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Fuse
is Set: 2005 Season Opener action explodes Saturday night |
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Marysville, CA - March 21, 2005...The TCS Stock Car Series, the TCS Mini
Stocks and the warriors of the Speedway Sprint Car Series will
headline opening night festivities at Twin Cities Speedway this Saturday.
In the Speedway Sprint Car series 2004 champion Chris Magoon of Antioch will lead a stellar field of wingless warriors. Magoon has completely recovered from serious injuries sustained in the final event in 2004. In that incident, Magoon was airlifted from the speedway and spent several weeks in recuperation. With a true racer’s spirit Magoon made it to the banquet accepted the trophies and prize money associated with his championship year and declared he’d be back to defend his title. He was at playday tuning up. The other competitors should be concerned. Magoon’s car was a rocket…and a beautiful one at that. The Speedway Sprint car field will be spiced by a number of great racers. Among them, two talented newcomers who are stars of other stock car series. Marysville’s Charlie Marrs has decided to field a car in this hammer-down open wheel series. Marrs is a former Cal Modified champion and a relentless charger in stock car and mini-stock classes. Marrs and his hard charging driving style will be an attention getter to say the least. It is rumored that Marrs will also dust off his potent #7 mini stock for an occasional blistering of the TCS clay. Yuba City’s Mark Hill will also field a Speedway Sprinter this year. Mark is a talented stock car and mini-stock builder and driver. I was as surprised as anyone to hear he was looking at sprint cars for his next challenge. Mark has built successful main event winning rides for Donnie Fortney and last year’s mini-stock champion Kevin Sprague. Mark is a smooth, calculated performer who will set you up and cruise on by before you knew he was there. Mark and Charlie will be welcome additions to the series. Series runner-up, Rick Eversult will be back with a new ride and 2-time feature winner Kenny Bair will be loaded for bear as he will run the full series for the first time. Kenny missed several events last year and still picked up a trophy at the banquet. Keep your eye on second year driver Jeremy Hawes. Hawes was headed toward the front in late season events last year. The learning curve for Hawes was more of a straight line. He crashed so hard once last year the rumor has it that they just “threw away” the car. From that ugly wake-up call Jeremy got serious and this year will wheel the only Ford powered sprinter we know of. Dad Paul will field two cars. We’re not sure if it’s a backup for Jeremy or earmarked for another racer. The TCS Stock Car Series is brimming with quality cars. Several veterans will return, but a short list of talented racers have made the switch to the TCS Stock Cars from the mini stock class. Olivehurst’s Robert Mull and Marysville’s Jeremy Blackshere will test their style against a dynamite field of rough and tumble stock car stars. Former mini stock champion Blackshere will show his familiar 01 on the side of his dad’s new project. While he didn’t have the best day at the recent playday sessions (he tried to knock down the turn 2 wall), Blackshere will be a threat. Mull on the other hand had a smooth and what appeared to be a fast playday. Mull will have his familiar orange and blue colors decorating his cool looking creation. Then there’s Live Oak’s Chris Paquette. Runner up in the championship the last two seasons, this guy is hungry. Paquette reeled off two main event wins in point competition last year and had the fans jumping up and down and screaming when he won the Labor Day special. In arguably the finest stock car race in TCS history, Paquette showed cars with much bigger engines what a little savvy, patience and, in the end, a charge to the front will do. Chris has to be the odds on favorite to get the championship, but…there are about ten other guys in this class that can do it as well. Returning to the wars at TCS will be John “Pork Chop” Johnson. The Yuba City hustler has told me he’s going for the championship. Kenny Robinson is truly one of the favorites as well. Robinson blasted onto the scene a couple of years ago with a style that keeps you watching. Robinson’s abominable luck last year kept him out of the hunt for the title. I guess push truck driving is good practice for becoming a racer. Ask Kenny how it’s done. In a surprise move over the winter TCS Mini Stock champion Kevin Sprague decided to defend his 2004 championship. The Yuba City star told me he was not going to go through the grind again. Kevin planned on intermittent trips to TCS. He’s changed his mind and we’re the better for it. Heather Bartlett also scrapped her plans to field a Dwarf Car in the NCDCA California series. As dad Jerry tells it, she’s going to try to take the trophy in the TCS Mini Stocks instead. Her electric pink car sure is a striking sight. I’m sure she hopes her year is better than playday. The quick Toyota had a series of mechanical ills that kept it in the pits most of the day. A strong contingent of minis will contest the aforementioned duo. Yuba City’s Ken Reische is perhaps on the top of that list. Reische was wickedly fast in playday practice before he hammered the turn two wall. Ken could do it. There’s a couple of Merritts that had some cool looking hot rods at playday. Watch for those boys this year. It’s rumored that Gary Holsey will be back looking for points with his white and blue #2. If that’s the case, a lot of folks may be running second this year. Thrilling, IN YOUR FACE~HIGH SPEED ACTION gets underway this Saturday night. As an extra added attraction the SORA Sprint 100’s will be added to the show. Gates open at 5 with racing at 7PM at the one and only Twin Cities Speedway. There is NO increase in admission prices this year. Adult tickets will be $10, juniors and seniors $7, children $5 and under six will be admitted for free. In fact, season passes are available for the first time this year at a reduced, per race price. Call (530) 675-2050 or drop by the ticket office on Saturday. Twin Cities Speedway is located at 1468 Simpson Lane in Marysville. For additional information call (530) 742-9222 or go to www.twincitiesspeedway.net. |
