Visalia, Ca.
May 2, 2008
By Paul Vetter
The third event
of the season at Giant Chevrolet Raceway at Plaza Park found another
large field of cars competing on the 1/5 mile clay oval. Bakersfield’s
Buddy Shepherd captured his first ever feature win in the Junior Sprint
division with 16 cars on hand. Cody Smothermon from Porterville captured
the Restricted 600 feature with 21 cars competing. The always exciting
Super 600 class had 38 cars in the pits which saw Tipton’s Dylan
Black take the feature win in the final event of the night.
Heat race winners Ryan Brown and Brendan Warmerdam started on the front
row of the 20 lap Junior Sprint feature with Brown leading the first
eight laps. Warmerdam chased in second until lap five when sixth starting
Shepherd took over the runnerup spot with Trent Reed moving into third.
Both Danielle McKay and Drew Bachtelle dropped out early with Brown
leading a restart before Reed led one lap. Shepherd, the son of well
known veteran late model stock car racer Dick Shepherd took over the
top spot on lap eleven with Brown and Reed following. The final half
of the race went nonstop and the lapping process of some of the newer
drivers made things interesting. Shepherd powered his way to his first
win ahead of Brown, Reed, Garrett Fine and Giovanni Scelzi. Nine of
the thirteen finishers ran on the lead lap.
The Restricted 600 class started all racers present except for Lauryn
Brown who crashed out in early evening hot laps. Cody Smothermon outgunned
pole sitter Seth Hancock to lead the first lap with a multicar tangle
in turn four at the end of lap two shuffling positions. Smothermon led
the restart with birthday boy Dominic Scelzi into second over Hancock.
The final eighteen laps of the twenty lap affair went nonstop as the
leaders began the lapping process at the 2/3 mark in the event. Despite
lapped cars, the leaders were able to continue their fast pace and at
the end Smothermon led Scelzi, Hancock, twelfth starting Koen Shaw and
Trent Carter to the checkers. Amazingly only Justin Fine was a dropout
and nineteen cars finished with sixteen of those on the lead lap.
With such a large car count in the Super 600’s, after the four
heat races were run a pair of semi main events took place which transferred
the top three drivers from each to the rear of the 30 lap main event
lineup. With an invert of four based on time trials, Jace VanderWeerd
and Dylan Black started on the front row followed by Sean Thompson and
fast timer Cole Cabrera. Former feature winner Peter Murphy failed to
start the event and Rodney Jared was the first car to dropout early
in the event. With Black leading Ja. VanderWeerd, a multi car melee
in turn one on lap ten saw third running Dean “Kiwi”Alexander
and Thompson along with others with Alexander’s car laying on
its side. Following a red flag for cleanup, everyone restarted as Cabrera
moved into third followed by Richard VanderWeerd and Jason Rogers. Ja.
VanderWeerd pitted from second on lap fifteen moving Cabrera into second
. Steven Kent quit in turn two and Justyne Hamblin suffered suspension
failure and stalled in turn one with both drivers out of the event at
lap seventeen. Black again paced the field with R. VanderWeerd now in
second over Rogers as Cabrera fell back to fourth. Suddenly R. VanderWeerd
dropped out of the event from second spot and one lap later Cabrera
also pitted moving Rogers into second now being followed by Heath Duinkerken,
Mitchell Faccinto and semi main transfer Jake Hagopian.
The final ten laps went nonstop and Black won the event despite a serious
challenge on the last two laps from Rogers who ran second ahead of Duinkerken,
a hard charging Hagopian and Faccinto. Fifteen drivers finished the
event, all on the lead lap.
Continuing the every other week racing program, the speedway returns
to action again on Friday May 16 and Saturday May 17 for the two event
Pepsi Challenge.
Summary
Visalia, Ca.
May 2, 2008
JUNIOR SPRINTS
FIRST HEAT Ryan Brown, Garrett Fine, Kameron Beard, Bryce Volpa
SECOND HEAT Brendan Warmerdam, Giovanni Scelzi, Danielle Lynn McKay,
Buddy Shepherd
MAIN EVENT Shepherd, Brown, Trent Reed, Fine, Scelzi, Warmerdam, Beard,
Tyler Shaw, Volpa, Brayden Perry, Vaughn Schott, Ryan Perry, Ryan Delisle,
Tanner Baker, Drew Bachtelle, McKay
RESTRICTED 600
FAST TIME Jack Aguiar 11.94 seconds
FIRST HEAT Sean Watts, Seth Hancock, Scott Parker, John Collins
SECOND HEAT Trent Carter, Blain Smothermon, Tyler Williams, Chance Damron
THIRD HEAT Cody Smothermon, Dominic Scelzi, Koen Shaw, Cody Gerhardt
MAIN EVENT C. Smothermon, Scelzi, Hancock, Shaw, Carter, Christopher
Kent, Williams, Clint Reichenbach, Parker, Damron, Collins, B. Smothermon,
Aguiar, Watts, Seth Myhre, Cody Gerhardt, Courtney Gerhardt, Ethan Evans,
Wyatt Shaffer
SUPER 600
FAST TIME Cole Cabrera 10.99 seconds
FIRST HEAT Raio Morgan, Joey Greenberg, Jace VanderWeerd, Peter Murphy
SECOND HEAT Mitchell Faccinto, Heath Duinkerken, Rodney Jared, Dylan
Black
THIRD HEAT Jason Rogers, Devon Ostheimer, Sean Thompson, Jason Schoelen
FOURTH HEAT Justyne Hamblin, Dean Alexander, Cabrera, Richard VanderWeerd
FIRST SEMI Jenna VanderWeerd, Steven Kent, Cory Eliason, Paul Javaux,
Anthony Hoffman, Knute Mynderup, Becca Ann Lynch, Roger Rose, Jr., Brian
Lawrence, Buddy Shelton, Frank Schott
SECOND SEMI Jake Hagopian, Kenny Allen, Jerome Warmerdam, Luis Ramos
III, Dace Taylor, Jerrod Huckleberry, Shane Myhre, Kevin Callahan, Jorden
Casey, Bryan Fine
MAIN EVENT Black, Rogers, Duinkerken, Hagopian, Faccinto, Morgan, Warmerdam,
Eliason, Alexander, Schoelen, Ostheimer, Thompson, Je. VanderWeerd,
Allen, Greenberg, Cabrera, R. VanderWeerd, Hamblin, Kent, Ja. VanderWeerd,
Jared, Murphy
