have it changed. Paquette was the beneficiary of Duffey’s misfortune and was the new leader at the new green. Fortney, Cavasos and Bartlett had come from the back and were camped on Paquette’s tail. Bartlett braved his way by the stout Cavasos on the outside and set sail for Fortney and Paquette. The next five circuits were spectacular as Bartlett got by Fortney as Paquette motored on. It took Bartlett 3 more circuits to get to Paquette, but he got there. Paquette and Bartlett slugged it out for several laps. Bartlett tried inside and outside and couldn’t get the job done. Then, in a moment it was over. Bartlett came to grief in turn 2 with a suspension failure. The final laps were run and Paquette won the race in convincing fashion. Cavasos got the measure of Fortney in the later laps and was getting closer to Paquette when time ran out. Tudor’s Brad Magenheimer was impressive in his first TCS Stock Car appearance finishing in 4th place. Duffey recovered for 5th. The SORA Sprint 100’s rounded out the card and Sacramento’s Kerry McColloch dominated the night by sweeping the show. It took McColloch just two laps to get to the front and, simply, was never challenged in his runaway win. Perennial favorite Tony Gaoiran challenged McColloch in the early stages, but fell victim to mechanical gremlins. This was McColloch’s second consecutive win at Twin Cities Speedway and 3rd of the new season. Saturday May 15th the winged FEATHERLITE Pacific Sprint Cars will return to Twin Cities for round 5 of the 2004 point season. The Speedway Sprint Cars, the TCS Mini stocks Series and the Nor Cal Dwarf Cars will also be on the card. Pit gates open at 3, the grandstand gates open at 5 with racing at 7. Visit us on the web at www.twincitiesspeedway.net
or call (916) 985-2089 to reach the business office. All the latest updates are
always posted to the website first. FEATHERLITE PACIFIC SPRINT CARS, SPEEDWAY SPRINT
CARS, STOCK CARS FEATHERLITE PACIFIC SPRINT CARS SPEEDWAY SPRINT CARS TCS STOCK CARS MAIN EVENT |
