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By Floyd Busby
MADERA, CA., MAY 1: Tony Hunt held off the repeated challenges of Thomas Meseraull to score the feature Midget win in the annual Vukovich Classic at the Madera Speedway.
Hunt, the fastest qualifier in the Western Speed Racing Beast/Esslinger,
took the lead on the 26th lap in one of the
hardest-fought USAC/BCRA co-sanctioned Midget races in recent memory. Hunt
started in the tenth position in a compromise format agreed upon by the two
racing organizations.
John Sarale jumped into the initial lead from his outside front
row position with Jerome Rodela claiming second from the second
row. Pole-sitter Matt Mitchell held third over veteran Wally Pankratz and
eighth-starting Meseraull.
Meseraull quickly began moving the Bill Ferrari Beast/Brayton Ford forward and took second on the fifth round. Hunt charged into fourth at this point, then dropped Rodela's Beast/Pink Ford to fourth on the sixth lap.
During the close racing for the lead, Michael Lewis had moved the Western Speed Racing Beast/Esslinger team car into contention from ninth-starting. He moved by Rodela to claim fourth on the seventh circuit of the 1/3-mile paved oval, then made an outside pass exiting turn-four to pass his teammate Hunt on the next lap.
Following a caution period after completing nine laps because of
a spinning Eric Mostin, Lewis swept by Sarale and Meseraull for
the lead at the ten-lap mark. Over the next several laps Hunt dogged Meseraull,
taking third on the 12th round, then battled Sarale to claim second two laps
later.
At the 20-lap mark Lewis held the edge over Hunt, with Meseraull
displacing Sarale for third and Rodela in fifth over
Garrett Hansen, Stephen Graves and Wally Pankratz as the caution flag waved for
a spin by Mitchell in the second-turn.
Lewis was unable to open his margin over Hunt, but looked well
in control of the race until the 25th lap. Entering turn-one his
Western Speed Racing machine appeared to bottom out on the racing surface,
resulting in an instantaneous spin with the car sliding to the outer wall.
At the drop of the green it was Hunt at the helm over Meseraull,
Sarale and Rodela, but before the lap could be completed
Greg Dennett spun his Beast/Wirth Chevy exiting onto the backstretch to bring
out another yellow flag.
The 28th lap saw the evening's biggest calamity as the cars of Stephen Graves and Jerry Coons made contact as they set up for the first turn. Graves machine ricocheted toward the infield, then shot backwards back onto the track, directly in the path of the oncoming cars. The path of Pete Davis and Cameron Beard was blocked and both crashed hard into Graves machine. Moving up quickly after his spin was Lewis. He too had nowhere to go and became part of the encounter, ending up stuffed rearward into the outer wall. Pankratz managed to stop short of the tangle. Only he and Beard were able to restart. BCRA rookie of the year candidate Michael Hubert III also dropped out at this point.
At the resumption Hunt held the lead over Meseraull, Sarale and Rodela with Coons bringing the DeBeaumont Stealth/Pink Chevy into fifth over Hansen and a charging Johnny Rodriguez. Coons stepped up to nab both Sarale and Rodela, claiming third on the 29th circuit. BCRA rookie Garratt Boyden moved into eighth.
Meseraull produced a stirring run at Hunt lap-after-lap, looking for a single mistake from the leader and nearly pulling alongside on several occasions, but could not quite gain the upper hand.
At the 38th lap mark three caution flags were utilized in concession. First, Coons spun into the infield exiting turn-two. Following the restart Dallen McKenney immediately looped in turn-two. Hansen brought out the final lap-38 caution with a spin entering turn-three.
The 39th lap would provide a profound change in the final
finish. Exiting onto the backstretch, Rodela attempted an inside pass
of Sarale. The cars made contact with Rodela's car pushing the Sarale machine
into a spin. Sarale achieved a 360-degree spin down the track and regained
control to continue, losing six positions.
The scheduled 50-lap feature was cut to 40-laps due to time
constraints. At the finish Hunt crossed the line inches ahead of
Meseraull and Rodela, but the USAC and BCRA officials penalized Rodela,
asserting that he could and should have backed off instead of spinning Sarale.
Rodela was put to the rear of the cars that were on the leading lap, dropping
him from third to 12th. This moved Rodriguez to third over Boyden, Ryan Kaplan
and Pankratz.
