Bombers

It has been a long time since anyone has seen a 20 car Bomber main event, and it is a testament to the dedication of the NCRA to the Bomber class and racers.

The Bomber pack was led to the start of their 50-lap main event by Gary Collins and Theresa Sorrels. Collins took the lead and T. Sorrels fell back on the outside pushing the entire line with her. Collins took off, John Saunders held second followed by Travis Thorn, Scott Griffin, Jimmy Sorrels, and Mike Neilson. Behind them, Andrew Snider, Roman Rose, and Dylan Rose were passing outside of Andy Norton and Gary Eisenhour. Cody Rickard was trying to regain ground he lost being pushed back into 13th.

Neilson had managed to advance outside J. Sorrels into fifth outside Snider when second-place Saunders wiggled in turn four, slid up, and slowed back to outside J. Sorrels pushing Neilson back behind J. Sorrels into sixth.

In lap nine, the leader Collins was coming up on Shelby Helm outside Cindy Allen ahead of George Abella, when Helm got turned coming into turn one. Allen hit Helm’s nose which turned her and Helm into the turn one wall. Abella over-corrected avoiding Helm and nosed into Allen and the wall. The leader Collins shot by between them and the lapped car of Chuck Hackbarth with bare inches to spare.

T. Sorrels dove low to avoid the wreck and spun around into the apron. Ryan Sweeney tried to pass her on the outside but clipped her rear to face her in the wrong direction. Thorn had nowhere to go on the infield dirt and hit T. Sorrels hard nose-to-nose. The caution was thrown and everyone checked out ok. Allen, Abella, T. Sorrels, Sweeney, and Thorn had to retire.

The restart was led by Collins and Griffin. Collins took the lead and Griffin was passed on the inside by J. Sorrels and Neilson. Behind Griffin, Saunders slipped high and were shuffled on back. Neilson was outside J. Sorrels fighting for second, Griffin was in fourth ahead of Snider, R. Rose was outside of D. Rose in sixth, and Rickard had caught up from the back into eighth.

Neilson won the battle for second as the Roses, followed by Rickard, advanced outside Griffin and Snider to outside J. Sorrels. Jimmy Shankles was being lapped and pushing everyone back inside when he started to smoke heavily and lost power. A caution was thrown and he retired.

Collins and Neilson got them going again, and Neilson fell back to third behind R. Rose and in front of D. Rose, J. Sorrels, and Rickard when another cautions was thrown for a Chuck Hackbarth turn two spin. Hackbarth and Snider retired to the pits.

Collins took the lead inside R. Rose on the restart as Neilson and D. Rose reeled by inside R. Rose. Rickard passed outside J. Sorrels into fourth and started to chase down the leaders. In lap 28, D. Rose was inside Neilson battling for second when the touched on the frontstretch sending Neilson sliding along the frontstretch wall into turn one for a caution. Neilson had to retire and D. Rose was put to the back.

When they got started again, Collins and R. Rose were battling for the lead, J. Sorrels and Rickard for third, and Eisenhour was catching up in fifth. After a quick caution in lap 34 for a Griffin spin on the frontstretch, and a couple of false starts, Collins held the lead just ahead of R. Rose, Rickard had passed J. Sorrels for third, and D. Rose had come up from the back past Helm and Eisenhour into fifth.

In lap 40, D. Rose had been running hard outside of J. Sorrels when, in turn two, his rear axle broke. In a rooster-tail of sparks he lost his right-rear wheel, spun a 180, and slapped the turn two wall hard. Amazingly, everyone avoided him and each other as a caution was thrown. The rear wheel continued to bounce down the backstretch and around the turns before coming to rest on the frontstretch. A red flag was thrown for a large cleanup, and driver and passenger were ok.

With ten laps to go, Collins and R. Rose led a pack now whittled down from 20 to only seven cars. Collins took the lead as R. Rose settled into second followed by Rickard, J. Sorrels, Eisenhour, Andy Norton, and Mike Swaney. After a couple of laps, Eisenhour retired to the pits.

In lap 44, Rickard stole the inside from R. Rose and took second, but R. Rose scissored back into the inside of Rickard. They ran side-by-side for second all the way to the checkers. In the final turn of the final lap, they were grinding paint in a dash to the finish. Collins finished first, R. Rose barely beat out Rickard for second, J. Sorrels fourth, and Andy Norton fifth.

Fans then saw R. Rose give Rickard a whack on the fender in turn one, and Rickard counter with a smack to the rear, but this turned out to be signs of respect (like the Earnhardt doughnut) as they really enjoyed racing each other.

Super Modifieds

Last year, in the first Super Modified event, the experimental wings tried by the racers didn’t pan out too well. Some saw speed increases, but some were plagued by design problems ranging from breaking mounts to wings installed upside-down so they lifted the car instead of forcing it down.

