|












|
|

|
|

|
Sherman wins at
Manzanita, so does the Children's Hospital
by Windy McDonald
|
(May 3) Another classic battle
between Jeremy Sherman and Charles Davis, Jr. at Manzanita
Speedway Saturday night was overshadowed somewhat by the fans
who came up big in helping the Phoenix Children’ hospital. The
fans brought hundreds of stuffed toys to the track and then,
through silent auctions, a regular auction and other fund
raisers brought in well over $10,000 which also went to the
Children’s hospital in the name of Kole Caskey, the son of a
racing family who passed away March 9th. Items donated by NASCAR
stars Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson were the most expensive
items. Johnson’s personal racing jacket, autographed and also
signed by his entire pit crew, went for $2.000 and a Tony
Stewart replica autographed helmet added $3300 to the pot.
Manzanita and its fans also presented the Caskey family with an
all expense paid vacation at Disney Land for the entire family
which includes the two brothers that in addition to Kole were
triplets.
The method of lining up the feature race was changed this week
after officials suspected the some drivers were dogging it a
little in the heat races so that they could start nearer the
front. Now the high point driver through the heats rolls the die
and the number that comes up is the number of drivers that will
draw a pill for their starting berth.
Charles Davis, Jr., after driving from fifth to first in his
heat, was the high point man and he rolled a 12. Sherman pulled
#1 on his draw.
The American Sprint Car Series feature race had Sherman on the
pole with Davis lined up in the fourth row. Davis quickly moved
into second and for the final 20 laps dogged Sherman and never
was more than a couple of car lengths behind the leader. Sherman
led all 30 laps as he won his third feature of the year and
Davis, a two time winner, finished second for the fourth time.
Andy Reinbold had his best finish of the year with a strong
third place finish. Mike Colegrove was the hard charger of the
race when he lined up in the inside of the ninth row for the
start and crossed the finish line in fourth. Shon Deskins also
made up a lot of ground with a drive from 13th to fifth.
Rounding out the top ten were Bob Ream, Jr., Jeremy Reagles,
R.J. Johnson, Mike Leslie and Jay Ervine.
Reagles had his Mopar humming and won the first ten lap heat
race with a drive from third with Nick Aiuto, Leslie and Ervine
trailing. The second heat was by far the best with no only Davis
passing four cars but Johnson did the same after sharing the
third row with Davis. Behind the front runners were Ream and
Deskins. Sherman had the pole for the final heat and held off
Josh Pelkey for the win with Seainn Hendricsen third ahead of
Reinbold. Nathan High scored his third trophy Dash win with
Davis, Sherman and Johnson giving chase.
Davis fell back to 38 points behind Sherman in the chase for the
championship. The Sprint Cars will visit Central Arizona Raceway
next week and return to Manzanita for The Wayne Weiler Salute to
Indy on May 24.
Mini sprints and modified midgets provided a combined field of
46 cars, as they came to aid Ken and Adrea Caskey. Ken was one
of the top mini sprint drivers and hopes to return to racing
before the season ends. The field ran two main events Russ
Martin ended Kiley Fellers three race win streak in the first
feature and Dennis Carrier topped Josh Castro in the other.
Martin and Fellers shared the fifth row at the drop of the green
and they chased down Datten Gabbard on the 10th lap with Morgan
in front. Fellers, driving the high side of the one third mile
track took over on the 11th lap but Martin made the low groove
work and was back in front and lead the final three laps. Paul
Martin finished third, Matt Jackson fourth and Gabbard fifth.
Behind them were Zack Sawyer, B.J. Arntz, Austin Quick, Rick
Shuman, Jim Mattison and Dave Van Ess.
The yellow flag fell early and often in the second main and the
officials finally cut the race to 10 laps from the scheduled 15.
Nick Aiuto, driving for Ken Caskey, led the first lap but gave
was to Josh Pelkey a lap later. Castro kept the lead until
Carrier shot by and led the field to the checkered flag six laps
later. Castro held off Dennis Parks for second and Adam Milsap
beat Kurt Stults for fourth. Rounding out the top ten were Aiuto,
Cliff Cormany, Chad Fifte, Ashley Robella and Ron Saunders.
The mini sprints ran three ten lap heat races and the modified
midgets ran two. Fellers beat Joshua Shipley, Mattison and J.D.
