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Gary Jacob and Don Low
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (May 6) - After earlier winning a straight up heat race from third starting, former track dominator Robby Sawyer made an outside pass in the final two turns to score a $1000 win as Bakersfield Speedway Park staged round four of the East versus West super street stock series Saturday night. Sawyer is wheeling a car owned by Scott Schweitzer in 2006 to showcase the GM crate engines that are available for $5000. He is still racing super late models on the pavement at Irwindale Speedway and that limits his appearances at the dirt track. For the second straight weekend, Nick Sylvester was in the Richie McGowan entry and Sylvester had taken the lead from Larry Hood on lap 28. Sylvester finished in the $500 runnerup slot and Lee Jensen got a $300 third. Jensen also pulled back into a tie with Brad Pounds for the track point lead as Pounds saw his three race winning streak in the East versus West action snapped with a fifth place run. The feature race had a big 12 car inversion saw Sawyer won from 10th starting, Sylvester started 8th and Jensen fifth. Santa Maria's Tim Randolph led the first 23 laps from his outside front row start before a contact pass by Hood put him into the fence. Randolph recovered in third behind Sylvester. At the next caution, Randolph drove up into Hood and was sent to the rear. After losing the lead to Sylvester, Hood took his anger out on Randolph by rear-ending the Randolph car at high speed under a lap 28 caution. The Randolph car was heavily damaged and Hood was blackflagged off the track. The track announced that penalties will be forth coming.
Brady Bell led a 20 car field in time trials with a 14.973 lap. Pounds put his McGowan entry in second at 15.096 and defending series and track champion Rich Denman from Coalinga ranked third at 15.178. Mike Corwin had a 15.344 lap and the other front row heat race slots were earned by Sylvester and Johnny Cardoza. The ten fastest were rounded out by Tom Breshears, Jensen, Sawyer and David Woodbridge. The fastest cars start in the front of the heat races in the series format. Bell won the opening heat race from the pole over Corwin and fifth starting Hood. Lonnie Welch started 7th and ran fourth. Pounds won heat 2 from the pole with Sylvester second ahead of Jensen and fourth starting Randolph. Merced's Darren Thomas made his 2006 series debut with a fifth in heat 2. Sawyer drove around the heat 3 front row of Denman and Cardoza to win. Billy Simkins started sixth and ran fourth. The inversion pill for the 30 lap main event came up a 12, putting the fourth place heat race cars out front. Simkins and Randolph shared the front row ahead of Welch and Cardoza.
Sean Minor stalled on the track before the initial green flag. Randolph led the opening lap over Cardoza, Simkins and Hood. Hood raced into third on lap 2 and took second from Cardoza on lap 3. Sylvester got by Cardoza at the same time for third. Sawyer raced from 10th to 5th in just five laps and he passed Cardoza on lap 7 for fourth. The race ran for 20 laps before the first caution. Breshears, Keith Heaslet and Steven Helms were all lapped by the flying leaders before that first yellow. Heaslet parked his car on the caution. Breshears was racing with a broken rear suspension and he spun for that first yellow flag. Hood tried to mount an inside groove challenge on leader Randolph on the dry slick 1/3 mile clay oval. On lap 24, Hood got into Randolph and Randolph bounced into the fence as Hood gained the top spot. Sylvester also slipped by Randolph for second. Jensen was now racing in fifth behind Sawyer. Simkins blew a right rear tire and stalled to bring out a lap 26 yellow flag. During this yellow, an upset Randolph drove into Hood and Randolph was immediately sent to the rear of the field by the track officials. Sawyer inherited third ahead of Jensen and Welch. Sylvester was able to get underneath Hood for the lead on lap 28 and another yellow flag slowed the action with just two laps to run. Feeling that his car had been damaged in the Randolph incident on the previous caution, Hood raced around the track and rearended the Randolph car at high speed. The Randolph car was heavily damaged and Hood was black flagged out of the event. Sylvester led lap 29 ahead of Sawyer, Jensen, Bell and Welch. On the final lap, Sawyer stuck his mount on the outside of Sylvester going into turn 3 and he was able to pull off the pass, taking the checkered flag less than one foot ahead of Sylvester. It was the first win for the crate engine entry. Sylvester settled for second ahead of Jensen and Bell with Pounds gaining fifth on the last lap as Welch got shuffled back to a 7th place finish by Cardoza. Corwin and Denman ran 8th and 9th ahead of Bill Stevens, Thomas and Simkins.
With Santa Maria Speedway not looking to open their season until Memorial Day weekend, it appears that the next East versus West event will be the rich Bottoms Up 100 lapper on Sunday night, May 28. With his three straight wins going into this night, Pounds brought a 31 point lead over both Jensen and Denman into this race and didn't hurt himself with their passing point system.
East vs. West Shootout Series
Fast Time-Brady Bell 14.973
Heat 1-Bell, Mike Corwin, Larry Hood, Lonnie Welch, Keith Heaslet.
Heat 2-Brad Pounds, Nick Sylvester, Lee Jensen, Tim Randolph, Darren Thomas.
Heat 3-Robby Sawyer, Rich Denman, Johnny Cardoza, Billy Simkins, Jeremiah VanScoy.
Main-Sawyer, Sylvester, Jensen, Bell, Pounds, Cardoza, Welch, Corwin, Denman, Bill Stevens, Thomas, Simkins, David Woodbridge, Tom Breshears, Steven Helms, VanScoy, Randolph, Hood, Heaslet.
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