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Tarlton-Pombo No-Holds Barred Tag Team Match at Kings Speedway
Peter Murphy wielding the Tarlton and Son 21 battled "Fast" Albert and Davey Pombo the entire 30 lap feature in a tag team battle with both Pombo's taking their shots on the tail of the battle scarred black 21 while Michael Faccinto in the other black 21 was at the ready in a fast and furious feature event. Murphy led the entire feature on a heavy and fast track at Kings 3/8 mile oval while his lead was constantly in doubt and challenged nearly every lap all the while concerns over a sick motor kept the team with crossed fingers and well chewed finger nails. The veteran sprint car warrior declared he "was going to run it until it gives up!", but sickly or not it was fast and held together all while being pushed to it's red-line limits.
Albert Pombo jumped to a great start after a second attempt to get the feature underway after Rickie Kirkbride's spin on the first try. "Fast" Albert was all over the back of the team Tarlton speedster through the first half of the 30 lap feature after successfully working around the 21T of Faccinto. Davey Pombo in John Iturriria's white 27, battled and then passed Faccinto to bring the quartet within a large blanket coverage of one another. The lap 15 caution for Wes Gutierrez wild turn 2 bicycle and pogo bounce job into the back 40 allowed the spread field to bunch up. On the ensuing restart Davey tagged (figuratively) cousin Albert and moved around to have a go at the vulnerable Murphy. Davey P. worked high and low to get the veteran Murphy off line and create an opening to pounce all the while Albert in his Extreme Pizza Special waited eagerly to tag back in and Faccinto biding his time in a tight fourth. The elbows-up veterans rubbed wheels and chased through lapped cars on the tear-off eating monster track. As the laps wound down, a late Davey P. charge on Murphy allowed Fast Albert to tag back in and challenge Murphy to the sweet end. Murphy and team Tarlton fended off all Pombo challenges for the entire 30 Laps while the talented understudy and keen opportunist Faccinto was in contention since the green flag flew for the best seat in the house.
The balance of the feature was marked by great racing as 5th place Greg Porte made a great debut in his "shake-down" run in his revamped 3G machine. This bodes ominously for the competition as Porte was cautious the first laps until confidence grew and rust flew thorough the 30 lap feature and made the most of his run. Rusty Carlile and the area 51 team faded from his pole starting spot and was embroiled in battles with Porte, the flying VanderWeerd brothers and Greg Bragg all wrestling with the challenging track. Richard VanderWeerd battling magneto problems all night started scratch on the field and was up on the wheel to earn a 7th place finish right behind brother Jace's 6th place run. Carlile, Bragg, and Jonathon Logan rounded out the top 10 mud slingers.
Bakersfield Rickie Kirkbride survived an opening lap spin and another mid race spin and save to work up to the 11th spot finish. Kirkbride was in constant battles with Kevin Barnes, Austin Mero and Jonathon Henry through out the entire event which was like the proverbial three ring circus. Action abounded everywhere. Contenders Adam Frith-Smith after opening lap contacts with the 27X of John Iturriria found lap 10 to be his undoing as he flipped spectacularly off turn 3 to bring out the only red of the night and allow teams to frantically add tear-offs in an attempt to retain vision with the flying clay which was being slung everywhere. Justyne Hamblin made an unusual early exit as gremlins tinkered with the red and white 8's magneto.
Fast time went to "Big Daddy" Davey Pombo as he paced the field with qualifying speed of 82.919 M.P.H which took a mere 16.281 ticks of the clock to circulate the heavy and slickery Kings clay. The night proved Kings as being "the place to race" as heat races were challenging to the many talented drivers who worked hard make their time transfers. The first heat went to Davey Pombo after capitalizing on a slip by "the Gilroy Gasser" Wes Gutierrez to win the first heat. The second heat saw Hamblin show Murphy the fast way around the D-shaped oval while the 3rd heat found young Faccinto school veteran Carlile on rooster throwing on his way to victory. Heat races were tough on the numbers 2, 3 and 4 qualifiers as they failed to make their transfers with time and had to start after the transferred drivers. The trophy dash found Kevin Barnes in victory lane as he went wheel-to-wheel with John Iturriria in a crowd thrilling battle for the shiny trophy.
The event was marked by Davey making a full time return to the Bandit series with plans to partner with Bakersfield John Iturriria's fast ITI Viper/ Downing combination for the balance of the 2008 season. Citing family issues priorities Davey was grateful for his opportunities with ITI as a driver and although we all wished him great success we are happy to welcome him back home. We also were privileged to be joined by another great Bandit champion as Greg Porte made his long anticipated return to the Series and his first Kings start in two long years. Porte again showed that the off-time was spent in creating a fantastic looking and running ride as he added an intimidating black to the venerable Porte blue scheme and added decals from Pro Signs to add to the wow factor.
