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Hollywood Hills Speedway 6-7-2008 Report
by Bob Ingram / Beth Hazlewood
Hollywood Hills Speedway, Casino Hollywood, San Felipe Pueblo, New Mexico. A great crowd was on hand tonight to see four exciting classes of cars put on some of the best racing seen so far this year. It seems that the racing just keeps getting better every week. Although the racing was great in all divisions, the Sprint Car Main Event was certainly the highlight of the night. The track actually had moisture coming up at the end of the night, which made for some very fast racing.
The Sprint Cars had a very nice field of 27 cars to run 3 heat races, a Semi-Main and a 25 lap Main Event. Heat #1 had 9 starters and 8 still around at the checkered. The battle for the win was non-stop with the top 5 or 6 drivers never more than a few car lengths apart. At the end of the race long, side by side action the #11W of Tim West took the win over the #40X of Scott Box with the #61X of Bo Baker coming home in the 3rd spot. Heat #2 also had 9 starters with the top 6 drivers fighting for every inch of available racetrack. At the checkered it was the #33 of Ronnie Smith holding off the #6 of Michael Marfia who was taking over the driving duties from his dad Robert. Chasing Smith and Marfia to the stripe was the #22M of Jessie Baker who was making his debut in a new car. Heat #3 was another barnburner with a great battle for the win and a bazaar ending. Johnny Herrera in the #45X took the win over the #35 of Derrik Ortega. Ortega was making his first start of the year at HHS in a Non-Wing Sprint as he has been running a Winged car with the Rockie Mountain ASCS series which he is currently leading by a scant 2 points over another young gun from Highlands Ranch Colorado, Chad Corken. Chasing Herrera and Ortega at the end was long tow winner #5X Billy Page from Minneola Texas. Page is driving an ex Johnny Herrera car and was looking very strong. Page plans on making all but 1 of the remaining shows at HHS this year. Now for the bazaar part of the race. As the checkered flag was waving the #611 of Charlie Fegan tangled with another car on the backstretch and did 3 very hard rollovers that pretty much destroyed his car. After the race Fegan said All thats left is a few spare parts for Bos car . The Semi-Main had 11 starters as the Fegan car was unable to make the call. The #8 of J.C. Powell jumped out to the early lead from his outside front row start and was pretty much uncatchable to the end. At the checkered it was Powell being chased home by the #26 of Randy Smith, #24 Jordan Mattson ( a rookie who has moved up from Mini-Sprints ), #21P Paul Whitehead and another rookie from the Mini-Sprint ranks in the #50 of Jerry Higgenbotham. These 5 drivers transferred to the rear of the Main Event. The 25 lap Main Event was possibly the best race of the year at HHS. Instead of the top 6 cars as in the heat fighting for the win there were 10-12 cars or more in the hunt for this race win. The race got off to a rough start for the #35 of Derrik Ortega as he took a tumble in turn #2 on the first lap, ending what could probably have been a real challenge to take the win. After the racing resumed, there were battles for position all over the track. Jessie Baker in his new #22M took off to a nice lead from his pole position start, only to be reeled in by the rest of the field due to another red flag for the #6 of Michael Marfia who took a tumble in turn #3 and a couple of yellow flags for minor spins. Waging war to catch Baker was a bevy of very fast cars with the #45X of Johnny Herrera coming up from his 9th starting spot to join the fray at the front. Jessies dad Bo in the #61X took over the top spot from his son and soon was joined by the Herrera car with Jessie being relegated to the 3rd spot. For the last 8 or so laps of this race Herrera tried every move in the book to get by the older Baker only to come up about a half car length short at the checkered flag. Chasing Baker and Herrera to the stripe were Jessie Baker, #40X Scott Box and the #65 of Rick Johnson who were all within striking distance of the leader and could have taken the win if any of the top three had made even the smallest of mistakes.
Here are the full results for tonights racing. These results are unofficial and we apologize for any errors.
Sprint Cars
Heat #1
#11W Tim West
#40X Scott Box
#61X Bo Baker
#7 Jason Tanner
#4X Cody Mansfield
#26 Randy Smith
#24 Jordan Mattson
#21P Paul Whitehead
#48 Larry Kesterson DNF
Heat #2
#33 Ronnie Smith
#6 Michael Marfia
#22M Jessie Baker
#78 Jody Williams
#52NM David Burns
#8 J.C. Powell
#F2 L.C. Kesterson
#99 Chuck Jackson
#27 Shawn Kautz DNF
Heat #3
#45X Johnny Herrera
#35 Derrik Ortega
#5X Billy Page
#65 Rick Johnson
#17 Steve Spiak
#50 Jerry Higgenbotham
#611 Charlie Fegan DNF
#93 Jon Taylor DNF
#27K Tim Knight DNF
Semi-Main
#8 J.C. Powell
#26 Randy Smith
#24 Jordan Mattson
#21P Paul Whitehead
#50 Jerry Higgenbotham
#17 Steve Spiak
#27 Shawn Kautz
#48 Larry Kesterson DNF
#99 Chuck Jackson DNF
#F2 L.C. Kesterson DNF
#27K Tim Knight DNF
#611 Charlie Fegan DNS
Main Event
#61X Bo Baker Held off Johnny Herrera for many laps, well deserved win
#45X Johnny Herrera First time this year not taking the checkered in first spot
#22M Jessie Baker Led many laps and was right on the tail of the Dad and Herrera at the end
#40X Scott Box Mixed it up with the leaders all race long, a win soon to come ??
#65 Rick Johnson Also ran with the leaders all night
#7 Jason Tanner
#11W Tim West
#4X Cody Mansfield
#78 Jody Williams
#26 Randy Smith
#52NM David Burns
#21P Paul Whitehead
#24 Jordan Mattson
#5X Billy Page
#50 Jerry Higgenbotham
#8 J.C. Powell DNF
#93 Jon Taylor DNF
#33 Ronnie Smith DNF
#6 Michael Marfia DNF
#35 Derrik Ortega DNF |
