California results, 22-23 July

For the second time this year, Watsonville Speedway had 50 qualified Street Stocks. Phew.

WATSONVILLE -- Salinas' Bobby Hogge III almost won two main events Friday night at the Watsonville Speedway. He came a couple laps short in the open-competition Late-Model Stock Car race after taking the win in the Winston Racing Series feature race in his Grand-American Modified car. He started losing handling with just five laps remaining in the 30- lap late-model race, clearing the way for winner Steve Hendren of Santa Cruz. In NASCAR-sanctioned racing, Hendren leads the points at San Jose Speedway as well as the Sunbelt Region championship. Doug Hagio held off Larry Mickey -- a strong-running visitor from Santa Maria -- to take the Street Stock Division feature race. It was the third win of the year for the driver from Prunedale. Finally, the Figure 8 division has its third different winner this season. Santa Cruz's Matt Medina passed pointleader Jim Gillespie, who then got out of shape trying to catch back up, for the win. Fred Lind took second place. The two winningest drivers in the Grand-Am division this year never got to start the 25-lap main event. At the inital green flag, polesitter Lonnie Lacy Jr. spun, and three cars were collected, including five-time winner Dave Byrd and four-time winner Scott Busby. The third car, believe it or not, was Hogge -- the only of the trio to come out undamaged. A complete restart flag came out after the incident, but Byrd and Busby weren't around for the new start, so scored no points. That allowed Watsonville's Ken Nott Jr. to catch up considerably on Busby for the track championship. Nott finished third, putting him just 28 points away from the top position. It also allowed Hogge to close on Byrd for third in the standings. Now Hogge sits only two points from the position. Finishing second in the race was Dennis Furia Sr. of Healdsburg. There was a misunderstanding among the fans concerning Hendren's victory. On lap 17, he slowed on the race track. A moment later, 1993 Pacific Coast Region champion Robert Miller -- driving Joel Hannagan's car -- lost his hood in Turn 4. When the yellow flag came out, Hendren was passed by the leaders. However, the yellow flag was thrown for him being slow on course, not the debris, so he remained scored on the lead lap. After a pitstop for a new tire, he was back up to speed. When Hogge got out of shape on lap 25, it was Jim Pettit II who took over the lead, but he made a mistake under the pressure applied by Hendren, sliding too high in turns 3 and 4 with just two laps to go. He gathered it back, but had lost the lead to Hendren. Hagio was the fourth fastest qualifier of another extremely quick street stock field. Dan Wagner set a new one-lap street stock record in qualifying, stealing the record from Santa Cruz's Joe Antonetti, who had it for only a few minutes. Hagio then set a new four-lap record while winning the trophy dash, and Eddy Juster set a new six-lap record in the fourth heat race. The Grand-Ams weren't left out of the record breaking. Busby set a new four-lap mark for that division as he scored only his second trophy dash victory of the season at the speedway. Making it three new trophy dash records was Hendren in the late models. Next week, the street stocks run for 100 laps. Results from Friday's NASCAR Winston Racing Series at Watsonville Speedway: GRAND-AMERICAN MODIFIEDS Fast Time -- 15.915 seconds; Bobby Hogge III, Salinas Trophy Dash, 4 laps -- 1:03.35 (record) 1. Scott Busby, Martinez 2. Hogge III 3. Bobby Hogge IV, Salinas 4. Louis Davis, Mountain View Heat Race 1, 6 