SARALE ENDS DRAUGHT WITH BCRA LAKEPORT MIDGET WIN

LAKEPORT, CA., JUNE 4: John Sarale ended a three-year winner's circle draught by scoring a close win at the Lakeport Speedway in Bay Cities Racing Association midget action. Sarale drove the Early Bird Produce Beast/Chevy to the win, taking command with four laps remaining in the 30-lap feature. Sarale's last win came at the same Clear Lake resort community in July of 2002.

British Columbia's Chris Schmelzle romped the Seattle-based Barnett LeJeune/Fontana into the initial lead from the outside front row slot to pace Mike Donaldson and Ben Petter. Sarale, charging from sixth, held fourth at the conclusion of the first fast-paced lap.

Seattle's Petter, driving the new DeBeaumont Motorsports house Beast/Ed Pink Ford, moved to second on the second round as Donaldson's Stealth/Gaerte dropped to fifth. Sarale now held third over hometown charger Eric Mostin.

The first caution flag came on the eighth circuit when Ryan Kaplan tangled with Brian Gard, both half-spinning into the backstretch infield. Gard was able to regain control and continued back on track. At this point rookie Brad Galedrige had moved into the fifth position.

At the green Schmelzle continued to run flawlessly in the lead. On the 11th lap Scott Pierovich, Shannon McQueen and point leader Thomas Meseraull dropped Donaldson further back to hold sixth through eighth.
Petter continued to challenge the leader as they crossed the line on the 15th circuit neck-to-neck. Petter took the outside line and scooped up the lead exiting turn-two.

On the 18th lap Galedrige dropped in behind Schmelzle. His Beast/Mopar ran up into Schmelzle's rear nerf and carried the second-place runner into a spin as they exited turn-four with Schmelzle coming to a stop on the front infield. During the yellow flag period BCRA referee Tom Manning sent Galedrige to the rear of the pack behind the restarted Schmelzle.

Upon the restart as the tightly-packed field headed for the first turn, several cars made contact. Chuck Gurney Jr. was caught in the melee and rode the 3D Racing Beast/Pink Chevy up and over another car and spun to a halt. Schmelzle spun to avoid Gurney with both cars making contact. Gurney was able to continue, but Schmelzle pitted after push-off with suspension damage. During this period Gard pitted and was able to return to the rear before the restart.

Petter continued his lead over Sarale and Mostin with Meseraull's Bill Ferrari Beast/Esslinger now up to fourth over Pierovich. On the next lap Pierovich maneuvered his Beast/Wirth Mopar past Meseraull for fourth. One lap later both Pierovich and Meseraull dropped Mostin to fifth.

During the scramble on the next lap Mostin re-took Meseraull with Kaplan also working to drop Meseraull to sixth. McQueen how had her Stealth/Esslinger firmly in seventh.

The leaders held their position through the 26th round, when on the 27th lap the tightly-packed leaders made contact. Mostin was unable to avoid Pierovich and ran up and over his right rear, sending the Mostin Beast/Garte into the wall, receiving extensive front end damage for the final caution period.

Under caution, the leading Petter drew to a stop at the finish line with a dead engine. He was unable to continue and at the green it was Sarale leading the challengers.

Over the final laps the four front-runners diced aggressively with contact among them throughout the quarter-mile paved oval. At the checkered flag Sarale took the win narrowly over Pierovich, who in turn had Meseraull and Kaplan surrounding him for third and fourth. McQueen brought up fifth over Galedrige, Pete Davis, Gurney, Gard, Eddie Abrew and Joe Lindsey.

Gard began the evening by establishing a new one lap qualifying record of 11.934, eliminating the four-year old mark held by Jim Silva by a mere one-thousandth of a second.

Kaplan took the trophy dash over Pierovich, Meseraull and Gard. Sarale came from the rear to nab the first heat race over Schmelzle and Petter. Mostin took the second 8-lapper ahead of Davis and Gurney. Super modified ace Bobby Dalton was sidelined with suspension damage during practice when he was unable to avoid a spun Petter.
The BCRA vintage division ran ten vintage midgets in a demonstration heat race and main event. Tommy Belifore and his beautiful Kurtis/Chevy II dominated the events.

SUMMARY:
QUAL.: 1. Brian Gard, #57 Borshesani 11.934 (Record); 2. Thomas Meseraull, #69 Ferrari 12.005; 3. Ryan Kaplan,#21 Kaplan 12.040; 4. Scott Pierovich, #35 Pierovich 12.045; 5. Chuck Gurney Jr., #47 3D Racing 12.068; 6. Brad Galedrige, #29 Galedrige 12.077; 7. Pete Davis, #00 Davis 12.157; 8. Eric Mostin, Mostin 12.243; 9. John Sarale, #32 Sarale 12.280; 10. Shannon McQueen, #7 McQueen 12.335; 11. Ben Petter, #11 DeBeaumont 12.342; 12. Eddie Abrew, #25 Abrew 12.509; 13. Chris Schmelzle, #62 Barnett 12.528; 14. Mike Donaldson, #87 Donaldson 12.743; 15. Joe Lindsey, Lindsey 13.267; 16. Bobby Dalton, #36 Dalton N/T.
DASH: Kaplan, Pierovich, Meseraull, Gard.
HEAT-1: Sarale, Schmelzle, Petter, McQueen, Lindsey, Abrew, Donaldson.
HEAT-2: Mostin, Davis, Gurney, Galedrige, Pierovich, Kaplan, Meseraull, Gard.
MAIN: 1. John Sarale, 2. Scott Pierovich, 3. Thomas Meseraull, 4. Ryan Kaplan, 5. Shannon McQueen, 6. Brad Galedrige, 7. Pete Davis, 8. Chuck Gurney Jr., 9. Brian Gard, 10. Eddie Abrew, 11. Joe Lindsey, 12. Ben Petter, 13. Eric Mostin, 14. Chris Schmelzle, 15. Mike Donaldson.
LAP LEADERS: Schmelzle 1-15, Petter 16-26, Sarale 27-30

NOTES: In order for Schmelzle to arrive at Lakeport, he took a ferry from his home in Victoria on Vancouver Island to the mainland, a plane to San Francisco and a rental car to Lakeport.

Bobby Dalton had planned to run his super modified at Meridian, Idaho in the SRL where he is a point contender. Firing up the engine before leaving revealed that they had low oil pressure.  Unable to find the reason, they quickly prepared the midget and arrived at Lakeport. A practice shunt eliminated them with front damage. How did Bob Sr. react - they pulled their three motorcycles out of the hauler and rode to Konocti Harbor for a fine prime rib dinner, then returned to watch the races.