King of Wings at Madera is a Big Success. By Gerald Laurie Davey Hamilton brought his King of Wings Sprint Car Show to the West Coast for a three race swing that will crown both a West Coast Champion and an overall Champion for the National Series. If the other two races are as good as the initial show at Madera Speedway on Friday night, they will be barn burners. Jacob Wilson was the overall winner from the pole, but the racing in the pack was crazy. Madera also scheduled the NCMA Spec Sprints, USAC HPD Midgets, and a Special Open Comp Supermodified Race as an undercard to create a stricly Open Wheel Show that filled the afternoon and evening. The event started with Time Trials for all classes and the Northern California Modified Association Sprints hit the clocks first. J.R. Brown(8) was fastest of the non-wing sprints with a time of 15.111 seconds followed by Carl Mott(11) at 15.211, and Audra Sasselli(77) at 15.449. The HPD Midgets were next to challenge the 1/3 mile banking and Cody Jessop(00) topped the list with a time of 15.194 seconds. Second and third fastest were Duke Love(3) at 15.300 and Dylan Nobile(40) at 15.325. The Supermods were the next to qualify and Davey Hamilton in Jim Birges’ number 32 (Birges was recently injured in a Motocross incident and Davey jumped in as a guest driver when his own Supermodifed had engine problems) was fastest at 12.697. He was followed by Kyle Vanderpool(3) at 12.874 and Brandon Smith (96) at 13.701. The last to swipe transponders across the timing line were the Winged Sprint Cars. Ron Larson(12) topped everyone with a blistering lap of 12.490. Sierra Jackson(25) was next at 12.552 and Kyle Edwards(11) third at 12.600. But the real story was that the top sixteen qualifiers were within a half second. Also surprising were some of the drivers who qualified outside of the invert window. Point leader Jo Jo Helberg, top five point chasers Davey Hamilton, Jr., Tim Skoglund, and Cody Gerhardt all missed the invert but were within that half second spread. Next up were heat races for all divisions. NCMA divided their field into two 8 lap heats. The first lined up with PaT Arriaz and Bill Hendricks in the front row followed by Donnie Large and Bill Logan. At the drop of the green, the inside line forged ahead and Arriaz led lap one over Large, Hendricks and Logan. And although Large made a couple of charges at Arriaz, he was not able to pull off a pass, and they finished lap eight as they finished lap one. The second heat featured Steve Amador, Jerry Kobsa, Audra Sasselli, Carl Mottt, and J.R. Brown. Again, the inside line was the place to be and Amador led lap one over Sasselli, Kobsa, Mott, and Brown. Mott jumped to third on lap two. Sasselli took the lead and Brown moved to fourth on lap three. Mott moved to second on the fourth go around and Brown gained the last podium spot on lap seven. Sasselli won over Mott, Brown, Amador, and Kobsa. USAC divided the HPD field into two heats as well. Heat number one was paced by Cody Jessop followed by Dylan Nobile and Tommy McCarthy. Nobile grabbed the lead coming off turn two on lap one and led over Jessop and McCarthy. And that was race. The field strung out a bit but there was no additional passing. The second Midget Heat lined up with Duke Love and Tom Patterson on the front row and Ashley Hazelton and Ryan Delisle in row two. Other than spreading out into a single file line, there was little action in this event. The finish reflected the start perfec tly. The Supermodifieds lined up the entire field in a single heat race. Davey Hamilton sat on the pole flanked by Kyle Vanderpool and followed by A.J. Russell, Lance Jackson, and Brandon Smith. After tire warm ups, Smith headed for the infield and scratched for the rest of the show. Hamilton and Vanderpool blew through turn one side by side and Vanderpool took the lead on his high side momentum. Russell