Tight Super Late Model battle resumes Saturday
at Orange Show Speedway
SAN BERNARDINO (Sept. 5, 2007) –
The contenders for the Hype Manufacturing Super Late Model championship
have had three weeks to plan their strategy for the final four races
at Orange Show Speedway. They only needed three seconds because no planning
was required.
Three drivers are separated by just 16 points and
that means the strategy will be the same for each of them when racing
resumes Saturday (Sept. 8) with the Super Late Models headlining a program
that also includes the quick ASA Pro 4’s, the highly-competitive
Aflac Factory Fours, the Stock Cars USA series, the Mini StocKars and
the final Demolition Derby of the season.
That menu guarantees excitement for the regular visitors
to the ASA-sanctioned quarter-mile oval as well as those celebrating
Robertson’s Ready Mix Family Night, Mark Christopher Hummer Night
and Public Servants Night.
As part of the evening, representatives of Robertson’s
Ready Mix will present a donation to the Ronald McDonald House to assist
in that organization’s services to families of critically ill
children.
Public Servants Night has been instituted to honor
those who regularly risk their safety and their lives to assist the
public. All law enforcement personnel, fireman and forestry department
members and emergency medical technicians and their families will be
admitted free by displaying their badges or official identification
at the box office.
Spectator gates open at 5 p.m. and racing gets under
way at 6:30 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors (62 and
over), handicapped and juniors (13-16) and $2 for children (6-12). Active
military personnel and veterans with valid military identification are
admitted free of charge. Parking is $4 per car with entry through Gate
3 off Mill Street .
Those unable to make it to the speedway still can
follow the action with “Orange Show Speedway Live,” the
radio broadcast on KTTD (AM 1350) that begins at 8 p.m. and is simulcast
on the Internet at www.nixacountry.com.
Ten races into the 14-race season for the Super Late
Models, Rick Chavez has a 2-point lead over Frankie Gould and a 16-point
advantage over 2005 class champion John Manke. So with four races remaining
in which to determine a champion, all three will have the same game
plan – win the race, if possible, but above all else do everything
possible to avoid the kinds of mishaps that can have a devastating effect
on the point standings.
That’s essentially the same strategy everyone
employs each week, but it will get special emphasis from the top three
because it’s been proven that stating the objectives is much easier
than accomplishing them.
No one has dominated Victory Circle . In this season’s
10 races there have been six different winners and four two-time winners
– Chavez, Manke, Glen Cummings and Linny White – and only
defending champion Cummings has managed to win back-to-back events.
No one is immune to the kind of bad luck that will
result in a subpar finish, either. So Gould perhaps might be smart to
knock on wood a few times this week, since he’s finished seventh
or better in every race and that consistency has made him a contender.
On the other hand, in the past four races, since
his second win on June 2, Chavez has lost 32 points to Gould and 26
to Manke. Part of that is due to an on-track incident between Chavez
and Manke July 21. But three weeks ago, with 20 laps to go in a 50-lap
main event, Chavez was running fifth, and he said he gladly would have
settled for finishing there and maybe losing four or six points from
his 16-point lead over Gould.
Instead, Chavez got hit and put out of the race by
a driver out of title contention. He finished 10th while Gould got third
and Manke fourth, and any margin for error during the rest of the season
had disappeared.
The points battles in the Pro 4 and Aflac Factory
Fours are pretty well decided with four races to go. Rex Lockwood leads
Eddie Secord by 30 points in Pro 4 and Spencer Samaro is 56 points ahead
in Factory Fours. But in the Stock Cars USA series, Michele Rouse trails
Mark Whitson by just 8 points with two of the eight races left and in
the Mini StocKar class, defending champion Dean Caskey is 4 points behind
Mike O’Hara with three of seven races left.
A busy month for the speedway will continue Sept.
15 with the Lucas Oil Route 66 Burnout, presented by The Press-Enterprise,
and on Sept. 22 with the Toys for Tots 100 ASA Late Model race, a 100-lap,
open competition event with a $6,400 purse.
The Burnout, a contest in which drivers use the accelerator
and brakes to try to create the most tire smoke in a 1-minute period,
is an annual competition during the Stater Bros. Route 66 Rendezvous.
The Burnout will be held in the speedway from 6:30 to 10 p.m. There
also will be Drifiting and Quartermidget exhibitions. Tickets are $6,
with children 12 and under free, and $1 of each ticket will be donated
to the Boys and Girls Club of San Bernardino. Parking is through Gate
8 off Arrowhead Avenue or in the dirt lot across the avenue.
The Sept. 22 Late Model feature will be a non-points
race open to anyone with a Late Model and the $100 entry fee. That entry
fee includes a Test and Tune session from 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Sept.
21. Other classes are welcome to practice that night as well, for the
usual $30 charge.
That weekend also will serve as the area debut of
a proposed USAC Junior Ford Focus Midgets class. There will be practice
and qualifying Sept. 21 and the main event will run at 4 p.m. Sept.
22, in advance of a Family Night program that features the Late Models,
Stock Ponys, Leno’s Rico Taco Legends Cars and Bandoleros.
Racing at Orange Show Speedway is sponsored by Lucas
Oil, Blackhawk Protection, Hype Manufacturing, Del Taco, Aflac Insurance,
KTTD radio (AM 1350), Leno’s Rico Taco, Soboba Casino, Budweiser,
Hoosier Racing Tires, Frank’s Radio Service, Torco Racing Fuels,
Parker Pumper/BSR West, Eibach Springs, JP Striping, Center Chevrolet,
Pepsi, Matich Coporation, L. Curti Truck and Equipment, One Stop Landscape
Supply, Extreme Exhibits & Logistics, Little Green Onions and the
San Bernardino County Sun.
For further information, contact Jim Short at 951-203-2649
or jimshort65@sbcglobal.net, call Orange Show Speedway at 909-888-6788,
X438, or visit the web site at www.nosevents.com.
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