Forum: Northern California Sprint Car (go)
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Fresh off a 3rd place finish at the Civil War Series last Saturday night at Petaluma Speedway, 16 yerar old Bradley Terrel captured his 1st A-Main victory tonight at Petaluma Speedway. Only a 2nd place finish in his heat prevented Terrel from a clean sweep as he sat fast time in qualifying.

Petaluma Speedway 3/8" mile, 21 cars, weather was clear and cool, track was smooth, fast and tacky all night

2 visitors tonight - the #7x of Stan Yockey from Fresno and #6 of Matt DeMartini of Oakley

Jeff Parady is the points leader coming into the race with a 29 point advantage over 2nd place Shawn Arriaga. S. Arriaga cut nearly 1/2 off of the lead by the time the A was completed.

Top 10 qualifiers (position, car#,name, time)

1.#43, Terrel,12.760 2. #3x, Allissa Geving,12.847 3. #7x,Yockey,12.900 4. #56, Shawn Arraiga,13.060 5. #3, Bill Cornwell,13.060 6. #6, Demartini,13.106 7. #29,Cameron Mendes,13.160 8. #25B, Dustin Baxter, 13.201 9. #14, Scott Merrel,13.208 10. #96, Arvo Backholm,13.271

4 Heats were run, 8 laps - although few cars they proved to be enertaining as drivers were not content to hold spots and raced to gain positions.

Heat 1 - 5 cars (finish, car#, name, (starting spot)

1. #19, Art McCarthy(1) 2. #43, Terrel(5) 3. #6, DeMartini(4) 4. #6c, Jeff Parady 5. #96, Backholm,(3) - Art McCarthy jumped to the lead from his pole starting spot. The #6 of Demartini quickly followed him into 2nd with the #43 of Terrel grabbing 3rd at the flagstand to start lap 2. Terrel begins the chase of Demartini trying to make the low side pass as they race through the turns. Lap 7 sees Terrel get under Demartini low in 4 and make the clean pass as the they take the white flag. DeMartini drifted high enough in 4 that Terrel was able to outdrag him down the front chute. McCarthy wins easily.

Heat 2 - 5 cars - finish, car#,name(starting spot)

1. #3x, Alissa Geving(5) 2. #2, Mike Learn(1) 3. #3, Cornwell(4) 4. #7, Nick Ringo, Jr.(2) 5. #33, Jason Macintosh(3) - Geving hops a wheel on the start and bounces a few times, but is able to save it. The #7 of Ringo takes the early lead as the filed begins to go single file. Geving captures 4th with a backstretch pass of Macintosh. Macintosh returns the favor moving back into 4th on lap 5 in turn 4 as the 2 bang wheels. Both continue, but on lap 6 Macintosh brings out the yellow spinning in turn 2.

Restart- 7, 2, 3, 3x, 33 - The lap 6 restart sees Geving grab 3rd racing past the #3 of Cornwell down the backstretch and sets her car after the leaders. Geving dives down low through 3 and 4 and passes the #2 of Learn and #7 of Ringo, Jr. to take the win with a risky move. Ringo gets out of shape exiting turn 4 and falls all the way back to 4th. He seemed to be a little unnerved by the Geving slider.

Heat 3 - 5 cars - finish, car#,name(starting spot)

1. #7x,Yockey(5) 2. #29,Mendes(4) 3. #14, Merrel(3) 4. #4q,Adam McCarthy(2-DNF) 5. #17, Cheri Hill(1-DNF) - McCarthy jumps out to the lead from his outside frow row starting spot. The #7x of Yockey is pressuring the #14 of Merrel hard for 4th. and makes the pass on lap 6 with a low side move in turn 4. Red comes out on lap 7 for the #17 of Hill as Mendes pulls a slider in trun 4 and does not quite clear Hill. Hill does not check up in time and jumps the right rear and tumbles violently into the trun 4 wall upside down cage 1st busting through the plywood. Hill walked away unsteadily from the car, but was OK. During the red the leader #4 of mcCarthy goes to the pits and does not return. Restart lap 7- 29, 7x,14 - Yockey is pressuring the #29 of Mendes big time down low. He makes the winning inside move low in 3 and 4 and takes the win at the checkered flag.

Heat 4 - 6 cars - finsih,car#,name(starting spot)

1. #10x, Roberto Kirby(2) 2. #56F, Fred Arriaga(1) 3. #48k, Kirt Simpson(4) 4. #56, S. Arriaga(5) 5. #25B,Baxter(3) 6. #7r,Nicholas Ringo?(DNS) - At the drop of the green Kirby quickly to the lead. Baxter and F. Arriaga swap sliders at opposite ends of the track with #56F of F. Arriaga prevailing. Baxter bgins to drop back as he drigts high in 4 after the F. Arriaga pass.. The #56 of S. Arriaga wheel stands halfway down the front stretch, but is able to hold on to his 4th place spot. Kirby takes the checkers.

A 4 lap trophy dash was run inverting the top 4 qualifiers. The #7x of Yockey wins the dash from his outside row starting. Shanw Arriaga 2nd from his pole starting with Geving and Terrel finishing where they started 3rd and 4th respectively).

