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Marysville Raceway Park
Press Release 2.12.08
For immediate release
By Bob Burbach
Full pits and a great day at MRP Playday
Bartlett tests the turn 1 barrier
Marysville- The second playday of 2008 is in the books. A full pit area and a better than expected grandstand full of racers and fans enjoyed a bright 70 something degree-day. 100’s of practice laps were turned in by the competitors. An atmosphere of anticipation is beginning to mount as opening day approaches. The 40th Anniversary Season will be upon us shortly and many of the cars and stars were on hand for the sessions.
Much of the buzz centered around the installation of the new front stretch crash wall and the rather remarkable progress promoter Paul Hawes has made in such a short time since the rains subsided last week.
This observer had an opportunity to talk for a short time with multi-time sprint car feature event winner and Mel Hall Memorial Champion Jeff Halleib and long time sprint car owner Jim Munroe. Both are from the Grass Valley area and have been involved in racing for decades. Munroe said he was impressed with the efforts that promoter Hawes has made. Monroe noted that with the seemingly eminent demise of fairgrounds tracks in California that MRP would be (in Munroe’s words) “a goldmine” sometime in the near future. Munroe continued that it was obvious that promoter Hawes was “spending some money here.” Other, similar observations put a very positive spin on the day’s activities.
The day was relatively incident free with only the occasional wall-banger prompting starter Robin Davies to wave the yellow banner…with one notable exception. Yuba City’s Jerry Bartlett was on hand to shake down his new, immaculate Wingless Sprint Car. Bartlett has made the switch to the volatile sprint cars this year after several championships and innumerable feature event victories in Street Stock competition. Bartlett has tried the sprinters on for size before, but this year’s effort is 1st class machinery all the way.
On the 1st turn of lap one of his 1st practice session on the newly reconfigured oval his purple 00 hammered the tire barrier at the top of turn one. It was a vicious hit that sent the car high in the air coming down with great force right side up. The video that this observer witnessed shows Bartlett in a strange lazy slide at very high speed slamming into the barrier. Race Director Tim Sherman suspected suspension failure after examining the car a short time later.
Bartlett was tossed about in the car and suffered minor, but painful bumps and bruises in the crash. His left shoe was lacerated, but the foot escaped injury. The seat was bent and, unfortunately so was the chassis. Bartlett told this observer that the car will be stripped, repaired and he would be ready for opening day.
3 Wingless Sprint Cars were on hand from Performance Auto Supply for Brandon and Cort Dozier and fast Tim Barnes.
A myriad of stock cars from Mini’s to Late Models were on hand. Many of the Mini Stocks were turning comparable times to the Street Stocks. It looks like Bill Knoop’s car is ready to go.
Late in the day Race Director Sherman strapped into Blane Varner’s hot rod and blistered the track in spectacular style. It was good to see the #1v leaning over on the right rear. Sherman was really on it. Sherman eventually went into turn 1 too hot and spun to a halt. When Sherman popped out of the car he was all smiles. Sherman was in rare form on Saturday even challenging this observer to a race…a 100-yard dash, running. Sherman beat me in a similar race during kid’s night in 1996 two weeks after he won the feature in winged sprint car competition. Once he gets going he’s hard to stop.
The final checkered flag flew over the raceway as the afternoon began to fade into dusk and everyone was talking about coming back two weeks from today for the 3rd playday of the season on February 23rd.
Hawes and his crew have yeoman’s work in front of them prior to opening day. But, if the progress so far is any indication of what will be here on opening night, MRP is likely to sparkle brilliantly under the lights that night.
Reminder: The Western All Stars Super Late Model extravaganza is on fire for April 26. Do not miss this show. Visit http://www.westernallstars.com/ to have a look at some of the fantastic racecars that will challenge MRP
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Note: Please make this observer aware of any names that are misspelled or incorrect. The text is based on information we have at the time of its release.
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