Pahrump Valley Gazette, Thursday, July I0, i997"17
FREE
by Geoff Kreis
Crashes, confusion and controversy. Those were the
three Cs at the Pahrump Valley Speedway Saturday night.
The IMCA and Street Stocks were at it once again battling
to gain top honors.
The IMCAs hit the
dirt first and immedi-
ately caused excite-
ment. Car number 14,
driven by Robert
Patrick Smotherman,
hit the wall on the first
lap of the race, stop-
ping action for nearly
10 minutes. He appar-
ently banged up his
knee in the crash. He
was not seriously hurt,
however, and was
driven off of the track
in a golf cart.
The race started
back up and cars num-
ber 17 and 87 battled
back and forth for the lead. Car 87, driven by Dan Fitzgerald
eventually took the lead for good and won the checkered
flag.
Local favorite Jason Pike won the second of the IMCA
heats.
The Street Stock heats involved quite a bit more of the
action as crashes, spin-outs, heated battles for first place
and even heated battles to stay in the race occurred.
In the first heat of the Street Stocks, car number four,
driven by Preston Sullivan copied what Smotherman did in
the first heat of the IMCAs. Sullivan was leading at the
start of the race, but spun out on the second turn of the first
1. Harley Cook's number car then took the lead.
number 34, driven by David Day bumped Cook and Diy
took the lead. He was eventually passed by Homer Rush's
6 car. Rush won the race with Day coming in second.
Cook spun out and hit the wall in the last lap and did not
finish.
The second heat was a close race until cars 28,555, and
22 had to pull out of the race due to mechanical failures.
That left only five cars to finish the race. Car number three,
driven by Levi Kiefer won the race with Michael
Hildebrlnd's number 17 car coming in second.
Gary Erwin's number 8 car caught on fire in the third
heat and emergency crews had to rush over to extinguish
the flames and pull Erwin out. Car number 23, driven by
Tim Flessati won the race right before Erwin's car caught
on fire and he had to swerve at the last minute to avoid
Erwin's last place, engulfed car.
The trophy dash races featured the top finishers of the
IMCA and Street Stock races. The IMCA dash had four
drivers and was won by Pike in a grueling match. There
were two Street Stock races that featured four cars in the
first and seven in the second. The winner of the first was
Kiefer' s number three car and the winner of the second was
Harley Cook (car 72) takes the lead, but later hits the
wall for a no-finish
I II
still up Pike kept trying to position his car back in first.
Perkins, angered by Pike's attempts to regain the lead
before the race had started back up, began bumping the
back of Pike's car.
Race fans in the audi-
i ii ii ii iiii
ence were divided. Half
were cheering for Pike
and half were cheering
for Perkins. They even
went so far as to boo each
other.
Perkins ended up back
in first and Pike ended
up dropping out of the
race. In the end though,
it was number 87, driven
by Danny Fitzgerald who
came out on top.
The Street Stock main
event featured 18 cars
and the biggest collision
of the night. The colli-
sion took place in the fi-
nal lap after a yellow warning flag had been thrown. There
was only one lap remaining after officials lined the cars
back up. On the second turn of that final lap, car number
99, driven by Robert Taylor apparently spun out in the
middle of the track causing a six cars pile up.
Red lights warned all the drivers to stop their cars
exactly where they were issued. Driving or moving your
car under a red light is,
grounds for disqualifica-
tion. Cars number 55, 51,
156, 2, and 99 were all black
flagged, or disqualified.
Some of the drivers pro-
tested, some even attempted
to return to the race. The
confusion of lining up the
remaining cars took nearly
20 minutes and in the end
only eight cars were left on
the track to finish the race.
After the delays and dis-
qualifications, the remain-
ing lap was run again and
Kiefer's number three car
took the checkered flag.
At the end of the races
there were many protests by
both fans and drivers. Many
did not agree with the rules
as their favorite driver or
car was not allowed to fin-
ish.
In the heat of Saturday's
battle there were few win-
ners.
Inspection on
A/C RI2 Cr 134A
10% cliscbunt on
A/C &,
Repairs
Value jobs, Motors,
& Transmissions
New &
Used
Tires
Available
Honest I.njn [
Automotive
4481 S. Money
4626
Robert Taylor's number 99
Car.
After a very short half-
time in which the track was
watered down and the fans
grabbed a hot dog or two,
the two main event races
took place.
The first was a car LMCA
race in which Pike's num-
ber 23 car grabbed hold of
first place early on. Half-
way through the race, a yel-
low caution flag was thrown
after a spin-out. This oc-
curred nearly the same time
as Jim Perkin's number 87A
car was passing Pike. When
race officials tried to sort
out the mess and put Perkins
in first, Pike complained.
While the yellow flag was
D
ii i iii
I support the Pahrump Seniors in their attempt to get
the VOTE BACK at the Senior Center
To the Nye County Commissioners:
Name:
Address:
Telephone #:
Bring to the Pahrump Valley Gazette or mail to
Pahrump Valley Gazette 1330 Hwy 160 Ste. 3,
Pahrump, NV., 89048
or
Attention: CharHe Gronda or Gary Hollis, Pahrump
Town Office 400 N. Hwy 160 Pahrump, NV., 89048
ii , i
Service
Forum
Pahramp Valley Insurance
Life * Group • Medical
727-5700 Phone k Fax
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One Stop Music Mar ÷
Instruments; Lessons
Sales, Service, Rentals & Repair
¢assett Tapes + Compact Disk
All Types of Music
including Spanish
Stmrtin s at $4.99 tape $7.99 diK.
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