I-37 Speedway Winter Series race #2

[rebelracewriter]

I-37 Speedway Winter Series race #2 1/10/04

By J M Hallas

Pleasanton, Tx. Another beautiful race day for the second round of I-37 Speedway’s Winter series. With none of last weeks feature winners in attendance, it was a given that new faces would find their way to winners circle in all three of the IMCA classes.

 

Danny Brown and Robert Hale paced the 20 car field to green for the start of the 20 lap IMCA Modified A-main on the 1/4 mile clay track. But it was Glen Derks coming around the high side from row two to get lead on lap 1. Brown and Hale stacked up the field causing a three wide battle for fourth between Bobby Grobe, Rusty Treviathan and Elias Anderson. Bill Pittaway brought out the yellow on lap 2, when he spun. On the restart, Grobe got turned around from fourth and collected Anderson, with Brad Jordan spinning in the back up.

 

On the next try to get back under way, Henry Witt quickly moved up past Treviathan and Hale to third, only to have the red come out. Lupe Gomez got sideways coming out of turn 4 and made contact with Michael Carlock. Gomez’ car got turned and dug in sending him into the air doing 1 1/2 flips, with an end-over, landing on his roof. Gomez was quickly out of the car, uninjured, and was actually laughing about the ordeal.

 

As the race finally got back under green, Treviathan got by Hale for third, with Brown grabbing the point from Derks on lap 3. Browns lead was short-lived as Treviathan make quick work of Derks and got inside Brown for the lead on lap 4. Meanwhile, Witt and Derks were side by side for third. Brown then spun from second and collected Lawrence Mikulencak, who was done for the night with a broken rear suspension.

 

Witt and Anderson moved around Derks on the restart, with Witt looking inside Treviathan for the top spot. Michael Rothammer brought a yellow on lap 5 when he spun in turn 4 and collected Grobe, Shannon Parsons, Carlock and Dale Flanagan. Shortly after the green flew, Treviathan went up in smoke as he knocked the bottom out of his motor. This handed the lead to Witt, who also had an ill sounding motor, on lap 7, while Tanner Whitmire passed Derks to get third.

 

Rothammer brought out the caution again when he took an off-road excursion through the weeds over the turn 2 hill. As the race went back to green, Anderson looked on the high side to get by a popping Witt. Whitmire tried to dive inside Anderson and began to spin, as the back came around it clipped Anderson who also spun. With Witt still popping and banging out front, Pittaway worked his way back to battle with Derks for third.

 

As the crossed flags were shown it was Witt, Anderson, Pittaway, Derks and Hale rounding out the top five. Despite the sick motor, Witt was able to inch away from Anderson until the yellow hankie came out on lap 11 when Whitmire and Flanagan got tangled between turns 3-4. Anderson tried to stick with Witt once under green, while Grobe and Hale were door to door for sixth.

 

Witt again was able to put some distance on Anderson, who had a good gap back to Pittaway, Derks and Joey Whitehead who were battling for third. Anderson closed slightly as Witt ran up on a lap car, but not close enough to challenge. As the white flew Witt had a good enough margin back to Anderson, as Derks and Whitehead continued there battle. At the checkers it was Witt in his J R Rice Memorial Special, sponsored by Centex GMC/Dick Scott Ford/Affiliated Auto Glass/Allied Wheels/Midwest Motorsports/Bartell Motorsports/Danz Designs/Fast Shafts/Wilson Chassis Co./HOT Chassis, taking another win.

 

1 701 Henry Witt

2 31 Elias Anderson

3 37 Bill Pittaway

4 71 Glen Derks

5 711 Joey Whitehead

6 25 Bobby Grobe

7 01 Tanner Whitmire

8 8H Robert Hale

9 0 Brad Jordan

10 21 Jamie Campbell

11 76 Michael Carlock

12 58 Dale Flanagan

13 13 Shannon Parsons

14 168 Michael Rothammer

15 51 Rusty Treviathan

16 55 Danny Brown

17 87 Lawrence Mikulencak

18 7 Lupe Gomez

19 91 Tracey Fink

20 78 Trevor Egbert

Witt, Treviathan, Anderson and Mikulencak won the heats.

