Terry Phillips Wins $100,000 Dirt Modified Feature At Batesville

By Gary Jacob

Batesville, AR -- After earning the 9th starting spot with a third place finish on Friday night, dirt late model super star Terry Phillips drove his GRT dirt modified to a $100,000 win in the second annual big money special at Batesville Speedway on Saturday night. Phillips had tuned up for the summer’s big dirt modified shows by racing his car in several events at the annual Early Thaw action in Casa Grande AZ back in January. He only led the final 3 laps of the big 100 lapper after being Tucson AZ teenager Jeremy Payne to a yellow flag late in the action. Payne had won the pole for the 100 lapper with his Wednesday night feature win in his Shaw by Taylor mount. Payne moved to the Midwest this summer to chase the USMTS Series, but began racing the Batesville races and living with Jeff Taylor when the traveling series had so many early season rainouts. Payne was the 2004 Barnett Harley Davidson Dirt Modified Series champion when he raced in El Paso TX and Las Cruces NM. Payne had led from lap 12 to lap 97 with his Ford, but settled for the $20,000 runnerup prize. Friday night feature winner B J Robinson from Shreveport Louisiana led the first 11 laps on Saturday night from an outside front row start, but settled for 19th place in the 100 lapper. Defending race champion Scott Bloomquist, another dirt late model star, put his Taylor built car in the middle of the front row with his Thursday night feature win, but settled for the $10,000 third place money in the 100 lapper. Track regular Shawn Walsh from Ash Flat ARK was a $5000 fourth ahead of dirt late model racers Wendell Wallace and Jeff Taylor. Wallace won $2500 and J Taylor $2000 as a last place finish in the 31 car feature paid $1500. NEXTEL Cup racer Kasey Kahne joined the action on Saturday night and thrilled the crowd by racing from 31st starting to a 9th place finish. Bill Elliott also started at the rear of the grid, but only completed 58 laps and ran 26th.

Just under 130 cars entered this year’s action and time trials on Tuesday night guaranteed the two fastest qualifiers starting spots in the 100 lapper. Illinois car builder Bob Pierce was quick time at 16.266 and Oregon’s Jon DeBenedetti won a tie breaker with USMTS dominator Kelly Shryock for that second spot. Each ran a 16.445 best, but DeBenedetti’s slow lap was faster. Minnesota’s Tommy Myer ranked fourth ahead of track regular Jared Landers. Payne was 9th quick, California’s Dustin Jenks ranked 10th, El Paso TX charger Troy Godwin was 17th and Curt Barnett ranked 25th. Tony Leiker from Gillette WY was 64th, California’s Darin Hawks 80th and California car builder Joe Carr 83th. Also representing the west was Medford OR promoter John Skinner, California’s John Pierce, Bakersfield’s Robert Sanders and Arizona’s Joe Parmeley. The top 9 finishers from the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night cards earned the starting spots in the 100 lapper. The feature was lined up three abreast on the wide racing surface with the Wednesday night teams on the inside, the Thursday qualifiers in the middle and the Friday qualifiers on the outside. Payne won the pole with his Wednesday night feature win. He was originally disqualified for taking a cool down lap before driving to the scales, but the officials later restored him to the win. Landers ran second on Wednesday ahead of Myers, South Dakota’s Jon Tesch, GRT’s Jack Sullivan, Little Rock’s Michael Murphree, car builder and dirt late model star Jimmy Owens, California’s Kellen Chadwick in another Taylor mount and Canada’s Steve Arpin. Bloomquist broke a rear end in his Wednesday night heat. The draw that was used for Wednesday night’s heats was completely inverted for the Thursday night action. Bloomquist easily won his heat and the feature on Thursday night with Peyton Taylor, younger brother to J Taylor, in second ahead of J Taylor, Tennessee’s Mike Marlar, Wisconsin’s Mike Mashl, dirt late model star Bill Frye, Texas super star George White, Tennessee’s Kenny Holt and Louisiana’s Garrett Durrett. Friday night’s feature went to Robinson in front of Walsh, Phillips, Batesville’s own Kevin Salter and Greg Waugh, W Wallace, Andy Milliken, Minnesota’s Jason Krohn and Chad Mallett. Behind those 27 cars came Pierce and DeBenedetti from time trials and the two NEXTEL Cup racers.

The 100 lapper was slowed 13 times by yellow flags and the last proved to the decider as Payne didn’t race as hard to the flag as Phillips did and Phillips emerged as the race leader with just 2 laps left to race. The top 17 finishers were all on the lead lap with Payne settling for the rich second place payoff ahead of Bloomquist, Walsh, W Wallace, J Taylor, Salter, Krohn, Kahne, Murphree, White, Chadwick, Owens, Mashl, Arpin, DeBenedetti and Frye. Pierce only lasted 9 laps, Sullivan 33, Elliott 58 and P Taylor 90. Owens builds the Loose Gruff Chassis that DeBenedetti runs.

Other action on Saturday night included a race of states for the fastest qualifier from each state to not make the 100 lapper. Wayne Brooks from Arkansas won ahead of Minnesota’s Trent Follmer, Bart Richardson from Tennessee, Iowa’s Shryock and California’s Jenks. A manufacturers dash was won by the GRT of Jon Mitchell ahead of Brandon Smith’s Shaw, the Dirt Works of Texan Vince Ogle, Dustin Duncan in an IRP and Phil Dixon’s FastOne. Shryock had finished 10th on Friday night and all the 10th place qualifying night finishers were awarded $750.

Feature Finish-Terry Phillips, Jeremy Payne, Scott Bloomquist, Shawn Walsh, Wendell Wallace, Jeff Taylor, Kevin Salter, Jason Krohn, Kasey Kahne, Michael Murphree, George White, Kellen Chadwick, Jimmy Owens, Mike Mashl, Steve Arpin, Jon DeBenedetti, Bill Frye, Tommy Myers, B J Robinson, Jared Landers, Jon Tesch, Peyton Taylor, Chad Mallett, Mike Marlar, Greg Waugh, Jack Sullivan, Andy Milliken, Garrett Durrett, Kenny Holt, Bob Pierce.

About Gary Jacob: In His Own Words

About Gary Jacob

I have lived in Turlock, California for my entire life and have been covering motorsports since my senior year in high school in 1966. As an honor student in high school, I was pushed to add outside activities and I wrote for the high school newspaper and took pictures for the yearbook. Attending auto races predates my birth with my family as I learned it was the primary date function when my father was courting my mother. In my younger years, my father kept telling me that he could afford to take us to the races just once a month and my brother and I spent the entire month looking forward to that night. One other racing memory of my youth was one time when we were attending the State Fair in Sacramento. As we walked around, we heard the Winston West cars warming up on the mile dirt track. I begged to attend, but my father gave me the choice of attending the race and getting a new toy truck. As a young boy, of course the toy truck won out, but that was one of the last times that racing took a back seat. Since we lived in Turlock, my favorite race drivers growing up were Turlock residents like Bill Bryan, Farrell Jones and Ray Donaldson. We premarily attended Stockton 99 Speedway when it was a Friday night race track and we started buying the racing publications that were on sale there, like Racing Wheels from Vancouver, Washington and National Speed Sport News. The writer who was covering Stockton quit and I realized that I could do that. My original plan was to cover Stockton each week and go to Merced Speedway every other week, but it immediately became a two track every weekend deal. Besides Stockton and Merced, our special events consisted mainly of super modified events at San Jose, Clovis, West Capital and Kearney Bowl, but we were also big fans of the NASCAR action on the road course at Riverside and attended those events for over 20 years before that track closed in 1987.

In 1973, Stockton moved their racing to Saturday nights and I had already built a relationship with Watsonville Speedway, which was then a sister track to Merced. Watsonville became my Friday night home and it has been that way for 29 seasons as I make the 100 mile trek over Pacheco Pass over 20 times each season. There was one season in 1978 when Watsonville tried to be a Saturday night track and I moved my Friday night racing to Vallejo that season. Since Vallejo had a strict curfew and was always over by 10:30, I frequently came home through Sacramento and caught the feature action at West Capital on the way home. For a couple seasons in 1974 and 1975, the paved San Jose Speedway ran a Wednesday night show using the Watsonville Speedway dirt track stock cars and that saw me attend over 30 events in San Jose in a single season. 1971 was the first season where I attended over 100 events and I have been over the 120 mark annually ever since, peaking out at 162 races in 1994. Ron Hedger in National Speed Sport News runs a race attendance contest each year and I have won the Media division over a half-dozen times by attending more racing events than any other person in the world in a particular year. Merced was my Saturday night home track until the late 70's when I started bouncing around from special event to special event. Mesa Marin Raceway opened in 1977 and I attended a lot of shows there in their first decade before NASCAR came up with a Southwest Tour and Northwest Tour and started taking the top stars away from Mesa Marin. The early years at Mesa Marin were especially exciting as they used completely inverted starts and drivers like Ivan Baldwin, Sonny Easley, Jimmy Insolo and Jim Thirkettle were spectacular in their drives through the pack. Before the invention of the Touring series, there were special events throughout the west and I covered them all, like the big year end race at Craig Road Speedway in Las Vegas, the week long Speedweek Series in Washington and Canada, the old Saugus 330's, a 500 lap race at Ascot Park won by Winston West legend Ray Elder and the many races that midwestern stars like Larry Phillips, Mike Miller and Larry Detjens would come west to win. Off the west coast, I attended the Florida Speedweeks action in February for 15 straight years (not so much for the Daytona 500, but for all the short track racing that accompanies it). I also made about six summer trips to the midwest, mainly keyed around the traveling UMP Summer Nationals for the dirt late models.

