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| Press Release |
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Richards, Olschowka, Dozier, Ollar and Castleberry score in Cy
Francis Memorial By Bob Burbach |
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Marysville, CA - August 3, 2008 --- Paul and Kathy Hawes hosted more than thirty
members of the Francis family and five divisions of racers at the Cy Francis
Memorial Race. Francis was the first promoter at the Simpson lane speed plant
starting forty years ago in 1968. Marysville Raceway Park is the last of it’s
kind in northern California and is still going strong. MRP is the oldest
privately owned dirt raceway still in weekly operation. An emotional tribute to
Francis was presented during intermission. The event was run with precision with
a minimum of slowdowns and the fans were on their way home before 10:00. The
track was quick and really hooked up allowing for clean fast racing action.
Tony Richards of Paradise claimed the MRP Wingless Sprint Car victory while Marysville’s Cort Dozier winged his way to victory in the Winged Sprint Car event. Jeff Olschowka continued his march to a possible MRP championship with an easy win in the MRP Street Stock division. Jamey Ollar swept the thrilling MRP Mini Stock program after a feature that had everyone on his or her feet. James Castleberry came out of retirement and crashed his way into victory in the EXTREME BOMBER finale. Richards made a big mistake on lap two and dropped to sixth by the time the field completed lap two in the MRP Wingless Sprint Car main. Pole sitter John Anderson led easily early on. Grass Valley’s Jay Youngman was on the ball, and the gas and passed into second by lap three. Richards recovered and spent a lap or two regrouping. He then headed for the cushion and started to go forward. As has been his habit, Richards picked off racers one by one until he found third. Anderson and Youngman became bogged down in traffic by half way. Richards pounced and it became a three-way tussle for the top spot. This one would go flag to flag without a caution and if you were going to go, you had to go. Richards went. He went very high in one as Anderson and Youngman nearly collided in two. Richards got into second when Youngman checked up to keep from hitting Anderson. Richards was now second. He and Anderson got onto some clean track with little traffic. Richards quickly caught Anderson and used a patented high side three with a diamond off of four and he was by. The only question was who would get second after that. Recovered, Jay Youngman was flying and nipped Anderson in a photo for second. Youngman had a great turn three and four getting a run on Anderson that brought him the runner-up money. Tim Sherman Jr. was a factor early on in the race but drifted to a fourth place finish at the end. A vastly improved Blane Varner parlayed a superb heat race win into a fifth place finish at the checkers. The MRP Street Stock feature was a runaway for point leader Jeff Olschowka. Olschowka streaked away at the green flag and was challenged only once by third place finisher Lisa Shelby. Olschowka thwarted that effort and motored on effortlessly turning picture perfect laps. Shelby lost it, spun and gave up second midway through and recovered for her third place finish behind Corey Hall. Hall was flying for a while in this one. He was rim riding the circuit in spectacular fashion. Front row starter Cort Dozier let everyone know that this point chase is not over…by a long shot in the Winged Sprint Car division. Dozier made up some ground in the standings by whipping the field in a wire-to-wire clinic. Only Brandon Dozier who finished in second challenged Cort Dozier. Brandon actually passed Cort with a slick inside pass after a restart. The pass was negated when a yellow reappeared for David Sprigg’s problem in four. There was a war going on from third on back as a number of racers were trying to make their way to the front. Then it all got ugly for a moment when fifth place runner Mike Wasina Jr. ricocheted off the inside tire barriers with terrific force and came to rest in turn one. Wasina was obviously rocked by the impact, but was walking around the car after being assisted from the seat. The new green had the Doziers at the top and they streaked way with the victory, Cort first. Gridley’s Shawn Amos was quick all night and had hid best outing of the season. This young driver is starting to catch fire. Korey Lovell and Brent Dothage seemed to cruise through the feature finding fourth and fifth respectively. The MRP Mini Stock feature was a great race. It was in doubt up until the final two circuits. A knot of racers were in a knock down-drag out struggle for the entire distance…for the lead. Only Eric Jones’ departure with mechanical problems (while leading) depleted the challengers. In the end, a monster battle between Kevin Brown, Jamey Ollar and Jeff Olschowka would decide it. Ollar and Brown put on an outstanding wheel-to-wheel show for the vocal fans in the stands. Olschowka was inches behind the battling pair. Lapped traffic seemed to favor Ollar and he finally got a couple of car lengths on Brown and it stayed that way in the last lap, though Brown nearly stood his mini truck on it’s nose a couple of times trying to get back by. Ollar came from the fourth row in the quickly run event. Ollar’s 8 seemed to be really hooked up in the turns making a terrific difference in his ability to slice through lapped cars. Brent Hall finished a close fourth and was coming on strong in the latter half of the event. Point leader Joel Giusti soldiered through a series of crashes and bashes to a fine fifth. Ollar swept the evening with a dazzling heat race victory. It’s been awhile since James Castleberry has visited victory lane. He hasn’t forgotten the way. The car crunching antics of the EXTREME BOMBERS concluded the evening and when the smoke cleared he had won the race. A mind numbing number of grinding impacts and cars with smoke bombs tossed inside made for some pretty interesting situations on the track. Castleberry is now the proud owner of a pretty weird trophy. Heat race winners were Phillip Shelby of Yuba City and Blane Varner Jr. of Sacramento in Wingless Sprints, Hall in street stocks, Wasina and Amos in Winged Sprints and Ollar, Brown and James Gillaspie of Olivehurst in mini-stocks. Varner’s heat race win was noteworthy as Varner is really starting to pick up the pace lately in the Wingless Sprint Car division. Next week the raceway will present TACO BELL NIGHT. Taco Bell and the associated restaurants in Marysville and Yuba City will sponsor the evening that will feature the MRP Winged Sprint Cars, the MRP Mini Stocks, the Mighty Modifieds and the SORA Sprint 100s. Remember, MRP is just a few miles from anywhere in the Yuba Sutter area. Stay close to home, save your gas and experience Yuba-Sutter’s only professional sports series. Only at MRP. Pit gates always open at 3 with the grandstands opening at 5. Practice and hot laps start at 6 with qualifying and racing to follow. Put www.marysvilleracewaypark.com on your “favorites” button on you computer. Watch this site for press releases, updates and complete results. $300,000 in contingency rewards ongoing through 2008: Remember, our racing program will get $150,000 worth of contingency dollars for our winged and wingless sprint cars. The way it works is that Contingency Connection has signed up 181 sponsors nationwide who contribute products or merchandise each race to the winner. The only catch is that drivers must be sporting the decal of that sponsor to earn the bonus. If a driver who wins the MRP Winged or Wingless feature race has every decal on his car, he could receive some $1150 in products or merchandise. The vouchers can be saved and traded in for larger ticket items. The bonus is a healthy addition to the weekly $1,000 promoter Hawes already pays to the winner of MRP winged sprint car main events and the $750 he pays to MRP wingless sprint car feature winners. You must be a member of the association, but you can buy a membership at any event throughout the year. In addition to the $150,000 Contingency Connection is providing during the regular season, the program also has earmarked another $150,000 toward a year-end bonus for the top two drivers as well as four other "at-large" drivers whom the promoters believe are deserving of some added cash. Note: Please make this observer aware of any names that are misspelled or incorrect. The text is based on information we have at the time of its release. Complete finishes, stats and points become official and available at the close of business on Tuesday and will be posted to the web site. |
