Antioch Speedway
May 17, 2014
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Michael Paul, Jr. Steals Northern All Star Mod Win from Shawn DeForest

Oval Motorsports
ANTIOCH, CA (May 17) - Michael Paul, Jr. of Petaluma beat Livermore’s Shawn DeForest on a restart with two laps to go, claiming his first victory in the Northern All Star Modified Stock car main event Saturday night at Antioch Speedway.

Megan Ponciano of Oakley scored her first feature win of the year in Saturday night’s International Motor Contest Association (IMCA) Sport Mod feature. Larry Damitz of Vallejo continued his 62-year tradition of winning, out-running Jim Freethy of Danville in the Limited Late Model main event.

The most thrilling feature event finish of the night was in the Hobby Stock division. Kimo “The Flyin’ Hawaiian” took the inside lane in a four-car-wide battle to the finish line to win the race.

DeForest Sees Victory Snatched

“One less caution flag or two less laps in the feature and we would have won it,” said DeForest after the race. “We had four or five restarts, and I was able to beat him (Paul, Jr.) on all of them except the last one – which is the one that counts.”

Paul took the lead with two laps to go, and DeForest had no time to get back past him.

“He timed it (the restart) better than I did that time – that’s part of racing,” DeForest explained. “It’s hard to lose that way, but it was our best finish of the year.”

John MacDougall of Antioch was third, followed by Rob Norris of Pleasanton. Michelle Byron of Petaluma rounded out the top five.

Ponciano Back in Winner’s Circle

The new season brought some bad luck to Ponciano, who had car problems in her first three outings. That all changed Saturday night, as she fought off the competition in the IMCA SportMod feature thriller.

“All those restarts were nerve-wracking,” Ponciano said after the race. “I just concentrated on staying in the lead. Things just came together for us this week. We made a few changes on the car and the track was really nice.”

Ponciano first battled with early leader Scotty Hoff of Copperopolis. Then, track champion Jeremy Hoff and national championship contender Rob Gallaher of San Jose moved up to challenge her.

“It was a good, clean race,” Ponciano said.

Gallaher passed Jeremy Hoff on the last lap.

“Megan ran a great race,” Jeremy Hoff said. “My car was way off tonight. I still haven’t got it back to where it was before I wrecked two weeks ago.”

Al Johnson of Antioch and Scotty Hoff were fourth and fifth at the finish.

Freethy Chases Damitz

With his win, Damitz now has a lead in the championship point tally for the Limited Late Model division. He has been racing and winning features and championships since 1952.

Freethy was happy with his second place finish, after Damitz burst into an early lead and held a commanding lead for the entire race.

“We finally finished a race,” Freethy said after ending several weeks of misfortune on the racetrack. “Larry (Damitz) was just flying tonight. He had his car set up just right. I was stuck in a little traffic, and before I knew it, he was gone.”

Freethy fought his way past Mark Garner of Antioch and Mike Gustafson of Concord, who chased him across the finish line. Mike Learn of Petaluma finished fifth.

Four-Wide Racing In Hobby Stocks

Using up every inch of the speedway, the drivers of the Hobby Stock brought the fans to their feet with a thrilling finish.

Following an early race battle between Brentwood’s “Peppermint” Patti Ryland and Bob Brown of Antioch, Oakley’s Nick Baldwin and Chris Brown moved in to battle

The final three laps saw Dan Jones dive into the fray, with four wide racing taking place all around the 3/8 mile clay oval. Baldwin was tapped and spun out.

Suddenly, Oreta dove for the inside lane, passing the cluster and taking the checkered flag. Bob Brown, Ryland, Chris Brown, and Frank Furtado completed the top five.

Corsaro Leads Green to Checkered in Dwarf Cars

Tracy’s Mike Corsaro went green to checkered flag in the lead. Second place Pat Urdahl of Concord came all the way back from an early race spinout. Corsaro moved within two points of championship point leader Danny Wagner of Bay Point.

Northern All Star Modifieds
1 50 Michael Paul Jr
2 72 Shawn Deforest
3 68M John MacDougall
4 71 Rob Norris
5 16M Michelle Byron
6 23 Rusty Ganala
7 07 Jeff Thomas
8 93 Johnny Curtis
9 46 Dustin Himes
Heat winners: 16M Michelle Byron, 07 Jeff Thomas

Limited Late Models
1 15 Larry Damitz
2 99 Jim Freethy
3 76A Mark Garner
4 2 Mike Gustafson
5 11H Mike Learn
6 5 Mike Hynes
7 48 John Evans
8 313 Peggy Sue Jarred
9 67 Cecil Henry
Heat winners: None

Sport Mods
1 22 Megan Ponciano
2 1 Rob Gallaher
3 5 Jeremy Hoff
4 43 Al Johnson
5 5X Scotty Hoff
6 7 Fred Ryland
7 96M Paul Mulder
8 15 Anthony Giuliani
9 11 Lloyd Cline
10 65 Al Sotomayor
11 44 Jason Harless
12 2 Chuck Golden
Heat Winners: 22 Megan Ponciano, 1 Rob Gallaher

Hobby Stocks
1 3 Kimo Oreta
2 12 Bob Brown
3 7 Patti Ryland
4 11 Christopher Brown
5 24A Frank Furtado
6 57 Michael Cooper
7 24 Mitchell Locicere
8 17 Nick Baldwin
9 1 Dan Jones
10 69Z Robert Niven
11 4 Dan Smith
12 2 Jason Coe
Heat winners: 7 Patti Ryland, 3 Kimo Oreta

Dwarf Cars
1 00 Mike Corsaro
2 67 Pat Urdahl
3 3 Duane Jordan
4 8 Chuck Weir
5 00X Desiree Curry
6 11D Danny Wagner
7 4 Brian Tilseth
8 5N Tim Reeder
9 68 David Rosa
10 55C Kurtis Craig
11 0 Charlie Correia
12 40 Kevin Miraglio
13 15 Dale Kunz
Heat winners: 0 Charlie Correia, 3 Duane Jordan