Watsonville report

Alas, I need a fax machine to get regional points after every weekend, so that didn't work out. Anyway, here's the same deal as usual: Pacific Coast Regional track in Watsonville report, then top finishers at Pacific Coast's Antioch track and Sunbelt Region's San Jose track.

If this article seems a bit rushed, it was. The races ended 30 minutes before my deadline.

WATSONVILLE -- It came down to two-lap shootout between a pair of former Late-Model Stock Car drivers in Friday's Winston Racing Series competition at Watsonville Speedway. [ep Salinas' Bobby Hogge III, the 1989 Pacific Coast Region champion, outgunned 1983 regional champ Dave Byrd, to score his first Grand- American Modified Division feature race win of the season on the quarter-mile dirt oval. An incident-plagued Street Stock Division main event was ended under a red flag condition, with Don Silva of Salinas taking the win and series points lead. Back on top this week was Jim Gillespie in the Figure 8 Division. The Santa Cruzan reset his own race record time in beating John Keldsen to the checkered flag. There were three red flags during the night. The worst occurred when street stock driver Michael Jimenez was involved in a crash during the ``B'' event. Complaining of neck pain, medical crews cut the roof off Jimenez's car and extricated him in a neck brace and on a back board before transporting him to Watsonville Community Hospital for X-rays. The red flag that ended the street stock feature was when the Camaro of Chris Araujo burst into flames spectacularly. It was a very scary moment for the driver from Santa Clara, who was seriously burned in a pit fire last year. The third red flag of the night came in the Grand-Am feature race. As the green flag came out for a restart, race leader Scott Busby's engine went sour. As he was being passed left and right, he made contact with Mike Brumit. The two cars locked wheels, with Brumit's car nearly becoming inverted as they ground to a halt in the middle of the front straight. Attendance to the speedway has been relatively low this year, and some fans have voiced their dismay at the loss of the Late-Model Stock Car Division. Whatever their reason may be, it isn't speed or number of cars. Busby set a new Grand-Am record Friday night, just three tenths of a second slower than Ed Sans Jr.'s late-model record. The Grand-Am car count consistently has been higher than the stock cars had last year, too. Ken Pelphrey set a new street stock qualifying record as well. However, like Busby, the Los Gatos driver had his troubles later in the activities, dropping out of the main event very early after tangling with Darrell Hughes as they fought their way forward from mid-field starting positions. Until Busby's engine trouble, it looked like he was set to score his seventh regional victory of the season. He took the lead from the battling pair of Steve Hendren and Brumit on the ninth lap, and was able to keep his distance from Brumit. While Brumit continued to battle with Busby, Hendren pitted to replace a flat tire, then spun later. Because he had stopped on course to bring out a yellow so he could change the tire without losing a lap, the second yellow meant he was not allowed to continue racing. Brumit got passed by Hogge for second moments before being tied up with Busby. During the early moments of the street stock race, a couple of sophomore racers were having excellent runs. Salinas' Chad Patterson took the lead from Silva on lap 3 and led until a flat tire sent him to the pits six laps later. Santa Cruz's Joe Antonetti came from 14th to fourth in just five laps, and had got as