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| Press Release |
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Two
in a row for the Champ Monahan
has led every lap in last two Riebes Racing Series features; by Bob Burbach |
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Marysville, CA - July, 16 2005...The last three Pacific Sprint Car races
at Twin Cities Speedway have been dominated by the defending champ, the
“Madman”, Mike Monahan. With the exception of a daring last lap pass by Yuba
City’s Kevin Lovell three races ago, Monahan would have won three in a row.
Monahan gunned his sleek blue racer into a lead he would never relinquish when the green banner waved over the field in the feature. Point leader Brent Dothage and Yuba City’s Korey and Kevin Lovell would duke it out for second all event long. A series of minor yellow flags kept the field bunched, but Monahan was clearly the class of the field. As the race moved into it’s final few circuits, Dothage found his way to second ahead of Korey and Kevin Lovell. The white banner was flying over the field when Korey Lovell made a daring inside pass for second in turn one. Lovell made good the pass and Clearlake’s Dothage spun off over the turn two banking. He saved it and salvaged a fourth place finish behind Kevin Lovell. Chico’s Kevin Sharrah did the best passing job of the night using the high side in securing fifth during the hotly contested event. Monahan indicated earlier in the evening his late season charge…“might be a little late”. But that’s what he said last season about this time and he managed to take home the crown. Quick qualifier Dothage kept a good lead in the point standings despite the last lap dramatics In TCS Mini Stock competition, Robert Luster shook off the disappointments of his last lap mechanical failures last time out and grabbed the victory. Luster, track champion Kevin Sprague, point leader Ken Reische and Yuba City’s Greg Prather had a monumental tussle for the lead during most of the event. As the race came to its final laps Prather seemed to have the race in hand. Luster was a relatively close second with Reische and Sprague under a blanket in third and fourth. With four laps to go a restart had the four combatants nose to tail. Prather threw his black racer into the first turn and as he floored it off of two he spun sideways. Luster slipped by but Reische and Sprague were in it. The three slid and crashed into the backstretch wall leaving Luster all alone at the front. Marysville’s Luster romped to his first feature win of the year. James Foster, a hard charging Jamie Ollar, Lisa Shelby and James Gillaspie benefited from the big crash and rounded out the top five. Antioch’s Speedway Sprint Car champion Bob Newberry parlayed an up front starting position into a convincing win as the Wingless Warriors presented their twelfth event of the season. Stockton’s John Sarale was the guest chauffer in the Eversult 7o and kept Newberry honest in the late laps. Chargin’ Charlie Marrs placed third in his best drive of the season. Speaking of best drives, Grass Valley’s Brent Youngman was superb in his drive to fourth. Point leaders Steve Stein and Jeremy Hawes crashed into each other in their heat race prompting last row starts in the feature. Hawes soldiered his way into a fifth place finish with the best passing job of the event. Vacaville’s Stein got a solid seventh. Mike “Spanky” Grenert won a thrilling last lap duel with a fast closing Kevin Bender in Nor Cal Dwarf Cars competition. Grenert took the lead at half way from early race leader Marysville’s Chris Thrasher. Scott Dahlgren may have been the quickest car on the track, but he headed for the pits just after Grenert secured the top spot. With three left, Bender got to the high side and closed on Grenert rapidly. It could be Bender just ran out of laps, but when Grenert saw him, Grenert stepped up the pace. Visit dwarfworld.com for additional information on Nor Cal. This Saturday night the Riebes Racing Series Pacific Sprint Cars will bring their fire-breathing racers to TCS. The TCS Stock Cars and the Hunt Magneto Speedway Sprint Cars will be featured as well. The traveling BCRA Midget Lites will round out the four-division program. It will be Buck-A-Beer night again as well. Gates open at 5 with racing at 7PM at the one and only Twin Cities Speedway. Twin Cities Speedway is located at 1468 Simpson Lane in Marysville. For additional information call (530) 742-9222 or go to .twincitiesspeedway.net. |
