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Lovell
out-duels Monahan; Giusti, Emery and Stinson also score
By
Bob
Burbach
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Marysville CA - July 15,
2007 ---
Paul
and Kathy Hawes presented an ambitious and exciting 4
division program Saturday night that featured 4 new
winners in victory lane this season. Yuba City’s Korey
Lovell, Sutter’s Joel Giusti, Former Marysville High
School football coach Neil Stinson and Doug Emery of Glenn
all captured first place prize money in their respective
classes. Great battles and a photo finish spiced the
program on the Marysville Raceway Park ¼ mile.
A 95 degree day and a stiff south wind created dry-slick
conditions by feature time and would put a premium on
driver skill as the Winged Pacific Sprint Cars lined up
for their headliner. A “0” pill pull had the field
starting straight up for starter Robin Davies green
banner. Quick qualifier Mike Monahan was flanked
Marysville’s Brandon Dozier as the field roared out of
four to start the race. Monahan carried Dozier to the
center of the track and buzzed his tires to a car length
lead by turn 1. Dozier fell immediately into 2nd. 3rd
starting Lovell stayed 3rd as the 1st lap was completed.
Dozier slung it into turn 1 on lap 2 just a bit hard and
spun to a stop giving 2nd to Lovell.
The resulting restart set up a race long duel between
Monahan and Lovell that had the crowd cheering at times. A
lap 4 melee in turn 3 had Cort Dozier on his lid after
contact with June 30 feature winner Geoff Duppman. Dozier
was OK. Brandon Dozier, after his 2nd lap spin had spent
the last 3 laps going from last to 4th in a really swift
drive through traffic. Duppman restarted and lined up in
last for the new restart.
A long green flag segment followed with Lovell parked on
Monahan’s tail. Lap after Lap the two MRP champions were
glued together. As ¾ distance approached Lovell pulled
along side and made good a pass for the lead. Rookie Rod
Ramirez executed a spin in turn 1 that negated the move.
At the new green Sacramento’s Rick Kraushar and Jeremy
Burt touched wheels in turn 2 sending Kraushar into a bone
jarring series of hard-hitting flips. Kraushar eventually
walked away from the hard ride, but it took a while for
safety personnel to extract him from the wreckage.
Lovell stayed all over Monahan when the green flashed on
once more. With 3 laps to go Lovell got an advantage on
the outside running side by side with the leader through 3
and 4. Lovell crossed over as the pair drag raced up the
front chute with engines at full song and the tires
struggling for bite. Lovell had the inside at turn 1 and
made good the pass for the lead. The final laps were
uneventful as Monahan tried, but couldn’t get back by
Lovell. Brandon Dozier and Duppman were 3rd and 4th at the
checkers after passing their way into the top five after
early race incidents put them at the rear.
The full field of KKCY Country 103 Cup Mini Stocks raced
fast and clean in a frantic feature race. The two top
point contenders shared the front row as Giusti and
Marysville’s James Foster brought the field to the green
flag. Only a single point separated the two at the
beginning of the night with Giusti on top. This would be a
thriller.
Giusti jumped into a lead he would never relinquish and go
on to victory. But, it wasn’t as easy as that as first
Foster, then Yuba City’s Lisa Shelby were all over the
2006 champion. Long green flag segments highlighted this
spirited tussle for position.
The battle for 4th and 5th was a great one all night as
2005 Mini Stock champion Kevin Sprague returned to
fendered warfare after a year and a half absence. Sprague
was the 2006 MRP rookie of the year in the Wingless Sprint
Car division last year. Talented Blane Baker and Sprague
raced all night long for position just behind the three
leaders. The race was so filled with good races that it
was hard to know where to look.
Guisti led Foster, Shelby and Sprague across the line at
the end when Baker faded in the last few laps allowing
Mike Merritt and Floyd Youngblood 5th and 6th places
respectively.
