HUNT SCORES CONTROVERSIAL WIN IN STOCKTON FINALE

STOCKTON, CA., JULY 8: Tony Hunt climaxed an exceptional evening or racing with a controversial victory in the 30-lap midget feature, co-sanctioned by the Bay Cities Racing Association and United States Auto Club, in the final midget race to ever be held in the famed Stockton "99" speedway quarter-mile paved oval.
The controversy arose with three laps remaining. Shannon McQueen was leading Hunt when the green flag came out following a caution period. As McQueen, seeking her first midget feature win, entered the first turn she was struck from the rear by Hunt, sending her Stealth Esslinger into a spin toward the wall. Following that final caution Hunt went on to capture the win with the respective BCRA and USAC defending champions, John Sarale and Jerome Rodela, placing second and third.

The win concluded an almost perfect score for Hunt, having won his heat race and the feature in addition to a grand slam in the USAC/CASA sprint car venue.

Qualifying third in the midgets in the Rosen "Mr. Espresso Coffee" Beast/Fontana Ford was the only piece missing form a perfect night.

The main event began with outside front row starter Bradley Galedrige snapping up the lead while his pole-sitting brother Alfred dropped to third as Shannon

McQueen charged into second. Garratt Boyden held fourth over Scott Pierovich and USAC Western States point leader Jerome Rodela.

The first caution appeared on the third lap when fast qualifier Evan Margeson was forced into a glancing blow on the backstreatch wall as the cars exited turn-two four wide. Margeson's damaged car skidded down the track and spun at the entrance to the third turn.

Boyden, now up to third, battled McQueen to take over second and began pressuring Galedrige until another caution appeared on the sixth circuit as Ben Petter spun his Beast/Mopar in turn-three. Upon this restart, Alfred Galedrige spun in the middle first turn with David Prickett spinning to avoid him.

With the resumption of action, Boyden took up his challenge for the lead, nipping Bradley Galedrige at the line on the eighth lap with an inside pass exiting the fourth turn, only to have Galedrige return the favor going into turn-one.

Lap 13 provided a yellow flag when Pierovich experienced a broken brake line and spun in the second turn.
One more lap was recorded before Boyden powered low out of the fourth turn to move under Galedrige for the lead. He was forced to pinch the car to keep from hitting the side of Galedrige's Beast/Mopar. This resulted in a long arcing spin down the front stretch toward the inside pit wall, coming to a stop inches from the barrier.

Galedrige now led McQueen and Hunt who had methodically worked his way up from the eighth starting position.

Lap 17 saw Alfred Galedrige spin in turn-three, to be pushed to the infield with the two-spin rule in effect.

The 21st lap saw two yellow flags, the first for a spinning Bobby Grewohl, then, after the green for Dan Gundo who did a 360-degree spin down the backstretch and kept going.

From this point there was eight laps caution-free as Galedrige led McQueen, Hunt and a charging Sarale. Rodela was up to fifth over Chase Barber and Petter who had moved up from the rear following his earlier spin.

After leading the entire race, Galedrige spun in the second turn just as Hunt squeezed by McQueen for second. With problems, Galedrige's night was over and he was relegated to the infield. An immediate caution came after the restart for Petter's second-and-out spin in turn-two.

The realignment under caution had put McQueen back in front of Hunt for the final three lap challenge to the finish.

It was at this point, as the green flag was unfurled, that the mishap going into the first turn took place, giving Hunt the win over Sarale, Rodela Barber, Tyler Brown, Glenn Carson, Prickett, Floyd Alvis, Eddie Abrew, Dan Parker, Travis Berryhill and Scott Nail.

The first and second top qualifiers were visitors from the WMRA in the Northwest, Washington's Evan Margeson at 13.225 and Ben Petter at 13.247. Sarale won the first heat over Dallen McKinney and Grewohl. The second 10-lapper was won by Brown over Barber and Carson with the top-ten qualifiers in the third heat, taken by Hunt over Margeson and Pierovich.

Following the race Hunt expressed his regrets over the incident with McQueen. "We had several yellow flags and each time she took the same line at the green. This time all of a sudden I was on her and braked as hard as I could, but it wasn't enough. I feel terrible about it. I would have been happy for her to win".
(Third-running Sarale also braked hard to miss the front-two).

Charges from the other side was of a deliberate take-out, but the officials concurred that it was not deliberate.

BCRA point leader Travis Berryhill experienced a blown engine during the first practice session. Mike Donaldson stepped out of the Stu Donaldson Stealth/Gaerte to give Berryhill the ride.

The next BCRA/USAC co-sanctioned race is set for July 22 at the Madera Speedway.

SUMMARY:
QUAL.:
1. Evan Margeson, #11x Margeson 13.225; 2. Ben Petter, #22 Petter 13.247; 3. Tony Hunt, #4 Rosen 13.332; 4. Ryan Kaplan, #21 Kaplan 13.341; 5. Scott Pierovich, #35 Pierovich 13.399; 6. Jerome Rodela, #5 VanDyne 13.502; 7. Shannon McQueen, #7 McQueen 13.502; 8. Garratt Boyden, Boyden 13.522; 9. Bradley Galedrige, Galedrige 13.523; 10. Alfred Galedrige, #26x Galedrige 13.602; 11. Bobby Grewohl, #11D DeBeaumont 13.613; 12. Glenn Carson, #26 Bock 13.624; 13. John Sarale, #32 Sarale 13.643; 14. Tyler Brown, #34 Brown 13.648; 15. Dallen McKinney, #88 McKinney 13.673; 16. Chase Barber, #91 Barber 13.723; 17. Justin Grant, #30 Grant 13.835; 18. Floyd Alvis, #18 Alvis 13.840; 19. Terry Tarditi, #10 Walker 13.871; 20. Dan Parker, #38 Parker 13.873; 21. Dan Gundo, #6 Gundo 13.885; 22. Eddie Abrew, #25 Abrew 13.919; 23. Travis Berryhill, #87 Donaldson 14.027; 24. David Prickett, #15 Prickett 14.064; 25. Scott Nail, #10x Walker 14.353.