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High
side victory for Klein on Dilly Bar Night
Stein repeats and Bartlett
wins again
By
Bob
Burbach
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Marysville CA - July 29, 2007 ---
Dairy
Queen Dilly Bar night was great fun. Everyone in
attendance got FREE Dilly Bar Ice Cream bars compliments
of the Yuba City Dairy Queen on Live Oak Blvd. It also had
thrilling racing action that kept the fans around all
night long. Another well manicured program had the fans
headed home at a reasonable hour after a full 4 division
show.
“High Flyin’” Herman Klein came back home for the
first time this year. He parked Harley Van Dyke’s red
hot rod on the cushion and passed his way to a spectacular
feature event victory at Paul and Kathy Hawes’
Marysville Raceway Park Saturday night. Jerry Bartlett of
Yuba City easily controlled the KKCY Country 103 Cup
Street Stock feature. Steve Stein roared to another
crowd-pleasing win with a late race pass in the Wingless
Sprint Car Series event.
The “Wingless Warriors” presented their feature first.
An initial jumped start put the first row last and Stein
on the pole. Flanking Stein was Hawaii’s own Shawn
Ternora who has been remarkably quick around MRP. Stein
led the field into turn 1 with Ternora glued to his tail.
Ternora used a slick inside maneuver coming to the
conclusion of the lap and got by Stein.
Point leader Pat Russum had a night he’d rather forget.
The normally fleet Russum went backwards from his 4th
starting position. His closest rival in the point hunt,
Mark Hill of Yuba City was mired deep in the pack and had
to force his way to the front. They started to get close
to one another as the race roared through a long green
flag segment toward its conclusion. During that segment
Stein stayed glued to Ternora as a monster of a tussle was
going on for 3rd through 5th. Sacramento’s John
Anderson, Chico’s Tony Richards and newcomer Josh Tucker
slugged it out in the best race on the track. High and low
passing opportunities for each of the trio kept this dice
interesting.
With 2 to go Ternora still had Stein breathing down his
neck when Russum lost the handle in turn 1 and slid to a
stop setting up a green-white-checkers finish to the race.
Hill had 6th in hand while Russum had to go to the rear.
The 2-lap dash to the flag featured an excellent turn 2
pass by Stein as Ternora left a tiny door open. Stein got
through it and won his 2nd feature in a row. Ternora was
2nd with the surprising Tucker beating out the rest for
3rd. Richards was 4th with a resurgent Hill in 5th. Russum
did some passing of his own in the final 2 laps to secure
9th in the final tally.
Stein’s return to the track that crowned him the 2005
champion has been extremely successful; two entries, two
wins. But more than that, Stein’s professional attitude
and engaging good nature has been a real bonus to the
program.
A tip of the hat to 7th starting Tucker who, as far as we
could research by this writing, has not competed at MRP
before. He entered last week’s event, but had engine
problems that kept his car on the trailer all night.
The KKCY Country 103 Cup Street Stocks were next. It was a
slam-bang war that was finally won by Yuba City’s Jerry
Bartlett. A 1st lap pile up virtually eliminated Yuba
City’s Billy Knoop and point leader Phillip Shelby. Both
drivers had nowhere to go when 2nd running Guy Bean lost
it in turn 4. While both Knoop and Shelby continued at the
new green, both cars were wounded in the scuffle and would
retire early. Bean continued to an eventual 2nd place
finish.
The new green had Harold Olschowka (substituting for son
Jeff) leading, but he promptly spun out of the lead in
turn 2. Cars darted everywhere but up to avoid the
twirling leader. Jerry Bartlett was the first through and
he grabbed a lead he would not give up. Heather Bartlett
found 2nd in the melee. Carl Studhalter was keeping it
straight and smooth and was scored in 3rd at this juncture
of the race. Studhalter deposited his nosepiece on the
front stretch shortly thereafter, however, creating a
yellow flag and was sent to the rear.
Corey Hall, of Yuba City had used all of the early race
thrills and spills to move swiftly into 3rd. The new green
had the Bartlett’s shadowed by Hall. But, Hall promptly
spun in turn 1 bringing out yet another caution flag. The
last ¾ of the race went green all way with Jerry Bartlett
running away. Heather Bartlett was 2nd when she
encountered handling problems that caused her car to push
wildly in turn 4 toward the wall. She nursed the car to an
excellent 4th after Bean and Hall passed her in the
closing laps.
Hall showed promise in his 1st ever stock car ride at MRP.
After his quick spin while in 3rd, he started to get
smooth and steady. His car went forward to its fine 3rd
place finish.
Look for a jumble in the points when the race becomes
official on Tuesday. Point leader Shelby’s early
retirement will allow Heather Bartlett to close the gap.
The alcohol burning Winged Sprint Car Series brought down
the curtain with an explosive feature event that was high
on drama. Pole sitter Mike Monahan of Sparks Nevada led
the field in the early laps, as Yuba City’s Korey Lovell
found 2nd with point leader Jeremy Burt in 3rd. The lead
trio stayed on the bottom for the first few circuits.
Monahan was producing his signature wheelies almost at
will while maintaining his lead.
A couple of minor yellow flag incidents slowed the pace
for a while. During the yellow flags, Klein went to the
top of the track and tested the traction up there. It was
apparent as the field returned to green that he learned
something. The race leaders stayed on the bottom as Klein
tried the top as the race neared 5 laps completed.
Sacramento’s Klein hooked up and started turning some
wickedly fast laps. He eclipsed first Burt then 2nd
running Lovell with relative ease. He got high on Monahan
near ½ way and the race was on for the lead. Monahan was
good down low and stayed even with Klein for several laps.
Klein had it figured out though and began to put a little
distance between himself and Monahan.
Two yellow flag segments near the end gave Monahan another
shot at it and Monahan pulled along side on occasion when
the new green flew. The race had the crowd screaming, but
Klein, in the end would motor away to his 12th career
victory at MRP. Lovell tried the high side after Klein got
by and was having some success when he lost it and created
one of the late race yellow flags. That yellow allowed
Burt to get right behind Monahan and that produced yet
another nail biting battle for 2nd. With 5 to go Burt
finally slipped by Monahan and secured the runner up spot
for good. Klein, however, was untouchable in the late laps
and had a handy lead as the checkers flew. Monahan
maintained 3rd.
An early race spin put infrequent competitor Dennis Harvey
at the back of the field after an up front start. Harvey
was another racer worth watching as the race progressed.
He finished 4th at the end passing more cars than anyone.
Additionally, Brandon Dozier of Marysville was set down
for two weeks and fined by the race director for
unsportsmanlike conduct during the running of the event.
Tim McLaughlin of Colusa dominated the Sprint 100 feature
event and simply won going away. Champion Tony Gaoiran got
to 2nd as the race neared ½ way, but couldn’t dig into
McLaughlin’s insurmountable lead.
The “Wingless Warriors” Wingless Sprint Car Series
will be back for a complete program of their
heart-stopping wheel-to-wheel action next Saturday. The
Mighty KKCY Stock Cars and Mini Stocks will also be back
with their slam-bang form of all out action. The
ever-popular Extreme Bombers will be featured after their
wildly successful figure 8 struggle to take on a new
challenge created by track promoter Hawes. It will be a
gas. The Extreme Bomber races have turned into high-speed
demolition derbies of a sort and are worth the price of
admission alone.
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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