From: keeper@deeptht.armory.com (Ron O'Dell)
Newsgroups: rec.autos.sport
Subject: July 17; Watsonville
Date: 21 Jul 92 23:45:10 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: The Armory



I never did upload last week's report.  Pity, too, since it was a good
article.  It was longer than most, but its space was smaller, so a lot of
it never actually appeared in print.
(If anyone still wants to see it, I could email it.)

But on to this week.  The following night, at Antioch Speedway, the winners
were Robert Miller (over Steve Hendren and Ed Sans Jr.) in Late-Models,
Scott Busby in Grand-Am, and Ron Parker in Street Stock.

There is one typing error in this report (I always send these exactly as I
typed them and sent them in).  In the penultimate paragraph, `might' should
be `made'.

Boy, the late-model main event was a crashfest this week.  Very unusual.


17 July 1992; NASCAR Winston Racing Series; Watsonville, Calif.

 
   WATSONVILLE -- Has a new dominator has appeared in the Late-Model
Stock car ranks at Watsonville and Antioch speedways, replacing Steve
Hendren?
   San Jose's Robert Miller hopes so, after scoring his third 
straight win among the two tracks Friday night at Watsonville.
   Miller had trouble in his heat race, as his car came to a stop in 
Turn 4, but had it fixed in time for the main event. He passed Hendren
for the lead under green-flag condition with six laps to go.
 
   Aptos' Jeff Silva made his first appearance in his race car since 
suffering a broken wrist in a crash early in the season. His return 
was a few weeks earlier than expected.
   ``I went to see the doctor at the first of the week,'' Silva said.
``He said that everything looks really good in there, so he signed me 
off and I was able to come back.''
   Former Watsonville and Pacific Coast Region champion Dave Byrd was
standing by in case Silva decided that he was not able to drive the 
car competitively. His services were not required, as Silva finished 
fourth in his heat race, and third in the feature race.
   While he was injured, Silva had had either Byrd or Santa Cruz's 
Kevin Pylant drive the car each week except one, when Winston Cup star
Ernie Irvan drove it in a couple exhibition races.
 
   Tim Stratmeyer started the night just one point ahead of Scott 
Busby in Grand-American Modified points, but would pull out a 
considerable distance by the night's end. He made a clean sweep of the
division, with fast qualifying time plus trophy dash and heat race 
victories, while Busby dropped out of the trophy dash and main event, 
and didn't even start in his scheduled heat race.
 
   Soquel's Ron Parker appears back on track, leading most of the 
Street Stock main event for his sixth victory at the speedway. Last 
week, he nearly didn't make it to the feature, having to qualify 
through the B-Main. He leads the track points for the division.
 
   Silva's third-place finish -- and Ed Sans Jr.'s second -- is 
actually quite remarkable, as the two crashed shortly after mid-race.
   Sans was leading on lap 15, holding off Hendren, when Silva went 
outside of Hendren and made contact with Sans. While Hendren went on 
into the lead, Sans and Silva spun, and a couple other cars collected 
them.
   Earlier, Silva had been spun out while racing with Mark Barron for
second place.
   Another slightly remarkable finish came from Bobby Scott of Santa 
Cruz. Eight laps into the race, he developed a flat left rear tire. 
Luckily for him, a caution period -- one of eight -- gave him time to 
have the tire changed without losing a lap. Restarting from the tail 
of the field, he ended up finished in fourth.
 
   Stratmeyer took the lead of the Grand-Am main from Watsonville's 
Tony Gomez just three laps into the running, on a restart from a 
caution flag brought out by the stalled Troy Shirk.
   Behind him, Busby was trying to get by Gomez, who was driving 
defensively. Eventually, one of Gomez's blocking maneuvers resulted in
contact, and Busby spun, causing a yellow flag.
   A lap after the restart is when Busby's car slowed. He remained on
the track for a few laps but eventually pulled into the pits.
 