moved to third and that was the show. Vanderpool took the checkers over Hamilton, Russell and a distant Jackson who was experiencing throttle response problems in his newly rebuilt car. The Winged Sprint Cars were divided into four heats based on alternating qualifying times with the fastest six inverted. Heat one lined up with KevinFeeney on the pole followed by Bobby Santos, Bryan Warf, Tim Skoglund, Matt Mansell, T.J. Thorne, and Tom Patterson. The first start was a bit ragged and waved off for a complete restart. On the second attempt, Santos led over Skoglund withFeeney and Larson side by side and banging wheels, sending Feeney into a wall contacting spin and Larson to a quick check with white walled tires. Feeney left on the hook and Larson refired to join the rear of the field for the restart. Restart line up was Santos, Skoglund, Warf, Thorne, Paterson, and Larson. They finished in the same order with Larson losing three laps while motoring around the bottom in order to finish the heat to retain his quick qualifying time for the main event. The second KOW heat race featured Anthony Simone, Geoff Ensign, Robert Beck, Davey Hamilton, Jr., David Byrne, Sierra Jackson, and Kyle Vanderpool. After another ragged start and recall, Simone grabbed the lead at the green followed by Ensign, Skoglund, Jackson, and Beck. Jackson worked around Skoglund on lap three. Ensign had a “moment” on lap five allowing both Jackson and Skoglund to move up. After pressuring Simone for two laps, Jackson worked her way around him on the white flag lap and then grabbed the checkers. Finish was Jackson over Simone, Skoglund, Ensign, and Beck. The third Winged heat lined up Conner Cantrell, Randy Dubois, Ken Hamilton, Eric Humphries, Jacob Wilson, Kyle Edwards, and Rick Brown. The outside was the place to be on the start and Dubois led lap one over Humphries, Cantrell, Wilson, and Edwards. By the completion of lap two Cantrell had advanced to the rear bringing everyone forward a slot and launching Brown into the top five. Lap three saw Hamilton take over fifth and that was the extent of passes near the front. Dubois was victorious over Humphries, Wilson, Edwards, and Hamilton the eldest. KOW heat four was supposed to start with Davey Hamilton on the pole but Hamilton scratched with engine woes for the rest of the evening. Line up was Cody Gerhardt, pursued by Whitney Nolan, Aaron Pierce, Jo Jo Helberg, Alan Beck, and Richie Larson. Gerhardt jumped to the lead pulling Pierce with him and followed by Helberg, Nolan, and Larson. Bothe Pierce and Helberg got by Gerhardt on lap two and that was that. Pierce conquered all followed by Helberg, Gerhardt, Nolan, and Larson. The last preliminary event was the KOW B main. Ten cars were scheduled to compete for the last six spots in the main event. The twelve lapper lined up in qualifying order with Randy Dubois, Whitney Nolan, Anthony Simone, and Conner Cantrell in the first two rows. The middle of the field consisted of T.J. Thorne, Kyle Vanderpool, Rick Brown and Alan Beck. Tom Paterson and Kevin Feeney occupied the last row. The start looked just like the line-up except they managed to get into single file. Simone appropriated second from Nolan on lap two. Rick Brown moved into the top five at Thorne’s expense on lap four. Brown took fourth from Cantrell on lap six and Thorne dropped Cantrell to the last transfer spot a lap later. Paterson headed for the pits after completing nine laps and that was the show. Dubois, Simone, Nolan, Brown, Thorne, and Cantrell transferred to the main event. After a brief opening ceremony and some awards for track officals and points champs who missed the Madera Banquet, It was Feature Time! Again NCMA was the first group to take the track and they inverted their top eight. Inverted cars included Bill Hendricks, Pat Arriaz, Donnie Large, Steve Amador, Jerry Kobsa, Audra