Texan takes New Mexico checkers

[rebelracewriter]

Cardinal Speedway 4/17/04

By James White

 

EUNICE, N.M. -- Even with wild desert winds and brisk temperatures Saturday night , the high banked black clay track stayed tacky and had drivers fast from the bottom groove to the top. 26 IMCA modifieds pulled into the track ready to race.

 

The B main had 16 cars start and the top eight would transfer to the A main. with attrition high , the eight cars running at the end made it to the feature.#12 Slade Johnston and #11 Mark Myers lead the 20 cars in the feature race to the green. Lap one , turn 4 found the #89 and #86 Flowers bros. tangled up sending Neal to the pits, the starter relined them up side by side for a restart.

 

Again in turn 4 #12 Slade Johnson spun in front of the field collecting 3 cars and sending #44 Trent Crawford and others over the inside berm looking more like Baja racers than modifieds, to avoid the pile up. After cleaning the track of cars the race resumed to a very fast pace , #16 Bob Sikes and #44 Trent Crawford were coming to the front. Trent spun in turn 4 to miss another car almost getting into lake CMS, bringing out the red flag.

 

The restart was clean and several laps went by until #16 and #11 got bumpers hooked and #11 Mark Myers towed Bob Sikes to the back strech, and race was flagged to get them untangled. Meanwhile #44 Crawford had passed several cars just before the flag putting him back in contention. Crawford spun in turn 4 later on to avoid being cut off, once more bringing out the red, upon a return to racing it was clear the #44 was the car to beat, he took the lead in the later stages and never looked back.

 

With a very high attrition rate, and several red flags, Crawford won one of the most hard fought races in Cardinal Motor Speedway's history.

 

IMCA Stock Car feature was lead to the wire by #8 Bubba Locke and #65 Eric Jarrel, and with a tacky multi-grove track the racing was fast and intense , #7 Chris Myers was a hard charger moving to the front until after several laps a flat tire sent him to the traier, and #8 Bubba Locke set the pace.#34 Tim Pyle was on the move and moved up to third possition, but ran out of time as Bubba Locke lead wire to wire.

 

RESULTS

 

IMCA MODIFIEDS

1.#44 Trent Crawford , Midland,Tx.( Larry Shaw Chassis)

2. #17 Roy Don Mason

3. #53 J.D.White , Hobbs N.M.

4. #16 Bob Sikes , Eunice, N.M. ( skyrocket chassis)

5. #89 Rick Campbell, Odessa,Tx

6.#06 Owen Puckett

 

IMCA STOCK CAR

1. #8 Bubba Locke, Eunice, N.M.

2. #20 Cody Kays, Hobbs N.M

3. #34 Tim Pyle , Midland , Tx

4. 55 Trey Jarrel

5.#65 Eric Jarrel

6. #1 Kenneth Emler, Odessa, Tx.

 

IMCA HOBBY STOCKS

1.#16 Tristen Sikes

2. #99 Mark Bateman

3. #01 Jack Lavender

4. #71 James Newton

5. #61 Justin Robertson

 

STREET STOCKS

1. #27 Kerry Hinsley

2.#24 Scott Pyle

3. #7 Chris Dosher

4.#29 Wesley Crouch

5. #08 Kenneth Seay

6. #99 Junior Dosher

 

PRO-4'S

1.#3 Steve Huse

2. #75 Bob Eschelman

3. #88 Mike Allen

4.#7 James White

5.#46 John Anderson

6.#28 Danny Seymore

 

STOCK-4'S

1. #49 Brandon Gage

2.#17 Zachary Mason

3. #5 Cody Hodges

4. #9 Desi Trevinio

5.#21 Jason McClearen