A-Main - 21 cars - 25 laps - track smooth and tacky, bright full moon (finish, Car#,name(started)

0 inversion was pulled

1. #43,Terrel(1) 2. #14,Merrel(8) 3. #4q, Ad. McCarthy(10) 4. #56,S.Arriaga(4) 5. #19,Art McCarthy(12) 6. #3,Cornwell(6) 7.#10x,Kirby(13) 8.#48k,Simpson(9) 9.#6,DeMartini(5) 10.#96, Backholm(18) 11, #56F, F. Arriaga(14) 12. #6c,Parady(20) 13. #25B,Baxter(17-DNF) 14. #29,Mendes(7) 15. #7x,Yockey(3-DNF) 16. #2,Learn(15-DNF) 17. #3x,Geving(2-DNF) 18. #7, Ringo,Jr.(11-DNF) 19. #33,Macintosh(19-DNF) 20. #17, Hill(18-DNF) 21. #7r, Nicholas Ringo?(21-DNF)

Initial start called back as the #43 of Terrel takes off too soon. He is not penalized as Petaluma allows 1 infraction. The #6c of Parady goes to the pits and loses his outside row 5 starting spot., He returns in time to take the green in the last row.. It is obvious he is down on power as he tries to stay out of the racing grooves during the event. The #7r also leaves the race before the restart and is done for the night. Complete restart sees the #3x of Geving jump to the early lead over Terrel. Lap 5 she begins to enter lapped traffic. Lap 6 and Geving wheel stands down half the front stretch on the hooked up track. She comes down hard and allows for Terrel to close the gap. The yellow flag comes out on lap 9 as the #33 of Macintosh slows down the frontstretch and comes to a stop high at the turn 2 exit. The #7 of Ringo,Jr. pulls into the infield during the yellow along with the #17 of Hill. All 3 cars are done for the night. Restart- 3x,43,7x,56,14,3,4q,6,19,29,10x,48k,96,2,56f,25b, and 6c - Geving again takes off and assumes command of the race. She looks like she might grab her 2nd straight win. Lap 14 sees lapped traffic becoming a factor as Geving begins to weave her way through slower cars with Terrel in hot pursuit. Lap 16 and the #2 of Learn gets out of shape in the middle of turn 4. Geving is right behind and closing fast and tries hard to pull the car to the left, but runs out of room and jumps the left rear of Learn and flips. Both Geving and Learn would be done for the night. Both drivers were OK; although Geving is clearly upset and takes the long walk to the pits. As the light goes yellow for cars to fire off, the #7x of Yockey gives up his strong 2nd place run and goes to the pits. He does not return. Could not find out what happened after the race as Yockey was pulling his rig out as the fans were allowed to enter the pits. Restart Lap 15 - 43,56,14,4q,3,19,48k,10x,6,96,29,56F,6c, and 25B - Terrel leads the pack leisurely out of 4 for a very slow restart. He quickly grabs a 4 car advantage over S. Arriaga as #43 roars down the front stretch. As the field enters turn 1 both the 3rd running Merrel and 4th running Ad. McCarthy get under S. Arriaga low in turns 1 and 2 as Arriaga gets bottled up behind the backmarker Parady. Final yellow of the night on lap 22 for Baxter as coasts to a stop at the pit exit lane. Lap 21 restart sees Terrel hammer down and easily takes command and pulls away to a 10 car cushion for his 1st sprint victory at Petaluma.

Hard Chargers: Backholm 18th to 10th, Art McCarthy 12th to 5th and Adam McCarthy 10th to 3rd.

bradley terrel been very impresive glad he got is his first win many more to come for him

thank you for a great report!

Terrell looked really good on the Civil War night, the only two people that finished ahead of him (Forsberg and Rollag) have been on the top rung of the tour's points all year! Hopefully he'll come out to Placerville one of these days for one of the Civil War shows there.

- Chris

He did look good at the Civil War show. I was impressed in qualifying when he got crossed up on the first lap and came right back on the second lap with a very good lap. In the A he ran a good race.

Speaking of Petaluma regulars and Civil War...someone needs to give Alissa a rabbit's foot, she flipped in quals at Placerville a few months ago, then got crossed up with Mike Henry in her heat on the 21st. I wonder why she was unable to start the feature that night after racing her way into it through the B...

- Chris

She had injector problems and couldn't get her car to run right for the main.......  Saturday night she checked out after 16 laps got tangled with a lapped car...........  Yes a rabbits foot would be nice. 

Too bad you guys couldn't get the injector fixed, it was great seeing work her way to that transfer spot in the B two weekends ago. The fans love her and that energy level at Petaluma never gets old.

You guys planning to do Civil War at Placerville this weekend?

- Chris

Yes we should have been able to get it fixed. It was only a 5 minute fix. Gary figured it happened in the heat race. We will be at Placerville this weekend. Alissa really liked that place after she got it figured out last time we were there. So, we will try it again..... Thanks.

So, where do you get a rabbit's foot????????

I think Greg DeCaires might have one, judging from some of his wins at Placerville this year.

- Chris