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Herrera Continues Winning Streak at Hollywood Hills Speedway
by Bob Ingram / Beth Hazlewood

9-6-2008 --- Hollywood Hills Speedway @ Casino Hollywood, San Felipe Pueblo, New Mexico. Finally after several weeks of fighting weather conditions, Hollywood Hills Speedway fans were treated to near perfect conditions for a great night of dirt track racing. There were some concerns early in the evening as there had been a very heavy rainstorm last Sunday that washed away a large portion of the clay/dirt racing surface. However, the hard work and expertise of track director Tom Ball and track preparation expert Paul Wilson paid off as the track started out in good shape and stayed that way the entire evening. There was a very nice field of 81 cars on hand in four divisions to put on some fantastic racing for the fans. The evening got underway right at 7:00 with the singing of the National Anthem by Margie Whyman who is the wife of Street Stock driver Jeff Whyman and mother of Cruiser driver Chris Whyman who were both in action tonight.

The Sprint cars had a nice field of 23 cars after having only 18 cars the last time they ran due to a few drivers electing to run two day out of town shows. The Sprints ran three very close heat races and an exciting main-event that got off to a rough start for three drivers on the first lap.

Heat #1 saw the #45X of Johnny Herrera take a comfortable win over rookie teenager #4X Cody Mansfield with the #7 of Rick Johnson coming home in third. Johnson has just taken over the Bill Richard’s Sprinter that had previously been driven by Jason Tanner.

Heat #2 had the father of one of the two father and son teams in the field take the win as the #26 of Randy Smith took a hard fought win over the #22M of Jessie Baker and the #52NM of Dave Burns.

Heat #3 went to current second place championship driver #11W Tim West with the #61X of last years Sprint Car Champion Bo Baker taking second and the #93 of Jon Taylor coming home in the show position. Taylor in the #93 who has struggled with his car all year was racing with a heavy heart tonight as his number one fan, “Grandma Pauline” is ill and missed tonight’s racing, so Jon went out and finished both his heat and his main-event in the top five spots.

The 25 lap main-event saw all 23 cars on hand make the call as there were no cars damaged during the three heat races. The main got off to a very tough start as a gaggle of cars came together coming out of turn two on the first lap. The resulting melee saw the #8 of J.C. Powell, the #26 of Randy Smith and the #52NM of Dave Burns take hard flips that saw all three cars airborne at the same time. All three drivers were eventually able to exit their cars under their own power, however Burns wound up spending the night in the Hospital with a concussion and all three drivers suffered “Racing Rheumatism” on Sunday. Once the dust had settled from the first lap crash the racing was pretty much caution free.

Ex-World of Outlaws racer Johnny Herrera in his family owned #45X steadily worked his way toward the front from his 12th starting spot. Once Herrera took the lead he quickly pulled away to over a half lap victory. Chasing Herrera to the stripe were the #11W of Tim West, #61X Bo Baker, #7 Rick Johnson and the #93 of Jon Taylor filling out the top five positions.

Have A Great Day
God Bless Everybody

Sprint Cars
Heat #1
#45X Johnny Herrera, #4X Cody Mansfield, #7 Rick Johnson, #8 J.C. Powell, #78 Jody Williams, #99 Chuck Jackson, #47R Jerill Higginbotham, #17 Chris Spiak

Heat #2
#26 Randy Smith, #22M Jessie Baker, #52NM Dave Burns, #21P Paul Whitehead, #16 Ronnie Smith, #33K Jerry Higginbotham, #27K Tim Knight

Heat #3
#11W Tim West, #61X Bo Baker, #93 Jon Taylor, #40X Scott Box, #73 Nick Rael, #24 Jordan Mattson, #01 Larry Stoerkel, #76R Craig Stringfellow DNF

Main Event
#45X Johnny Herrera, #11W Tim West, #61X Bo Baker, #7 Rick Johnson, #93 Jon Taylor, #16 Ronnie Smith, #4X Cody Mansfield, #73 Nick Rael, #22M Jessie Baker, #21P Paul Whitehead, #24 Jordan Mattson, #33K Jerry Higginbotham, #27K Tim Knight, #47R Jerill Higginbotham, #76R Craig Stringfellow, #01 Larry Stoerkel, #40X Scott Box DNF, #17 Chris Spiak DNF, #78 Jody Williams DNF, #52NM Dave Burns DNF, #8 J.C. Powell DNF, #26 Randy Smith DNF, #99 Chuck Jackson DNF