By Gary Jacob And Rich Baum
Fallon, NM -- Having won the IMCA Modified feature at Summit Raceway in Elko six hours earlier in the day, Dan Fitzgerald from Las Vegas NV tagged the field Saturday night at Rattlesnake Raceway's season debut event and drove to victory by passing the field. The busy Fitzgerald team wants to use 2004 as a year to do things that they missed while chasing points for so many seasons, but the lure of a four race weekend drew them to Northern Nevada. Fitzgerald maintains the Summit Raceway web site in addition to his racing and the Las Vegas school teacher won that track's 2004 season opener on Friday night. He stayed in the area to capture the Saturday daytime Founder's Cup race and then made the 250 mile dash across the state to Fallon. He arrived five minutes after the IMCA Modified heat races finished so he had to tag the ten car grid. He drove his Bellville Motorsports car to the feature win ahead of young Steve McGee and John Hill. On Sunday afternoon, Fitzgerald made it four wins in 48 hours as he ventured to Winnemucca's season opener and won again. Mike Darnall combined a heat and feature win in the street stock action with dash winner Rob Grace second ahead of Reno's Scott Deutsch. Kevin Boles from Minden took the bomber main event honors ahead of Ken Mayes and Wes Washburn. Rusty Baglin picked off heat and feature wins in the Gen X class. A special incentive I-80 Challenge Series has been established in 2004 to get drivers in Northern Nevada to visit other tracks and Jerry Roseland has shown his commitment to do that by racing to second in the Rattlesnake season opener after finishing 3rd at Reno-Fernley Raceway just minutes earlier on Saturday night.
Fitzgerald collected his trophy and money at Elko at 4:15 on Saturday afternoon and then made the high speed dash across the state, but fell five minutes of being able to tag heat 2. McGee beat Bill Smith III in heat 1 and Shawn Marlow outraced Robert Smotherman in heat 2. McGee and Smotherman were 1-2 in the dash. The opening night track was very rough in the heat action and the officials reworked the surface with the grader before the main event action. A better track resulted and the tacky quarter-mile found McGee and Marlow battling for the lead when both Bill Hiney and Smith spun off turn 4. Fitzgerald raced through the field into third. Racing between McGee and Marlow saw both briefly vacate the bottom groove and Fitzgerald ducked underneath to race into the top spot. Marlow had to pit with a flat tire and Smotherman's left front flat had slowed his pace. Fitzgerald paced the remainder of the race to win ahead of McGee, Hill and division rookie Dan Edgington. The flying Fitzgerald nearly lapped fourth place and Hiney ran fifth ahead of Smotherman and Allen Boles.
The street stocks split 9 cars into a pair of heat races. Mike Darnall outraced Brian Kerby in heat 1 and Rich Baum put his MoPar in the winner's circle of heat 2 ahead of Deutsch. Grace took dash honors after a third place heat run. In all the divisions besides the IMCA class, the track used the finishing order of last November's Kris Kringle Charity race to set the main event lineup order. Baum was on the pole, but Darnall turned his outside front row start into a big early lead on a wet track. Baum settled into second ahead of Grace. A huge oil leak ended up sidelining Baum and the flying Grace was able to cut Darnall's full straight lead down to just a car length. Darnall maintained his cool and picked off the feature win with Grace right behind. 2003 champion Deutsch was third ahead of ageless Willie Ferrier, Tom Haynes and Bob Fish.
The Bomber class had 13 cars and double division racer Ken Gotchal won heat 1 with his Dodge Dart over former street stock racer Bill Boucher. Brian Milburn outraced Lovelock's Mike Ellison in heat 2. Gotchal and Milburn ran 1-2 in the dash. Teammates Wes Washburn and Chris Jimenez had the front row for the feature due to their placings last November and Washburn raced into the lead. Wheeling a new GM Metric, Ellison overtook Washburn for the top spot. Running an outside line, Gotchal chased down Ellison and they briefly dueled side by side for the top spot. Both ended up with flat tires and Boles drove by both Washburn and Ken Mayes with his Chevy Nova for the opening night win. Mayes ran second ahead of Washburn, Boucher, Wade Lumsden, Jimenez and Ed Muise.
The track was very encouraged to attract 15 cars for the Gen X season debut. First time racer Randy Sharp won heat 1 over Steve Singley. Former Sprint 100 racer Baglin took heat 2 ahead of Ken Gotchal's Ford Escort. Gotchal beat Sharp in the dash. Gotchal also appeared to have the main event in hand, but a flat tire took him out of contention and Baglin paced the remainder of the race. Roseland had tagged the field after making the quick tour from Fernley. Roseland won opening night in Fernley and placed third there earlier tonight. Roseland worked his way through the 13 car pack to challenge for the lead with Dodge 2.2 Charger. Baglin did lead lap 29, but Baglin retook the lead on the final lap for the win. Sam Cox ran third ahead of Sharp, Alex Thunder, Tori Edgington, Authrum Thunder and Cody Thunder. Both Brandon Thunder and David Vanzant were feature scratches.
May 15 will see not only a full night of racing, but Mud Bog action in addition. The track races twice on the holiday weekend with a destruction derby added to the Sunday night card.
Summary Gen X Dash-Ken Gotchal, Randy Sharp, Steve Singley. Heat 1-Sharp, Singley, Authrum Thunder, David Vanzant. Heat 2-Rusty Baglin, Gotchal, Sam Cox, Tori Edgington, Alex Thunder. Main-Baglin, Jerry Roseland, Cox, Sharp, Alex Thunder, Edgington, Authrum Thunder, Cody Thunder, Kevin Jeppsen, Gotchal, Todd Foreman, Patty Hish, Singley. Bomber Dash-Ken Gotchal, Brian Milburn, Bill Boucher. Heat 1-Gotchal, Boucher, Ken Mayes, Wes Washburn, Chris Jimenez. Heat 2-Milburn, Mike Ellison, Kevin Boles, Ed Muise, Wade Lumsden. Main-Boles, Mayes, Washburn, Boucher, Lumsden, Jimenez, Muise, Ellison, Silver Lovett, Gotchal, Ray Martz, Frankie Smith, Milburn. Street Stock Dash-Rob Grace, Scott Deutsch, Mike Darnall. Heat 1-Darnall, Brian Kerby, Willie Ferrier, Curtis Elliott. Heat 2-Rich Baum, Deutsch, Grace, Tom Haynes, Bob Fish. Main-Darnall, Grace, Deutsch, Ferrier, Haynes, Fish, Baum. IMCA Modified Dash-Steve McGee, Robert Smotherman, Heat 1-McGee, Bill Smith III, Bill Hiney, John Hill. Heat 2-Shawn Marlow, Smotherman, Dow Lazenby, Dan Edgington. Main-Dan Fitzgerald, McGee, Hill, Edgington, Hiney, Smotherman, Allen Boles, Smith, Marlow, Lazenby.