In the early 90's, Antioch Speedway became my Saturday night home as the dirt late models were the featured division at Watsonville, Antioch and Merced at that time. I was also introduced to the Outlaw Kart action at Red Bluff and Cycleland. With the younger age of the competitors, I get more feedback on my writing from the outlaw kart scene than all the other racing combined. My attendance at the Red Bluff winter series has fallen off in the past couple seasons as the special events in January and February in Arizona have become so numerous. With the invention of the CarQuest Dirt Late Model Tour in the late 90's, that series has become my primary Saturday night function.

The fact that I live where I do has been a key component in my ability to cover so many things at so many places. If I lived further south, I would have never made the Oregon, Washington or Northern Nevada trips that I have. If I lived further north, I couldn't spend 9 or 10 straight weekends each winter driving to Phoenix or Las Cruces, New Mexico. The only time that I fly to a race is the Midwest or Florida trips as the furthest that I have driven home from an event was a 19 hour run from Eunice, New Mexico on a Sunday night last fall. The toughest drives that I have forced upon myself were the several years that Pahrump, Nevada would run their biggest event on Saturday night in September, then I would drive all night to catch Elko, Nevada's biggest race the next afternoon, then drive all the way home. For many years, I told myself that I had a 600 mile rule on how far I would drive to attend a race, but that went away when I started attending Winter Heat races in Tucson and now I make at least a couple races a year in Las Cruces, New Mexico each year. I am often criticized for driving past better events to attend some four division show with 28 total cars somewhere in Central Nevada, but I love the fact that I have been able to get so many different drivers' accomplishments in print over the years.

I have never really considered racing myself as I tried Malibu Grand Prix a couple times and wasn't very good. I saw how much time my brother had to spend on upkeep on his race car and knew that I would never be able to devote that kind of time to a racing effort and still do what I love to do. My brother Daryl raced in the NASCAR winged sportsman for several years at Merced and Watsonville. He was never a front runner, but I do remember one night where I hustled back from a day race at Carson City, Nevada to see him racing during the fair at Merced that night. He led nearly all the way in the main event only to get passed late in the race by Mike Holzer. Daryl suffered a fatal heart attack in 1988 while towing home the last race car that he purchased, a stock car from Johnny Brazil Jr. My father Richard devoted the final years of his life to accompanying me on my long road trips in order to help drive me home. He enjoyed the racing too, but his primary motivation was to get me home safely each weekend. Health issues forced him to stop attending races in August of 1999 and he died in June of 2000. He was always willing to do whatever was needed to keep me on my hectic pace and having to do it by myself over the past couple years has been very different.

For many years, I only wrote about the races that I attended. Since Modesto's Jack McCoy was a top runner on the Winston West circuit for so many years, our local papers would often have Winston West results that weren't in the racing papers, so I started doing small stories on those events. My friendship with Don Low spread my coverage over Southern California as he started providing notes on the events that he attended. Even Jim Thirkettle's elderly father Bill Thirkettle was providing me notes on the Mesa Marin races that I couldn't attend. One of the west's top writers, Nadine Strauss, didn't think that she could write the Lakeport stories in the early years there and was providing me with notes to work off of. The popularity of the internet sent this outside coverage to a new level as more and more tracks were willing to post their race results, point standings, etc on their internet web sites, but would never think of putting together a race story. This fact and my untiring dedication to my effort has allowed me to expand my coverage to nearly every race track in states like Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. The past couple years, I have attended my normal 150 races, but have written nearly 1,000 race stories each season. As I become more familiar with what is happening at each of these tracks, my desire to attend an event there increases and that has seen me make the monster drives to Eunice, New Mexico, Aztec, New Mexico, Ely, Nevada, Elma, Washington and others. In many ways, it is a sad reflection on the state of auto racing promotion here in the western United States that I need to be the voice of some many different racing facilities in so many different states.

Readers consider me to be much more stock car oriented rather than open wheel minded. That is partly due to the fact that the sprint car scene had so many writers when I started and the stock cars had virtually none and the fact that the stock car shows seem to have more organized shows with much less dead time as they race so many classes in the modern events. The Friday night track that I attend, Watsonville, put the cars on the track for practice at 5 PM. If you go to another Friday night track, they often won't be starting anything until after 7 PM.

People often ask how I have been able to perform at this level for so long without getting burned out. I don't have a real answer, but I do know that my desire to attend every race that I can physically make it to is still there at the highest level. Of course watching the events when you know so many of the competitors is much different than a fan who knows no one. Once an event makes it onto my annual schedule, it seldom falls off. I think the fact that I have never held a salary paying position in the sport has allowed me to not get caught up in the political nature of the sport.

Jody Kropp Scores Clean Sweep In Memory Of Derek Dowson

By Gary Jacob

Great Falls, MT -- WISSOTA dirt modified veteran Jody Kropp was a regular on the Montana Dirt Late Model Tour in 2004, but has been without a ride in 2005. When John Dowson found himself busy getting his daughter settled into college, he asked friend Kropp to wheel his dirt late model in the tour event at Electric City Speedway on Saturday night. Kropp ended up drawing the pole position for the heat action, winning that and then again drawing the pole for the feature race. Kropp was a wire to wire $600 winner in the feature run to finish off his perfect night. Fellow racer Jim Zaremski, the winner the previous weekend, had renumbered his car to #40 to honor the memory of Dowson's son Derek, who had been killed in an accident. Derek wore #40 as a high school player. After a sixth place heat finish, Dave Freeman battled to second in the feature to cut Rock Degele's point lead down to ten tallies. Degele was third in the feature ahead of fifth ranked Kelly Hample.

There was a nine car WISSOTA dirt late model turnout. Kropp and Belgrade's Bob Scott had the front row for the heat race, but Rich Herman drove to the bottom to get around both Scott and Hample, moving to second behind Kropp. A yellow for a spun Ron Fuller allowed Degele to close on the two leaders, but he settled for a third place finish behind Kropp and Herman. Zaremski was fourth ahead of Hample. The redraw for the feature lineup put Kropp and Herman on the front row. Herman fall back to fifth early in the action as Kropp, Hample and Freeman battled out front. A late race spin again tightened the field up to leader Kropp, but he stayed out front for the win. Freeman ran second ahead of Degele. Zaremski had a last lap incident that dropped him to last as Hample ran fourth ahead of Herman, Fuller, Scott and Rory Minster.

An earlier rain out will be made up at Gallatin Speedway on Sept 2nd. That will be the final point night for the tour as the three track's September specials will not carry points. The Govenor's Cup runs on Sept 3 at Billings, the Summer Nationals run in Belgrade on Sept 9 and the annual Montana Roundup has it's two night slot in Great Falls on Sept 23-24. The Governor's Cup is actually a two night show in Billings, but the late models are only part of the Saturday slate.

Summary Heat-Jody Kropp, Rich Herman, Rock Degele, Jim Zaremski, Kelly Hample. Main-Kropp, Dave Freeman, Degele, Hample, Herman, Ron Fuller, Bob Scott, Rory Minster, Jim Zaremski.

Zaremski Gets Second 2005 Win

By Gary Jacob

Great Falls, MT -- When Friday night's Montana Dirt Late Model Tour race was rained out at Gallatin Speedway near Belgrade, several of the teams made hasty arrangements with Electric City Speedway to be added to their Saturday night show. Six teams showed to race and get some lap time before the tour race at the track on the following weekend. After a second place run in the heat action, Jim Zaremski drove to his second win of 2005 ahead of Warren Drazich and Dave Freeman.

The lone heat race was won by Freeman ahead of Zaremski and Drazich. Belgrade's Bob Scott broke in the heat action and was a feature scratch. Zaremski raced to the feature win ahead of Drazich, Freeman and Montana Tour point leader Rock Degele with John Dowson in fifth. Degele was also a second place finisher in the WISSOTA Modified feature and Freeman ran 7th.

Summary Heat-Dave Freeman, Jim Zaremski, Warren Drazich, Rock Degele, John Dowson. Main-Zaremski, Drazich, Freeman, Degele, Dowson.

Zaremski Rebounds With Great Falls Feature Win

By Gary Jacob

Great Falls, MT -- Rebounding from a hard crash last Friday night at Gallatin Speedway that kept him away from the Saturday night date in Billings, Jim Zaremski was the $600 feature winner as the Montana Outlaw Late Model Tour visited Electric City Speedway for the second time in 2005. Series point leader Rock Degele from Glasgow made a late charge at Zaremski but settled for second in his Moody Chassis. Second ranked Dave Freeman, a hometown racer, ran third for a $350 check and third ranked Warren Drazich was a $300 fourth. The rain plagued series again saw rain showers just prior to the heat action, but the track was repacked and the racing completed.

Ten dirt late models checked in and Billings racer Kelly Hample won heat 1 over Drazich and Zaremski. Freeman outraced Ron Fuller and John Dowson in heat 2. The feature action went to Zaremski ahead of Degele, Freeman, Drazich, Hample, Gallatin winner Rory Minster, Fuller, Dowson, young Rich Herman and Bob Scott.

On July 22-23, the NAPA/MDA teams from South Dakota and Wyoming make their annual trek north to run the co-sanctioned events at Gallatin and Billings. Many of the Montana teams are also expected to support a Sunday night NAPA/MDA event just across the border in Sheridan WY on July 24.

