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POINTS RACE #11 AT OCEAN SPEEDWAY
July 25, 2008 |
| When
I arrived at the track for this event, I really needed the endorphin
rush of some BAD racing. When I saw Al Ghiorso, I was certain that my
downer mood had no chance at all to survive. This night, there was a record number of dwarf cars present for a series race - including visitors, 31 cars! More cars are expected to show up for the next two series races, as drivers check out the track before our BAD Regional. HEAT RACES Winners of the four heats were, Dave MOSIER (Heat 1), Dan YOUNGBLOOD (Heat 2), Tony CARMIGNANI (Heat 3) and Troy WAGNER (Heat 4) In Heat 1, Dave started inside row 2 and led from lap 3 for the win. Gilbert Toste started outside row 4 and was 2nd by mid-race; after getting out of shape and losing ground, he was closing on Dave but finished 3 to 4 car lengths behind him for 2nd. Bill Martinez came from 4th to 3rd and Oscar Milla, who led several laps from the pole, dropped back to 4th for the final transfer spot. Fast time = 15.791 sec, Gilbert Toste In Heat 2, rookie, Dan Youngblood, was impressive. He started on the pole, briefly gave up the lead to Ricardo Rivera, ace driver at Antioch Speedway, then took it back for the win. Ricardo finished 2nd, 0.136 seconds behind Dan. These two cars opened up a gap between themselves and the rest of the field. Camron Diatte finished 3rd by a difference of almost 2 seconds and John Wear, off his usual pace, was 4th start to finish. Fast time = 16.096 sec, Dan Youngblood In Heat 3, Robert Mesloh started on the pole and was leading by several car lengths until he was overtaken by Tony Carmignani, also a front row starter, on the last lap. Tony won by just over a tenth of a second. Ryan Diatte ran the entire race in 3rd place and Nick Squatritto moved up from 5th to 4th on lap 1 and finished 4th. Punky Pires finished 5th and, for the first time this season, went to the B Main. Fast time = 16.032, Punky Pires In Heat 4, Duane Daniel got a quick start from the pole and, with a lap time about a second faster than the other front starters, opened up a wide lead. Troy Wagner shot up from 5th to 2nd on lap 1 but was still 12 to 15 car lengths behind Duane. Mark Biscardi moved from 6th to take 2nd from Troy and, after a mid-race caution/restart, was only feet behind Duane. As Mark was challenging hard and pulling around, there was contact with Duane. Mark managed to continue for 4th place and a transfer while Duane was DNF and B-bound. Troy was first to cross the line, followed by Thomas Smith and Martin Whittingham - 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Fast time = 15.964 sec, Mark Biscardi TROPHY DASH Start: Mosier, Youngblood, Carmignani and Wagner. Finish: MOSIER, Carmignani, Youngblood and Wagner. Dave was leading by 10 car lengths on lap 2 and by a straightaway at the end. So far, he was classic Mosier and having a very good night. Fast time = 15.813 sec, Dave Mosier B MAIN This race began with a pileup between turns 3 and 4. On the re-start, Mark Tillinger, polesitter and early leader, was overtaken by Doug Penny who started 10th. Doug looked good, leading from lap 5 to lap 11. Punky Pires, who got caught up in the lap 1 crash, rebounded to take the lead and the win. Doug was 2nd by only 0.7 second. Mark Tillinger was a close 3rd, followed by Duane Daniel (2.4 sec out), Al Ghiorso (10.2 sec out) and Butch Liston (10.7 sec out). Six transferred to the A Main. Fast time = 16.108 sec, Punky Pires A MAIN Front row starter, Ricardo Rivera, took control of this race, leading from lap 1 to the checkers and winning by a comfortable margin. Dan Youngblood, the rookie beginning to look like a pro, was the 'bolt from the blue' in this race. He started 6th, made his way up to 2nd by lap 11 and finished 2nd. Duane Daniel made huge progress from a 20th place start; gaining 15 positions by mid-race, then finishing 3rd. Duane now leads in hard charger points - 65 in 11 races (last season, Ryan Diatte had 67 in 16 races). Ryan Diatte advanced from 11th to finish 4th and John Wear, who ran as high as 3rd, advanced from 14th to finish 5th. The remaining top 10 were, Punky Pires, Gilbert Toste, Troy Wagner, Martin Whittingham and Robert Mesloh. fast time = 15.807 sec, Gilbert Toste This was a disappointing race for Dave Mosier, defending champ and 2nd in series points. He looked great in heat and dash wins but had suspension problems in early laps of the feature; dropped from 3rd to 19th on lap 9 and was scored 17th (19 laps). And, it was a penoso race for Gilbert Toste, who is in the top-three chase for points. Starting 8th, a first lap flat tire set him back to the rear. Then, in spite of a second flat, he was able to work himself back for the 7th place finish. Overall fast time for this event by Gilbert Toste - $50 but no cigar this night. How many is that now? REMEMBER - There will be QUALIFYING at Race #12 on August 8 - rare for dwarf cars at Ocean Speedway, even though our club produces high car-counts (and backgate) and great competition. If Tom makes his best track, will anybody turn a lap in the 14s? - worth $100! CONGRATULATIONS TO RICARDO RIVERA (A MAIN WINNER), PUNKY PIRES (B MAIN WINNER), HEAT WINNERS (DAVE MOSIER, DAN YOUNGBLOOD, TONY CARMIGNANI AND TROY WAGNER), DAVE MOSIER (DASH WINNER) AND OTHER TOP FINISHERS. THANKS TO ALL DRIVERS WHO MADE THE SHOW. The morning after this event, I had breakfast with a visitor, Major Fred Hargesheimer, 92 year old WW II hero. On a reconnaissance mission, his P-38 Lightning was shot down by a Japanese fighter in New Guinea. He survived many months in a jungle with headhunters and crocodiles, nurtured and protected by a friendly native tribe that named him Suara Auru (Chief Warrior); finally rescued by USS submarine. Although once classified/forbidden, eventually he wrote a book about his experience. Recently, he was invited to appear on the Oprah show but was too fragile to make the trip. His enormous gratitude and lifelong generosity to the natives who saved his life is inspiring. When I told him about the Friday night races, he was quite interested. Now, I wish I had invited him to come along. He's not very robust but still a little bit bad. |