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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| Press Release |
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Koster Makes a Comeback |
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(Tracy, CA - April 19, 2008) Gary Koster made a decision last year to end the 2007 season early to care for his wife Jeanette as she faced some tough medical problems. Jeanette is much better and the time off didn’t seem to dull Koster’s driving ability as he won the first main event at Altamont Motorsports Park today. Altamont has switched to daytime racing this season, and if this is the format for 2008, it seems it will work well for racers. Home before dark and being able to see everything will make for much safer racing. This early in the year, some driver-owners don’t have everything ready to go, so turnout for the event was light. Two NCMA Sprints were lost in the first practice session. Pat Ariaz, three-time NCMA Pavement Champion fielded his brand new wide bodied car and lost a wheel which in turn caused other problems. Rob Hammond 2007 Dirt Champion and runner up for the Overall Championship lost his engine. Qualifying was pretty exciting as a couple of “mature” pilots were one-two. Ed Amador, 2007 Pavement and Overall NCMA Champion set fast time, with Mr. Smooth, Gary Koster qualifying second. In his Sophomore year on asphalt, David Goodwill was third. Burt Siverling of Concord, and Manteca’s Jeff Burrows brought the pack to the green flag. Siverling took the first lap and then Burrows had a run at it but before he knew it, Koster took the lead and kept it for the next eighteen laps to take home the trophy. There was lots of movement behind Koster as Burrows, Amador and Goodwill were running hard to catch Koster. Amador finally took and kept the second spot with Goodwill claiming third. Speaking with Burrows after the race, he commented on the wind velocity,” The wind was blowing right down the front stretch and it was really scary, I don’t remember it ever being that bad.” Kudo’s to Rookie David Burchett. First time run, did very well, kept it on the track, and loaded it on the trailer in one piece. Way to go David, and crew. NCMA Sprints will begin their 2008 Select Series Dirt Program next Friday, April 25th at Chowchilla Speedway. This will be an interesting race with new track promoter, Chuck Griffin. Griffin is noted for his great track setups and the dirt bunch is ready to try it. See you there! |