Hunt outqualified his teammate Lewis by two-hundredths of a second over the 33-car field. The top-ten qualifiers were transferred directly to the main event in inverted order.
The first of two qualifying races that transferred the four top
finishers to the main was won by Kaplan over Davis, Mostin and
McKenney. The second ten-lapper went to Rodriguez over Boyden, Beard and
Dennett. The last chance race was taken by Dan Gundo over Josh Lakatos, Floyd
Alvis and Michael Hubert III for transfers to the feature.
The next Western States USAC race is May 8 on the dirt at the Kings Speedway in Hanford. BCRA's next outing is a co-sanctioned event with WMRA at the Douglas County Speedway in Roseburg, Oregon on May 15.
SUMMARY:
QUAL: 1. Tony Hunt, 60, Western Speed-13.85; 2. Michael Lewis, 40, Western
Speed-13.87; 3. Thomas Meseraull, 69, Ferreri-14.12; 4. Stephen Graves, 94,
Graves-14.14; 5. Garrett Hansen, 70, Hansen-14.24; 6. Jerry Coons, Jr., 11,
DeBeaumont-14.26; 7. Jerome Rodela, 25, Rodela-14.26; 8. Wally Pankratz, 8,
Pankratz-14.28; 9. John Sarale, 32, Sarale-14.30; 10. Matt Mitchell, 37,
Mitchell-14.37; 11. Ryan Kaplan, 21, Kaplan-14.44; 12. Johnny Rodriguez, 30,
Rodriguez-14.48; 13. Pete Davis, 00, Davis-14.54; 14. Dan Gundo, 6, Gundo-14.56;
15. Eric Mostin, 12, Mostin-14.58; 16. Floyd Alvis, 18, Alvis-14.63; 17. Brian
Gard, 57, Gard-14.66; 18. Cameron Beard, 1, Beard-14.66; 19. Steve Roza, 20,
Roza-14.69; 20.
Tim Joyce, 99, Segur-14.71; Dallen McKenney, 88, McKenney-14.75; 22. Garratt
Boyden, 42, Boyden-14.75; 23. Cliff Servetti, 83, Servetti-14.80; 24. Josh
Lakatos, 28, Lakatos-14.83; 25. Joe Lindsey, 23x, Lindsey-14.95; 26. Greg
Dennett, 47, Dennett-14.96; 27. Michael Hubert, Jr., 56, Hubert-14.97; 28. Eddie
Abrew, 25x, Abrew-15.03; 29. Jim Silva, 19, Chandler-15.16; 30. Carly Lawrence,
11L, Lawrence-15.42; 31. Amy Maris, 27, Maris-16.00; 32. Mike Donaldson, 87,
16.31; 33. Greg Nelson, 17, Thurston-NT.
HEAT-1: (10 laps) 1. Kaplan, 2. Davis, 3. Mostin, 4. McKenney,
5. Gard, 6. Silva, 7. Roza, 8. Servetti, 9. Hubert, 10. Maris, 11. J. Lindsey.
NT
HEAT-2: (10 laps) 1. Rodriguez, 2. Boyden, 3. Beard, 4. Dennett, 5. Joyce, 6.
Gundo, 7. Abrew, 8. Lakatos, 9. Alvis, 10. Lawrence, 11. Donaldson. NT
SEMI: (10 laps) 1. Gundo, 2. Lakatos, 3. Alvis, 4. Hubert, 5. Rosa, 6. Joyce, 7. Servetti, 8. Abrew, 9. Lawrence, 10. Maris, 11. J. Lindsey, 12. Gard, 13. Silva, 14. Donaldson. NT
MAIN: (40 laps) 1. Tony Hunt, 2. Thomas Meseraull, 3. Jerome Rodela, 4. Johnny Rodriguez, 5. Garratt Boyden, 6. Ryan Kaplan, 7. Wally Pankratz, 8. Josh Lakatos, 9. John Sarale, 10. Garrett Hansen, 11. Nick Mitchell, 12. Dallen McKenney, 13. Dan Gundo, 14. Rick Mostin, 15. Cameron Beard, 16. Floyd Alvis, 17. Jerry Coons, Jr., 18. Stephen Graves, 19. Pete Davis, 20. Michael Lewis, 21. Mike Hubert III, 22. Greg Dennett. NT
LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-9 Sarale, Laps 10-25 Lewis, Laps 26-40 Hunt.
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