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Press Release by Jim Pluhar
Santa Maria, CA - July 11, 2009
Golden State Challenge "King of California" Winged 410 Sprint Cars put on their usual display of high speed and agility on the 1/3-mile clay oval at Santa Maria Speedway Saturday night. Papich Construction IMCA Modifieds and Toste Grading & Paving Mini Stocks were also on tap for the 1st Annual Doug Fort Memorial which saw Fort's son and daughter honor their father's memory in his classic '63 Corvette split window coupe.
Brent Wagner, better known as "The Big Schwagg" from the ESPN program Pass Time was guest pit announcer and Body Drop from Jessie James' Monster Garage on ESPN was also on hand to sign autographs for race fans.
Evan Suggs, of Scotts Valley, set fast time of 12.648 seconds for an average speed of around 95 miles-per-hour, and then went on to win the 6-lap trophy dash that put him on pole for the 30-lap Golden State Challenge feature event. Suggs tried to hold onto Tyler Walker, of Los Angeles, during the run, but it wasn't meant to be. Walker placed first, followed by Suggs, Fresno's Craig Stidham, Ripon's Brandon Carey, and Bud Kaeding of Indianapolis, CA. Walker and Kevin Pylant, of Santa Cruz, won 10-lap heat races.
Jared Domingos, of Santa Maria, scored his first top-five finish of the season in the IMCA Modified division, and it was a good one. Domingos outgunned point leader Chad Weber, of Arroyo Grande, in the 25-lap event which was checker flagged on the 17th circuit due to an inordinate number of spins and crashes during the event. Third place went to Ian Hunter, of Santa Maria, fourth to Justin Crockett, of Arroyo Grande, and fifth to Paul Terrones of Lompoc. Another Lompoc driver, Jimmy Justice, Santa Margarita's Steve Greenland and Arroyo Grande's Ken Kehs were victorious in 8-lap heat races.
The 20-lap Mini Stock main event was delayed for a time when a power transformer blew up on the hill behind the grandstand, plunging the Speedway into darkness. Fortunately Danny Lauer's Modified team includes a supervisor for PG&E, who knew just who to call to get a repair team out to the track to fix the problem. With the lights back on, Tom Grzincic, of Atascadero, was able to lead the final 3 laps to claim his sixth consecutive feature of the season and extend his lead over second in points, and second in the event, Jeremy Heroux of Nipomo. Third in points Rob Gilbertson, of Santa Maria, was running third when the lights went out, but when they came back on his mount wouldn't restart, relegating the Santa Maria driver to an 18th place finish. Dustin Ensign, of Nipomo, was third, moving into fifth in the point standings. Pat Fausel, of Santa Maria, and Kurt Larsen, of Nipomo, filled out the top-five. Heat race victories, 8 laps each, were taken by Grzincic, Gilbertson, Mike Keebler and Jeff Dye of Atascadero.
Next Saturday night the Dirt Car Western Late Model Series comes to town, joined by Papich Construction IMCA Modifieds and Toste Grading & Paving Mini Stocks. Admission will be: $16.00 for adults, $14.00 for seniors and military, and $5.00 for children six to twelve. Youngsters five and under are free. Gates for spectators will open at 3:00 p.m., with qualifying at 5:00 p.m. and racing at 6:00 p.m. The Speedway is located 1/4-mile north of the US 101/166 interchange on Hutton Road.
RACE SUMMARIES:
Sprint Cars: Fast Time - Evan Suggs, 12.648.
Trophy Dash - Suggs, Tyler Walker, Craig Stidham, Kyle Larson, Tommy Tarlton, Dan Faria, Jr., Brandon Carey, Kevin Pylant.
Heat 1 - Walker, Larson, Suggs, Stidham, Bud Kaeding, Jonathan Allard, Lynn Anderson, Mark Barroso.
Heat 2 - Pylant, Faria, Tarlton, Brent Kaeding, Carey, Brent Bjork, Mike Stallings, Anthony Simone.
Main Event - Walker, Suggs, Stidham, Carey, Bud Kaeding, Brent Kaeding, Allard, Faria, Pylant, Barroso, Tarlton, Bjork, Stallings, Larson, Simone, Anderson.
IMCA Modifieds:
Heat 1 - Jimmy Justice, Bryan Clark, Chad Weber, Jared Domingos, Tony Toste, Christopher Crompe, Jason Papich.
Heat 2 - Steve Greenland, Ian Hunter, Ron Wiley, Kenny Kirkpatrick, Justin Crockett, Bob Diaz, Danny Lauer.
Heat 3 - Ken Kehs, Doug Thornton, Daylan Coffey, Josh Vogt, Jim Evans, Paul Terrones, Joey Claborn.
Main Event - Domingos, Weber, Hunter, Crockett, Terrones, Coffey, Toste, Wiley, Vogt, Justice, Lauer, Clark, Thornton, Greenland, Evans, Kirkpatrick, Papich, Kehs (DNS), Diaz (DNS), Crompe (DNS), Claborn (DNS).
Mini Stocks:
Heat 1 - Rob Gilbertson, Taelor Janes, Hardy Ensign, Cody Greiman, Robby Cervantes, Evan Menane, Ryan Coppi.
Heat 2 - Mike Keebler, Jeremy Heroux, Pat Fausel, Dustin Ensign, Zack Miller, Ryan Changus.
Heat 3 - Tom Grzincic, Robert Dye, Ben Caswell, Travis Peterson, Brandon Reta, Phillip Sewell.
Heat 4 - Jeff Dye, Kurt Larsen, Ed Rains, Bill Changus, Kevin Dye, Adrian Guzman.
"B" Main Event - Cervantes, Reta, Menane, Guzman, Sewell, Coppi, K. Dye, R. Changus, Miller.
"A" Main Event - Grzincic, Heroux, D. Ensign, Fausel, Larsen, H. Ensign, Keebler, R. Dye, B. Changus, Greiman, J. Dye, Peterson, Reta, Menane, Caswell, Janes, Sewell, Gilbertson, Rains, Coppi, Guzman, Cervantes.
POINT STANDINGS:
IMCA Modifieds:
1. Chad Weber, 241; 2. Doug Thornton, 218; 3. Tony Toste, 213; 4. Danny Lauer, 212; 5. Josh Vogt, 206.
Mini Stocks:
1. Tom Grzincic, 397; 2. Jeremy Heroux, 351; 3. Rob Gilbertson, 332; 4. Kurt Larsen, 305; 5. Dustin En sign, 292.
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