Marysville Raceway Park
Press Release 8.29.09
For immediate release
By Bob Burbach

Ternora says “Aloha” to sprint field
Castleberry & Trimble also win. 85 cars swell pits.

Marysville- Paul and Kathy Hawes turned the lights on Saturday and a rocket fast, hooked up surface greeted 85 entrants. Shaun Ternora, late of Ewa Beach Hawaii smoked the MRP Winged Sprint Car feature field. Misty Castleberry pulled off another convincing victory in the MRP Mighty Minis and young Ray Trimble fought his way to his 2nd win in the MRP Super Stock main. Mason Myers won the Prime Time Pizza Extreme Bomber finale.

It was 102 degrees at race time and promoter Hawes still presented the field with a picture perfect surface. Preliminary events went off with few slowdowns. The MRP Sprint Cars were turning almost scary fast laps as a sweet cushion built up on both ends of hooked up oval during heat race competition.

The MRP Super Stocks were the first feature presented and it was a non-stop event capped by a great 3-car battle up front for a good portion of it. Cory Hall jumped to an early lead grabbing the spot from pole sitter Trimble. Trimble, seemingly content to run in 2nd for a while suddenly had his hands full with Jeff Olschowka who was trying for his 3rd straight win. Trimble then got back up on the wheel and started to leave Olschowka and reel in Hall.

As the race flew into its final circuits, Trimble was all over Hall. Moments later Hall lost the handle out of 4 in lapped traffic and Trimble was by in a flash. Hall left the race a couple of laps later with an undisclosed problem and Trimble was home free in a mistake free performance. Olschowka stayed 2nd and Willie Horn placed a well-deserved 3rd in the final standings.

The MRP Winged Sprint Car feature was next and Ternora lined up in the front row with impressive lady racer Reyna Krueger. The drama in the division started early on as point leader Korey Lovell had a mechanical failure in practice that sidelined his familiar 71 before he qualified the car. Lovell jumped into brother Kevin’s 81 and took his first laps ever in that car. He transferred into the feature, but started deep in the field.

Ternora won the drag race into turn 1 and that was simply “all she wrote”. Ternora weaved through lapped traffic with ease and left Krueger to do battle with a quick Trent Canales, Cort Dozier, Tony Silvera, Brent Dothage and a charging Lovell. The first 18 circuits went into the books without incident as the multi groove track allowed passing virtually everywhere. That knot of cars from 3rd through 6th kept everyone on their feet. It was a swirl of high-speed entertainment.

Then as the white flag fluttered a major pile-up exploded into action right in front of the grandstand. Canales and Lovell were eliminated in a crash that also included Silvera. Dothage slipped on through the mess and would be 3rd at the restart. With Lovell on the sidelines, Dothage now had a major opportunity to possibly re-assume the point lead with a good finish. It took 2 restarts to bring the field to the checkers, but the outcome was really never in doubt. Ternora stormed on to victory by a wide margin over Krueger, Dothage and a fast closing Cort Dozier. Brandon Dozier, Robby Hight and Derek Dozier grabbed the honors in the lightning fast heat races.

Though the results and points become official on Tuesday, it appears that Dothage and Lovell will be tied for the championship when the MRP Sprint Cars resume competition next week at the NARC Reunion event. With only 2 races to go, it’s the first time ever that the point race has been tied at this juncture in the season.

The highest finishing members of the association in the MRP Winged Sprint Cars got the Contingency Connection bonus. The bonus winner can receive up to $1250 in award certificates good for products from Contingency Connection sponsors. In addition to our cash purse prize money, MRP gets contingency vouchers and certificates for our winged and wingless sprint cars. The way it works is that Contingency Connection has signed up over 200 sponsors nationwide who contribute merchandise vouchers each race to the winner. The only catch is that drivers must be sporting the decal of that sponsor to earn the bonus. The vouchers can be saved and traded in for larger ticket items. The bonus is a healthy addition to the weekly $1000 cash prize promoter Hawes already pays to the winner of MRP winged sprint car main events. You must be a member of the association to be eligible, but you can become a member at any event throughout the year for a nominal fee.

Mike Simmons and Shaun Merritt led the MRP Mini Stocks to starter Robin Davies green flag. Merritt jumped into the lead as a big crash twisted cars left and right from row two on back. Amazingly enough, all the cars kept going but heat race winner Willie Horn chugged to a stop in turn 2. He restarted before the yellow flag could appear, but the leaders were able to put Horn a lap down. This was significant in the final outcome. The race stayed green. On lap 4, 3rd starting Castleberry slipped by Simmons for 2nd and a lap later was by leader Merritt as mechanical gremlins again plagued the Merritt effort.

Castleberry was in control from there. In a bizarre twist, Horn was undoubtedly the fastest car on the raceway and started to slice his way toward the front of the field. On the last lap Horn forced his way by Castleberry to what many thought was the lead. A review of timing and scoring placed Horn in 4th position as his pass of Castleberry actually put him back on the lead lap. He finished a great 4th after his 1st lap problem. Joel Giusti was 2nd after a great effort, but Castleberry’s sweep of the program gained her an additional 5 markers on Giusti in her run to a possible championship. It was her 6th victory.

Sprint car star Mason Myers picked up his 2nd consecutive victory in the Prime Time Pizza Extreme Bomber finale. Promoter Hawes threw a curve at the starters in this event by only watering the corners. This was a great idea as the racers were able to sustain higher speeds with a bigger challenge in the corners. It was a winner. Myers led from start to finish, as the mechanical mayhem behind him was simply extraordinary. It was great fun as radiators and motors exploded while fenders were ripped to shreds with regularity. This class has become a real crowd favorite.

We do it with the lights on again next Saturday night. The track will celebrate its annual salute to the cars and stars of yesteryear at the NARC Reunion Event. The mighty MRP Winged Sprint Cars will headline the show with the Browns Valley RV/Performance Auto Supply Wingless Warrior Sprint Car Series. The MRP Mini Stocks, the Pro 4 Sprints and the BCRA Midget Lites will also be on the card. The spectator gates open at 5PM with hot laps at 6 and qualifying at 6:30. The races will start promptly after qualifying. The pit gate opens at 3PM.

Note: Please make this observer aware of any names that are misspelled or incorrect. The text is based on information we have at the time of its release. Complete finishes, stats and points become official and available at the close of business on Tuesday and will be posted to the web site.