2004 - A SEASON OF TRANSITION FOR THE BAY CITIES RACING ASSOCIATION

The 2004 season marked one of the best in recent years in competitive racing, car count and fan base and included an upgraded "signature" race for the midgets and a wingless experiment for the midget lite division.

Thomas Meseraull won the midget driving championship with the 3D Motorsports team taking the car owner title. 3D's driver, Greg Dennett, placed second while winning the "Rookie of the Year" honors.

The claim for the 20-race midget lite (Up to 1200cc motorcycle engine mini sprints) division championship came down to
the final race of the season with Scott Kinney winning narrowly over Scott Clark. Clark won his second consecutive car owner title.

BCRA's venerable vintage division displayed their classic midgets on-track at 16 different venues with the midgets and/or
midget lites.

The midget schedule included 21 races at 12 different tracks. The race in Roseburg, Oregon was co-sanctioned with the WMRA. Four races were co-sanctioned with USAC, three at Madera and one at the Kings Speedway in Hanford.

The final of three races held at the Santa Maria Speedway was the 2nd Annual Johnny Baldwin Classic. The $15,000.00 event drew numerous entries from outside BCRA from as far away as Indiana and Texas, but unfortunately, as the semi-main was lining up, the rains came and forced cancellation of the semi and 50-lap feature.

The season also included three races at Stockton, two each at Placerville, Reno-Fernley and Lakeport, and one each at Marysville, Eureka, Anderson (Shasta) and Watsonville.

Meseraull took the point lead early in the season from rookie Michael Hubert III, doing so with a string of six second-place finishes before he finally got his first win of the season at the Stockton "99" Speedway on July 17, then took his second victory the Shasta Speedway on September 25.

With the finest crop of rookies in decades, it was no surprise that they performed admirably. Dennett scored a win at Placerville, and coupled with seconds and many other high finishes, propelled himself into the second-place slot. Brian Gard scored two feature wins, at Eureka's Redwood Acres and at Marysville's Twin Cities Speedway. Hubert won at Placerville and ran third in points until Gard nudged ahead for the position at the second-to-last race at Hanford. Scott Pierovich, with two seconds, was more than capable of securing a win with a bit more luck, and Garratt Boyden showed
great promise, but bad luck mechanically plagues him. Ryan Kaplan ran only periodically and was fast qualifier over the Fourth of July weekend at the Lakeport Speedway.

Seven-time and defending champion Floyd Alvis, with a win opening day at Stockton, placed sixth in the final standings and veteran Pete Davis made his best career showing in fifth. 1990 champ Tim Joyce looked like his "old-self" to finish seventh. 1999 champion Matt Streeter, making only occasional starts, won at Watsonville.

The midget lite championship was a thriller, coming down to the final race of the season at Petaluma. Eight points separated Scott Clark and Scott Kinney going into the feature. It looked as though Clark would win the title, but a failure of the slider on the wing adjustment invented the wing into a backward slant, and Clark nearly flipped the suddenly ill-handling Suzuki-powered ART lite. He slowly fell back and Kinney strode on to take the win by one point. Tyler Franklin came on strong late in the season and nearly snapped up the title, placing only five points behind Kinney to complete the series closest championship.

The division ran a 20-race season, all on dirt, with multiple races at Placerville, Marysville, Merced and Reno-Fernley, with single events at Chico and Santa Maria.

Sam Corso took the initial point lead over Kinney, Drew Barney and Clark. It was not long before Clark took command. With a win at Reno-Fernley in late May, Kinney was second. From that point on he and Clark exchanged the point lead several times as Franklin entered the fray.

At season's end, Kinney had three feature wins with three seconds and two thirds. Clark took two features, one second and four thirds. Franklin finished highest in the win column with four features, four seconds and two thirds. Defending champion Doug Hunting finished fourth with three wins, three seconds and two thirds. Drew Barney and Chad Compton scored two main event wins each.

The lite division also had an outstanding array of rookies with David Maples taking three feature wins. Rookie Jeff Griffin took the Rookie of the Year honors. Chris Glass, Gregory Griffin, Joey Hoover and veterinarian April Halliday-Sullivan rounded out the rookie contingent.

The 2004 season marked a milestone in the division. For the first time wingless races were staged. In all, eight of the
experimental events were run without the airfoil. While some expressed their disdain for the experiment before the first such race, all ended up approving of it after getting their first taste of putting more emphasis on the driver. The division will not go to full non-wing events in 2005, but will again run nearly half without wings.

At the annual BCRA Awards Banquet, held at the Radisson Hotel in Dublin on November 20, Dennett accepted the midget "Johnny Boyd Rookie of the Year" honors, Eric Mostin took the midget "Johnny Baldwin Most Improved Driver" title and John Sarale was accepted the "Perseverance Award". In the lites Jeff Scott was awarded the "Tracy Taylor Most Improved Driver", Rick Holbrook the "Perserverance" and Ken Hoover the "Tom Boune Sportsmanship Award". "Sponsor Appreciation" plaques were awarded to CL Bryant, A.R.T. Enterprises, Lagario Communications, Weld Racing Products, TCR Performance, Jack McCoy Enterprises, Inc., Hoosier Tire West, Design 500 Racewear and
Norm Rapp Racing Equipment.

Much of the success of the 2004 season was implemented by the Board of Directors; George Chandler, President; Ralph Cortez, Vice President; Rick Holbrook, Secretary; Joe Lindsey, Treasurer; and Directors Bob Roza, Scott Clark and Kevin Hunter, as well as scheduling input from former Director Gary Dickenson.

TOP-TEN MIDGET DRIVER POINTS:
1. Thomas Meseraull 1352
2. Greg Dennett 1264
3. Brian Gard 1151
4. Michael Hubert III 1142
5. Pete Davis 1060
6. Floyd Alvis 1005
7. Tim Joyce 826
8. Scott Pierovich 819
9. John Sarale 810
10. Cliff Servetti 727

TOP-TEN MIDGET LITE DRIVER POINTS:
1. Scott Kinney 1237
2. Scott Clark 1236
3. Tyler Franklin 1232
4. Doug Hunting 1114
5. Sam Corso 1100
6. Jeff Scott 1098
7. Jeff Griffin 1067
8. Drew Barney 1051
9. Chris Glass 963
10. Chad Compton 955