SARALE TOPS INTENSE BCRA MIDGETS AT PLACERVILLE

PLACERVILLE, CA., AUG. 12. At the checkered flag it was John Sarale who emerged victorious in the Bay Cities Racing Association midget feature that can only be described as intense! There was never a dull lap as the defending BCRA champion warded off the challenges of a stellar field to intensify his 2006 point advantage.
Garratt Boyden led off the 25-lap feature on the quarter-mile clay oval from the pole over third-starting Cameron Beard. Sarale held third in his Sarale Farms Riolo Ford powered Stealth with front row starter Jimmy Christian falling to fourth.
On the third lap both Beard and Sarale dropped Boyden to third with inside passes in turn three.
Fifth-running Bradley Galedrige led his teammate brother Alfred in fifth and sixth. On the fourth lap Beard and Sarale were a near tie at the line. Leading into the first turn on the fifth circuit Alfred Galedrige made a power move under Bradley, striking his older brother's left rear with his right rear and sending him high off the outer berm, nearly overturning. The ensuing melee brought the charging Robby Flock, Stan Yockey and David Prickett to a tangled stop. Randy Pankratz, who had charged up from 11th-starting, managed to avoid the tangle while in seventh.
At the restart Sarale immediately put pressure on Beard, taking over with an inside pass down the backstretch to lead the fifth round. Boyden held third behind Beard with Christian and a rim-riding Ryan Kaplan now in fifth over Pankratz, a surging Floyd Alvis and Travis Berryhill. Kaplan displaced Boyden for third on the eighth round.
With the intense battle up front, the visiting Flock, aboard the Mike Sala Stealth/Chevy, was all but forgotten as he began passing from his restart in the rear.
The ninth lap saw the caution flag as Boyden spun his Spike/Esslinger in the middle of turns 3 and 4 with all avoiding him with high and low maneuvers.
Back to green and Kaplan made his berm-riding pay off with a pass of Beard for second exiting the fourth turn. On the 11th circuit he nudged ahead of Sarale for the lead at the line, but Sarale shot back to lead the next lap.
On the 13th round it was again Kaplan in the lead with a high-powered outside move, but a caution flag for a spinning Alfred Galedrige in the fourth-turn relegated Kaplan back to second.
The green drops and Kaplan is again extending himself at the very top edge of the track, responding to Sarale's low groove drive in the lead. Lap 15 saw Kaplan's strategy pay off with a charge into the lead. Beard still held third over the intensely battling Pankratz and Alvis. During the action at the front, Flock was methodically inching forward and held eighth.
Once Pankratz was finally able to hold position over of Alvis, she concentrated on Beard, making good her impressive drive to garnish third on the 16th round. Alvis battled by Beard on the next circuit.
Doug Lippincott stalled in turn-two on the 18th lap for caution.
Again racing, seven-time BCRA champion Alvis again waged a battle with Pankratz with the two side-by-side on several occasions for third.
Exiting turn-two on the 18th lap Boyden clipped the outer earthen wall. At three-wide, the glancing blow put Boyden's Spike/Esslinger into contact with several other cars, resulting in a hefty flip with the Boyden machine landing near the entrance to turn-three. In an effort to avoid Boyden, Matt Streeter braked hard and spun, then overturned, as Todd Miller spun to the infield.
Following the red flag period with 17-laps completed, it was Kaplan over Sarale. Third-running Pankratz began a slow decent back as she experienced a deflating left rear tire, but still managed to be competitive as Alvis slipped into third. In fourth, it was Flock, playing the top-of-the-berm card in spectacular fashion befitting the four-time USAC Western States champion.
On the 21st round leader Kaplan experienced vibrations after the loss of the mud cover allowed the right rear wheel to impact with mud, forcing his Stealth/Wirth Ford to slow enough for Sarale to charge back into the lead as Flock nipped Alvis with his spectacular outside drive for third.
Flock displaced Kaplan for second one lap later, then began the countdown over the final three laps as he continued his high maneuvers. Sarale paced the final laps above the lower groove that he had mastered throughout most of the race.