Summary Heat 1-Kelly Hample, Warren Drazich, Jim Zaremski, Rock Degele, Rich Herman. Heat 2-Dave Freeman, Ron Fuller, John Dowson, Rory Minster, Bob Scott. Main-Zaremski, Degele, Freeman, Drazich, Hample, Minster, Fuller, Dowson, Herman, Scott.

First Pacific Coast Win For 16 Year Old Joey Tanner

By Gary Jacob

Alger, WA -- The young son of long time Pacific Northwest competitor Jody Tanner, 16 year old Joey Tanner got the first feature win of his rookie dirt late model season as he paced the final 8 laps to score a $1000 win in the 25 lap main as the Pacific Coast Xtreme Dirt Car Series made their first ever visit to Skagit Speedway on Saturday night. Series point leader Greg Walters won both his heat and the dash. He was dominating the feature when an incident in lapped traffic heavily damaged his car on lap 17. Madras Speedway runs a unique youth late model division and Tanner is a graduate of that class. Tanner has been Walters’ protégé in 2005 and his equipment travels in the Walters transporter. Tanner started 2005 by turning heads with his Early Thaw performance in Arizona in January and has been a solid fourth in points with the traveling series. His first feature win in his Jody’s Bar and Grill sponsored Rayburn found second ranked John Duty gaining a little ground on Walters with his $750 runnerup finish in his Rocket. Mark Carrell enjoys the Washington events on the series and he ran a $475 third ahead of Bob Jeffery. Terry Ferrando won the Goodyear Tire Hard Charger Award with his fifth place run ahead of Jimmy Schram, who was earning points for third ranked Gene Day.

Track officials cancelled the dirt late model time trials in an attempt to get the racing card started on time. The 15 dirt late models were divided into three ten lap heat races. Duty started fourth in heat 1 and grabbed the lead on the opening round. He ran away with the caution free race finishing ahead of Schram and Jason Johnson’s crate engine mount. Walters won heat 2 from third. On the start, Carrell and Butch Valdez crashed doing heavy damage to Valdez’ steering. Tanner finished second ahead of Carrell. Tom Tesch was a wire to wire winner in heat 3 from the pole with series newcomer Brandon Lindenberg five car lengths back in second. Monroe WA racer Lindenberg is only 16 years old and his family purchased Jody Tanner’s crate engine GRT. Jeffery ran third. Duty, Walters and Tesch started 1-2-3 in the dash and Walters collected the win after a brief first lap duel with Duty. Tesch retired after an incident with Lindenberg. The dash set the lineup for the front three rows in the 25 lap feature so Walters and Duty shared row 1 ahead of Schram, Tanner, Lindenberg and Tesch.

Valdez fell out after just one lap and Walters sprinted to a strong early lead over Duty, Tanner and Schram. The first caution came on lap 9 as Lindenberg spun in turn 2. His car wasn’t damaged, but his engine was misfiring with electrical problems and he retired. When action resumed, Walters continued to lead Duty, Tanner, Schram and Tesch. Walters was lapping Rob Campos and Justin Simpson for a second time when his crash occurred. As Walters flew into turn 3, Campos forced Walters to dart up and Walters ran into the left side of Simpson. Walters pitted and his crew ripped off the heavily damaged nose, but car wasn’t able to return to speed. After the race, the team discovered that the harmonic balancer had come loose in the incident. Tanner had taken second from Duty on lap 11. Walters was getting ready to put Schram and Tesch a lap down when the incident occurred. Action resumed with Tanner the new leader ahead of Duty, Carrell and Jeffery. Tanner paced the remainder of the race with Duty a solid second ahead of Carrell and Jeffery. Ferrando came from the 7th row to finish fifth and gain the Goodyear Tire award. Schram and Tesch were the final lead lap cars. Campos ran 8th ahead of the struggling Walters and Johnson. Bob Dietrich was two laps down in 11th and Dwayne Potter ran 12th.

Next up for the Pacific Coast Xtreme Dirt Car Series teams in the key event on their schedule, the T&G; Trucking Thriller 67 lapper at Sunset Speedway in Banks OR on August 27. After that, only a Sept 17th race at Madras Speedway remains for the point schedule.

Summary Dash-Greg Walters, John Duty, Jimmy Schram, Joey Tanner, Brandon Lindenberg, Tom Tesch. Heat 1-Duty, Schram, Jason Johnson, Bob Dietrich, Dwayne Potter. Heat 2-Walters, Tanner, Mark Carrell, Rob Campos, Butch Valdez. Heat 3-Tom Tesch, Lindenberg, Bob Jeffery, Justin Simpson, Terry Ferrando. Main-Tanner, Duty, Carrell, Jeffery, Ferrando, Schram, Tesch, Campos, Walters, Johnson, Dietrich, Potter, Simpson, Lindenberg, Valdez.

Degele Outduels Freeman For Montana Late Model Feature

By Gary Jacob

Great Falls, MT -- After being rained out the previous weekend in Billings, the Montana Dirt Late Model Tour made it’s first 2005 season visit to Electric City Speedway and Glasgow’s Rock Degele outdueled Great Falls’ own Dave Freeman for the $600 feature win Saturday night. Freeman had won the series opener in his Ford and 23 year racing veteran Degele put his Moody Chassis into the winner’s circle tonight to move into the season point lead, 4 points ahead of Freeman. Degele also won his heat race and he had run second to Freeman in Billings back in May. Degele’s sponsors are Rock’s Auto Mall and Eugene’s Pizza and his car is crewed by Kelly Degele, Mark Wesen, Brad Olsen and Kyle Degele. Freeman earned $450 for second and young Billings racer Rich Herman was a $350 third in his Rayburn. Jim Zaremski and Bob Scott rounded out the top five.

Ten teams checked in and the track provided fast and tacky racing conditions after a week of rain in the area. Running a Mastersbilt that he purchased from 2004 Montana champion Josh Adams, Whitehall’s Ron Fuller led all the way to win heat 1. Herman got around Warren Drazich for second and chased Fuller to the checkered flag. Jim Zaremski debuted a new car with a fourth behind Drazich. In heat 2, Rory Minster led Degele into turn 1 but both Degele and Freeman got around him before lap 1 was finished. Degele outraced Freeman and Minster ran third. In the feature, Fuller and Degele shared the front row and the initial start was ragged with the front row cars making contact. John Dowson ran over the left rear corner of teammate Zaremski, but the race continued without a caution. Freeman quickly moved into second and began to challenge Degele. Drazich suffered a suspension failure and was the first car to retire. Fuller lost power on the restart and Herman raced into third. Dowson spun to force another yellow flag. Degele and Freeman traded the lead several times in the last half of the race, but it was Degele out front at the checkered flag. He was only a single car length in front of hometown favorite Freeman. Herman ran third ahead of Zaremski and Bob Scott, Kelly Hample was sixth ahead of Dowson, Minster and Fuller.

The teams have two nights of racing this weekend as they make their first visit to Belgrade on Friday and then move down the road to Billings on Saturday night. Degele is four points up on Freeman and 14 ahead of Fuller. Scott is one point back of Fuller and looking forward to the first visit of 2005 to his home track on Friday. Hample is 4 behind Scott and 4 ahead of Drazich. The projected point fund for 2005 pays $1000 to the champion, $750 to second, $500 to third, $400 fourth and $300 fifth.

Summary Heat 1-Ron Fuller, Rich Herman, Warren Drazich, Jim Zaremski, Bob Scott. Heat 2-Rock Degele, Dave Freeman, Rory Minster, John Dowson, Kelly Hample. Main-Degele, Freeman, Herman, Zaremski, Scott, Hample, Dowson, Minster, Fuller, Drazich.

Two Wins In Two Nights For Kelly Boen

By Gary Jacob

Colby, KS -- Coming off a $3000 win in the multi-sanctioned Rumble in the Heartland at Dodge City KS on Saturday night, Kelly Boen from Henderson CO won both his heat race and the feature Sunday at Thomas County Speedway as the WDRA dirt late models made their annual visit to the western Kansas facility. Boen actually came out of the Saturday night action as the point leader for both the NCRA dirt late models and the WDRA dirt late models and had to choose which group to race with on Sunday night since NCRA was racing at 81 Speedway. Boen’s win in his Rocket Chassis paid $1200 as a solid 19 car field appeared. Coming off a strong showing at Dodge City, 67 year old Jim Clifton chased Boen to the checkered flag for an $800 payday. 2004 CLMA champion Dave Garmann was a $600 third and Jeep Berry from Grand Junction got his third straight top five of the weekend with a $450 fourth. Dean Moore rounded out the top five as Colorado provided 16 of the 19 competing cars.

The teams were split into three heat races and Moore put his Rayburn in the winner’s circle for heat 1 ahead of Garmann and local racer Rod Bencken. Boen won heat 2 in front of Ken Brack and John Kuchar. Clifton showed his strength by winning heat 3 with his GRT ahead of Gary Dechant and Berry. Boen charged to his third feature win in two weekends and fourth of the season ahead of Clifton, Garmann, Berry, Moore, Dechant, Kuchar, Curt Daniels, Bencken, Craig Baukema, Terry Loos and Crispy Persichetti.

WDRA runs again this weekend when they visit Thunder Mountain Speedway in Olathe CO on June 11.

