POINTS RACE #4 AT OCEAN SPEEDWAY April 27, 2007 |
| Twenty
five dwarf cars were signed in for this race. Unfortunately, there was
no clear separation of five classes of race cars in the pit area - 118
cars! Sprint cars shared the area normally occupied by dwarf cars. That
was inconvenient, uncomfortable and dangerous. I hope, in the future,
there will be designated areas for different classes of race cars. The track surface was like a raked Japanese garden; turning dry-slick and probably favoring the more experienced drivers. Winners of three 8-lap heat races were, Matt SARGENT (HEAT 1), Ryan AMELN (HEAT 2) and Dave MOSIER (HEAT 3). In Heat 1, Mark Chaves shot to the lead from outside row 1, with Matt in hot pursuit. On lap 6, Matt took the lead and pulled away for the win. Mark was 2nd, followed by Martin Whittingham in 3rd, separated by 8 car lengths, Chris Weaver in 4th, doing well with his new motor, and Danny Zuger in 5th, falling back from a pole start. In Heat 2, Ryan started outside row 1, led the entire race and won by a wide margin over 2nd place Doug Martin. John Pipkin Jr moved up from 5th to finish a distant 3rd. Gilbert Toste, expecting to drive Dan Gregory's 32B but driving Jose Guevara's 20B instead, was chasing down Ryan when he got into a tangle with Rich Wilson and had to settle for a 4th place finish. Ryan Diatte had a handling problem, went off and came back to finish 5th. In Heat 3, Punky Pires, with better luck in pill draw, started on the pole and led until mid-race. Early in the race, Dave and Steve Oliveira tangled several times but Dave managed to recover, overtake Pires on a lap 3 re-start and win by about 10 car lengths. Pires had a very good race and finished 2nd. Third, 4th and 5th place finishers were, Mark Tillinger, Doug Penny and Steve Oliveira. TROPHY DASH: Start = Sargent, Chaves, Ameln, Martin, Pires and Mosier; finish = CHAVES, Sargent, Ameln, Mosier, Martin and Pires. There were several spins, probably resulting from an oil spill which delayed Heat 3. Ameln did a 360 spin and still finished 3rd. Twenty four cars were lined up for the A MAIN but, before the start, Chris Weaver was taken to the infield with a broken throttle cable. Pole-sitter and strong-runner, Doug Martin, spun on lap 1, went to the back and finished just out of the top 10. Mark CHAVES, a 'retired' driver at the end of last season and guest driver this night in Mark Tillinger's 75B, started next to Martin on row 1, took charge and won by 0.415 sec. He went home with a wide smile and two trophies. Matt Sargent started 5th, took 2nd on lap 6 and pressured Mark until the flag dropped. He also had a wide smile after his strong 2nd place finish plus a heat win for the night. Matt has been anxious for some racing while waiting for his next career move; repaired his broken car and showed his old form. Dave Mosier started 3rd, had a consistent race and finished 3rd. Ryan Diatte, having an outstanding rookie season start, showed his talent again. After a disappointing heat race (setup problem), he started 17th, moved into 4th by lap 8 and finished 4th - another 13 hard charger points! and enough series points to hold on to 2nd place rank among BAD drivers! Gilbert Toste was driving Jose Guevara's 20B this night, since the engine blew in his other ride (Dan Gregory's 32B) during hot laps. He started in 11th place, passed Duane Daniel for 5th place several laps before the race ended and finished 5th. This race (to be 20 laps) was plagued by yellows and flagged on lap 14. Rounding out the top ten finishers were, Duane Daniel, Martin Whittingham, Chris Dorto, Bill Martinez and Mark Tillinger. CONGRATULATIONS TO MARK CHAVES (DASH & FEATURE WINNER), HEAT WINNERS, AND TOP FINISHERS. THANKS TO ALL DRIVERS WHO MADE THE SHOW. Notes: ...Matt Sargent set fast time this night; 16.124 sec on lap 14 (final) of the A Main. ...Ryan Diatte continues to dazzle; second in series points, leading in hard charger points. ...Ryan Ameln had heat and feature wins last race; heat win but bad luck in the feature this night; still ranked 5th. ...Welcome to new member, Mike Collins, #28B; and to guest driver, Jerrod Mesloh, #14B. ...Thanks to Jose Guevara for giving up his ride to Gilbert Toste; and to Mark Tillinger for providing a car for Mark Chaves. ...Thanks to Jerry Mesloh for bringing his smile to the pits and a crowd to the grandstand. ...Thanks to Dave Penny for providing freshly-brewed coffee to all his friends (I got half a cup). ...Thanks to everybody who supports this club. |