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14 cars signed into the pits, weather was pleasant, slightly cool as the sun went down, but for Petaluma it was down right balmy.
Nice to see at the track the #96 of Todd Miller. Notable continued absences - #19, Art McCarthy, the #3 of Adrian Betournay, and the #6c of Jeff Parady (perhaps low $$$?). Also, not in attendance the #63 Ivan Worden (ran 2nd last week), #56, Shawn Arriaga (at Antioch for GSC?), #10, Michael Forsland, and 2009 feature winner - #51 - Gary Paulson. Paulson has always been a part-timer.
Track was was well prepared for qualifying with 3 cars into the 12 second bracket. Turns 1 and 2 were on the greasy side. The #35jr of Rickey Wright, Jr lost a motor in hot laps and was unable to get out in time to qualify. The #35jr team changed motors and tagged the rear of Heat #2 and would run the A feature. Qualifying immediately followed hot laps and with so few cars there was very, very little time.
Qualifying - Position, Car #, Name, Time (spot in order)
1. #5v, Bradley Terrel, 12.856 (7) 2. #19, Brandon Davis, 12.902 (12) 3. #3x, Allissa Geving, 12.923 (2) 4. #10x, Roberto Kirby, 13.041 (14) 5. #7, Jake Haulot, 13.042 (5) 6. #84, Klint Simpson, 13.068 (12- Simpson lost a motor on his 2nd lap and would be done for the night) 7. #32, Norm Johns, 13.517 (6) 8. #51, John Kirby, Jr. 13.546 (8) 9. #5, Devon Ostheimer, 13.584 (1) - normally runs in the non winged spec sprint events, but decided to put a wing on tonight and looked very good. 10. #7x, Nick Ringo, 13.629 (3) 11. #96, Todd Miller, 13.709 (9) 12. #10c, Keith Collins, 14.003 (10) 13. #9n, Bert Lathrop, 14.039 (4)
Heat 1, 8 laps, 7 cars - finish, car#, name (started)
1. #5, Ostheimer (2) 2. #5v, Terrel (6) 3. #7, Haulot (4) 4. #3x, Geving (5) 5. #32, Johns (3) 6. #96, Miller (1) 7. #9n, Lathrop (7) - The #5 of Ostheimer grabbed the lead at the drop of the green and would never relinquish the top spot. The #7 of Haulot followed into 2nd as the 1st lap was scored. Terrel moved up to 4th by lap 2 and grabbed the 3rd spot from Johns the following lap with a low move in turn 4. Geving grabs 3rd raoring down the front chute. On the final circuit Terrel shot low in turn 4 and grabbed the runner up spot as he out dragged the #7 of Haulot to the checkers. Nice heat race win for the straight up #5 of Ostheimer.
Heat 2, 8 laps, 6 cars - finish, car #, name (started)
1. #19, Davis (4) 2. #7x, Ringo (2) 3. #35, Wright, Jr. (6) 4. #10c, Collins (1) 5. #10x, Kirby (5) 6. #51, Kirby, Jr. (3) - Ringo jumps to the early lead followed by Collins, Davis, and Wright, Jr who moved up 2 spot in the 1st corners. They would run this way for 4 laps with Davis pressuring Collins for 2nd. Lap 6 and Davis uses the familiar high line in turn 2 to pass Collins and take over 2nd. Wright, Jr. follows suit and grabs 3rd down the backstretch. On the final lap Davis uses the same spot to grab the lead from Ringo and take the heat race win.
A- Main, 13 cars, 25 laps - finish, car#, name (started)
1. #5v, Terrel (8) 2. #32, Johns (3) 3. #3x, Geving (6) 4. #19, Davis (7) 5. #5, Ostheimer (2) 6. #35jr, Wright, Jr. (10) 7. #7, Haulot (4) 8. #7x, Ringo (1) 9. #51, Kirby, Jr. (12) 10. #96, Miller (11) 11. #10x, Kirby (5) 12. #10c, Collins (9-DNF) 13. #9n, Lathrop (13-DNF) - This was a non stop affair as it went green to checkers in a time of 6 minutes, 11 seconds. 451 an average speed of 14.840 per lap. Terrel was by far the car on the move as he charged from his outside row 4 start to move up steadily and zoom into the lead on lap 10 from 2nd starting Johns. Johns for a split second regained the lead, but Terrel used a back-marker to roar down the backstretch to re-take the lead and never look back. Johns and Geving had a spirited battle for 2nd over the final 15 laps Several times they were side by side with Geving trying low and high to move around Johns. Johns gamely fought back and continually thwarted every move by hooking up the right rear and powering into the straightaways. The #19 of Davis came on strong at the end and joined the fray with Geving and Johns over the final 5 laps to finish strong 4th. Pole sitter Ringo looked good for the early laps, but could not keep up the ultra fast pace and eventually settled for 8th. Entertaining race with so few cars. Not enough traffic to slow down Terrel as he easily moved around lappers. 7 cars finished on the lead lap. Bad luck for the #84 of Simpson as he has looked better and better over the year and looks poised to run up front if he can find some extra horsepower. Ringo has looked much faster in his own #7 (he ran the Lathrop #9n to start the year) and has shown continued improvement this season.
Next race is the California Civil War Series coming up this Saturday July 25th along with the wingless spec sprints. Should be a great night of open wheel racing . Mini stock ( I think) are also on the card.
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