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Tyler Franklin, multiple winner on the BCRA midget lite tour captured the 2008 360 A-Main sprint car opener at Petaluma Speedway Saturday night, 3/29/8. Franklin in his 1st ever A-Main sprint car main event start took full advantage of his pole starting spot and led all 25 laps to capture the victory. Rick Williams in the #6r was 2nd followed by Allissa Geving in the #3x.
14 cars
Weather: Cold BRRRRR, Track: Fast, Tacky for the A-Main, tough to run the high side, low to middle was the place to be.
Notable Absences - #56, Shawn Arriaga (2007 Track Champion), #43 Bradley Terrel, #19, Cameron Mendes, #25b, Dustin Baxter, #4, Adam McCarthy, #3C, Bill Cornwell, and #96, Arvo Backholm. Many of the above racers ran all or much of last seasons Petaluma schedule.
Notable Entry - #52 - David Lindt, Jr. (multiple 360 S/C champion at Petaluma Speedway returned from a 2-3 year absence of sprint car racing.
No Qualifying - not sure why. Maybe due to late start of hot laps. Draw Heats.
Heat 1 - 7 cars, 8 laps
Line Up - 1. #3x, Geving, 2. #14, Matt Sargent, 3. #19, Art McCarthy, 4. #18 Tyler Franklin 5. #6C, Jeff Parady 6. #6r, Rick Williams, 7. #7b, Brandon Ash
Geving jumps to lead at the green flag. Going into turn 1 contact between Geving and #14 Sargent sends Sargent into a mild tumble. Red Flag. Sargent wtih a bent wing stays on the track to start at the rear for the the total restart. Geving again to the lead on the next start. The #6r of Williams grabs 2nd from the #18 of Franklin with a low move in turn 1 on lap 1. The #19 of McCarthy and the #6c of Parady battle for 4th. McCarthy powers under Parady low in turn 2 to take the spot. Paraday tries to return the favor in the same place on laps 4 and 5. Lap 6 sees a fire under the hood of Geving as she enters turn 4 prompting a red flag. The event is checkered and I did not get the final rundown as it was never announced or on pit boards, so I would be guessing how it was scored.
Heat 2 - 7 cars - 8 laps
Finish, car #, name, (starting)
1. #35, Rickey Wright, Jr (1) 2. #52, David Lindt, Jr (2) 3. #77, Mike Benson (3) 4. #10x, Roberto Kirby (4) 5. #49, Tyler Schmidt (5) 6. #19x, Brandon Davis (7) 7. #84, Clint Simpson (6) - Wright, Jr. took the lead at the drop of the green and pounded the field to win this one going away. Cars were quickly strung out and this one was never in doubt as 8 laps were clicked off in quick succession.
A- Main - Finish, Car #, name, (starting)
1. #18, Tyler Franklin (1) 2. #6r, Rick Williams (3) 3. #3x, Geving (11) 4. #19, Art McCarthy (5) 5. #6c, Jeff Parady (7) 6. #14, Matt Sargent (9) 7. #77, Mike Benson (6) 8. #49, Tyler Schmidt (10) 9. #19x, Brandon Davis (14) 10. #35, Rickey Wright, Jr. (4) 11. #7b, Brandon Ash (13) 12. #84, Clint Simpson (12) 13. #10x, Roberto Kirby (8) 14. #52, David Lindt, Jr. (2- DNF)
At the drop of the green flag the #18 of Franklin takes the lead low in turn 1.Williams in the #6r follows and ducks under the #52 of Lindt, Jr low in turn 1 and 2 to grab 2nd and begins chasing Franklin. McCarthy in the #19 grabs 3rd from Lindt, Jr. with the same low move in 1&2 on lap 2. The #6c of Parady grabs 4th from Lindt, Jr on lap 4 with a low move in turn on lap 4 as Lindt is trying to run the high side. Franklin continues to lead over Williams. Lap 8 sees Lindt come alive and starts to reel in and pressure Parady for the 4th spot. The #10x of Kirby joins the duo and is now right there, also. 7 more laps click off and Kirby gets by Lindt coming out of turn 2. Lap 18 sees Kirby and Lindt both pass Parady in turn 4 and drag down the fron stretch with Kirby gaining the advantage.. Lap 19 and Linst tries to get under Kirby and the 2 bang wheels going into 1. Lindt's machine goes up in steam coming out of 2 as the radiator gives up bring out the only caution.. Kirby has a flat RR and goes to the pits, but would be back in time to join the restart.
Re-start - #18, #6r, #19, #6c, #77, #3x(up from 11th), #14, #35, #49, #19x, #7b, #84, #10x
Re-start sees Williams try to get under Franklin in turn 1, but can't make it stick and falls in behind. Geving now on the move as she grabs 5th from Benson. Sargent also gets by Benson who is has having trouble keeping the front end down. Geving motors past Parady down the backstretch to grab another spot on lap 21 as she is doing all she can to move into contention, but is running out of laps. Geving now after McCarthy and grabs the 3rd spot on the final lap as Franklin holds off Williams to win the 25 lap feature.
Geving advanced 8 spots to easily claim hard charger. Nice to see Lindt back in a sprint car.
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