FLOCK SCORES TIGHT SANTA MARIA MIDGET BATTLE

SANTA MARIA, CA. APRIL 30: Robby Flock emerged from a spectacular finish to claim the Bay Cities Racing Association feature at the Santa Maria Speedway.

Because of a long evening of racing in the five-division program, the scheduled 30 lap BCRA midget feature was reduced at 20 laps prior to the post midnight start, adding additional pressure to the faster qualifiers back in the pack.

The initial first lap was nullified with a yellow flag when fast-qualifier Ryan Kaplan's Stealth/Fontana stalled at the finish line with electrical problems.

At the restart, Ryan Pace jumped into the lead from the pole with Wally Pankratz tucking in behind and John Sarale charging from fifth to a close third. Flock, aboard the Sala Stealth Riolo Chevy, moved from sixth to hold fourth at the conclusion of the first lap. Pankartz, driving the Mitchell Edmunds/Esslinger on his "Farewell Tour", challenged Pace for the lead, taking the top spot on the fifth round as Greg Dennett moved into fourth. Flock, after dispatching Sarale's Stealth/Ford, topped Pace's Beast/Pink Ford to grab second one two laps later.

As the leaders paced the field, Thomas Meseraull was making his way forward from twelfth-starting, taking the seventh spot on the fifth lap, sixth on the seventh and up to fifth one lap later as the two leaders began pulling away from the field. Meseraull moved the Ferrari Stealth/Esslinger over Dennett for fourth on the 11th lap, then displaced Pace one lap later for third.

During the spirited battle for the lead, Pankratz and Flock nearly eliminated each other exiting the fourth turn on the 12th circuit just as the caution flag was flown for a spinning Brad Galedrige.

Pankratz continued his lead at the green. On the 14th circuit he and Flock made contact as mechanical problems ended his reign and he faded back through the pack, dropping out on the 18th lap. This moved a charging Brian Gard into third behind Meseraull with Pace riding fourth as teammate Josh Lakatos moved up to challenge for the position aboard the Pace Bros. Beast/Ed Pink Chevy.

With Meseraull now in second, Flock's advantage was quickly diminished and over the final two circuits Meseraull increased the pressure on the leader and appeared to have the faster of the two cars. On the white flag lap, Meseraull made his final bid for the victory, charging into turn-three under Flock. Flock, anticipating Meseraull's ma nu ever, drove the turn at a less angular attitude, forcing Meseraull's slide on the inside into a near-stall.

As Meseraull fought to regain power with a stumbling engine, Gard moved to the outside exiting the last turn and rode up and over Meseraull's right rear wheel, nearly flipping. He came down on two wheels and crossed the line on all four to place second as Lakatos shot under Pace for third with Meseraull dropping to place fifth and Sarale taking sixth over Dennett, Rob Russell, Matt Mitchell and Shannon McQueen.

Ryan Kaplan outdistanced the 22 qualifiers in time trials, missing the track record by six-thousands of a second at 13.471. During the qualification runs Eric Pace brushed the wall exiting the second turn, turning the car into the wall and erupting into a series of six flips before landing upright near the entry to turn three. Pace was conscious and the medical crew took great care in extracting him from the car, allocating forty-five minutes before qualifying resumed. Pace was hospitalized for the night with stressed neck muscles.

Matt Mitchell scored the first heat race win over Ryan Pace and Pankratz. Flock won heat-two over Meseraull and Jimmy Christian.

SUMMARY:
QUAL.:
1. Ryan Kaplan, #21 Kaplan 13.471; 2. Josh Lakatos, #4 Pace 13.603; 3. Thomas Meseraull, #69 Ferrari 13.768; 4. Rob Russell, #17 Thurston 13.768; 5. Shannon McQueen, #7 McQueen 13.793; 6. Jimmy Christian, #16 Christian 13.863; 7. Brian Gard, #57 Gard 13.910; 8. Chris Rahe, #31 Rahe 13.926; 9. Brad Galedrige, #29 Galedrige 13.934; 10. Robby Flock, #79 Sala 14.056; 11. Greg Dennett, #47 3D Racing 14.071; 12. John Sarale, #32 Sarale 14.098; 13. Wally Pankratz, #87 Mitchell 14.115; 14. Ralph Cortez, #10 Walker 14.233; 15. Jimmy Voitel, #14 Voitel 14.338; 16. Ryan Pace, #14P Pace 14.390; 17. Matt Mitchell, #37 Mitchell 14.426; 18. Pete Davis, #00 Davis 14.600; 19. Rick Faeth, #3 Faeth 14.666; 20. Joe Lindsey, #23x Lindsey 14.687; 21. Eric Pace, #28 Pace N/T Flip; 22. Scott Pierovich, #35 Pierovich N/T.

HEAT-1: Mitchell, R. Pace, Pankratz, Davis, Sarale, Dennett, Lindsey, Faeth, Cortez, Voitel.
HEAT-2: Flock, Meseraull, Christian, Galedrige, Gard, Rahe, McQueen, Kaplan, Lakatos, Russell.

MAIN: 1. Robby Flock, 2. Brian Gard, 3. Josh Lakatos, 4. Ryan Pace, 5. Thomas Meseraull, 6. John Sarale, 7. Greg Dennett, 8. Rob Russell, 9. Matt Mitchell, 10. Shannon McQueen, 11. Chris Rahe, 12. Brad Galedrige, 13. Pete Davis, 14. Joe Lindsey, 15. Wally Pankratz, 16. Ryan Kaplan, 17. Jimmy Christian.

LAP LEADERS: 1-4 R. Pace; 5-14 Pankratz; 15-20 Flock