This year, lessons were learned and new ideas (or rediscovered old ideas) were tried. The field was composed of three types of cars: small front wings for increased front-wheel downforce, large top wings and sails for increased total downforce and stability, and sideboards.

A sideboard is a clear vertical pane running front-to-back on the top of the left-side of the car. It acts in the air like a boat keel does in the water. It provides side-force stability directly from the air that unloads some of the traction force from the tires. Gary Lowblad had a small one on the back fender, and Noel McCormack Jr. had a huge 3′ sideboard running from the front of his cockpit to the rear.

The efficiency of these new designs was proven in qualifying. Modifieds normally qualify as low as a little over 12.5 seconds. Noel McCormack Jr. qualified at a blistering 11.806s, almost 8 tenths of a second faster. That’s an average speed of 76.23 mph around the 1/4 mile track. Only the slowest car of eleven cars qualified over 12.5s. Gary Lowblad and his sideboard qualified second with 11.958s.

With increased efficiency can come increased problems. The big top double-wing of Derrick Thorn created so much downforce that it broke the mounts in hot laps and tried to fly down through the car.

The 50-lap main event was led to the start by Lowblad and McCormack. They had some trouble getting going with a couple of false starts, and a touch between Rick Tommila and Mike Sullivan that sent Sullivan sliding along the turn one wall, but when they finally started, the race ran without a single yellow.

Lowblad took the lead, but it only took McCormack four laps to swing outside and advance into first. From there, the only time anyone else saw McCormack and Lowblad is when they were being lapped.

The efficient wing designs of Thorn and Pruett kept them in third and fourth, while David Sullivan, Thomas Wright, Randy Houston, and Dustin DeRosier contended in a pack.

Wright and DeRosier swung outside and slowly advanced by Sullivan and Houston. While weaving around lapped traffic, and being lapped, DeRosier snuck by Wright into fifth.

The entire 50-lap race, once they got started, took only 9m 51s with a best lap time of 11.574s, compared to a normal 11+m and best lap time of 12.9s. Even the racers are amazed, and intend to do even better next year.

McCormack claimed the checkers followed by Lowblad, Thorn, Pruett, and DeRosier.

Mini-Stocks

Robert Schmidt and John Johnson led the Mini-Stocks to the start of their main event. Johnson fell back on the outside but Kyle Tellstrom managed to swing under and around him to chase Schmidt.

The slower Johnson and Billy Schall held the pack back trapping Don Presler and Jay Strugnell. Tellstrom had caught up to Schmidt but could not seem to hold the outside for the pass. In lap five, Schmidt pushed coming out of turn two and slid up the track on the backstretch. Tellstrom saw his chance and dove to the inside to take the lead.

By the time the rest of the pack had strung out enough to free Presler and Strugnell, Tellstrom and Schmidt had a quarter track advantage on them, until lap nine when a yellow flag was thrown for debris on the frontstretch.

This closed everybody back up. Tellstrom took the inside lead on the restart followed by Schmidt, Presler, Schall, and Strugnell. Schmidt was pressing Tellstrom on the outside with Presler looking for any opportunity when, in lap 12, Schmidt suddenly lost power. He slowed on the outside, was passed by the entire field, and had to retire to the pits in lap 14.

Presler worked hard to chase down Tellstrom while Strugnell was looking at Schall for third. In lap 25, Presler pushed entering turn one (the front wheels lost traction and the car didn’t turn). When the front wheels finally grabbed the track, it snapped his rear around and he spun into the infield for a caution putting him to the back of the pack.

Tellstrom led Schall on the restart as the slower Strugnell and Marcus Hatfield had Presler boxed in behind them with nowhere to go. When Presler finally got free, he was far back from the leaders. In lap 30, Hatfield was just ahead of Johnson in turn three when Hatfield’s front suspension literally shattered. He dropped suspension parts and even his starter on the track in front of Johnson, sending Johnson into the turn four wall and himself into the infield. A caution was thrown, and the reaction spun Presler as Strugnell slowed in turn one. This retired Hatfield and sent Presler to the back yet again.

With time running out for this race, Tellstrom took the lead inside of Schall on the restart. Strugnell followed into second. Presler tried to do the same into third but Schall rallied back on the outside. At the finish, it was Tellstrom from Ukiah, Strugnell, Presler, Schall, and Johnson.

Jammers

By popular demand from both the Jammer racers and fans, in addition to the normal oval-race held at the start of the night, another Road Coarse Rally was held at the end just before the Boat Race.

Race #1 Oval

The oval-race was led the green flag by Kaleigh Sullivan and Jonathon Timms. The driver of the 67, known only as “Uncle Chuck”, dove under Sullivan at the start to take the lead. Timms and Caity Miller fell back on the outside and most of the pack entered turn one three-wide.

