Four first-time winners prevail in Petaluma Speedway opener
Published: Thursday, Apr 3, 2008
By HARLAN OSBORNE
FOR THE ARGUS-COURIER
To the delight of 85 race teams and an enthusiastic packed grandstand Petaluma Speedway ushered in its 48th season of dirt track racing with four of the six feature winners celebrating their first divisional triumphs.
Highlighting the six-division program was former BCRA Midget Lite driver Tyler Franklin, who appears to have made a successful transition to the immensely more powerful winged 360 sprint cars with an impressive flag-to-flag victory charge holding off runner-up Rick Williams the entire distance. Franklin, who plans to race with the Civil War Series and at selected tracks, was impressive in his Petaluma debut, finishing second to Williams in their heat, before dominating the feature.
A heated late race battle for third place erupted between former track champ Art McCarthy Jr., who had held the spot since lap 3, and 13th-starting Alissa Geving, who was sitting in sixth place with seven circuits to go. Geving passed Mike Benson and Jeff Parady on consecutive laps and began pressuring McCarthy on lap 22. With one lap remaining, the fearless Geving brought the fans to their feet with a daring pass underneath McCarthy in turn 2 to gain the position. At the checkered flag it was Franklin, Williams, Geving, McCarthy, seventh-starting Parady, Matt Sargent, Benson, Tyler Schmidt, Brandon Davis, Rick Wright and Brannon Asch.
Two red flags, and the resulting delays, cut short a very intense late model showdown in which five of 12 starters failed to finish. The most serious incident came when Don Iverson slammed into the crash wall and flipped his race car eight laps into the fray. During the delay, race leader Anthony Restad’s car was towed to the pits with an undisclosed problem. Steve Johnson, who had just one top-five finish in 2007, took charge on the restart and held on for his first-ever late model victory. Seventh-starting Clarke Guglielmoni finished second over ninth-starting Jerry Barlett.
Fourth place went to Dennis Souza over Rich Barbaccia, Paul Guglielmoni, Iverson, Restad, Dave Newquist and Rick Shafer.
A spectacular battle for the lead between former division champion Don Camilli and erstwhile sprint car champ Brian Azevedo highlighted the dirt modified feature for 18 laps before Camilli’s car began to belch smoke. He departed the race on lap 23 and Azevedo went on to take the checkered flag. But his victory was nullified by track officials, who found an illegal rules violation in post-race tech. Azevedo’s disqualification lifted Mike Learn to first place, followed by heat winner Joel Myers, Ron Dickerson, Michael Paul Jr., Oreste Gonella and Chris Sieweke.
Super stock champion Dean DeVolder climbed from eighth-starting to second place and challenged race leader Danny Potts over the final two laps of the super stock feature but Potts, who led for all but one lap of the 25-lap race. rose to the occasion and fended off the aggressive DeVolder to post his first-ever super stock victory. Potts, who has his sights set on DeVolder’s crown, was close to perfect as he led the 16-car field from his front row start. Pole-sitter Kevin Aguirre swiped the lead from Potts on lap 2, but Potts earned it back on the next lap. Dave Byron took away Aguirre’s spot on a lap 7 restart and held it for 18 laps. At the finish it was Potts, heat winner DeVolder, Aguirre, heat winner Gary Adams, Shawn McCoy, Steve Studebaker, Heather Bartlett, D.W. Drew, Byron and Rich Levacque.
There were three lead changes in the first three laps of the 16-car dwarf car feature, but on lap 4 John Wear took over the spot and held on to win over Dave Mosier.
The mini trucks of Dominic Lopez and David Crouch were no match for the rest of the mini stock division, but since they’re scored separately the victory went to Petaluma’s Larry Drew, who led the 14-car field from start to finish. Rounding out the top-five were Michael Drew, Jon Kirby, Mathew Jones and Kenny Drew.
This week, the wingless spec sprints make their debut on a racing card that includes the All-Pro winged 360 sprint cars, dirt modifieds, super stock and mini stocks.
(Contact Harlan Osborne at acsports@arguscourier.com)
