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Former Champ Stein last to 1st in sprints
Shelby, Luster back in victory lane in KKCY Cup
Figure 8-Slam-Bang success.
By
Bob
Burbach
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Marysville CA - July 22, 2007 ---
2005
“Wingless Warrior” Sprint Car Champ Steve Stein of
Davis scored a fantastic feature event victory at Paul and
Kathy Hawes’ Marysville Raceway Park Saturday. Yuba
City’s Phillip Shelby was a rocket in the KKCY Street
Stock feature and padded his point lead with an
outstanding passing display. Robert Luster of Marysville
was quick all night and won the KKCY Mini Stock main event
that was peppered with drama both on and off the track.
The Figure 8 event that capped the nights festivities was
a rollicking good time that had the fans screaming for
more.
The KKCY Country 103 Cup feature was presented first and
it was worth the price of admission. 7th starting Phillip
Shelby put on a driving clinic in his run to the front. In
a race that saw few yellow flags, Shelby made the pass for
the lead on Marysville’s Ryan McDaniel with a slick
inside move off of turn 4. Shelby needed 14 of the 20
scheduled laps to get through the highly competitive
field.
Rio Oso’s Jake Cavasos led the first few circuits that
included a yellow flag for teammate Jeff Olschowka when he
came together with another car. One of the favorites,
Olschowka was done for the night. As the race approached
lap 5 McDaniel closed rapidly and eclipsed Cavasos with a
turn 2 run that sent McDaniel’s #73 into the lead as the
pair approached turn 3. While all this action was going on
at the front at the front, Shelby was up on the wheel and
passing cars. The 2006 champ was relentless in his pursuit
of the leaders.
Yuba City’s Jerry Bartlett slipped into 2nd and gave
chase to McDaniel and began to close as the race neared ½
way. A series of wildly entertaining passes by Shelby put
him on Bartlett’s bumper in 3rd. Cavasos and 5th running
Ray Benkowski were in a fine duel when they both slipped
sideways in turn one creating a mad scramble behind them.
Heather Bartlett missed the melee and advanced. Cavasos
and Benkowski recovered and motored on. During that jumble
in turn 1 Shelby slipped by Jerry Bartlett on the other
end of the raceway and set his sights in McDaniel. When
Shelby got to McDaniel they raced side by side for a
circuit or two and just as quickly as he got here, Shelby
began to motor away after a clean, daring pass. He flew
under starter Robin Davies checkers with a commanding
lead. Heather Bartlett had a great last few laps and found
3rd in the end ahead of dad Jerry who led Cavasos across
the stripe.
Robert Luster was in victory lane before this observer
knew there was a problem with the original results in the
KKCY Mini Stock feature. 2006 Champion Joel Giusti had
pretty much dominated at the front of the wild 20 lapper
once Marysville’s Shaun Merritt was eliminated in a
bizarre accident of off turn 4. But, the all-watching eye
of promoter Paul Hawes’ technical team found Giusti’s
car out of compliance with the rules and disqualified the
series point leader. 3rd place finisher Jamey Ollar was
also summarily disqualified and hard charging Lisa Shelby
was declared the runner up.
The race itself was a crowd pleasing, chaotic event that
had multi grove passing all event long. In fact, 2nd place
Shelby was the show in late race action as she clawed her
way to the front after a flat tire and a late race spin in
turn 4.
Quick qualifier, Merritt was the class of the field and
led until nearly ½ way when Guisti quickly approached
Merritt. It seemed that Merritt had a mechanical issue
that allowed Giusti to catch him. When Giusti caught
Merritt in turn 3 Merritt tried to respond with a high
side maneuver that didn’t work. Merritt began a lazy
slide in turn 4 that collected 3rd running James Foster.
Foster and Merritt headed for the wall and Merritt hit it
with enough force to send his quick racer to the pits for
good. Shelby got a flat and had to visit the pits. She had
been quickest to that point along with teammate Blane
Baker.
Mike Merritt had also been on the charge and quickly got
to the top five. The new green had Giusti virtually run
away from the rest with Foster losing ground each lap and
Luster gaining ground on the leaders. Shelby was flying
through traffic from the back as the race got to its final
few laps. Baker was in the mix, too, and going forward. It
was a grand dice as the top six cars thundered toward the
end. Luster got by Foster for 2nd, and then Foster chugged
to a crawl with but 2 laps to go. Shelby was 4th already
and still rushing quickly toward the leaders. The field
came to the final flag in a cloud of dust and to a yellow
checkered as Baker headed toward the infield after Luster
cranked it sideways leaving turn 4. Giusti took the
checkers 1st with eventual winner Luster in tow.
Post race penalties for unsportsman-like conduct were
handed out to Foster and Floyd Youngblood for altercations
in the pits after the event. The no-tolerance rules for
unsportsman-like conduct set both drivers down for 2 weeks
and each received $50 fines.
The drama in the Wingless warriors Wingless Sprint Car
Series started before the green flag ever fell. Steve
Stein was sent to the rear when his potent #34 would not
fire on the original call to start the engines.
Marysville’s Cort Dozier and Tim Sherman Jr. shared the
front row and Dozier jumped to an easy lead. Shaun Ternora
from Ewa Beach Hawaii started in row two and quickly moved
up to challenge Dozier. Mark Hill was in tow riding 3rd.
On lap 2 Ternora slipped past Dozier and led at the line.
A couple of early race miscues cost point leader Pat
Russum a few positions as Jeremy Hawes and he dueled in
mid pack. Stein meanwhile was on the move. He was clicking
off positions at will as he came to the front in a big
hurry. A lap 5 yellow flag found Stein in 4th!
Ternora was quick however and pulled a nice lead as the
new green waved. A few laps later a car having obvious
mechanical and handling problems checked up in turn 2
causing Ternora to take evasive action. Dozier, Hill and
Stein slipped by before Ternora could recover.
2 laps later Stein was by Hill and set his sights on
Dozier. Stein was camped on Dozier’s tail, as ½ way
became history. Stein then flashed by Dozier only to have
the move negated by an incidental yellow flag. At the new
green Stein went back to work and, in 3 turns of the ¼
mile, grabbed the lead for good.
The race itself got better in the late laps as first Hill,
then a resurgent Ternora got by Dozier. Then, Ternora
turned up the heat on Hill and it was a fine race for 2nd
at the end. Ternora finally got by Hill for the runner up
spot with Dozier hanging on to 4th. Stein ran away in the
late laps showing the smooth, aggressive style that got
him the championship laurels here in 2005.
“That was fun….” was Stein’s assessment of his
drive from last to 1st place in the 30 lapper. Stein’s
car and crew stayed on the front chute long after the race
was over savoring the moment. A tip of the hat from this
observer on a great drive to the front by the former
champ.
The 1st EVER Extreme Bomber Figure 8 race brought down the
curtain on the festivities with a slam-bang, no holds
barred, slugfest that had the fans screaming for more. In
the end only 3 cars were running and the rest were
battered and smoking after taking relentless hits during
the race. At his writing this observer has no idea who won
the race, or who his fearless companion might have been.
But, the event itself was an unqualified success and
NOBODY left the speedway until this one was over.
Next week is the Yuba City Dairy Queen’s Dilly Bar
night. All those in attendance will get free ice cream.
The final drawing for the Jimmy Sills Sprint Car rides
will be staged and a full program of racing is also in
store.
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 will be back with their slam-bang form of all
out action. The Winged Pacific Sprint Cars will headline
the program that will also have the SORA Sprint 100s on
the card.
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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