Carl “The Goose” Gronroos and Eddie Klein shot through on the inside and shuffled Sullivan behind them. Kayley Bishop managed to preserve her position from the third row of the start and settle into fourth behind Klein.

The top four out-paced the pack leaving Scott Sabol mired in slower cars. Klein gradually passed Gronroos for second and then Uncle Chuck for the lead. As Klein took off with the lead, Sabol managed to free himself from behind Gary Judd and Sullivan to chase down Bishop.

Sabol advanced on the outside past Bishop, Gronroos, and Uncle Chuck into second, but well back from the leader Klein. It was then that Klein ran into lapped traffic that slowed him enough for Sabol to catch up.

By the time Miller, Sullivan, and Timms had been lapped, Sabol was outside Klein to battle for the lead. Klein fought back for three laps but finally succumbed into second. In the last lap, Miller spun in turn four causing the pack behind the top three to scramble to get around.

Sabol from finished first followed by Klein, Gronroos, Uncle Chuck, and Bishop by only half-a-car length in front of Mike Peterson.

Race #2 Road Course

A new peanut-shaped road course was setup with the turns on the front and back stretch asphalt, and the chicanes through the infield away from the grandstands on the right and towards them on the left.

Sullivan and Miller were on the poll row for the rally-style standing start. The crowd counted down, the green flag fell, and the field scrambled into the front turn. Sullivan got through the turn first, Miller hit one of the giant tires that define the course, and the rest got jammed up at the right chicane entrance.

They got tangled again entering the back turn so that, when they entered the left chicane, Sullivan was ahead by half the track. Daryl Levier (in the polka-dotted 25) started from the last row. He kept himself in the middle of the track always between cars so he never got turned into any of the tires. By the time he came up to the back turn, he had passed half the field.

When he saw the jam up before the back turn, he dove to the outside, caught traction on the asphalt, and zoomed around the rest to exit the back turn in third place behind Casey Crawford (in the blue 88 truck) and just ahead of Miller.

Levier and Crawford ran side-by-side through the front turn and into the right chicane until Levier passed him on the outside into second. As Crawford tried to make it onto the back turn, he slewed to the outside right into Miller. This sent Crawford into one of the giant tires and he lost a lap getting back on the track. In lap four, a red flag was thrown for a couple of cars stuck inside the chicanes.

They restarted from where they stopped and Sullivan had the lead. Levier was in second with the lapped cars of Gronroos, Klein, and Charlie Beck between him and Sullivan. Behind them, Andy Norton was leading Jon Waner in third.

Levier really had the asphalt-dirt transitions down and was slowing gaining on Sullivan’s lead, passing the lapped cars. With two laps to go, fourth place Waner found himself about to be lapped by the leader Sullivan. Norton slipped rounding a turn and Waner shot by on the inside into third.

At the checkers, it was Sullivan, Levier, Waner, Norton, and Beck.

Legends Cars of the Pacific

Distinct from the Ukiah local Legends Cars, the Legends Cars of the Pacific is a touring group also sanctioned by the INEX. They had qualifications and main races on both Saturday and Sunday, and trophy dashes were held for all three divisions within the class: Pro, Semi-Pro, and Masters.

Saturday

The Legends fast time of 14.240s was set by Jeremy Wood. James Gilliland and Darin Amerdon led the 19 car field to the main event start. Two cautions quickly followed: one for a turn four spin by Joe Leduc and the other for turn three spin by Darren Rogers that collected Keith Clement and Jason Miller.

Amerdon had the lead over David Winchel after the restart. Wood swung by Winchel into second and Robby Czub battled Winchel for third on the inside. In lap eight on the backstretch, Czub slipped up into Winchel spinning both and collecting Jack Humphrey and Bob Kuebler for the last caution.

Wood beat Amerdon off the line and the top six quickly out-paced the pack. Amerdon chased Wood, Cody Berger fought inside Gilliland, and Philip Morrisey and Gary Schurell waited for any opportunity.

After ten laps of weaving through lapped traffic, at the finish it was Wood followed by Amerdon, Morrissey, Gilliland, and Schurell.

Sunday

Sunday’s fast time of 14.147s was set by Robby Czub. Miller and Kuebler led them to the main event start. Stanislav Osterlund quickly took the lead from Kuebler ahead of Schurell and Amerdon. In lap four, Schurell and Gilliland got tangled and spun off the track for a caution.

Osterlund and Amerdon led the restart and Amerdon took the lead in two laps. The rest of the race was a pitched battle between Amerdon and Osterlund for the lead, and Czub and Wood for third. Miller, Berger, Rogers, and Gilliland would all have a go at fifth.