Summary Heat 1-Dean Moore, Dave Garmann, Rod Bencken, Rusty Miller, Chris Persichetti. Heat 2-Kelly Boen, Ken Brack, John Kuchar, Curt Daniels, Craig Baukema. Heat 3-Jim Clifton, Gary Dechant, Jeep Berry, Dan Shepherd, Jason Davis. Main-Boen, Clifton, Garmann, Berry, Moore, Dechant, Kuchar, Daniels, Bencken, Baukema, Terry Loos, Persichetti, Mike Felton, Brad Wagoner, Shepherd, Brack, Terry Boushee, Davis.

Colorado Drivers Hold Their Own In Dodge City KS Special

By Gary Jacob

Dodge City, KS -- A large contingent of Colorado dirt late models towed east to race in the two-day Thunder through the Prairie special at Dodge City Raceway Park in Kansas on Friday and Saturday night. Friday’s event ran despite very bad weather throughout the area and was completed despite it’s own 20 minute rain delay. Bret LaFollette from Kansas City was a wire to wire $2000 winner that night with Alan Vaughn from Missouri a race long second for the $1100 second place prize. Jeep Berry was the highest Colorado finisher on Friday night as he ran fifth behind Al Purkey from Kansas and Nebraska star Steve Kosiski. Another western Colorado racer Curt Daniels was 9th. The weekend was sanctioned by CLMA and WDRA from Colorado and Midwestern bodies NCRA and MLRA. In the bigger money Saturday night action, pole starter Kelly Boen was chased down by Mike Conkwright from Manhatten KS, but battled back to retake the lead in the final corner to score the $3000 win in that 40 lapper. Conkwright settled for second ahead of Purkey and Johnny Bone Jr as Grand Junction CO long tow Jeep Berry was fifth for a second straight night. Twenty teams from Colorado towed east and they were joined by Utah’s Mike McGinn in the 45 car event.

Rick Lieser from CLMA won the opening heat on Friday night ahead of Bone Jr and Purkey. LaFollette captured heat 2 over Colorado’s Mike Cox and Gary Billings. Vaughn beat local Gary Gorby and Frank McGhee in heat 3 and Kosiski won heat 4 over Colorado strong runner Gary Dechant and WDRA’s Dean Moore. McGinn attended this event for a second straight year and ran fourth in heat 4. Colorado drivers took the top 3 spots in heat 5 as Berry won over Boen and Dan Shepard. Veteran Colorado racer Jim Clifton was fifth behind Kansas star Eric Main. Three B Mains helped complete the 24 car A main grid and Colorado drivers won two of them. D Moore won the first B Main over Ryan McAninch and Rod Bencken. Terry Loos was sixth in this race and McGinn finished 9th. 67 year old Clifton won the second B Main over Nebraska’s Billy Murphy and Colorado’s D Shepard. Colorado rookie Sten Johnson was 6th and J T Botts ran 8th. Dave Garmann was 10th. David Barker won the third B Main ahead of Raymond Merrill and Daniels. LaFollette had the pole for the 30 lap feature and took a quick lead over Vaughn. Purkey and Kosiski were battling for third. Berry joined the third place duel and briefly got around Purkey, but allowed Purkey to regain his spot. In the duel for the win on the 3/8 mile clay oval, Vaughn was able to nose underneath LaFollette but could never complete a pass on a heavy racing surface that saw some of the teams collect 300 pounds of mud during the feature. LaFollette got the win ahead of Vaughn, Purkey, Kosiski, Berry, Main, Shane Essary, Gorby, Daniels, Murphy, Barker and Colorado’s Craig Baukema. Moore finished 14th, Lieser 18th, M Cox 19th, Dechant 20th, Boen 22nd with an early flat tire and Clifton 23rd. M Cox and Lieser crashed on lap 8 and Lieser’s weekend was done. Bone Jr crashed into the front wall to end his race and Moore was involved in a late race crash with McGhee as only 12 cars saw the checkered flag.

Track conditions were considerably different for the second night as the racing surface went dry slick from top to bottom. M Conkwright won the opening heat race over Vaughn and Raymond Merrill. Dirt modified star Ronnie Wallace joined the action and won heat 2 ahead of Berry and McAninch. Colorado drivers were again 1-2 in heat 3 as Boen beat Paonia’s Daniels as Scott Drake ran third. Boen battled from 8th to get that win. Bone Jr won heat 4 ahead of Utah star McGinn and S Johnson. Garmann and John Kuchar were 4-5 in heat 4. Clifton won heat 5 ahead of Purkey and Gary Dechant with Moore 4th. Again, three B Mains helped finish off a 25 car grid for the 40 lap feature. Delbert Smith won the first B Main over Dechant, Steve Kempt, Moore and Gorby with Mike Cox in sixth. Barker beat Friday night winner LaFollette in the second B Main as Jason Bodenhamer ran third ahead of Ted Martin and C J Lyle. Colorado’s Ken Brack won the third B Main in front of David Turner and Kosiski as Garmann and Kuchar ran 5-6 behind Murphy. An 8 car dash to determine the starting order in the front of the 40 lapper saw Boen winning the pole position ahead of Purkey, Clifton, M Conkwright, Daniels, Bone, Vaughn and Wallace. Boen took a quick lead in the 40 lapper over Purkey and Clifton. The only yellow dropped on lap 17 when Wallace crashed and Boen was leading M Conkwright, Purkey, Bone Jr and Berry. With six laps to run in the 40 lapper, Kansas star M Conkwright raced around Boen on the outside for the top spot, but Boen never gave up and M Conkwright pushed high in the last corner and Boen drove underneath for the $3000 win. Boen was two car lengths in front at the checkered flag. M Conkwright was second ahead of Purkey, Bone Jr, and Berry. Clifton was a solid sixth ahead of Vaughn, Daniels, McAninch, Merrill, Bodenhamer and Drake. Moore ran 14th, Brack 15th, LaFollette 16th, M Cox 19th, S Johnson 20th, McGinn 22nd, Wallace 24th and Dechant 25th.

Summary

Friday Heat 1-Rick Lieser, Johnny Bone Jr, Al Purkey, Delbert Smith, Chris Mayes. Heat 2-Brett LaFollette, Mike Cox, Gary Billings, Curt Daniels, Sten Johnson. Heat 3-Alan Vaughn, Gary Gorby, Frank McGhee, David Barker, David Cronkwright. Heat 4-Steve Kosiski, Gary Dechant, Dean Moore, Mike McGinn, Rod Bencken. Heat 5-Jeep Berry, Kelly Boen, Dan Shepard, Eric Main, Jim Clifton. 1st B Main-Moore, Ryan McAninch, Bencken, D Conkwright, C J Lyle, Terry Loos, Jason Bodenhamer, Lyle Shepard, McGinn. 2nd B Main-Clifton, Billy Murphy, D Shepard, Mike Conkwright, Lyle, Johnson, David Turner, J T Botts, Smith, Dave Garmann. 3rd B Main-Barker, Raymond Merrill, Daniels, Mayes, Ted Martin, Shane Essary, John Kuchar, Terry Boushee, Chris Persichetti, Ken Brack. A Main-LaFollette, Vaughn, Purkey, Kosiski, Berry, Main, Essary, Gorby, Daniels, Murphy, Barker, Craig Baukema, McGhee, Moore, Merrill, Bone, McAninch, Lieser, Cox, Dechant, M Conkwright, Boen, Clifton, Billings.

Saturday Heat 1-M Conkwright, Vaughn, Merrill, Martin, Mayes. Heat 2-Ronnie Wallace, Berry, McAninch, Barker, Smith. Heat 3-Boen, Daniels, Scott Drake, Brack, LaFollette. Heat 4-Bone, McGinn, Johnson, Garmann, Kuchar. Heat 5-Clifton, Purkey, Dechant, Moore, Bodenhamer. 1st B Main-Smith, Dechant, Steve Kempt, Moore, Gorby, M Cox, Mayes, Boushee, Loos, Rusty Miller. 2nd B Main-Barker, LaFollette, Bodenhamer, Martin, Lyle, L Shepard, D Conkwright, Baukema, Bencken. 3rd B Main-Brack, Turner, Kosiski, Murphy, Garmann, Kuchar, Main, Persichetti, D Shepard. Pole Dash-Boen, Purkey, Clifton, M Conkwright, Daniels, Bone, Vaughn, Wallace. A Main-Boen, M Conkwright, Purkey, Bone, Berry, Clifton, Vaughn, Daniels, McAninch, Merrill, Bodenhamer, Drake, Turner, Moore, Brack, LaFollette, Kosiski, Gorby, M Cox, Johnson, Smith, McGinn, Barker, Wallace, Dechant.

Deagele And Freeman Share Wins At Montana Roundup

By Gary Jacob

Great Falls, MT -- Rock Degele from Glasgow MT raced from fourth starting to score a $1000 win in the dirt late model feature Friday night as Electric City Speedway opened it’s season closing, $18,000 Montana Roundup weekend. The feature was lined up off the heat finishes and Degele’s second put him 4th. He passed Rich Herman, series champion Josh Adams and Dave Freeman for the $1000 win with Adams ending up the $750 second ahead of Herman’s $400 third. The 12 cars returned on Saturday night and Great Falls’ own Freeman got a clean sweep with a win in his heat and the $1000 main event win. Freeman suffered a broken shock in the race and he barely fought off the challenge of 8th starting Jody Kropp as Kropp ran a $750 second ahead of Billings MT charger Kelly Hample who won $400. Freeman topped the weekend’s money list with $1200, Degele got into the back wall on Saturday and had $1175 for the weekend with both Adams and Kropp at $1000. These two events closed the season for the Montana Outlaw Late Model Tour and Helena’s Adams ended up with the series title, 55 points ahead of rookie Herman and 87 in front of Jim Zaremski. Degele climbed to fourth in the final standings ahead of Rory Minster as Mike McCord was absent and dropped back to sixth place. Kropp, Degele and Freeman all did double duty in the dirt modifieds. Kropp won both nights, getting $325 on Friday night and $700 on Saturday night. Degele was a $330 second on Saturday night and

Freeman won $200 for second on Friday night.