Sasselli, Carl Mott, and J.R. Brown. Bill Logan brought up the rear. There was a major shuffle at the front with Arriaz leading lap one over Large, Sasselli, Kobza, and Mott. Sasselli took second on lap three and snagged the lead a lap later. Mott began to experience some gremlins on lap six, dropping back and moving Brown into the top five. The yellow flew on lap seven when Mott coasted to a stop on the front stretch. With the removal of the comatose number 11, the race restarted with both Kobza and Brown snookering Arriaz and moving up to third and fourth. Brown then took third on the ninth circuit. After ten go arounds, Sasselli led over Large, Brown, Kobza and Arriaz. Brown took second on eleven and started trying to reel in Sasselli who was in her accustomed different zip code out front. However, at twenty laps, Audra still held the lead over Brown, Large, Kobza, and Arriaz. During the final ten circuits, Brown got no closer and in fact fell a little further back when Sasselli started lapping cars on lap twenty one. Steve Amador managed to steal fifth place on lap 22 and that was the race. Top five were Sasselli, Brown, Large, Kobza, and Amador. The HPD midgets lined up with the top three inverted. Dylan Nobile held the pole followed by Duke Love, Cody Jessop, Tom Patterson, Ashley Hazelton, Tommy McCarthy, and Ryan Delisle. The green saw Nobile scoot out front followed by Jessop, Love, Patterson, and McCarthy. McCarthy displaced Patterson on the second round. McCarthy spun in turn two on lap five to bring out the waving yellow hanky. With McCarthy relegated to the rear, Hazelton inherited fifth for the restart. However, Tommy was able to reclaim fifth on lap nine. After ten circuits, Nobile still held the lead with Jessop, Love, Patterson and McCarthy in the mirrors (Well, that would be if midgets were allowed to have mirrors). During the next several laps, Jessop begain to pressure Nobile giving him a couple of love taps and showing the nose down low. Meanwhile McCarthy repeated his turn 2 trick, only this time coming off four on lap twenty three for another yellow. But since a couple of cars had been lapped, he remained as the last car on the lead lap and his fifth position. Jessop was really putting the pressure on Nobile who seemed to have lost a bit of the handle and finally there was contact going into turn one on lap twenty eight and Dylan did a masterful job of keeping the 40 car off the wall and losing only one position. However, he was not able to close back up on Jessop to return the favor and the final order was Jessop, Nobile, Love, Patterson and McCarthy. With the number 96 Supermodified already in the trailer reducing the field to four cars, Madera officials decided to cut the feature to twenty five laps. A.J. Russell started on the pole flanked by Kyle Vanderpool. Lance jackson and Davey Hamilton were in row two. After trying to start twice and getting no throttle response (barrel valve problems) Lance Jackson was pushed to the infield and the remaining cars started the show. With no restictors in the 410 engines of the 3 and 32, A. J. valiantly tried to keep the 360 powered number 10 close, but settled into third after a couple of laps. Meanwhile up front, Vanderpool was leading with Hamilton pressuring him relentlessly. About once every three or four laps, Hamilton would sail off into turn three and show the nose and Vanderpool would would counter by coming down just a bit. Of course, the wiley Hamilton was forcing Vanderpool to turn in a bit too much and start to abuse the right rear tire. The longer the race went, the more Vanderpool was sliding the car. Several times Hamilton had to visibly breathe the throttle to keep from making contact down low. However after one of the best two car races I have ever seen, the two split around Russell on lap twenty three and Davey gained the ground he needed. He