Allard and Gustin grab Toller Gold

by Bob Burbach
MARYSVILLE, CA (October 5) - California sprint car ace Jonathan Allard won the 5th Toller Family Gold Fever Open for Winged 360 Sprint Cars at Paul and Kathy Hawes’ Marysville Raceway Park. Reno’s Aaron Gustin won the companion Wingless Warrior Open feature event.

Long time MRP veteran staff members, the late Loree and Sherm Toller were honored with and emotional checkered flag lap salute before the races began. Sherm was the long-time infield voice of MRP and Loree was a brilliant, capable scorer with the disposition of a saint. Both were active in furthering the benefits of MRP to the community and participants alike.

Allard started 6th in the famous Tri-C 3 and spent the first few laps getting comfortable with the bad-fast MRP cushion before starting his charge to the front. Allard put on a clinic but had to dance with lady luck to get to victory lane.

The start of the 30-lapper was chaotic as 3-time champion Brent Dothage of Kelseyville tagged outside pole sitter Kevin Lovell of Yuba City sending Lovell’s car into a series of high flying gyrations. Lovell was uninjured in the crash, but was done for the night.

The next 27 laps saw some of the finest wheel to wheel racing offered this year at MRP as a long, frantic green flag segment saw Allard and others making daring charges through the field while chasing leader Dothage. Once Allard disposed of Dothage he ripped through lapped traffic as King of the West star Willie Croft of Sacramento found second place with some daring moves of his own.

With three laps to go in the contest, Croft had skillfully used lapped traffic to inch up on Allard when the red lights flashed on. 2004 Marysville Raceway Park champion Mike Monahan, of Sparks Nevada, was tagged by Sacramento’s Justyn Cox and Monahan executed a vicious series of end-over-end flips that lasted the length of the back straightaway. Two other cars piled in and fifty yards further down the track Sean Becker took a wild flip as well. Both Becker and Monahan's flips happened simultaneously, though incidents were unrelated.

Tire marks at the scene of Becker’s crash were some fifteen feet high on the third turn fencing. But Monahan’s grinding flip hushed the crowd. This one was serious. Monahan was bloodied and dazed from the nose-to-tail hits his bright blue #49 had endured. After some anxious moments Monahan slowly climbed from his battered car and stedfastly refused medical attention from the prompt MRP rescue crews that were on the scene in an instant.

Becker was unhurt, but his car was a mess. Becker had been in fourth position when it all went wrong for him. Monahan’s car was totaled. Track race director Craig Hall said it looked like Monahan’s car was so badly mangled that, while in flight, it tried to throw the engine out of the chassis. It was clearly the worst crash of the season. It was also truly amazing that Monahan was badly shaken, but otherwise apparently unhurt.

During the red flag stoppage leader Allard realized that his car had pumped all of the water out of its radiator and the gage was pegged. Allard frantically tried to find out whether his car owner wanted him to continue, risking a $40,000 motor in the process. Word came that they came to MRP to win, so “go for it” was the word relayed to Allard.

On the restart Allard jumped away from Croft and lead by fifty yards as he headed to the checkers. That’s when the engine blew sky-high. Coming off of turn four, Allard had enough of a lead to chug home first with Croft a close second. Allard’s car rolled to a stop just past the finish line. Auburn’s Andy Forsberg came in third.

In the companion wingless finale local hot shoe Josh Vieira took off and hid as others battled for the runner up spot; Vieira’s domination was that complete. Winner Aaron Gustin got to second with some fantastic moves that, in the end, paid off.

Vieira, while leading by a half-lap got into lapped traffic and collided with one of the back-markers. Vieira folded his front end and slid into the infield barriers. He was through for the evening.

Gustin motored on to his first ever sprint car win to a chorus of screams from family members who were in the grandstand. Gustin spent some time in victory lane with his family drinking in the moment.