 

 

Sixteen cars started the 20 lap IMCA Stock A-main, led to green by Justin McGehee and MK Wallace. McGehee got the jump on green to get the lead, but Jason Honey spun in turn 1 to bring about a complete restart. McGehee was first out again as he came to line with James Hyde along side. Hyde got the lead on lap 2 as Thomas Earl moved into fourth and the 2003 I-Stock National Champion, Duain Pritchett climbed to fifth after starting near the tail. Lap 3 saw Pritchett move into fourth, while Earl challenged McGehee for second.

 

On lap 4 Hyde slipped high with McGehee looking inside as the top four started to break away. Pritchett continued his charge getting by Earl on lap 6 in turns 1-2, and grabbing second from McGehee the same lap in turns 3-4. Caution flew on lap 7 when Earl and McGehee made contact and spun, with James Myers spinning behind. Earl was done for night with a broken front suspension.

 

On the restart Hyde spun in turn four while trying to hold off Pritchett for the lead. McGehee pitted from third under the caution. With Pritchett on the point, the race went back to green, with Benji Kirkpatrick quickly pressuring Pritchett. The two were door to door at the line with Kirkpatrick getting the nose ahead on lap 8. Pritchett fought back on the high side inching ahead on lap 9.

 

As the race came to halfway, Kirkpatrick again eked out the lead over Pritchett, while Charlie Wilson, who started beside Pritchett in row 7, Matthew Bagley and Donald Lewis rounded out the top five. On lap 11 Pritchett got the bumper to line ahead of Kirkpatrick and finally got a little breathing room, by three car lengths, on lap 12. With five to go, the top five had separated out ahead of the battle for sixth through ninth between Wallace, Hyde, Myers and Jeff Sustaire.

 

Pritchett got one last scare on the final lap when Wallace spun in front of him in turn 2, but Pritchett got by with no trouble to grab the victory in his Jeffs Performance Automotive/TMM Fabrication/Wise County Detailing/Bilstien Shocks/Metro Colors/Murty Farms/Brads Transmissions/CA’s Auto Supply/Toms Auto Glass/Arty & Son Paint & Body/Midwest Motorsports/Parsons Roofing/Stan Hopkins Co./Aero Race Wheels/Rickys Welding/Hobby Horse Custom Embroidery/We Got Your Number Graphics & Lettering/ Advantage Race Car

 

 

 

1 22 Duain Pritchett

2 47x Benji Kirkpatrick

3 55 Charlie Wilson

4 32 Matthew Bagley

5 25 Toby Miller

6 51 Donald Lewis

7 9 James Hyde

8 09 MK Wallace

9 6 James Myers

10 87 Jeff Sustaire

11 4 Jason Honey

12 21 Tim Worthy

13 79 Justin McGehee

14 47 Thomas Earl

15 13 Shannon Parsons

16 77 Robin Lutholtz

Heat winners were Parsons and McGehee. Pritchett also picked up the $25 Hard Charger bonus sponsored by SASpeedpics.com.

 

With a short field of cars, the IMCA Hobby Stock main was cut back to 15 laps, led to the green flag by Dustin Lemaster and Barry Tuttle. Tuttle got the early lead but slid high in turn 2 allowing Allen Montgomery to get past for the top spot. Chris Ater and Dillon Smith also got by Tuttle to move into second and third. On lap 3, Ater got into Montgomery, with Montgomery spinning. Montgomery was given the lead back and Ater sent to the tail.

 

On lap 5 Ben Anderlich got by Tuttle for third, Tuttle lost fourth to Ater a lap later. At the mid point Montgomery held the lead over Smith, Ater, Tuttle, Lemaster and Anderlich, who suffered a flat during a spin. Ater was closing back in on the lead duo when Tuttle spun on lap to bunch the field under yellow. Smith looked on the high side as the green flew, while Tuttle and Lemaster moved up when Ater pulled to the infield. Montgomery was never seriously challenged as the Fort Worth driver went on to snag the win in his Ace Tire Service/QSD Graphics/Destroyer Chassis.

 

IMCA Hobby

1 38 Allen Montgomery

2 03 Dillon Smith

3 8 Barry Tuttle

4 36 Dustin Lemaster

5 7 Chris Ater

6 08 Ben Anderlich

Ater took the only heat win.

[SLIDER]

Thanks reb! Hope to see ya at the track next week!

 

Congrats to Witt, Pritchett and Smith!