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Photo by PT Race Photos
Jason Meyers wins another during cold night in Watsonville
By Gary Thomas
Watsonville, CA – March 14, 2008…Clovis, CA’s Jason Meyers continued to his torrid pace at the start of the season by winning the third round of the Golden State Challenge Series season at Watsonville’s Ocean Speedway Friday night. After winning last weekends Mini Gold Cup in Chico, Meyers came back this week and led all 30 laps en route to victory to tie him with Kevin Pylant for 6th on the all-time GSC win list.
Race teams were greeted to the Ocean Speedway by gusty winds, but thankfully no rain, which had been a worry for much of the week. When the sun went down however, temps quickly dropped and became very cold at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds track. Starting from the pole in the 30 lap main event Meyers shot to lead aboard his GLR Investments, KPC No. 14, but it didn’t last long as a red flag waved for a pileup in turn one that saw Jason Statler, Ken Fredenburg, Brent Bjork and Ricky Wright all involved. When the green waved again Meyers wasted no time getting out front and putting distance between himself and the rest of the field.
The strong day time winds had taken its toll on the surface, which had dried out considerably by main event time. A total of 16 laps were clicked off before a caution appeared to bunch the field back up. The order at this point saw Meyers still leading followed by Bixby, Oklahoma’s Shane Stewart, San Jose’s Tim Kaeding, Los Angeles’ Tyler Walker and Chico’s Jonathan Allard. After going back green seven more laps would be completed before another caution waved involving Statler and Jon Maiwald on lap 23.
The next restart saw only one more lap get completed before another caution flew, this time for Tommy Tarlton and Taylor Malsam. Due to the high amount of laps run under caution a fuel stop was needed at this point. The restart saw Walker and Allard go side by side into turns one and two, which ended with Walker getting too high and tagging the fence to bring out another caution.
Meyers had no problems after this and clicked off the final six laps without any worries to claim his second GSC victory in a row and first ever at Ocean Speedway. Stewart had a strong run and closed in on Meyers a couple times in traffic, but never had the momentum to make the pass and settled for second in Dennis Roth’s No. 83. Completing the podium was T. Kaeding in the Tom Rolfe Racing No. 10. TK gave Stewart a hard run for second during much of the race and also had a couple good battles with Walker early on. Rounding out the top five were the Williams Motorsports No. 0 of Allard and tenth starter Bud Kaeding in the BK Racing No. 29. Full results will available at http://www.johnpadjenmotorsports.com
Fremont's Shane Golobic, who did a great job to finish sixth in the A-main event, dominated the 12 lap B-main aboard the Von Schlitz No. 121. Fellow transfers from the semi were Mike Henry, Ken Fredenburg, Jason Botsford, Jerry Bonema and newcomer Jason Sanders. The dash was won by pole sitter Meyers and he was followed across the line by Stewart, T. Kaeding, Walker, Travis Rutz, Taylor Malsam, Allard and Tommy Tarlton.
Four 10 lap heat races were held and they were picked off by Jason Statler, Jason Meyers, Shane Stewart and Evan Suggs. Canadian youngster Travis Rutz scored the night’s fastest lap in qualifying aboard the Rudeen Racing No. 26. Rutz toured the ¼ mile bullring in 11.660 seconds.
The Golden State Challenge Series will be back in action Saturday night March 22 at the Placerville Speedway in Placerville, CA.
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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