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Newly turned 22 year old Shawn Arriaga catpured the 25 lap 360 winged sprint car feature event at Petaluma Speedway in his 1st points show visit in 2008. Arriaga, who won the 2007 360 Petaluma track championship without ever winning a feature event, was jubilant in victory lane jumping out of the #56, pounding his top wing, and screaming to the crowd.
Arriaga used consistent top 5 finishes in 2007 and making every points race to claim the crown.
18 cars, weather was cool, track was in excellent shape for qaulifying as 12 of the 18 cars in time trials were under 13.00. Notable visitor - #82 of Robbie Whitchurch. #96 - Arvo Backhom made his 1st appearance of 2008 and it was nice to see Richard Bailey again in the #01 machine. Also, 1st appearance in 2008 for #27, Brett Rollag.
Qualifying (position, car#, name, time (spot in order) - Bailey set the fastest qualifying time ever turned at a regular points show and flirted with Jason Statler's 360 ci all time record.
1. #01, Bailey, 12.430 (3) 2. #3x, Allissa Geving, 12.638 (7) 3. #56, Arriaga, 12.667 (2) 4. #43, Bradley Terrell, 12.704 (13) 5. #35jr, Rickey Wright, Jr. 12.746 (16) 6. #4, Adam McCarthy, 12.801 (5) 7. #10k, Roberto Kirby, 12.807 (1) 8. #14, Matt Sargent, 12.836 (18) 9. #96, Backholm, 12.857 (15) 10. #27, Rollag, 12.922 (4) 11. #82, Whitchurch, 12.927 (11) 12. #49, Ty Schmidt, 12.999 (17) 13. #19, Art McCarthy, 13.002 (14) 14. #19x, Brandon Davis, 13.022 (9) 15. #6c, Jeff Parady, 13.037 (8) 16. #25B, Dustin Baxter, 13.080 (10) 17. #84, Clint Simpson,13.098 (12) 18. #7b, Brandon Ashe, NT (6) - front end, steering problems on initial lap prevented a time to be scored.
3 Heats, 6 laps, 6 cars, inverted by time - fast qualifier started 6th in heat 1, 2nd quick started 6th in Heat 2.................
Heat 1 - finish, car #, name (started)
1. #25B, Baxter (1) 2. #10k, Kirby (4) 3. #01, Bailey (6) 4. #27, Rollag (3) 5. #19, Art McCarthy (2) 6. #43, Terrell (6) - Baxter got the jump at the start from his inside row 1 position and was never seriously threatened. Rollag while running 2nd on lap 4 enocountered fromt end problems - possibly broken shock or torsion arm and was passed by Kirby and Bailey in the final 2 circuits. Rollag held on to finish 4th.
Heat 2 - finish, car #, name, (started)
1. #19x, Davis (2) 2. #82, Whitchurch(3) 3. #3x, Geving (6) 4. #96, Backholm (4) 5. #35jr, Wright, Jr. (5) 6. #84, Simpson - DNF (1) - Davis jumped to the lead from his outside row 1 spot powering ahead of Simpson. Whitchurch takes 2nd from Simpson on lap 2 with an inisde move in turn 1. Geving follows suit and grabs 3rd from Simpson with a low move in turn 4 on lap 3. SImpson drops out of the event. Davis cruises to the win.
Het 3 - finish, car #, name (started)
1. #6c, Parady (2) 2. #49, Schmidt (1) 3. #56, Arriaga (6) 4. #4, Adam McCarthy (3) 5. #14, Sargent (4) 6. #7b, Ashe (5) - Heat was all Parady as he hammered out to the intial lead and stretched it out to a full straightaway in 2 laps. Best battle on the track was for 3rd with Arriaga previaling on lap 4 with a low move in turn 2 as McCarthy got loose and lost momentum.
A-Main - finish, car #, name (started) Laps led - Arriaga 1-25
1. #56, Arriaga (2) 2. #35jr, Wright,Jr, (1) 3. #82, Whitchurch (10) 4. #10x, Kirby (6) 5. #96, Backholm (7) 6. #43, Terrell (16) 7. #6c, Parady (14) 8. #19, Art McCarthy (12) 9. #49, Schmidt (11) 10. #3x, Geving (3) 11. #4, Adam McCarthy (5) 12. #84, Simpson (17) 13. #25B, Baxter (15) 14. #27, Rollag (9) 15. #7b DNF (18) 16. #19x, Davis DNF (13) 17. #14, Sargent DNF (8) 18. #01, Bailey DNF (4) - Arriaga jumped out to the lead the field through turns 1 and 2 and down the backstretch. Coming through turn 3 Bailey gets loose and spins. Geving tries to avoid Baily and gets pinballed and bounced by several cars trying to get by. Bailey would be done for the night. Geving has a damaged rear axle, but stays on for the restart. Geving would never be a fator as an ill handling car would eliminate her from trying to move and releagted herto trying to finish the race - which she did. Also with wing damage was Sargent and Ashe. Ashe (minus nose wing) and Sargent would return later to the race several laps down. Restart would see Wright, Jr. grab the lead and race thorugh turns 1,2, and 3. Arriaga takes the lead from Wright racing under the #35 low in turn 4. Whitchurch has moved up nicely to 4th and Terrel is also on the move and is running 8th. Yellows on lap 7 and 9 slowed the action. Lap 10 and Whitchurch grabs 3rd from Kirby on lap 10 with another low move in turn 2. Final yellow on lap 12 for a spinning Davis, Restart lap 11 - 56,35, 82, 10x, 96, 43, 19, 6c, 19, 25B, 27, 84, 4 - Arriaga takes off again at the drop of the green and stretches out his lead. Lap 15 and the 1st lapped traffic appears. Arriaga gets by a few lappers. Parady grabs 6th from Art McCarthy wit a power move down the frontstretch. 2nd running Wright and 3rd runningWhitchurch arr now in traffic, too. As the laps wind down Arriage cannot get by the #84 of Simpson. Wright and Whitchurch are also having trouble getting by another set of backmarkers, but can never close the gap on Arriaga. Arriaga wins by 12 car lengths.
Hard Charger - #43, Bradley Terrel - moved up 10 spots from 16th starting to finish 6th. Whitchurch with a nice podium finish moving up from 10th to grab 3rd. Best finish this year by Wright as he showed alot of poise gamely holding off repeated attempts by Whitchurch to get by and was able to nail down 2nd.
GSC Challenge 410 ci sprint cars next weekend at Petaluma Speedway
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