The 12 car turnout included Ron Brisbois from Hinton, Alberta Canada. On Friday night, Herman won heat 1 from 2nd with 4th starting Freeman second over sixth starter Kropp. Adams won heat 2 from the pole and 4th starter Degele ran second over 2nd starting Minster. The feature lineup was straight up off the heat finish, but Degele was on fire as he raced to the win from 4th over 2nd starter Adams and pole starter Herman. Minster ran fourth ahead of Hample, Belgrade’s Bob Scott, Kropp and Zaremski. On Saturday night, Freeman won heat 1 from the pole with sixth starting Ron Fuller second over fifth starter Hample. Degele drew outside front row and won heat 2 over pole starter Warren Drazich and fourth starter Minster. In the feature, Degele made contact with the back wall and broke a lower control arm to end his night. Freeman built a huge lead from the pole, but slowed with the broken shock and Kropp nearly caught him. Hample came from fifth to third and 7th starter Scott ran fourth over 9th starting Herman, Fuller, 10th starter Adams and Minster. Brisbois combined an 11th and a 10th for the two nights.

Summary

Friday Heat 1-Rich Herman, Dave Freeman, Jody Kropp, Jim Zaremski, Ron Fuller. Heat 2-Josh Adams, Rock Degele, Rory Minster, Kelly Hample, Bob Scott. Main-Degele, Adams, Herman, Minster, Hample, Scott, Kropp, Zaremski, Warren Drazich, Freeman, Ron Brisbois, Fuller.

Saturday Heat 1-Freeman, Fuller, Hample, Scott, Herman. Heat 2-Degele, Drazich, Minster, Kropp, Adams. Main-Freeman, Kropp, Hample, Scott, Herman, Fuller, Adams, Minster, Drazich, Brisbois, Zaremski, Degele.

Two Win Weekend For Purkey As He Captures Belleville

By Gary Jacob

Belleville, KS -- Finishing off a two win weekend that virtually wrapped up the NCRA dirt late model championship, Al Purkey from Coffeyville KS drove his Larry Shaw mount to a $2000 win Sunday night at the Bellville KS high banks. Purkey won his heat race from 2nd starting, but that only earned him a second row assignment for the feature as both third ranked Tommy Rowe from Doniphan NEB and second ranked Kelly Boen from Henderson CO earned more points in the passing point system. Boen took a quick lead in the feature at his favorite track and Purkey settled into third behind Rowe. Purkey got second from Rowe on lap 5 and had chased down Boen when the Colorado driver coasted into the infield on lap 7 with a broken valve. Purkey led the remainder of the 20 lapper with former IMCA Modified car builder Kevin Larkins from Giltner NEB making a solid drive to second ahead of Rowe, Ryan McInanich from Kansas and Grand Junction CO long tow Dean Moore. Purkey came out of the weekend with six NCRA wins on the year and a healthy 224 point lead on championship rival Boen. Rowe is another 109 points back in third as Missouri's Jason Bodenhamer and Kansas racer Gary Gorby are dueling for fourth in points. Bodenhamer is only 28 points up on Gorby but 298 behind Rowe. Moore has climbed to 8th in points behind Ted Martin and Oklahoma's Joe Conway. Purkey's other weekend win came Saturday night at Junction Motor Speedway in McCool Junction, NEB.

Nineteen cars checked in for the night's racing and Rowe earned the pole for the feature by capturing the first heat race from sixth starting. Larkins ran second ahead of TORA star Delbert Smith and McAninch. Purkey won heat 2 from second, but Boen came from last to finish 2nd to rank second on the passing point charts. Rowe and Boen thus held down the front row for the 20 lap feature with Purkey right behind. On the start, it was Boen and his Rocket charging out front with Rowe settling into second ahead of Purkey. Delbert Smith settled into fourth ahead of Larkins and McAninch. In turn 2 on lap 5, Purkey was able to take second from Rowe and he had caught leader Boen when a broken valve parked Boen in the infield on lap 7. On lap 9, Delbert Smith took second from Rowe and Larkins passed Rowe for third on lap 11. The only yellow flag came on lap 12. On the restart, Purkey continued to command the action and Delbert Smith got shuffled from 2nd back to fifth as Larkins, Rowe and McAninch all got by him. Purkey's sixth win ties the NCRA single season record held by Tom Laster and he has an Oct 24th date in Enid Oklahoma to attempt to break the mark. Larkins ran second with McAninch challenging Rowe for third as the laps ran down. McAninch settled for fourth ahead of Moore, Lyle Shepard, Delbert Smith, Gorby, Bodenhamer and Brett LaFollette.

Summary Heat 1-Tommy Rowe, Kevin Larkins, Delbert Smith, Ryan McAninch, Mike Wiarda. Heat 2-Al Purkey, Kelly Boen, Dean Moore, Gary Gorby, Ted Martin, Lyle Shepard. Main-Purkey, Larkins, Rowe, McAninch, Moore, Shepard, Delbert Smith, Gorby, Jason Bodenhamer, Brett LaFollette, Danny McFadden, Herb Nagy, Robert Garst, Chris Mayes, Martin, Joe Conway, Boen, Daniel Smith.

First Win For Shad Karna At Black Hills

By Gary Jacob

Black Hills, SD -- Shad Karna from Custer SD had to fend off a fierce last lap challenge from Eric Mass to get an $800 win in the WISSOTA dirt late model 16 lap feature Friday night at Black Hills Speedway. The race was shortened from the usual 20 laps due to the 20 minute time limit in a caution filled affair. Karna’s first 2004 win led a GRT sweep as he, Gillette WY rookie dirt late model star Mass and South Dakota’s Tom Sires all wheel GRT mounts. Mass was rebounding from an early race flat tire for his $675 second and Sires won $550 for third. Some late race contact between Steve Neumiller and Nathan Kjerstad saw both drivers penalized two spots in the final standings with Kjerstad dropping back to 5th and Neumiller credited with 7th.

The 16 car turnout was split into three heat races. Neumiller won the first over Mass and Troy Leiker. Gillette WY’s Wes McKenney won heat 2 over visitor Todd Hansen and Morris Oberle. Karna enjoyed a big night as he also won heat 3 ahead of Sires and Nielsen. Dirt Modified star returned to the dirt late model action for the first time in 2004 and ran fifth in heat 2. For the second straight week, a fast, tacky track sent tempers soaring in the scheduled 20 lap feature. Mass had to pit with a flat tire early in the action, but he was ready to challenge Karna for the win at the white flag. Mass tried to make an outside groove run in the final two corners, but couldn’t get the necessary traction and settled for second. Neumiller and Kjerstad had banded into each other on the back stretch with a couple laps remaining and Neumiller delivered a retaliation shot in front of the grandstands after the checkered flag. Sires ran third and McKenney moved up to fourth with his Warrior with the penalties. Kjerstad was placed fifth ahead of Hansen, Neumiller, Casper WY senior citizen racer Forest Canipe, Doug Amick and Tony Leiker. Mike Stadel was 12th, John Bey 15th and Eddie Kirchoff did not race.

The next two Friday nights are huge for the dirt late model teams. The traveling WDRL Series from the Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin area invades on August 13 as part of the Sturgis SD bike week activities and the NAPA-MDA Series opens it’s final two race weekend on August 20th.

Summary Heat 1-Steve Neumiller, Eric Mass, Troy Leiker, Nathan Kjerstad. Heat 2-Wes McKenney, Todd Hansen, Morris Oberle, John Bey, Forest Canipe. Heat 3-Shad Karna, Tom Sires, Brent Nielsen, Mike Stadel, Tony Leiker. Main-Karna, Mass, Sires, McKenney, Kjerstad, Hansen, Neumiller, Canipe, Doug Amick, Tony Leiker, Troy Leiker, Stradel, Oberle, Nielsen, Bey, Chris Johnson.

Degele Gets Second Montana Tour Win

By Gary Jacob

Great Falls, MT -- Rock Degele from Glasgow joined series point leader Josh Adams as a multiple feature winner on the 2004 Montana Outlaw Late Model Tour with his $600 win at Electric City Speedway on Saturday night. The dirt late model portion of the show was hastily scheduled when Gallatin Speedway elected to make up a rainout on Friday night and Great Falls jumped in to give the teams two nights of action. The last minute scheduling limited the field to ten teams and the feature race had 9 starters after Len Brinlee scratched. Degele drove his Rayburn to the win with Great Falls own Rory Minster driving his Fegrs to the $450 runnerup slot. Bob Scott from Bozeman was third and Friday night Gallatin winner Adams ran fourth ahead of Gallatin fourth place finisher Dave Herman. Third paid $350, fourth $300 and fifth $250.

Adams went into the weekend as the point leader and his win and a fourth where the best combined effort of anyone on the weekend. Herman put together a 4th and a 5th. Jim Zaremski was only 11 points back of Adams starting the weekend, but he ran 7th and 8th on the two nights. Degele was only 13 points back of Zaremski and his fifth and a win will push him up to second place. Herman remains the other series title contender. Both Gallatin runnerup Mike McCord and third place Darryn Waldo were among the missing cars tonight. The feature track was extremely dry slick after unsual 100 degree daytime temperatures hit the area. Degele, Minster, Scott, Adams and Herman were trailed by John Dowson, Pee Wee Drazich, Zaremski and Dave Freeman tonight.