PACIFIC 360 SPRINTS, WINGLESS SPRINTS
MARYSVILLE RACEWAY PARK - MARYSVILLE, CALIFORNIA
OCTOBER 4, 2014 - TOLLER MEMORIAL / GOLD FEVER OPEN
 
PACIFIC 360 SPRINTS

QUALIFYING: 1 9 PETE PAULSON 13.504, 2 7B BRENT DOTHAGE 13.546, 3 81 KEVIN LOVELL 13.618, 4 3F WILLIAM FIELDING 13.77, 5 3C JONATHAN ALLARD 13.838, 6 1 ANDY FORSBERG 13.935, 7 9L CODY LAMAR 13.999, 8 31C JUSTYN COX 14.064, 9 29 WILLY CROFT 14.071, 10 7K KENNY ALLEN 14.092, 11 71L KOREY LOVELL 14.114, 12 14H HEATH HALL 14.256, 13 58 MATT BARBER 14.338, 14 35 SEAN BECKER 14.391, 15 15 PAT HARVEY 14.652, 16 55 CODY HODGSON 14.752, 17 49 MIKE MONAHAN 14.767, 18 16 JIMMY STEWARD 14.888, 19 9H DEAN FREITAS 14.907, 20 88H JEROMIE CRISMON 15.290

HEAT RACE 1: 1 9L CODY LAMAR, 2 9 PETE PAULSON, 3 7K KENNY ALLEN, 4 3F WILLIAM FIELDING, 5 9H DEAN FREITAS, 6 55 CODY HODGSON, DNF 58 MATT BARBER

HEAT RACE 2: 1 31C JUSTYN COX, 2 71L KOREY LOVELL, 3 3C JONATHAN ALLARD, 4 35 SEAN BECKER, 5 7B BRENT DOTHAGE, 6 49 MIKE MONAHAN, 7 88H JEROMIE CRISMON

HEAT RACE 3: 1 29 WILLY CROFT, 2 81 KEVIN LOVELL, 3 14H HEATH HALL, 4 1 ANDY FORSBERG, 5 16 JIMMY STEWARD, 6 15 PAT HARVEY

MAIN EVENT: 1 3C JONATHAN ALLARD, 2 29 WILLY CROFT, 3 1 ANDY FORSBERG, 4 7B BRENT DOTHAGE, 5 71L KOREY LOVELL, 6 31C JUSTYN COX, 7 9H DEAN FREITAS, 8 9 PETE PAULSON, 9 7K KENNY ALLEN, 10 55 CODY HODGSON, 11 88H JEROMIE CRISMON, 12 15 PAT HARVEY, DNF 35 SEAN BECKER, DNF 14H HEATH HALL, DNF 49 MIKE MONAHAN, DNF 9L CODY LAMAR, DNF 58 MATT BARBER, DNF 3F WILLIAM FIELDING, DNF 16 JIMMY STEWARD, DNF 81 KEVIN LOVELL

WINGLESS SPRINTS

HEAT RACE 1: 1 3V JOSH VIEIRA, 2 88G TONY GODWIN, 3 32 ROWDY MCCLENNON, 4 1JR TIM SHERMAN JR, 5 XX BRETT YOUNGMAN, 6 5B ANGELIQUE BELL

HEAT RACE 2: 1 97 CORT DOZIER, 2 5 AARON GUSTIN, 3 7 JEREMY HAWES, 4 17 ERIC ROSSI, 5 54 KYLE STANDLEY, 6 16 DAVID JOHNSON

MAIN EVENT: 1 5 AARON GUSTIN, 2 1JR TIM SHERMAN JR, 3 32 ROWDY MCCLENNON, 4 17 ERIC ROSSI, 5 97 CORT DOZIER, 6 XX BRETT YOUNGMAN, 7 88G TONY GODWIN, 8 16 DAVID JOHNSON, DNF 3V JOSH VIEIRA, DNF 54 KYLE STANDLEY, DNF 5B ANGELIQUE BELL, DNF 7 JEREMY HAWES