Flock's final effort fell several car lengths short as Sarale took the checkered flag. Kaplan managed to hold off Alvis for third and Berryhill arrived in fifth over Darrin Bolton, Pankratz, Beard, Prickett and Todd Miller to round out the top-ten with Gary Dickenson, Rick Faeth and Bradley Galedrige the final finishers of the 20-car starting field.
The elated Sarale thanked the large crowd in announcer Bill Sullivan's post-race trackside interview. Pitside, Flock stated, "I slipped over the berm several times. I had to risk running so high.
It was the only way I could have won, but those slips were enough to keep me from passing."
Kaplan outqualified the 24-car field at 11.952. Berryhill took the first hear over Miller and Lippincott. Streeter won the second heat over Faeth and Dickenson with Christian winning the third 8-lapper ahead of Flock and Beard. Berryhill scored the semi-main win over Lippincott, Miller and Rob Russell for the transfers to the main event.
The next BCRA midget event is scheduled for the Reno-Fernley Raceway on August 26, then Altamont Raceway on Sept. 2, co-sanctioned with USAC.

SUMMARY: QUAL.: 1. Ryan Kaplan, #21 Kaplan 11.952; 2. Robby Flock, #78 Sala 12.173; 3. Bradley Galedrige, #29 Galedrige 12.255; 4. Rob Russell, #17 Thurston 12.342*; 5. Doug Lippincott, #4L Lippincott 12.530*; 6. Alfred Galedrige, #26 Galedrige 12.609; 7.
John Sarale, #32 Sarale 12.633; 8. Todd Miller, #9 Mertl 12.645*; 9.
Cameron Beard, #19B Beard 12.647; 10. Jimmy Christian, #16 Christian 12.656; 11. Garratt Boyden, #42 Boyden 12.749; 12. Stan Yockey, #47 Dennett 12.780; 13. Matt Streeter, #97 Streeter 12.797; 14. Randy Pankratz, #8x Pankratz 12.806; 15. Gary Dickenson, #8 Dickenson 12.891; 16. Floyd Alvis, #18 Alvis 12.891; 17. David Prickett, #15 Prickett 12.938; 18. Darrin Bolton, #XX Bolton 13.081; 19. Rick Faeth, #3 Faeth 13.281; 20. Dan Parker, #20 Roza 13.428; 21. Rick Haugh, #54 A. Haugh 13.531; 22. J.R. Williams, $74 Williams 13.690; 23. Chris Geilfuss, #25 T. Geilfuss 14.678; 24. Travis Berryhill, #11 Berryhill 14.695. (* The times for #17, 4L & 9 were withdrawn due to excessive noise and were relegated to rear of all events).
HEAT-1: Berryhill, Miller, Lippincott, Parker, Haugh, Russell, Geilfuss, Williams.
HEAT-2: Streeter, Faeth, Dickenson, Pankratz, Alvis, Yockey, Prickett, Bolton.
HEAT-3: Christian, Flock, Beard, Sarale, Kaplan, A.
Gaeldrige, B. Galedrige, Boyden.
SEMI: Berryhill, Lippincott, Miller, Russell, Williams, Geilfuss, Haugh, Parker.
MAIN - 25-laps: 1. John Sarale, 2. Robby Flock, 3. Ryan Kaplan, 4. Floyd Alvis, 5. Travis Berryhill, 6. Darrin Bolton, 7.
Randy Pankratz, 8. Cameron Beard, 9. David Prickett, 10. Todd Miller, 11. Gary Dickenson, 12. Rick Faeth, 13. Bradley Galedrige, 14. Jimmy Christian, 15. Doug Lippincott, 16. Garratt Boyden, 17. Matt Streeter, 18. Alfred Galedrige, 19. Stan Yockey, 20. Rob Russell.
LAP LEADERS: 1-2 Boyden, 3-4 Beard, 5-10 Sarale, 11 Kaplan,
12-14 Sarale, 15-21 Kaplan, 22-25 Sarale.