Cajon Speedway race report 2001-06-23

Youth And Age Prevail In Twins At Cajon

EL CAJON, CA. (06/23/01) Ron Overman had only the fifth fastest car in the second half of the twin 30-lap main events for late model sportsman at Cajon Speedway Saturday night. But the 58-year-old two-time champ still ended up in victory lane after the kid, 27-year-old Danny Gay, won the opening NASCAR Weekly Racing Series contest.

Rich Green took honors in the street stocks for the second straight week. Ed Hale won again in the ponys for the fourth time this year. Defending champion Pat Garity also streaked to his fourth bomber stock win of the season. Lyndon Dynsinger was dominant in the mini-stockars.

Just a few feet cost Mike Mendenhall victory and Danny Gay a runner-up finish in the sportsman finale. On lap 36, Mendenhall was putting a move on the pacesetting Gay as they came off turn four. He nearly had the pass made but drifted up into Gay's path just before he was clear. The contact between the right rear of Mendenhall's mount and the left front of Gay's steed resulted in bedlam. Gay's Monte Carlo rode over the front of Mendenhall's Monte Carlo, and climbed the crashwall just past the starting line. It then skated along the top of the wall into turn one. Along the way it took out the signal light. Mendenhall's car suffered severe front-end damage when it slammed into the concrete barrier. The younger Gay had gained the top spot on lap 18 when Todd McLauchlan was pursuing Jerry Gay and bumped him, sending the defending track champion spinning. McLauchlan was banished to the rear of the field for that restart. The McLauchlan-elder Gay incident moved Overman up from fifth to third. He inherited number one when Mendenhall and the younger Gay crashed.

McLauchlan appeared to have a faster car than Jerry Gay until their incident. McLauchlan had started sixth while Jerry Gay got the jump on the field from his outside front row starting position. Once they went to the back of the pack, Mendenhall just appeared to bide his time stalking the Danny Gay. No doubt about it, Mendenhall is able to make passes on the low side, a move few sportsman drivers will even try. The two had run nearly side-by-side from the 19th lap until the point leader slipped up.

Overman had started on the pole. But he faded back to fifth by lap 5. He took the checkered flag ahead of a hard charging Don Kerr, who came from ninth. Claude Bell stormed from 12th to third. Jerry Gay recovered to finish fourth ahead of McLauchlan.

The first main event was tame compared to the final laps of the second race. There was only one slowdown and it came early as most everyone was driving conservatively. The yellow came on lap 7 when McLauchlan and Kerr made contact as they battled for fourth through the fourth turn. Kerr ended up smacking the wall near the starting line. Stephen Peace ran out of racing room and hit both Kerr and the wall at the starting line. Kerr was able to continue but Peace made the trip back to the pits on the tow truck.

Manke led the opening round but ceded the top spot to Gay on lap 2. Gay, who started fourth, was in control the rest of the way and slowly expanded his lead to the checkered flag. Mendenhall and Jerry Gay had the best battle on the track. Lap after lap the point leader would dive underneath the elder Gay in the turns, but was unable to make the pass stick. With seven laps remaining in the 30-lapper, Mendenhall got a good run off the fourth turn and gained the advantage.The opening 30-lapper marked Danny Gay's initial victory in a late model sportsman. The victor was 20 lengths in front of runner-up Mendenhall. Jerry Gay ran third ahead of Ron Overman and John Manke.

The street stocks had another marathon 25-lapper, which took more than a half hour to complete. Rich Green took the lead from Neil Rodvold with a pass on the low side in turn three on lap 16. Rodvold had led from the start. At one point there was a gaggle of eight drivers racing in a tight knit pack for second. But that tussle was broken up when four cars running a little deeper in the pack mixed it up in turn two on lap 12. That strung everyone out a bit and also erased Rodvold's comfortable lead. Green ended up six lengths in front of Rick Hagen as those two battle for the number one spot in the divisional standings. Rob Overman had his best drive of the season and came home third. Rounding out the top five were Brian Collins, his third fourth place showing of the year. Rodvold was fifth.

Unlike their bigger brethren, the pony stocks ran 20 laps in ten minutes. Hale came from tenth to lead in just over two laps. Douglas Wright Jr. had hopes of another late race pass of Hale for the win, but the ageless one was not to be denied. The 63-year-old Hale was four lengths in front at the stripe. Andy Papp was third ahead of Jimmy Kyte and another "old veteran", George Behlman.

Oh, then there were the bombers where a yellow flag was shown just about every time you looked up. Actually there were just five caution periods, but it seemed like more. For quite awhile, Rodney Shaw was being quadruple-teamed but he managed to fend off the faster qualifiers until Garity finally got past him on the high side of turn two on lap 14. Shaw held everyone else at bay and took second. Point leader Bob Wickey had to settle for third ahead of Mark Holland and Eric Seene. Bill Holland got turned around on the front stretch on lap 5, but came back from the back of the pack to finish sixth. Randy Wallace gave the fans an early fireworks display when he launched a tire through the Ecology Auto Wrecking sign in turn two on lap 6.

PIT NOTES: Ron Overman won the Hard Charger award for picking up the most passing points in the initial 30-lapper. Overman won a drum of VP Racing Fuel donated by Steve Totterer. *Congratulations to the Rodvold family. Pony stock rookie Kenny Hall and his wife Jessica Rodvold-Hall, daughter of former pony stock racer Rusty Rodvold and sister of street stocker Neil Rodvold, became the proud parents of Madison Nikole on Sunday, June 17. Jessica raced here too last year and hopes to be back behind the wheel of her orange machine again. *At Orange Show Speedway Saturday night, three time Cajon champ Gary Tamborelli picked off his first victory there in the second half of their twin bill. Tambo was third in the opener.

-CS-