The Montana Outlaw Tour continues with co-sanctioned action at Gallatin and Billings on July 23-24. The Gallatin event has already announced a $1000 to win purse structure to draw more of the Wyoming and western South Dakota teams north.

Summary Main-Rock Degele, Rory Minster, Bob Scott, Josh Adams, Rich Herman, John Dowson, Pee Wee Drazich, Jim Zaremski, Dave Freeman.

Purkey Salvages Weekend With Belleville Win

By Gary Jacob

Belleville, KS -- Rebounding from a tough night in Nebraska, Al Purkey from Coffeyville KS was the $2000 winner in the 25 lap feature Sunday night at the famed Belleville High Banks as the NCRA dirt late models finished off a grueling three race weekend. Purkey's second win of 2004 in his Larry Shaw chassis leaves him 95 points back of season point leader Kelly Boen, who won the Wichita KS and McCool Junction NEB races to open the weekend. Purkey won his heat race from third starting and that earned him the pole position for the 25 lap feature. Boen crashed hard in the same heat race and had to do major repairs before lining up at the rear of the 20 car grid for the feature run. Doniphan NEB charger Tommy Rowe ran second and moved into fourth place in series points. Nebraska's Billy Murphy followed up a third at Junction Motor Speedway with another third this night and recent Belleville winner Mike Wiarda gave Nebraska racers the 2nd, 3rd and 4th spots. Boen made a hard charge to fifth to protect his point lead. Boen came out of the weekend with a 95 point lead on Purkey and 195 ahead of Jason Bodenhamer. Rose is just 35 points back of Bodenhamer and just 5 ahead of fifth ranked Gary Gorby from Kansas.

With 23 cars checking in, the teams were divided into three heat races and everyone was going to make the feature. Purkey won the first heat over Murphy and Grand Junction CO long tow Dean Moore. John Anderson, the runnerup on Saturday night ran fourth in this heat. On lap 6, Boen drove straight across the track and slammed into the turn 1 wall. TORA star Delbert Smith won heat 2 over Bodenhamer and Mike Conkwright. Hampton NEB's Wiarda won heat 3 over Earl Kinderknecht and Rowe. The feature was lined up using the passing points earned in the heat action and Purkey sat on the pole. Purkey took a quick lead over Wiarda and Smith. Smith edged ahead of Purkey on lap 2 only to push too high and hand the lead back to Purkey. Smith and Murphy also drove by Smith for the 2-3 slots. The first yellow flag fell on lap 13 and six cars got tangled on the restart for a red flag. Purkey paced the field on this next restart ahead of Murphy, Wiarda, Smith and Rowe while Purkey had charged from the rear to 8th. Another push in the corner cost Smith fourth to Rowe. Rowe then raced around Wiarda for third before the 14th lap finished. Kinderknecht replaced Smith in the top five and both Boen and Anderson passed Smith for the 6-7 slots on lap 15. Purkey held a strong lead as the laps ran down with Rowe passing Murphy on the final lap for second. Wiarda was a distant fourth and Boen's late charge netted him fifth over Kinderknecht, Anderson, Smith, Moore and Bodenhamer. Purkey credited Smith with showing him that bottom line early in the action. Purkey's two NCRA wins in 2004 have tied him with Larry McDaniels on the career win chart with 18 behind all time leader Larry Phillips who had 24. John Kuchar got 12th and Colorado point leader Gary Dechant 13th. Chris Mayes and Tony Gregg were both feature scratches. By racing the whole weekend with NCRA, Moore climbed to 12th in their point listing.

After a $6,000 to win show at Mid-Nebraska Speedway on July 17, NCRA will combine forces with MLRA, WDRA and the Colorado Late Models for the third annual Rumble in the Rockies at Rocky Mountain National Speedway near Denver on July 23-24. Boen won the earlier race at Mid-Nebraska that opened the 2004 NCRA season.

Summary Heat 1-Al Purkey, Bill Murphy, Dean Moore, John Anderson, John Kuchar. Heat 2-Delbert Smith, Jason Bodenhamer, Mike Conkwright, Rusty Miller, Ted Martin. Heat 3-Mike Wiarda, Earl Kinderknecht, Tommy Rowe, Dan Topliff, Gary Dechant. Main-Purkey, Rowe, Murphy, Wiarda, Kelly Boen, Kinderknecht, Anderson, Smith, Moore, Bodenhamer, M Conkwright, Kuchar, Dechant, Topliff, Mike Martin, Gorby, Joe Conway, Dave Conkwright, T Martin, Miller.

Jim Davis Memorial Goes To Donny Raney

By Gary Jacob

Clovis, NM -- Donny Raney from Dumas TX won the first annual Jim Davis Memorial dirt modified special at the Ned Houk Motorsports Complex on Friday night. Running second in the all star 20 car feature was current track point leader Conner Pullen, a 14 year old rookie from Amarillo TX. With a dark weekend at his home tracks, current Barnett's Harley Davidson regional point leader Bumper Jones from Las Cruces made the long tow to Clovis. He beat out Lubbock TX star Monte Bolton for the $500 Dash for Cash win, then ran a solid third in the main event in his D&M; Performance mount. Terry Kaser, a long time driver for Davis, ran fourth and Bolton salvaged a fifth place run. Running one of the D&M; Performance house cars, Chub Daniels son-in-law Alan Sharpensteen rounded out the top six finishers.

The track has been averages less than 10 dirt modifieds a week, but a full lineup of 20 cars appeared for the special event. Amarillo star Kelly Cross ran 12th, Farmington NM long tow Brandon Carley was 15th and top charger Dee Gossett ran 18th. The Cortese family from Fort Sumner was in action with Knox Cortese in 9th and Luke Cortese finishing 14th. Locked in a battle with young Pullen for the track title, Doug Gillespie was missing from the event.

Summary Dash for Cash-Bumper Jones, Monte Bolton. Main-Donny Raney, Conner Pullen, B Jones, Terry Kaser, Bolton, Alan Sharpensteen, Tab Barnard, Mark Myers, Knox Cortese, Teddy Lindsey, Zach Gossett, Kelly Cross, Jerry Graves, Luke Cortese, Brandon Carley, Gene Weaver, Roger Dial, Dee Gossett, Dave Frusher, Steve Reeves.

McCormack, Allison And Lee Win Colusa Fair Features

By Gary Jacob

Colusa, CA -- Still a top feature winner despite not racing weekly at his home track in Lakeport, Noel McCormack enjoyed a $250 perfect night as the Colusa County Fair ran an special outlaw kart show for 125's and Box Stocks on a Thursday night. In the 125 action, McCormack won both of his heat races, then pulled a two for the feature inversion for all three classes. That put him outside front row for the 25 lap feature and he was never headed enroute to the solid payday. Kyle Larson grabbed second from pole starter Mason Moore on lap 17 and chased down McCormack, but McCormack skillfully handled the late lapped traffic for the win ahead of Larson, Cody Miller, Moore and Tristan Miller. The Box Stock 25 lapper had a wild conclusion as Tyler Reddick set the pace from lap 5 to a lap 24 yellow flag. On the restart, new runnerup Jake Cartwright got tangled up with Reddick as they raced out of turn 4 and Cyle Allison was in the right place at the right time as he drove by the melee for the $250 win. Rookie Alissa Geving from Santa Rosa ended up second ahead of David Lee. Garry Burdick came from 13th to place 4th to pocket the $100 award for improving the most spots. It was a big night for the Lee clan from Maxwell as David's little brother Devin Lee led the final 11 laps to win the 20 lap Beginner Box Stock feature. He was chased to the checkered flag by early leader Tanner Thomson and Katina Baker. This division doesn't race for money, but the top ten finishers all received trophies.

The 125s had 11 karts sign in, but Cycleland star Thomas Bruckenstein trailered after the first heat race due to the very bumpy track conditions. Eight year old Reddick tried racing in two classes, but the rough track took it's toll on his frail body and they elected to concentrate on the Box Stocks. The 8 year old is already the west's most active racer and he will expand on that schedule by flying to Charlotte NC for the next 15 weeks to race a Bandolero there on Monday and Tuesday nights in addition to his California Friday and Saturday outlaw kart racing. The Tuesday night shows will be televised on the Speed Channel on a delayed basis. This year, the Colusa event run by Bob and Nadine Strauss' Lakeport Speedway officials used a two heat format with the heat finishes added together. McCormack won both of his heat races while Moore combined a first and a second with Larson putting together a win and a third. C Miller had two seconds. The two kart inversion for the 25 lap feature put Moore and McCormack on the front row ahead of Larson, C Miller, Colby Copeland and T Miller. Mikey Lovell missed the preliminary action, but tagged the 9 kart feature race. He spun to force a restart and McCormack took a quick lead over Moore, C Miller and Larson. Larson gained third on lap 2 and Trevor Cristiani's race was over when he stalled for a lap 5 yellow flag. Copeland ran off the top of turn 2 for a lap 9 yellow and Lovell tangled with Ethan Rohner for a final yellow flag on lap 10. Larson got a high line dialed and he drove around Moore for second on lap 17. He appeared to be reeling in leader McCormack, but McCormack picked a faster line through the slower karts to protect his advantage. Moore got too high in turn 4 on lap 23 and lost third to C Miller. McCormack won ahead of Larson, C Miller, Moore, T Miller, Copeland and Rohner. No one improved by more than one position in the 25 lapper so I am not aware of who will get the $100 hard charger award.

