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Hamblin Makes History (At Santa Maria Speedway) by Mike McKean, Santa Maria Times Sports Production Editor
Saturday night became a historic Ladies' Night at Santa Maria Speedway. Hanford's Justyne Hamblin made sure of that.
The teenager claimed her first career victory on the 1/3-mile clay oval with a dominant victory in the Bandit Sprint feature, storming past the likes of Peter Murphy and Albert and Davey Pombo for the win.
"I'm so happy, I don't even know what to say," said the quiet Hamblin in a Victory Lane interview following what was, according to track officials, thought to be the first-ever female sprint-car victory at SMS.
The early stages of the 30-lap Bandit feature looked to be a walkover for Australia native Murphy, who leads all the major open-wheel point races (SMS, Bandit, and Bandit/VRA Grand Slam) that have been contested at SMS this season. The Clovis resident took off from his front-row starting position and rocketed away from the field, building up solid early leads over Bakersfield's Alan Ballard and Visalia's Jace VanderWeerd.
Hamblin, meanwhile, fell back from a third-row starting position and was running as far back as ninth by lap 12. However, after a lap-14 restart following a caution flag, Hamblin took her No. 8 Tachi Palace-sponsored car on a trip to the high side of the track, using a groove up near the retaining wall while going around the turns.
"I didn't think I'd be able to go to the front," said Hamblin, who received congratulatory hugs from Murphy and Davey Pombo afterwards. "So I tried to go up higher and higher until it started working."
That proved to be the critical move of the race, as Hamblin began to rocket forward in the field, faster than almost every other car in the field. After the restart, she jumped from eighth to fourth, getting past a fading VanderWeerd on lap 18. Moves around Ballard on lap 20 and Kerman's Davey Pombo - even surviving a brush of the turn-one wall on her march forward - set up a run at Murphy by lap 23, and she made the winning move on lap later, coming out of turn two.
"I thought I was doing pretty good on my own there," Murphy said, "so when I heard this car coming up above me, I was predicting it to be (Ballard), and it was (Hamblin). So there goes Justyne, and I had nothing for her."
When asked what he thought when Hamblin went by, Murphy said, "All I could think was, 'Wow!'"
"She was just on a rail tonight, and my hats off to her," Murphy continued. "She's a hell of a driver, and did an incredible job."
Albert Pombo of Easton also found the high groove to his liking, storming forward to take third, challenging Murphy for the runner-up spot at the finish; Davey Pombo took fourth, followed by Visalia's Richard VanderWeerd. His brother Jace faded from his early run to finish 12th; Ballard ended up seventh.
August 10, 2008 Re-edited for this Post by Pete Curto, Thanks to Mike McKean For complete post with photos go to http://www.santamariatimes.com/articles/2008/08/10/sports/sports55.txt
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