Cajon Speedway results 2003-06-04

EL CAJON, CA (07/04/03). Well it happened again. The winner of Friday night' s 150-lap factory stock enduro at Cajon Speedway is yet to be determined. Randy Nelson was given the checkered flag; the score sheets show that Matt Arnold finished the 150-laps first. But each of their scorecards has a single inconsistency so the official winner is yet to be determined.

As it stood after the finish, Matt Arnold was declared the unofficial victor with Nelson in second. What is known is that Dan Hildebrand was third two laps in arrears. The team of Phil Griffin and Lee Harbin took fourth; they were three laps down. The team of Robert Baker and Rob Freeman completed 144 laps and were scored in fifth. Fifty-six cards started the race in front of 3614 fans, who were treated to a great fireworks show and another crazy Boat Trailer race as well. Joe Totten powered his car to victory in the Boat Trailer race.

As far as the inconsistencies are concerned, Arnold's card clearly shows he gained a lap on Nelson on a lap 102 red flag. Nelson's card shows he ran an extra lap and thus gained a lap on the field at the conclusion of the first 75-laps when the race was stopped for intermission.

Actually the enduro, at least the first half of the event, belonged to John Krempp, who started on the outside of the three-wide front row and never looked back. At one point he had a lap on the field but part of that margin was erased when he was spun in turn four about lap 50. Krempp's night however came to an end after the checkered for the first half of the race. He was taking an extra lap at speed just to make sure there were no scoring mix-ups. But then just before he completed that round, Brian Sweetman ended up sideways on the track at the starting line and Krempp had no where to go. He ended up t-boning him and was unable to make the call for the second half of the contest due to a broken water pump. After his fine run, he ended up out of the money in 32nd place.

No one noticed until after the race that Nelson had made up the lap he was down to the leader by running an extra lap after the checkered flag for that first half. So when the field was lined up for the second half, everyone believed that three cars, Nelson, Robert Baker, and Arnold were on the lead lap.

In the second half, Baker turned his car to Cajon street stocker Rob Freeman, who was dominant. But then Freeman's lead was extinguished when Marlon Johnson spun in turn four and Freeman was unable to slip by. Freeman just clipped him and shredded his left rear tire. This left Nelson in front.

But three laps later another red flag was needed when there was a small fire in Eric Sweetman's car and this is when Arnold was able to gain a lap on Nelson. He went from 11 seconds behind Nelson on the lap 102 to 16 seconds ahead of him on lap 103. Arnold almost got eliminated when he and Jim Tucker locked horns on lap 123. But somehow he was able to continue. According to the scorecards Nelson gradually ate into Arnold's lead. Nelson made up the most ground six laps. On lap 144 he was 10 ticks behind Arnold, then 9, then 8, then 5, then 5 again, then 2 on the next to the last lap, and finally 1 tick behind Arnold when he got the checkered. But then both drivers only "really" ran 149 laps because of the extra lap each was credited with.

The perseverance awards (worth nothing but bragging rights) go to Kevin Sweetman in the first half of the race and Eric Evans in the second. Kevin Sweetman first had his drivers door come open (no fear, there was a roll bar behind it). Then his hood kept popping up. Through it all Sweetman continued without pitting. The hood problem was fixed at intermission while the open door apparently got fixed during a lap nine red flag. Evans drove the entire second half of the race with a bad oil leak, but soldiered on.

RESULTS FOR THE NASCAR DODGE WEEKLY SERIES

FACTORY STOCK ENDURO (150 laps) UNOFFICIAL -- 1. Matt Arnold, San Diego; 2. Randy Nelson, El Cajon; 3. Dan Hildebrand, El Cajon; 4. Phil Griffin, Santee and Lee Harbin, El Cajon; 5. Robert Baker, Spring Valley and Rob Freeman, Santee; 6. John Davis, Jamul; 7. Blaine Sharp, Jamul; 8. Mark Focht, La Mesa; 9. Mike DiMeglio Jr., El Cajon; 10. Robert Minnick, El Cajon and Reno Longwell, El Cajon; 11. Pamela Elliott, El Cajon; 12. Donn Stewart, El Cajon; 13. Glen Davis, La Mesa; 14. Mark Scott, La Mesa; 15. Kevin Sweetman, Santee; 16. Pat Bradley, San Marcos; 17. Gunner Reid, Spring Valley; 18. Chuck Irey, Spring Valley; 19. James Boissier, Santee; 20. Richard Elliott, El Cajon; 21. Dave Alpert, San Diego; 22. Travis Johnson, Alpine and Andy Harrington, Alpine; 23. Javier Correa, El Cajon and Eric Evans, National City; 24. Dave Fox, Poway and Mark Pounds, Poway; 25. Jacob Schneider, Escondido; 26. John Smith, La Mesa; 27. Brian Sweetman, Santee; 28. Jim Tucker, Spring Valley; 29. Kenny Stanley, El Cajon; 30. Adam Poe, El Cajon; 31. David Evangelou, Santee; 32. John Krempp Jr., El Cajon; 33. J.R. Trent, Jamul; 34. Ed Valenzuela, Santee; 35. Eric Sweetman, Santee; 36. Brian Evans, Lemon Grove; 37. Ryan Gay, El Cajon; 38. Marlon Johnson, Escondido; 39. Ryan McCasland, Santee; 40. John Alvernaz, El Cajon; 41. Lyle Driscoll, Lakeside; 42. Chris Fields, El Cajon; 43. Mike Rumbaugh, Poway; 44. Randy Hart, National City; 45. Buck Aganowski, Spring Valley; 46. Brent Adams, El Cajon; 47. Claude Bell, El Cajon; 48. Bob Underwood, Spring Valley; 49. Nick Kruckowski, San Diego; 50. John Borneman III, Ramona;

BOAT TRAILER RACE (20 laps) -- 1. Joe Totten, El Cajon

NOTE:

After review of and discussion about last night's Factory Stock Enduro, Cajon Speedway officials have declared Randy Nelson and Matt Arnold co-winners of the race. Each will be paid the $1000 first prize money.

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