In addition to the regular Bandit great competitive teams we were joined by VRA 2008 feature winners Greg Alexander and Jonathon Henry and the Kruseman star and protégé Austin Mero "the Kingsburg Cowboy" to make for a great event. After the first third of the season we've seen over 40 participants excluding the great VRA teams, and going strong in spite of larger economic challenges.
This marks a two month break for the Bandit Series at Kings until August 2nd when the Bandito's make their return to Frank Dias "place to race". The next event will be after a few Saturday nights well deserved break. June 21st will see a return to the Bandit Series home of the Santa Maria Speedway, fresh from a healthy addition of clay. June 28th will find the Grand Slam return to Bakersfield for the legendary dual Bandit-VRA challenge series. Then the series will have three in a row at Santa Maria in July with the icing on the cake being the July 26th Grand Slam Bud Stanfield Memorial date. The July 5th Bandit date is off for the VRA Sprinters and provides an opportunity for teams to tune up for the next Grand Slam.
Not every team is going to take the two weeks off. "The Gilroy Gasser" is considering making the long tow to join the great VRA racers and get some more valuable wheel-time at Jim and Cliffs great 1/5th mile track. Also some teams are planning on racing at the Santa Maria USAC/CRA date on the 14th, so while some will take a breath others will keep chugging on…racers are racers. Great racers and great racing are the hallmark of this series and characterizes this season to date.
Bandit Results - Kings Speedway May 31s, 2008
Qualifying: 27 Davey Pombo, Kerman, 16.281 (82.92 MPH); 11 Greg Bragg, Visalia, 16.396; 88H Jonathon Henry, Stockton, 16.708; 62 Adam Frith-Smith, Fresno, 16.715; 35 "Fast" Albert Pombo, Fresno, 16.717; 21T Michael Faccinto, Fresno, 16.787; 3G Greg Porte, Atascadero, 16.830; 21 Peter Murphy, Clovis, 16.842; 51 Rusty Carlile, Bakersfield, 17.015; oo7 Wes Gutierrez, San Martin, 17.052; 88V Jace VanderWeerd, Visalia, 17.183; 32 Jonathon Logan, Hanford, 17.202; 87 Rickie Kirkbride, Bakersfield, 17.242; 2k "the Kingsburg Cowboy Austin" Mero, Kingsburg, 17.343; 27X John Iturriria, Bakersfield, 17.354; 36B Kevin Barnes, Fresno, 17.950, 28 Davey Knott, Fresno, N/T; 22A Greg Alexander, Torrance, N/T; 10 Richard VanderWeerd, Visalia, N/T
Trophy Dash: Barnes; Iturrira; Kirkbride, Mero, Alexander
Heat 1: D. Pombo; Gutierrez; Porte; Logan; Frith-Smith; Iturriria; Alexander (DNS)
Heat 2: Hamblin; Murphy; Kirkbride; A. Pombo; Bragg; Barnes; 10 R. VanderWeerd (DNS)
Heat 3: Faccinto; Carlile; Mero, J. VanderWeerd; Henry; Knott.
Feature: Murphy; A. Pombo; D. Pombo; Faccinto; Porte; J. VanderWeerd; R. VanderWeerd; Carlile; Bragg; Logan; Kirkbride; Barnes; Mero; Henry; Gutierrez; Frith-Smith; Knott; Hamblin; Iturriria; Alexander
20 Cars. 1 Red, 62 Frith-Smith flip lap 15
Bandit Points top 20
1. (21) Peter Murphy 452
2. (35A) "Fast" Albert Pombo 357
3. (51) Rusty Carlile 351
4. (32) Jonathon Logan 322
5. (8) Justyne Hamblin 320
6. (10) Richard VanderWeerd (Rookie) 279
7. (27/27X) John Iturriria 270
8. (oo7) Wes Gutierrez (Rookie) 269
9. (88V) Jace VanderWeerd (Rookie) 249
10. (28) Davey Knott 219
10. (36B) Kevin Barnes 219
12. (8M) Jayson May 212
13. (87) Rickie Kirkbride (Rookie) 208
14. (62) Adam Frith-Smith 194
15. (51T) Jeff Gardner 185
15. (4) Rick Eberhardt (Rookie) 185
17. (25) Jared Little 171
18. (11) Greg Bragg 169
19. (21T) Michael Faccinto 136
20. (18) Danny "Showtime" Sheridan 108
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