high as third before trouble befell him in Turn 4 just after half distance in the 20-lap race. Results from Friday's NASCAR Winston Racing Series at Watsonville Speedway: GRAND-AMERICAN MODIFIEDS Fast Time -- 15.796 seconds (record); Scott Busby, Martinez Trophy Dash, 4 laps -- 1:04.96 1. Louis Davis, Mountain View 2. Busby 3. Dave Byrd, Los Gatos 4. Bobby Hogge III, Salinas Heat Race 1, 6 laps -- 1:40.76 1. Ron Parker, Soquel 2. Dennis Furia Jr., Healdsburg 3. Ray Morgan, Watsonville 4. Johnnie Baptista, Seaside Heat Race 2, 6 laps -- 1:38.68 1. Bob Hansen, Danville 2. Ken Pedersen, Kentfield 3. Byrd 4. Hogge III Heat Race 3, 6 laps -- 1:39.01 1. David Furia, Healdsburg 2. Victor Gonella, Petaluma 3. Davis 4. Bobby Hogge IV, Salinas Main Event, 25 laps 1. Hogge III 2. Byrd 3. Da. Furia 4. Hogge IV 5. Davis 6. Hansen 7. Gonella 8. Troy Speers, Fremont 9. Mike Brumit, Watsonville 10. Ken Nott Jr., Watsonville 11. Lonnie Lacy Jr., Watsonville 12. Parker 13. Furia Jr. 14. Busby 15. Johnnie Baptista, Seaside 16. Pedersen 17. Rick Fisher, Cupertino 18. John Riparetti, Watsonville 19. Steve Hendren, Santa Cruz 20. Morgan STREET STOCKS Fast Time -- 17.703 seconds (record); Ken Pelphrey, Los Gatos Trophy Dash, 4 laps -- 1:12.02 1. Jerry Movrich, Gilroy 2. Jim Gillespie, Santa Cruz 3. Dan Wagner, Salinas 4. K. Pelphrey Heat Race 1, 6 laps 1. Steve Roberson, Scotts Valley 2. Ron Souza, Pescadero 3. David Keldsen, Castroville 4. Tony Keldsen, Watsonville Heat Race 2, 6 laps 1. Peter Reinero, Santa Cruz 2. Fred Dickey II, Ben Lomond 3. Michael Jimenez, San Jose 4. Steve Wallace, Carmel Heat Race 3, 6 laps -- 1:49.78 1. Tim Hamilton, San Jose 2. Rickey Sanders, Watsonville 3. Doug Hagio, Prunedale 4. Jay Baer, San Jose Heat Race 4, 5 laps -- 1:31.38 (record) 1. Cindy Clark, Prunedale 2. Peter Petracca, Felton 3. Joe Antonetti, Santa Cruz 4. Chad Patterson, Salinas C-Main Event, 8 laps -- 2:29.30 1. Reinero 2. Rene LaChance, Prunedale 3. George Penney, San Jose 4. Ralph Sampson, Pescadero B-Main Event, 12 laps 1. David Soito Jr., Las Lomas 2. Sanders 3. Hamilton 4. C. Clark Main Event, 20 laps 1. Don Silva, Salinas 2. Gillespie 3. Andy Clark, Prunedale 4. Wagner 5. Hagio 6. Petracca 7. Darrell Hughes, Salinas 8. Fred Lind, Morgan Hill 9. Dennis Pelphrey, Los Gatos 10. Antonetti 11. Eric van Hooser, San Jose 12. Matt Medina, Santa Cruz 13. Ed Jacobs, Salinas 14. Sanders 15. Baer 16. Chris Araujo, Santa Clara 17. Patterson 18. Soito 19. K. Pelphrey 20. Movrich FIGURE 8 Main Event, 15 laps -- 6:24.92 (record) 1. Jim Gillespie, Santa Cruz 2. John Keldsen, Castroville 3. Matt Medina, Santa Cruz 4. Fred Lind, Morgan Hill 5. Tim Elias, Salinas 6. Fred Dickey II, Ben Lomond 7. Ron Stefani, Castroville 8. Steve Wallace, Carmel 9. Mike Finlen, Watsonville 10. Jeff Mead, Santa Cruz

Top finishers from Antioch Speedway:

GRAND-AMERICAN MODIFIEDS Main Event, 25 laps 1. Bobby Hogge III, Salinas 2. Keith Brown, Pittsburg 3. Steve Skarry, Alameda 4. Bart Reid, Antioch 5. Terry DeCarlo, Martinez

Top finishers in Sunbelt Region competition at San Jose Speedway (with a rain-out make-up):

LATE-MODEL STOCKS Main Event 1, 20 laps 1. Steve Hendren, Santa Cruz 2. John Silva, Fremont 3. Kimberly Myers, Half Moon Bay 4. Mark Barron, San Jose 5. Dave Glass, San Juan Bautista

Main Event 2, 20 laps 1. Hendren 2. Silva 3. Mike Juarez 4. Myers 5. Barron

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

-- ** ** ** ***** ** ** ***** *** ***** Jack Durbin ** **** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** Tallahassee, Florida ** ** **** ** ** ** ** ******* ***** indy500@freenet.scri.fsu.edu ** ** ** ***** ** ***** ** ** ** **