There were 19 Box Stocks and Cartwright paced the heat action with two wins. Both Jeremy Doss and Reddick combined a win and a second while Lakeport star Kyle Tellstrom had two seconds. Geving and James Edens put together a 2nd and a 3rd. Allison was relegated to the B Main as he broke leading his first heat and ran third in the other. The top ten point earners in the heat action advanced and five karts moved up from a B Main where last year's winner Kenny Allen beat Allison, Burdick, Brendon Lewis, Sean Martin and Nolan Tkachenko. The two kart inversion for the 25 lap feature put Doss and Cartwright on the front row ahead of Reddick, Tellstrom, Edens and Geving. Cartwright paced Reddick for the first 4 laps. Cameron Bartlett took third on lap 2 when Doss, Edens and Allison tangled. Reddick took the top spot from Cartwright on lap 5 and Allen moved into third on lap 8. Lewis and Jeremy Phillips tangled for a lap 12 yellow flag and third place duelers Allen and Bartlett tangled for a lap 13 yellow. Bartlett's race was over as the rim riding R J Johnson raced into third. Johnson had won his first heat, but struggled in heat 2. R Johnson gained second from Cartwright on lap 16 and Allison was now fourth ahead of Geving. Phillips ran off the end of the track for a lap 23 yellow flag. On this restart, Cartwright got into R Johnson and R Johnson spun to trigger the final restart with just one lap remaining. Cartwright had his shot at Reddick on this final green, but his inside bid as they accelerated off turn 4 saw them locked together on the infield berm with Allison racing past for the rich win. Geving ran second ahead of David Lee, Burdick, R Johnson, Doss, Allen and Edens. The disappointed Reddick was 9th and Cartwright ran 11th behind Lewis.

The Beginner Box Stock class fielded 13 karts. R J Phillips paced the heat action with two wins. Devin Lee had a win and a second and Tanner Thomson matched that record. Aaron Yetter had a 2nd and a 3rd. Devin Lee won his first heat by 1/3 lap, but got tangled up with Tyler Barnes leading in the other heat and settled for 2nd. Yetter flipped leading his second heat race. The two kart inversion put Thomson and Phillips on the front row ahead of Devin Lee and A Yetter. The 20 lap feature was run with just two yellow flags despite constant lapped traffic. Phillips led the first lap, but was passed by Thomson on lap 2. Lee settled into third and Barnes crashed for a lap 4 yellow flag. On lap 9, Devin Lee passed both Thomson and Phillips on the outside for the top spot. Phillips crashed in turn 4 and A J Sauer was out with a broken front end. Baker raced into second on this restart, but lost the spot back to Thomson on the final lap as Devin Lee won . Thomson ran second over Baker, Phillips, Zach Yetter and Taylor Miller.

In addition to the three classes that raced, four ultra beginner box stocks as young as 4 years old got some practice laps in a couple on track sessions. They included Wyatt Perry, Taylor Perry, Carley Costa and Riley Peacock.

Summary Beginner Box Stock Heat 1-Devin Lee, Tanner Thomson, Katina Baker, Tyler Barnes, A J Sauer. Heat 2-R J Phillips, Riley Matson, Aaron Yetter, Taylor Miller, Allison Costa. Heat 3-Thomson, Devin Lee, Zach Yetter, Baker, Barnes. Heat 4-Phillips, A Yetter, Miller, Matson, Costa. Main-Devin Lee, Thomson, Baker, Phillips, Z Yetter, Miller, Matson, A Yetter, Riley Peacock, Costa, Austin Mitchell, Sauer, Barnes. Box Stock Heat 1-Cameron Bartlett, Jeremy Doss, Alissa Geving, Garry Burdick, Bryce Perry. Heat 2-Jake Cartwright, Kyle Tellstrom, David Lee, Brandon Lewis, Garrett Peacock. Heat 3-R J Johnson, Tyler Reddick, James Edens, Jeremy Phillips, Kenny Allen. Heat 4-Doss, Geving, Sean Martin, Burdick, Perry. Heat 5-Cartwright, Tellstrom, Cyle Allison, David Lee, Nolan Tkachenko. Heat 6-Reddick, Edens, Phillips, Allen, Chris Starr. B Main-Allen, Allison, Burdick, Lewis, Martin, Tkachenko, Perry, Starr, G Peacock.A Main-Allison, Geving, David Lee, Burdick, Johnson, Doss, Allen, Edens, Reddick, Lewis, Cartwright, Tkachenko, Tellstrom, Phillips, Bartlett. 125 Intermediate Heat 1-Mason Moore, Colby Copeland, Kyle Larson, Tristan Miller, Thomas Bruckenstein. Heat 2-Noel McCormack, Cody Miller, Tyler Reddick, Ethan Rohner, Trevor Cristiani. Heat 3-Larson, Moore, T Miller, Copeland. Heat 4-McCormack, C Miller, Cristiani, Rohner. Main-McCormack, Larson, C Miller, Moore, T Miller, Copeland, Rohner, Mikey Lovell, Cristiani.

Dominating Win For Kelly Boen In Kansas

By Gary Jacob

Dodge City, KS -- Leading all 50 laps from the pole after he had won his heat race from 4th starting, Kelly Boen from Henderson CO drove his Rocket to a $4000 win as the $33,000 1st Annual Midwest Outlaw Late Model Shootout ended it's two night run at the newly clay surfaced Dodge City Raceway Park on Saturday night. Boen had won $900 for his third place finish in the 25 lap preliminary night feature on Friday and his quick pace in the caution free 50 lapper saw him lap everyone except the top five finishers. Boen's effort is crew chiefed by engine expert Doug Hoffman and sponsored by Roadrunner Fabrication. It was the second win of 2004 for the traveling racer as he also won the CLMA season opener in Fort Morgan, CO. Missouri star Terry Phillips came from 9th starting to pocket $2000 for his second place run in a GRT. Friday night winner Al Purkey from Kansas came from sixth starting to win $1250 for third and Missouri MLRA ace Alan Vaughn won $1100 for fourth. Fifth place was worth $1000 for TORA star Delbert Smith from Wichita KS. The two night special was sanctioned by WDRA, MLRA and NCRA. The 3/8 mile track previously was a paved track, but Colorado's Mike Mathis was brought in to get it switched over to a clay surface and the World of Outlaws sprint cars visit here later in June.

Utah's Mike McGinn was the only car to not return for the Saturday racing and the 36 cars were divided into four qualifying heat races with the top 12 in the passing point accumulations advancing to the front half of the 24 car A Main lineup. Boen earned the pole for the 50 lapper by winning heat 1 from the pole as fellow Colorado traveler Ken Brack ran second ahead of front row starter Gary Gorby and Oklahoma's Eddie Tidwell. The second heat was stacked with nationally known stars as Vaughn won from the pole with third starter Phillips second ahead of 8th starting Purkey. Oklahoma City's Randy Timms won heat 3 from the pole with fifth starting Mike Wiarda from Aurora, Nebraska in second ahead of Brett LaFollette and David Turner. Smith won the fourth heat also from fourth with T J Kuykendall second ahead of 9th starting Ryan McAninch and Grand Juntion CO long tow Butch Clark. The 12 drivers to advance through the passing point system were front row earners Boen and Smith along with McAninch, Vaughn, Timms, Purkey, Wiarda, Brack, Phillips, Kuykendall, Clark and Gorby. The remaining cars raced in two B Mains with the top six advancing from each. Kansas City charger LaFollette won the first from the pole with sixth starting ageless Jim Clifton second ahead of Kansas chargers Rod Bencken and Ted Martin. Colorado ace Dave Garmann was fifth ahead of David Barker. Just missing the move up were Colorado racer John Kuchar and Kansas racer Chris Mayes. Dean Moore ran 9th. MLRA point leader Jason Bodenhammer won the 2nd B Main from third starting with pole starter David Turner second ahead of Nebraska racer Tommy Rowe and Colorado's Scott Lewis. Also moving up were Oklahoma charger Eddie Tidwell and Great Bend KS runner David Brock. Colorado's Kevin Lueck and Dodge City's own Mike Martin were next in line.

The talented 24 car grid managed to run the 50 lap distance without a single yellow flag and Boen led all the way from the pole. Phillips and Purkey provided a strong challenge over the closing rounds but settled for 2nd and 3rd ahead of Vaughn and Smith, the final lead lap finisher. McAninch ran sixth ahead of the Nebraska duo of Wiarda and Rowe. Timms was 9th ahead of Bodenhammer, Kuykendall, Gorby and LaFollette.

Summary Heat 1-Kelly Boen, Ken Brack, Gary Gorby, Eddie Tidwell, Scott Lewis. Heat 2-Alan Vaughn, Terry Phillips, Al Purkey, Ted Martin, Rod Bencken. Heat 3-Randy Timms, Mike Wiarda, Brett LaFollette, David Turner, Jason Bodenhammer. Heat 4-Delbert Smith, T J Kuykendall, Ryan McAninch, Butch Clark, Rusty Miller. 1st B Main-LaFollette, Jim Clifton, Bencken, Martin, Dave Garmann, David Barker, John Kuchar, Chris Mayes, Dean Moore, Joe Conway. 2nd B Main-Bodenhammer, Turner, Tommy Rowe, Scott Lewis, Tidwell, David Brock, Lueck, Mike Martin, Herb Nagy, Steve Lewis. A Main-Boen, Phillips, Purkey, Vaughn, Smith, McAninch, Wiarda, Rowe, Timms, Bodenhammer, Kuykendall, Gorby, LaFollette, Turner, Scott Lewis, T Martin, Garmann, Tidwell, Clark, Brock, Barker, Clifton, Brack, Bencken.