laps -- 1:40.96 1. Robert Brumit, Watsonville 2. Dennis Furia Sr., Healdsburg 3. Dave Robe, Watsonville 4. Ron Parker, Soquel Heat Race 2, 6 laps -- 1:39.53 1. Dave Byrd, Los Gatos 2. Troy Speers, Fremont 3. Ken Nott Jr., Watsonville 4. Busby B-Main Event, 8 laps 1. Kevin Schroeder, Marina 2. Dan Barger, San Jose 3. Brumit 4. Speers Main Event, 25 laps 1. Hogge III 2. Furia Sr. 3. Nott 4. David Furia, Healdsburg 5. Bob Hansen, Danville 6. Mike Walko, Oakley 7. Hogge IV 8. Lonnie Lacy Jr., Watsonville 9. Parker 10. Davis 11. Schroeder 12. Robe 13. Jim Beck, Salinas 14. Ken Pedersen, Kentfield 15. Dan Barger, San Jose 16. Ray Morgan, Watsonville 17. Busby 18. Byrd STREET STOCKS Fast Time -- 17.623 seconds (record); Dan Wagner, Salinas Trophy Dash, 4 laps -- 1:09.70 (record) 1. Doug Hagio, Prunedale 2. Larry Mickey, Santa Maria 3. Joe Antonetti, Santa Cruz 4. Wagner Heat Race 1, 6 laps 1. Matt Darton, Aptos 2. Ralph Sampson, Pescadero 3. Steve Roberson, Scots Valley 4. Fred Dickey II, Ben Lomond Heat Race 2, 6 laps 1. Ed Jacobs, Salinas 2. Chuck Harrell, Hollister 3. Dan Maloney, Sunnyvale 4. Dave Rosa, Antioch Heat Race 3, 6 laps 1. Chuck Monasmith, Prunedale 2. Manuel Sanchez, Las Lomas 3. Tim Hamilton, San Jose 4. Chris Walint, San Jose Heat Race 4, 6 laps -- 1:48.48 (record) 1. Eddy Juster, Prunedale 2. Ken Pelphrey, Los Gatos 3. Antonetti 4. Chris Araujo, Santa Clara Heat Race 5, 6 laps -- 1:50.71 1. Jerry Movrich, Gilroy 2. Jay Baer, San Jose 3. Don Silva, Salinas 4. Peter Petracca, Felton C-Main Event, 10 laps 1. Roberson 2. Peter Reinero, Santa Cruz 3. Mel Matthews, Pittsburg 4. Jacobs B-Main Event, 12 laps 1. Movrich 2. Jim DiGiovanni, Morgan Hill 3. D. Rosa 4. Ron Stefani, Castroville Main Event, 20 laps 1. Hagio 2. Mickey 3. Darrell Hughes, Salinas 4. K. Pelphrey 5. Cindy Clark, Prunedale 6. Jim Gillespie, Santa Cruz 7. Araujo 8. Antonetti 9. DiGiovanni 10. Silva 11. David Soito Jr., Las Lomas 12. Fred Lind, Morgan Hill 13. Dennis Pelphrey, Los Gatos 14. Baer 15. Ron Souza, Pescadero 16. Petracca 17. Movrich 18. Matt Medina, Santa Cruz 19. Wagner 20. Rick Watterworth, Redwood City FIGURE 8 Main Event, 15 laps 1. Matt Medina, Santa Cruz 2. Fred Lind, Morgan Hill 3. Jim Gillespie, Santa Cruz 4. Steve Wallace, Carmel 5. Dave Rosa, Antioch 6. John Keldsen, Castroville 7. Frank Rosa, Antioch 8. Mike Finlen, Watsonville 9. Wayne Reeder, Watsonville 10. John Ralston, San Martin 11. Fred Dickey II, Ben Lomond 12. Ed Cain, Prunedale LATE MODEL STOCKS Fast Time -- 14.995 seconds; Steve Hendren, Santa Cruz Trophy Dash, 6 laps -- 1:00.34 (record) 1. Hendren 2. Dave Byrd, Los Gatos 3. Bobby Hogge III, Salinas 4. Kimberly Myers, Half Moon Bay Heat Race, 6 laps -- 1:34.84 1. Hendren 2. Hogge III 3. Bobby Large, Watsonville 4. Robert Miller, San Jose Main Event, 30 laps 1. Hendren 2. Jim Pettit II, Seaside 3. Miller 4. Hogge III 5. Large 6. Myers 7. Byrd 8. Vance Beltran, Morgan Hill 9. Andy Clark, Prunedale 10. Barry Bradshaw, Bakersfield Saturday's top finishers from Antioch Speedway:

GRAND-AMERICAN MODIFIEDS Main Event, 25 laps 1. Keith Brown, Pittsburgh 2. Tim Stratmeyer, Martinez 3. Scott Busby, Martinez 4. Bobby Hogge III, Salinas 5. Brad Coelho, Hayward

Saturday's top finishers from San Jose Speedway, Sunbelt Region:

LATE-MODEL STOCK CARS Main Event, 20 laps 1. Ed Sans Jr., Santa Clara 2. Steve Hendren, Santa Cruz 3. Vance Beltran, Morgan Hill 4. Kimberly Myers, Half Moon Bay 5. Rene LaChance, Prunedale

That was LaChance's first race in a late-model stock car.

Chuck Miller won the 410 sprint car feature.

-- Ron O'Dell `Keeper' keeper@cats.ucsc.edu keeper@armory.com keeper@ucscb.ucsc.edu