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JENNA BLIFFEN WINS HER FIRST NMRA-TQ MIDGET MAIN AT ANGEL STADIUM IN NON-POINT RACE DURING MONSTER TRUCK EVENT
- By Tim Kennedy
Anaheim, CA., Jan. 27 - Ten NMRA-TQ Midget race teams made their second non-point exhibition race appearance this year at Angel Stadium Saturday during the Amp'd Mobile "Monster Truck Jam". Despite a chilly night with rain reported in the Los Angeles area, 47,000+ persons attended the family-friendly event on clay that covered the major league baseball field all month for alternating Saturday AMA Super-cross Motorcycle racing and monster truck events. A 3:30 to 5:15 p.m pit party outside the stadium attracted about 18,000 persons. NMRA-TQ midgets competed on a fast, fifth-mile clay oval in the outfield during
intermissions between monster truck events. NMRA competitors credited a smooth oval track that facilitated much passing and excellent-racing Saturday, unlike the rough, bumpy track at the site two weeks earlier.
Jenna Bliffen, 24-year old second-year TQ Midget driver from Lakewood, won her first TQ feature in a 20-lap race. She started her No. 03 Stewart/Honda seventh in the ten-car field and became the third race leader on lap 16. She led the final five laps. Richard Ortega, Jr, the 2005 NMRA rookie of the year, enjoyed his career-best second place in his own No. 8 Stealth/Kawasaki. He started eighth. Kenny Wiley started and finished third in Paul Lopiccolo's Rick Stewart chassis with Honda power.
Retired LAPD officer Ron Ahrendt finished fourth in his Judi Ahrendt Ellis/Honda. Scott Dobson, who won his first TQ main event two weeks ago at Angel Stadium, started fourth and finished fifth in Guy Barber's Stewart/Honda. Ahrendt led the first five laps from the pole position. Dobson led laps six through 15. Rounding out the top ten were ninth starter Michael Bliffen, father of the winner. Bruce Hiroshima, West Evans, Chuck West and Steve Parke followed. Drivers also raced in a ten-lap heat race using the same starting line-up they used later in the main event. Wiley won the heat race over Dobson, Ortega, West,
Ahrendt, Hiroshima, Evans, J. Bliffen, M. Bliffen and Parke.
The 2006 NMRA-TQ Midget Championship Awards Banquet will take place Saturday, February 10 at The Grinder Restaurant in Moorpark. The current 16-race 2007 NMRA-TQ racing season will begin Saturday, March 17 at the three-eighths mile clay Kings Speedway in Hanford, between Bakersfield and Fresno. For more information about NMRA check www.nmra.us.
Race Summary:
Heat Race, 10 laps:
Kenny Wiley, Scott Dobson, Richard Ortega, Jr., Chuck West, Ron Ahrendt, Bruce Hiroshima, West Evans, Jenna Bliffen, Michael Bliffen, Steve Parke.
Main Event, 20 laps: J. Bliffen, Ortega, Wiley, Ahrendt, Dobson, M. Bliffen, Hiroshima, Evans, West, Parke.
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