Kaeding And Howard Share Calistoga Honors

By Gary Jacob

Calistoga, CA -- The annual two day Memorial Day weekend of Golden State Challenge winged 410 sprint car racing at Calistoga Speedway saw Tim Kaeding put on an outside groove exhibition on Saturday night to win the Walt Ross Memorial. T Kaeding started 9th in his winning drive and season point leader Jason Statler finished 2nd. Brad Furr returned to Golden State action and set fast time both nights, finishing third on Saturday night. The victory was T Kaeding's fourth in the ten appearances that he has made in the 13 completed races here in 2004. Sunday night saw a very emotional win as Sparky Howard from Santa Rosa achieved a 20 year dream of winning a feature race at his home track. Howard started on the pole for a second straight night and led every lap to win the Gary Patterson Memorial. Over the years, he has been fast qualifier at the lightning quick half-mile several times and once led a feature for 17 laps before losing his muffler. Third starting Blake Robertson and 12th starter Brent Kaeding put a lot of pressure on Howard in the closing laps, but settled for 2nd and 3rd. Howard has only made four appearances in the 13 races for the traveling series, but the win was his third top five finish as he ran fourth on Saturday night. T Kaeding had a tough Sunday night as he broke a motor in hot laps. After changing motors, he timed in 11th quick, but continued problems forced him to start last in the 23 car feature. He made it all the way to 6th before the new engine threw a rod with six laps to run.

The second car to run, Furr posted quick time on Saturday night with his 17.162 lap. That nipped the 17.249 that T Kaeding had posted as the first car out the gate. They easily outran third quick Andy Forsberg, who timed in at 17.507. With Dennis Moore Jr ready to return to action, the Morrie Williams team fielded two cars, one for Iowa's Moore and the other for Australian Trevor Green. Moore was fourth quick at 17.512 and Blake Robertson ran a 17.534. Jim Skinner, Brian Coelho and Statler rounded out the top 8 times in the 23 car field. Green won the first heat race from the pole with Calistoga's own Mike Benson second ahead of Coelho and Moore. Outside front row starter Jason York won heat 2 with T Kaeding charging from 6th to 2nd ahead of Statler and Robertson. Steve Kent also turned an outside front row start into a win in heat 3 as Sean Becker ran second ahead of Kevin Pylant, who won the previous Calistoga race. The fact that both Skinner and Johnny Key failed to finish top five in their heat races put 12th quick Howard on the pole for the 30 lap feature when a ten car inversion came up. B Kaeding won the B Main ahead of Key, Skinner and Craig Stidham, but all 23 cars on hand lined up for the 30 lap feature. Howard and Benson shared the front row ahead of Pylant, Statler, Coelho and Robertson. At the drop of the green flag, T Kaeding made a quick charge from 9th to fifth using the inside line. With the field racing nose to tail on the bottom line, T Kaeding decided to leap up high and it only took him four more laps to race into the lead. Statler was startled to see T Kaeding race around him up high, but he changed lines and hung on to finish second. Furr raced from 10th to finish third and pole starter Howard was fourth. Benson got his first top five of the season and Pylant ran sixth ahead of Forsberg, B Kaeding, Coelho, Kent, Skinner and York.

The track was quicker on Sunday night and Furr dipped into the 16's as the fourth car to time. His quick time was a 16.808. Kent had earlier posted a 16.815 and Coelho ranked third with his 16.842 run. The only other car in the 16's was Moore at 16.962. Andy Gregg appeared for the second day, but broke in hot laps to end his night. York was fifth quick ahead of Statler, Benson and B Kaeding. T Kaeding managed to get the car running long enough to time in 11th quick at 17.488. Outside front row starter Trevor Green won the first heat race ahead of pole starter Skinner and Benson. Pylant turned a pole start into a win in heat 2 ahead of B Kaeding, sixth starter Kent and York. Sean Becker won heat 3 from the pole as Howard ran second ahead of Robertson and Forsberg. Howard had timed in 15th quick, but problems for five teams in the heat action allowed him to be on the pole for the 30 lap feature for a second straight night. Coelho won the B Main ahead of Stidham, Wayne Williams and Key. The feature lineup had Howard, Green, Robertson, Forsberg, Benson and Statler in the front 3 rows and T Kaeding started dead last after failing to race in the heat or B Main. Howard was never headed in his charge from the pole this night. Third starter Robertson and 12th starting B Kaeding put heavy pressure on Howard as the laps ran down, but Howard was able to use a lapped car as a pick as they came off the final corner. The excited winner leaped from his car on the front stretch and ran up and down the track as he drew a standing ovation for the crowd. Robertson ran second and B Kaeding was disappointed that he was unable to pull off a win for his long time crew chief Billy Albini who was unable to be at the track due to a battle with cancer. Forsberg finished fourth ahead of Statler, Kent, Furr, Green, Moore, Becker, Pylant and Stidham. T Kaeding turned a lot of heads in his feature drive from 23rd to 6th before throwing a rod out of the new powerplant for the Beef Packers team.

The busy series sees two nights of racing at action filled small tracks to open June as they make their only visit to Watsonville Speedway on Friday, June 4th and then make their final 2004 visit to Placerville Speedway on Saturday, June 5th. With 9 top fives in the 13 races, Statler has built his point lead to 43 points over Forsberg. Robertson is another 31 points back in third, just 12 ahead of Becker. Pylant is just one point behind Becker and just 4 ahead of B Kaeding. Seventh ranked Stidham is 105 behind leader Statler and just 8 ahead of York. Williams and Skinner round out the top ten.

Summary

Saturday Fast Time-Brad Furr 17.162 Heat 1-Trevor Green, Mike Benson, Brian Coelho, Dennis Moore Jr, Furr. Heat 2-Jason York, Tim Kaeding, Jason Statler, Blake Robertson, Wayne Williams. Heat 3-Steve Kent, Sean Becker, Kevin Pylant, Sparky Howard, Andy Forsberg. B Main-Brent Kaeding, Johnny Key, Jim Skinner, Craig Stidham, Ivan Worden, Doug Lippincott, Rich Vant. A Main-T Kaeding, Statler, Furr, Howard, Benson, Pylant, Forsberg, B Kaeding, Coelho, Kent, Skinner, York, Becker, Stidham, Green, Moore, Williams, Lippincott, Key, Worden, Robertson, Vant.

Sunday Fast Time-Furr 16.808 Heat 1-Green, Skinner, Benson, Moore, Furr. Heat 2-Pylant, B Kaeding, Kent, York, Stuart Krum. Heat 3-Becker, Howard, Robertson, Forsberg, Statler. B Main-Coelho, Stidham, Williams, Key, Lippincott, Worden, Vant, T Kaeding. A Main-Howard, Robertson, B Kaeding, Forsberg, Statler, Kent, Furr, Green, Moore, Becker, Pylant, Stidham, Benson, Skinner, York, Coelho, Lippincott, Key, Worden, T Kaeding, Krum, Williams, Vant.

Clean Sweep For Rock Degele As Montana Tour Visits Great Falls

By Gary Jacob

Great Falls, MT -- Rock Degele from Glasgow drove his Eugene's Pizza and Rock's Auto Plaza sponsored Rayburn to a $600 win as the Montana Outlaw Late Model Tour ran leg 2 of it's 17 race 2004 schedule Friday night at 3/10 mile clay Electric City Speedway. Degele also drives a dirt modified painted exactly like his dirt late model. He enjoyed a perfect night as he also won his heat race. He was chased to the checkered flag in the dirt late model feature by Molt's Mike McCord, Great Falls own Jim Zaremski and previous week Billings winner Josh Adams from Helena. McCord won $450, Zaremski $350 and Adams $300.

Nine of the 14 dirt late models that checked in for the race had run the Billings event the previous weekend. Bob Scott broke before the heat action. The cars were divided into a pair of heat races with wins going to Degele and 30 year racing veteran Ron Fuller from Whitehall. McCord and Russ Wolfe gained the second place finishes, but Wolfe was unable to start the main event leaving a dozen cars in the feature action. Zaremski and the Fegers chassis of Rory Minster gained third place heat runs. Degele was chased to his feature win by McCord, Zaremski, Adams, Minster, Darryn Waldo, Pee Wee Drazich, Rick Herman, Fuller and John Dowson. Adams is off to the fastest start with a win and a fourth while McCord has combined a 2nd and a 4th. Degele was 8th in the Billings opener.

The tour returns to BMP Speedway in Billings for a May 22nd race. The first two race weekend of 2004 will find them in Belgrade on June 11 and back here at Great Falls on June 12.

Summary Heat 1-Rock Degele, Russ Wolfe, Jim Zaremski, Tim Ames, Pee Wee Drazich. Heat 2-Ron Fuller, Mike McCord, Rory Minster, Josh Adams, Jody Kropp. Main-Degele, McCord, Zaremski, Adams, Minster, Darryn Waldo, Drazich, Herman, Fuller, John Dowson, Ames, Kropp.

Two Wins In The Same Day For Dan Fitzgerald

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.