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Full
pits and a great day at MRP Playday
Bartlett tests the turn 1 barrier
By
Bob
Burbach
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Marysville CA - February
12,
2008 ---The
second playday of 2008 is in the books. A full pit area
and a better than expected grandstand full of racers and
fans enjoyed a bright 70 something degree-day. 100’s of
practice laps were turned in by the competitors. An
atmosphere of anticipation is beginning to mount as
opening day approaches. The 40th Anniversary Season will
be upon us shortly and many of the cars and stars were on
hand for the sessions.
Much of the buzz centered around the installation of the
new front stretch crash wall and the rather remarkable
progress promoter Paul Hawes has made in such a short time
since the rains subsided last week.
This observer had an opportunity to talk for a short time
with multi-time sprint car feature event winner and Mel
Hall Memorial Champion Jeff Halleib and long time sprint
car owner Jim Munroe. Both are from the Grass Valley area
and have been involved in racing for decades. Munroe said
he was impressed with the efforts that promoter Hawes has
made. Monroe noted that with the seemingly eminent demise
of fairgrounds tracks in California that MRP would be (in
Munroe’s words) “a goldmine” sometime in the near
future. Munroe continued that it was obvious that promoter
Hawes was “spending some money here.” Other, similar
observations put a very positive spin on the day’s
activities.
The day was relatively incident free with only the
occasional wall-banger prompting starter Robin Davies to
wave the yellow banner…with one notable exception. Yuba
City’s Jerry Bartlett was on hand to shake down his new,
immaculate Wingless Sprint Car. Bartlett has made the
switch to the volatile sprint cars this year after several
championships and innumerable feature event victories in
Street Stock competition. Bartlett has tried the sprinters
on for size before, but this year’s effort is 1st class
machinery all the way.
On the 1st turn of lap one of his 1st practice session on
the newly reconfigured oval his purple 00 hammered the
tire barrier at the top of turn one. It was a vicious hit
that sent the car high in the air coming down with great
force right side up. The video that this observer
witnessed shows Bartlett in a strange lazy slide at very
high speed slamming into the barrier. Race Director Tim
Sherman suspected suspension failure after examining the
car a short time later.
Bartlett was tossed about in the car and suffered minor,
but painful bumps and bruises in the crash. His left shoe
was lacerated, but the foot escaped injury. The seat was
bent and, unfortunately so was the chassis. Bartlett told
this observer that the car will be stripped, repaired and
he would be ready for opening day.
3 Wingless Sprint Cars were on hand from Performance Auto
Supply for Brandon and Cort Dozier and fast Tim Barnes.
A myriad of stock cars from Mini’s to Late Models were
on hand. Many of the Mini Stocks were turning comparable
times to the Street Stocks. It looks like Bill Knoop’s
car is ready to go.
Late in the day Race Director Sherman strapped into Blane
Varner’s hot rod and blistered the track in spectacular
style. It was good to see the #1v leaning over on the
right rear. Sherman was really on it. Sherman eventually
went into turn 1 too hot and spun to a halt. When Sherman
popped out of the car he was all smiles. Sherman was in
rare form on Saturday even challenging this observer to a
race…a 100-yard dash, running. Sherman beat me in a
similar race during kid’s night in 1996 two weeks after
he won the feature in winged sprint car competition. Once
he gets going he’s hard to stop.
The final checkered flag flew over the raceway as the
afternoon began to fade into dusk and everyone was talking
about coming back two weeks from today for the 3rd playday
of the season on February 23rd.
Hawes and his crew have yeoman’s work in front of them
prior to opening day. But, if the progress so far is any
indication of what will be here on opening night, MRP is
likely to sparkle brilliantly under the lights that night.
Reminder: The Western All Stars Super Late Model
extravaganza is on fire for April 26. Do not miss this
show. Visit http://www.westernallstars.com/ to have a look
at some of the fantastic racecars that will challenge MRP
Put www.marysvilleracewaypark.com 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 or incorrect. The text is based on
information we have at the time of its release.
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