stuck nose way in on the last lap and didn’t back out. The result was tire smoke boiling 360 spin of the 3 car in turn four while Davey motored around to the line sans right front wing on the 32. As was always written on the back of another veteran’s supermodified, “experience and treachery will outwit youth and enthusiasm almost every time”. With his Sprint Car sidelined for the night Hamilton was having a lot of fun with the always fast Vanderpool. Kyle is very fast and learning at every race and is fast earning his veteran’s stripes. But Davey’s got thirty years in Supers and occasionaly gives a young gun a new lesson to learn. It was fun to watch the young gun and the master go at it. Bob Bigioni would have been proud! Next up was the Feature event of the features. A tweny four car Winged Sprint forty lap shootout with the top eight qualifiers inverted and some real hot shoes lined up behind the invert. This looked to be a wild show. Aaron Pierce and Jacob Wilson, latest Little Five Hundred winner, shared the front row. David Byrne and Matt Mansell occupied row two. Residing in row three were Richie Larson and Kyle Edwards. And completing the invert were Sierra Jackson and Ron Larson. Behind the eight fastest were some pretty fast peddle mashers in their own right. A pair of 60’s, Tim Skoglund and Davey Hamilton, Jr. were both in the points chase for the King of Wings Title and both have wins at Madera. Another row back were local hot shoe Eric Humphries and the KOW point leader Jo Jo Helberg, winner of two of the previous three shows and a winner at Madera as well. Another row back was Idaho great Bryan Warf and Robert Beck. Another point contender Cody Gerhardt and ageless Ken Hamilton still winning in seventies and father and grandfather of two of the fastest out there were in a row together. Next up was Bobby Santos who has won in anything with four wheels and an engine, and Geoff Ensign. Randy Dubois, Whitney Nolan, and Anthony Simone, nearly as old as Hamilton and always good for some excitement came next. Conner Cantrell, T.J. Thorne, and Rick Brown rounded out the field. Who could forsee what was to come? Unfortunately, Fast qualifier Ron Larson found some problems from his heat race skirmish and exited to pits before the start. When the green flag fell it was peddle to the metal and give no quarter. Pierce grabbed the lead with Wilson all over him. Byrne side by side with Mansell, and Richie Larson rounded out the top five, but it was still two and three wide all the way back. Skoglund, Hamilton, Jr., Jackson and Helberg were in a virtual fur ball swapping places severa time a lap.Edwards got by Larson on lap three to move into the top five only to lose it back on the next lap. Jackson and Helberg were seventh and eighth. Lap five saw Larson have problems and Edwards passed both he and Byrne with JacKson to sixth and Helberg to seventh. Things settled in a bit and it was Pierce over Wilson, Mansell, Edwards and now Jackson in fifth at ten laps down. Wilson blew by Pierce as they started lapping cars in the second ten lap segment. Jackson passed Edwards for fourth on lap fifteen and Wilson was blowing through the lappers to extend his lead. Helberg was in the top five at lap nineteen. On lap twenty, Jackson got both Pierce and Mansell to start a charge after Wilson who had disapeared into a cloud of moving chicanes. At halfway, Wilson led over Jackson, Pierce, Mansell, and Helberg. Skoglund and Warf started to assert themselves in the third ten lap segment along with young Hamilton, jr. Helberg finally disposed of Pierce and Mansell on lap twenty five to take third while Jackson would gain yards at a time when they hit traffic. She was catching Wilson steadily. Skoglund moved into fifth at Mansell’s expense on lap twenty eight with Warf and DJ. Hamilton challenging Mansell as well . At thirty laps, Wilson held a shrinking