Sunday, May 11, 2008

Heavy fog cancels another night of racing

Heavy fog cancels another night of racing

By Matthew J. Sullivan

For the second time out of three scheduled evenings, Redwood Acres Raceway officials were forced to cancel Saturday night’s racing action, this time due to heavy fog. The limited street stock cars were in the midst of their heat race before an incident between Kenny Demello and Duayne Mayo brought a yellow flag out. It was under the caution period that the drivers and track officials deemed the speedway unsafe.

The limited street cars pulled into the pit area for a short period hoping for the fog to lift. The fog lifted for a brief period and the limited streets came out again along with the mini stocks to try to get the track back in racing condition. But once again, the fog dropped and officials decided it best to cancel the rest of the night’s races.

The track was able to get qualifying, trophy dashes and the real stock heats in before the fog came. The dash winners were Ryan Peeples in the real stocks, Fergy Ferguson in the limited street stocks, Brian Murrell in the mini stocks, Paul Peeples, Jr. in the thunder roadsters and Larry Pries in the sportsman division. Bob Lima and Trevor Miller won the two real stock heat races. Qualifying for the real stocks was paced by Trevor Miller with a 18.937 time. Scott Lyons was fastest in the limited streets with a 17.941. Max Capps set the pace for the mini stocks with a 19.381. Paul Peeples, Jr.’s 17.009 was fastest in the thunder roadsters, while Dennis Delbiaggio set the standard in the sportsman division with a 16.456 qualifying lap.

The Best Appearing Car contest that was scheduled to be held on the first night of racing but was rained out was held on this night. Drivers from all divisions pulled their cars on the front straightaway, and the winner was determined by the amount of noise generated by the fans in the grandstands. The winners were Brian Murrell in the mini stocks, Robert Miller in the thunder roadsters, Ryan Peeples in the real stocks, Fergy Ferguson in the limited street stocks and Larry Pries in the sportsman.

Thankfully, racing returns this coming Saturday night May 17 with all five local classes returning to action once more.