   In the street stock main, second-in-points Kurt Slama was running 
a distant second to Parker halfway into the race when a pair of cars 
crashed in Turn 4. In avoidance, Slama might slight contact with the 
front-straight wall.
   After making a pit stop, Slama returned to the track, and worked 
back up through the field, finishing sixth.
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 
   Friday's NASCAR Winston Racing Series results from Watsonville Speedway:
 
   LATE MODEL STOCK CARS
   Fast Time -- 16.753 seconds; Steve Hendren, Santa Cruz
 
   Trophy Dash, 4 laps
 1. Bobby Scott, Santa Cruz
 2. Jim Gillespie, Santa Cruz
 3. Robert Miller, San Jose
 4. Hendren
 
   Heat Race 1, 6 laps
 1. Vance Beltran, Morgan Hill
 2. Mark Barron, San Jose
 3. Scott
 4. Ed Sans Jr., San Jose
 
   Heat Race 2, 6 laps
 1. Gillespie
 2. Hendren
 3. Tom Johnson, Hollister
 4. Jeff Silva, Aptos
 
   Main Event, 25 laps
 1. Miller
 2. Sans
 3. Silva
 4. Scott
 5. Gillespie
 6. Barron
 7. Mike DeLucca, San Jose
 8. Hendren
 9. Tom White, Ben Lomond
10. Mike Larsen, Gilroy
 
   GRAND-AMERICAN MODIFIEDS
   Fast Time -- 16.931 seconds; Tim Stratmeyer, Martinez
 
   Trophy Dash, 4 laps
 1. Stratmeyer
 2. Troy Shirk, Concord
 3. Paul Meeks, Prunedale
 4. Scott Busby, Martinez
 
   Heat Race 1, 6 laps
 1. Meeks
 2. Greg Weise, Petaluma
 3. Doug Riparetti, Salinas
 4. Frank Lawrence, Grass Valley
 
   Heat Race 2, 6 laps
 1. Stratmeyer
 2. Tony Gomez, Watsonville
 3. Shirk
 4. Bill Riordan, Pebble Beach
 
   Main Event, 20 laps
 1. Stratmeyer
 2. Weise
 3. Meeks
 4. Riparetti
 5. Louis Davis, Mountain View
 6. Gomez
 7. Riordan
 8. Al Balding Jr., Seaside
 9. Don Johnson, San Jose
10. Busby
 
   STREET STOCKS
   Fast Time -- 19.521 seconds; Rick Petruzzi, San Carlos
 
   Trophy Dash, 4 laps
 1. Dan Barger, San Jose
 2. Petruzzi
 3. Don Silva, Salinas
 4. Kurt Slama, Salinas
 
   Heat Race 1, 6 laps
 1. Jay Baer, San Jose
 2. Brian Solomon, Seaside
 3. Eric Boyer, Sunnyvale
 4. James Mitchell, Watsonville
 
   Heat Race 2, 6 laps
 1. George Penney
 2. Don Green, Salinas
 3. Clark Nunes, San Jose
 4. Ken Pelphrey, Santa Cruz
 
   Heat Race 3, 6 laps
 1. Tim Clark, Aptos
 2. Mike Cecil, Watsonville
 3. Don Silva
 4. Joel Hannagan, Campbell
 
   Heat Race 4, 6 laps
 1. Petruzzi
 2. Jerry Cutler, Salinas
 3. Chris Araujo, Santa Clara
 4. Kimberly Myers, Half Moon Bay
 
   Semi-Main Event, 12 laps
 1. Doug Hagio, Prunedale
 2. Solomon
 3. Penney
 4. Nunes
 
   Main Event, 20 laps
 1. Ron Parker, Soquel
 2. Petruzzi
 3. Robert Brumit, Watsonville
 4. Hannagan
 5. Darrell Hughes, Salinas
 6. Slama
 7. Don Silva
 8. Dave Robe, Watsonville
 9. Solomon
10. Clark
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Winston Racing Series Pacific Coast Region points going into 17 July:

 1. Steve Hendren      Santa Cruz, Calif.         3,570
 2. Tom Pinkowsky      Vancouver, Wash.           3,425
 3. Ed Sans Jr.        Santa Clara, Calif.        3,283
 4. Robert Miller      San Jose, Calif.           3,225
 5. Bobby Scott        Santa Cruz, Calif.         3,220
 6. Bobby Large        Watsonville, Calif.        3,171
 7. Brian Balmelli     Chehalis, Wash.            3,142
 8. Dan Obrist         Portland, Ore.             2,824
 9. Curt Zelmer        Portland, Ore.             2,742
10. Tom White          Ben Lomond, Calif.         2,741