What was the 3rd closest finish in the history of MRP
turned, in the end, into a race decided by the technical
inspectors. Sacramento’s John Anderson nipped Glenn’s
Doug Emery by.028 seconds in a thrilling side by side
finish at the checkers. But Anderson’s car was
disqualified in post race inspection and the win went to
Emery. The interesting twist here is that it was Emery’s
first race at MRP. Emery was fast all night taking a pair
of 2nds in both the Dash and his Heat race.
Emery’s debut was overshadowed by the return of the
Flyin’ Ford with Jeremy Hawes back at the controls.
Hawes found the lead and disappointment in the curtain
closer.
The front row saw Anderson and point leader Pat Russum
side by side at the green flag for the feature. Russum
took a sizable lead up the backstretch as Hawes found 3rd
behind Anderson at the conclusion of lap 1. Anderson and
Hawes put on a terrific show and diced back and forth
through the first 8 laps while Russum led by 8 or 10 car
lengths. While Anderson and Hawes battled, Russum inched
further ahead. An incidental yellow for a stalled racer
bunched the field near ½ way.
The new green saw Hawes get up on the wheel and quickly
nip by Anderson. Hawes ate up the real estate between
himself and Russum in 2 laps. Then, he roared past Russum
1 lap later on the front stretch to the screaming delight
of the onlookers. It appeared that Russum’s string had
been broken as Hawes started to move away.
2 laps later Hawes started a lazy slide in turn 1 and lost
it. Russum hit Hawes and both were stopped when
Wheatland’s Tim Barnes hammered the motionless 01 and
wiped out Hawes front end. Russum and Barnes restarted.
Hawes was through after a great drive to the front.
Emery had raced his way to the front while the Hawes/Russum
duel was in progress and inherited the lead after the
crash. Anderson was parked on Emery’s tail for the rest
of the race.
As the pair came to the white flag Emery had a paper-thin
lead. Emery faltered just a bit in turn 2 and Anderson was
along side in a flash. Anderson had the inside line in
turn 3 and it was then that Emery crossed over and gassed
the red 14. Emery tried the inside as the pair flew to the
flag. Anderson beat Emery to the line by.028 of a second
in a dazzler of a finish. No one in the grandstand was
sitting. It was that good.
Anderson’s disqualification in post-race inspection put
the Emery back on top with Tim Sherman Jr. 2nd and,
amazingly, Tim Barnes in 3rd. Barnes great ride back to
the front after the Hawes/Russum incident went virtually
unnoticed with the fantastic race going on for the win.
The Nor Cal Dwarf Cars were the hosted traveling group and
local speedster Neil Stinson finally found victory lane in
a stirring drive to the front. The last time Stinson saw
MRP it was a sky-ground-sky-ground experience as he
flipped his way out of that competition. This time Stinson
systematically clawed his way to the front and, after a
heart-pounding battle with “Hollywood” Kevin Bender,
took the well-deserved checkers.
Bender was going to be hard to catch as “Hollywood”
pretty much had everyone covered on a night when a great
slick track racer like Bender showed the way. Mike
“Spanky” Grenert had an adventure as well. His to the
back-to the front (eventually finishing 3rd) race was
noteworthy.
It was Stinson’s 1st home victory after years of trying.
He’s won just about everywhere else on the traveling
circuit but MRP which is situated about a mile from his
place of business. Stinson is the former football coach at
Marysville High School.
Next week the “Wingless Warriors” Wingless Sprint Car
Series will be back for a complete program of their
heart-stopping wheel-to-wheel action. The Mighty KKCY
Stock Cars and Mini Stocks will be back with their
slam-bang form of all out action. The Extreme Bombers will
be back with an outrages car-crunching event that will be
the talk of the town, guaranteed.
Pit gates always open at 3PM. Spectator Gates Open at 5PM
with racing getting underway at 7PM. Contact the promoters
at 1.530.743.1327 or email as indicated on the home page.
Put www.marysvilleracewaypark on your “favorites”
button on you computer. Watch this site for press
releases, updates and complete results.
Note: Please make this observer aware of any names that
are misspelled. The text is based on information we have
at the time of its release.
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