At the checkers it was Amerdon followed by Osterlund, Wood, Czub, and Rogers.

Pro-4 Modifieds

Greg VanCleave set the Pro-4 Modified fast time of 13.513s. Only the trophy dash win of Codi Barba kept VanCleave from a clean sweep.

Curt Lewis held the main event lead for nine laps before losing it to VanCleave. Barba chased C. Lewis for second followed by Marty Lewis, and that’s how they finished with Johnny Barker in fifth.

Airport Auto Brokers
Late Models

The Late Model fast time of 12.412s was set by Kevin Ostern. Berndt Akerstrom and Junior Roddy led the main event start and Akerstrom took off with the lead. Weaving around the slower cars, he was joined by Ostern, Eric Graham, Allen Gibney, and Mike Lovell.

After 15 laps and three cautions, Lovell was shuffled back by Trevor Cristiani, Jimmy Stillman, and Clay Caturegli. For 10 laps, 14-year old Cristiani made his way up to third until a lap 27 caution sent him to the back.

Ostern battled Akerstrom for the lead followed by Graham as Gibney and Roddy found themselves pressed by C. Caturegli and Sean Caturegli.

Ostern took the lead in lap 33. By lap 40, Graham had taken second, a yellow sent Roddy to the back, and the Catureglis had shuffled Gibney on back. Akerstrom gamely held his own in third, but was eventually pushed on back by the Catureglis while weaving through lapped traffic.

At the checkers it was Ostern, Graham, C. Caturegli, S. Caturegli, and Lovell. For more details on this race and the AABLM championship, browse to “http://www.AABLM.com”.

Modifieds

Darrin Knight from Kelseyville set the Modified fast time of 12.940s. Trevor Cristiani and Corey James had the poll row at the main event start. Cristiani took the lead as Jason Philpot and Darrin Knight passed James for second and third.

The race ran fast and green, and became a tense waiting game for who would make the first mistake. After 36 laps, only Darrin Knight had managed to advance by Philpot into second. A lap 37 caution for a Norman Boucher and Willey Thompson tangle changed everything.

It became a four lap sprint for the finish. Darrin Knight beat Cristiani off the line for the win, Philpot kept the inside advantage over James for third, and Dustin Knight came in fifth.

Street Stocks

The Street Stock fast time of 14.167s was set by Ron Duke Sr. from Redwood Valley. All night long it was the classic duel between Duke and Tony Ramazzotti. Duke won the trophy dash and Ramazzotti the heat race.

The main event was led to the start by Wade Coleman and David Jones. Coleman took the lead followed by Mikey Snider but Duke quickly found his way to second and started to work on Coleman. In lap 10, Coleman and Duke got tangled for a caution that sent both leaders to the back.

Jeff French found himself in the lead on the restart with Snider, but only for three laps as they also got tangled for a caution that yet again sent the two leaders to the back.

Ramazzotti had the lead on Richard Page, but one more caution put Duke on his outside. Duke took off and the duel was on. 15 laps later and Ramazzotti still couldn’t shake Duke from his groove. Duke took the win followed by Ramazzotti, Snider, Coleman, and Page.

Bombers

Bob Mook from Santa Rosa set the Bomber fast time of 14.866s. Dylan Rose held the championship lead by a scant 13 points over his brother Roman. However, Dylan was confronted, not with his brother Roman, but with the wily veteran Mike Rose who won both the trophy dash and the fast heat race.

The main event Bomber pack was started by Jimmy Sorrels and Mike Bray. Sorrels took the lead as Bray pushed the outside line back. Mook settled into second followed by D. Rose, George Abella, M. Rose, and Brenton Smith.

In lap eight, Mook made it into the lead past Sorrels, and the lapped car of KC Norton helped to open the door for Abella and the Roses. Smith lagged in a borrowed car (the 9 of Jodi Snider). Two quick mid-race cautions closed them back up and sent Mook and M. Rose to the back.

Abella took the lead inside D. Rose and followed by John Dalerio, Sorrels, and Bray. Lapped traffic helped M. Rose to move up into third while D. Rose kept station on the tail of Abella. For 10 laps D. Rose’s bid for the lead was hampered by lapped traffic until the laps ran out.

Abella claimed the win followed by D. Rose, M. Rose, Sorrels, and Mook. Dalerio was disqualified from third when he revealed in post-race tech that he had a cut-out restrictor plate and was just running for fun.

Bandoleros

The Bandolero fast time of 15.462s was set by nine year old Hunter LaRue from Napa. Only the trophy dash win by Tim Buzzard Jr. kept LaRue from a clean sweep.

Darrin Silva held the main event lead for only four laps before LaRue took over. Silva rallied but then faded in the last half of the race. Larue finished first followed by James Stillman, Chris Crow, Buzzard, and Silva.