lead over Jackson, Helberg, Skoglund and Mansell.Warf finally got into the top five at lap thirty two, but the real fun was watching Sierra Jackson gaining feet and yards on Wilson. By lap thirty eight she was only two car lengths back and then only one. The finish had Wilson winning by a scant few feet over Jackson, Helberg, Skoglund, and Warf. Seventeen year old Davey Hamilton,Jr. was sixth followed by Byrne, Edwards, Rick Brown up from twenty fourth, and Eric Humphries. Wilson’s eight minute, thirty eight seconds and change forty lapper finally eclipsed the 8:48 by Mike Swanson over twenty years ago in a Supermodified. The crowd finally sat down. I doubt there was a disappointed fan in the house. It’s Saturday afternoon as I finish this and I’m still catching my breath. This is the last one for me for 2014. See you all the races in 2015. Madera Speedway, November 21, 2014 NCMA Sprint Cars Qualifications: 1. 8 J.R. Brown, 15.111; 2. 11 Carl Mott, 15.211; 3. 77 Audra Sasselli, 15.449; 3. 93 Jerry Kobsa, 15.667; 5. 7 Steve Amador, 15.812; 6. 15 Donnie Large, 15.851; 7. 2 Bill Hendricks, 16.024; 8. X Pat Arriaz, 16.047; 9. 88 Bill Logan, 16.857. Heat 1: 1. Ariaz; 2. Large; 3. Hendricks; 4. Logan. Heat 2: 1. Sasseli; 2. Mott; 3. Brown; 4. Amador; 5. Kobza. Feature: 1. Sasselli; 2. Brown; 3. Large; 4. Kobza; 5. Amador; 6. Arriaz; 7. Hendricks; 8. Logan; 9. Mott. USAC HPD Midgets Qualifications: 1. 00 Cody Jessop, 15.194; 2. 3 Duke Love, 15.300; 3. 40 Dylan Nobile, 15.325; 4. 9 Tom Patterson, 15.576; 5. 09 Tommy McCarthy, 15.582; 6. 32 Ashley Hazelton, 15.878; 7. 25 Ryan Delisle, 16.609. Heat 2: 1.Love; 2. Patterson; 3. Hazelton; 4. Delisle. Feature: 1. Jessop; 2. Nobile; 3. Love; 4. Patterson; 5. McCarthy; 6. Hazelton; 7. Delisle. Open Comp Super Modifieds Qualifications: 1. Davey Hamilton, 12.697; 2. 3 Kyle Vanderpool, 12.874; 3. 96 Brandon Smith, 13.701; 4. 10 A.J. Russell, 13.762; 5. 18 Lance Jackson, 14.095 Heat: 1. Vanderpool; 2. Hamilton; 3. Hazelton; 4. Jackson, 5. Smith (DNS). Feature: 1. Hamilton; 2. Vanderpool; 3. Russell; 4. Jackson. King of the Wing Sprint Cars Qualifications: 1. 12 Ron Larson, 12.490; 2.25J sierria Janckson, 12.552; 3. 11 Kyle Edwards, 12.600; 4. 22 Richie Larson, 12.734; 5.14 Matt Mansell; 6. 40 David Byrne, 12.751; 7. 07, Jacob Wilson, 12.574; 8. 26 Aaron Pierce, 12.760; 9. 60W Tim Skoglund, 12.791; 10. 60 Davey Hamilton, Jr., 12.792; 11. 15 Eric Humphries, 12.797; 12. 7 Jo Jo Helberg, 12.806; 13. 91W Bryan Warf, 12.857; 14. 3 Robert Beck; 12.976; 15. 98 Ken Hamilton, 12.984; 16. 40W Cody Gerhardt, 12.990; 17. 22A Bobby Santos, 13.004; 18. 3F, Geoff Ensign, 13.036; 19. 7D, Randy Dubois, 13.042; 20. 98N Whitney Nolan, 13.083; 21. 61 Kevin Feeney, 13.192; 22. 10 Anthony Simone, 13.247; 23. 9 Conner Cantrell, 13.255; 24. 91 Davey Hamilton, 13.349; 25. 65 T.J. Thorne, 13.406; 26. 51 Kyle Vanderpool, 13.443; 27. 33, Rick Brown, 13.533; 28. 4 Alan Beck, 13.587; 29. 11X Tom Paterson, 14.341. Heat 1: 1. Santos; 2. Skoglund; 3. Warf; 4. Mansell; 5. Thorne; 6. Paterson; 7. Larson; 8. Feeney. Heat 2: 1. Jackson; 2. Simone; 3. Skoglund; 4. Ensign; 5. R. Beck; 6. Byrne; 7. Vanderpool. Heat 3: 1. Dubois; 2. Humphries, 3. Wilson; 4. Edwards; 5. K. Hamilton; 6. Brown; 7. Cantrell. Heat 4: 1. Pierce; 2. Helberg, 3. Gerhardt; 4. NOLAN; 5. Larson; 6. A. Beck. B Main: 1.Dubois; 2. Simone; 3.Nolan; 4. Brown; 5. Thorne; 6. Cantrell; 7. Vanderpool; 8. A. Beck; 9. Feeney; 10. Paterson. Feature: 1. Wilson; 2. Jackson; 3. Helberg; 4. Skoglund; 5. Warf; 6. Hamilton, Jr.; 7. Byrne; 8. Edwards; 9. Brown; 10. Humphries’ 11. Santos; 12. Richie Larson; 13. Gerhardt; 14. K. Hamilton; 15. Nolan; 16. Ensign; 17. Simone; 18. Cantrell; 19. Dubois; 20. Mansell; 21. Thorne; 22. Pierce; 23. R. Beck; 24. Ron Larson.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 05:29:44 +0000
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