Bernal in the first mini sprint heat. The second heat went to
Carrier over Stults, Ronnie Smith and Kyle Shipley. Brandon
George came out of the third row to win the final mini sprint
heat. Behind him at the checkered flag were Castro, Shuman and
Parks.
Paul Martin and Milsap won the modified midget heats. Martin
beat Gabbard, Arntz and Jackson while Milsap was better than
Aiuto, Russ Morgan and Fife.
Russ Martin won the modified midget dash and Tyler Keesler won
the dash for the mini sprints.
Only six midgets were on hand for the race. Nathan High, the
2007 AMRA champion won the 10 lap feature with points leader
R.J. Johnson second, Terry Goodwin third, Joshua Shipley fourth
and Michael Marfia fifth. Jeff Perry lost an engine in the heat
race and did not compete. Johnson won the heat and the dash.
The midgets came out with only six cars and Nathan High won the
10 lap race.
SUMMARY--TRIBUTE TO KOLE CASKEY
AMERICAN SPRINT CAR SERIES
Main Event: (30 laps) 1. Jeremy Sherman 2. Charles Davis Jr. 3.
Andy Reinbold 4. Mike Colegrove 5. Shon Deskins 6. Bob Ream, Jr.
7. Jeremy Sherman 8. R.J. Johnson 9. Mike Leslie 10. Jay Ervine
11. Mike Martin 12. Nathan High 13. Stevie Sussex 14. Jeff Henry
15. Bobby Taylor 16. Nick Aiuto 17.
Ronnie Smith 18. Jody Wirth 19. Derek Sells 20. Steve
Tellas 21. Derek Williams 22. Josh Pelkey 23. Justin Fisher 24.
Seainn Hendricsen
Lap leaders: laps 1-30 Sherman
1st Heat: (10 laps) 1. Jeremy Reagles 2. Nick Aiuto 3. Mike
Leslie 4. Jay Ervine 5. Bobby Taylor 6. Stevie Sussex 7. Jody
Wirth 8. Steve Tellas 9. Derek Sells (time-2:31.90)
2nd Heat: (10 laps) 1. Charles Davis, Jr. 2. R.J. Johnson 3. Bob
Ream, Jr. 4. Shon Deskins 5. Mike Martin 6. Mike Colegrove 7.
Jeff Henry 8. Thomas Ogle (DNS-Carson Ditsh-time-2:31.81)
3rd Heat: (10 laps) 1. Jeremy Sherman 2. Josh Pelkey 3. Seainn
Hendricsen 4. Andy Reinbold 5. Nathan High 6.
Ronnie Smith 7. Justin Fisher 8. Derek Williams 9.
Zack Sawyer (time-2:32.66)
Semi Main: (10 laps) 1. Mike Colegrove 2. Justin Fisher 3.
Ronnie Smith 4. Jeff Henry 5. Steve Tellas 6. Derek
Williams 7. Jody Wirth 8. Derek Sells 9. Zack Sawyer 10. Thomas
Ogle
Trophy Dash: (4 laps) 1. Nathan High 2. Charles Davis, Jr. 3.
Jeremy Sherman 4. R.J. Johnson (time-1:01.51)
MINI SPRINTS
1st Main Event: (15 laps) 1. Russ Martin 2. Kiley Fellers 3.
Paul Martin 4. Datten Gabbard 5. Matt Jackson 6. Zack Sawyer 7.
B.J. Arntz 8. Austin Quick 9. Rick Shuman 10. Jim Mattison 11.
Dave Van Ness 12. Moe Franz 13. J.D. Bernal 14. Pat Wing 15.
Trey Deane 16. Tyler Ydbarra 17. Tyler Merrill 18. Mike Visser
19. Derek Sell 20. Brandon George
:Lap leaders: 1. laps 1-9 Gabbard, lap 10 R. Martin, laps 11-12
Fellers, laps 13-15 R. Martin.
2nd Main Event: (10 laps) 1. Dennis Carrier 2. Josh Castro 3.
Dennis Parks 4. Adam Milsap 5. Kurt Stults 6. Nick Aiuto 7.
Dustin Cormany 8. Chad Fife 9. Ashley Robella 10. Ron Saunders
11. Dylan Cappello 12. Ryan Walter 13. Donna Kotlinski 14.
Daniel Doherty 15. Justin Quinn 16. Josh Center 17. Travis
Keesler 18. Joshua Shipley 19. Kyle Shipley 20. Moe Frantz 21.
#17x
Lap leaders: lap 1 Aiuto, laps 1-4 Castro, laps 5-10 Carrier
MINI SPRINT HEATS-Ten laps
1st: 1. Kiley Fellers 2. Joshua Shipley 3. Jim Mattison 4. J.D.
Bernal 5. Pat Wing 6. Tyler Keesler 7. Rick Alexander 8. Mike
Visser 9. Derek Williams (no time)
2nd 1. Dennis Carrier 2. Kurt Stults 3. Ronnie Smith 4. Kyle
Shipley 5. Cliff Cormany 6. Ashley Robella 7. Ryan Walter 8.
Donna Kotlinski 9. Dustin Cormany (time-2:43.48)
3rd: 1. Brandon George 2. Josh Castro 3. Rick Shuman 4. Dennis
Parks 5. Austin Quick 6. #17x 7. Dallas Caldwell
Trophy Dash: (4 laps) 1. Tyler Keesler 2. Cliff Cormany 3. Jim
Mattison 4. Rick Shuman 5. Pat Wing (time-1:05.17)
MODIFIED MIDGET HEAT RACES--10 Laps
1st: 1. Paul Martin 2. Datten Gabbard 3. B.J. Arntz 4. Matt
Jackson 5. Zack Sawyer 6. Derek Sell 7. Trey Deane 8. Tyler
Ybarra 9. Dave Van Ess 10. Tyler Deane 11. Tyler Merrill (no
time)
2nd: 1. Adam Milsap 2. Nick Aiuto 3. Russ Martin 4. Chad Fife 5.
Moe Franz 6. Ron Saunders 7. Dylan Cappello 8. Josh Center 9.
Daniel Doherty 10. Justin Quinn (no time)
Trophy Dash: 1. Russ Martin 2. Paul Martin 3. Dylan Cappello 4.
Matt Jackson 5. Ron Saunders 6. Dave Van Ess (time-1:08.18)
AMRA MIDGETS
Main Event: (10 laps) 1. Nathan High 2. R.J. Johnson 3. Joshua
Shipley 4. Terry Goodwin 5. Michael Marfia (DNS Jeff Perry)
Lap leaders: laps 1-3 Marfia, laps 4-10 High
Heat Race: (6 laps) 1. R.J. Johnson 2. Michael Marfia 3. Terry
Goodwin 4. Joshua Shipley 5. Jeff Perry (DNS-Nathan
High-time-1:34.42))
Trophy Dash: (4 laps) 1. R.J. Johnson 2. Joshua Shipley 3. Jeff
Perry (DNS High-Time, 1:02.16) |
|

|
|