photo by Terry Shaw                                                                                 photo by Rafael Alvarez

Article by Windy McDonald

(Sept. 27)Bob Ream, Jr. snapped a thirty month winless streak when he beat Mike Martin in Saturday night’s Discount Tire American Sprint Car Series non winged feature on Manzanita Speedway’s one third mile track. Ben Gregg picked up his seventh win of the season in the American Sprint Car Series winged sprint car race on Manzy’s half mile track. JJ LeMoine won the Desert Dwarf Car feature on the short track.

Ream wrecked his Parker Store sprint car during a Tuesday night practice session at Manzanita and had to go looking for "new" car. The team contacted Fred Bryan, owner of the car driven by Jeremy Sherman, and Bryan agreed to sell them the car that carried Sherman to last year’s driving champion. The crash actually turned out to be a good thing for the team as Ream showed his 1998 championship form as he diced with Mike Martin. They traded the lead numerous times and Ream finally managed to pull away to a three car length advantage over Martin at the checkered flag for the 30 lap race.

Terry Shaw

Jeremy Sherman and his nemesis Charles Davis, Jr. started deep in the 24 car field and battled for third with Sherman prevailing. He started 12th and Davis started tenth. Nathan High started on the pole but slipped to fifth at the finish. Rounding out the top ten were Mike Leslie, Bobby Taylor, Andy Reinbold, Thomas Ogle and Seainn Hendricsen.

Rafael Alvarez

A massive pile up that side lined six cars halted action on with seven laps completed. Rookie driver Rick Calderwood was running a lap down but near the front when he lost control as he exited turn two. The bunch up field found no place to go and Stevie Sussex flipped down the back straightaway. He managed to walk away without serious injury. Robert King, Jr. Pelkey, Brian Swinehart, Lealand Michael and Calderwood suffered damage to their cars.

Terry Shaw

When the race resumed Ream made a pass that netted him the lead on the night lap. He was unable to shake Martin and gave up the lead on the 13th lap. He reclaimed the lead on the 18th lap and worked the lapped traffic perfectly and got the monkey off his back as he found his way to the winner’s circle for the first time since March 25, 2006 season opener when be beat Brian Hacker in the 25 lap feature. ."It’s been so long. I don’t think I have even won a trophy dash, heat race or semi since then." Ream said in the post race interview. Ream was off a little in his comments as he won the dash two weeks after the win.

Davis, Jr. was the show in the heat races as he came out of the fourth row to beat Reinbold and Swinehart in the first eight lapper. It was his seventh heat win. Sherman was best in the second heat with a drive from fifth to first. Behind him was Zack Sawyer, a prime candidate for rookie of the year honors, and last year’s top rookie Jeremy Reagles. It was Sherman’s seventh win. High scored his fifth heat race win as he led all eight laps in the final heat. Ream finished second and R.J. Johnson was third.

Terry Shaw

Johnson won the Arizona Race Mart trophy dash, his third of the season. R.J., ranked fourth in points ran near the front in the feature but mechanical problems sent him to the pits with ten laps remaining. He was credited with a 15th place finish.

Terry Shaw

Gregg made it look easy in taking the winged sprint car 25 lapper on the half mile track. He took the lead from his team mate, John Gaston, on the 11th lap and only a couple of yellow flags and a race stopping red flag when Billy Chester, III hit the wall and flipped at the midpoint of the race kept the field close. Points leader Rick Ziehl finished second ahead of Brian O’Donnell

Joshua Williams edged early leader John Gaston for fourth. The rest of the top ten were Jessica Van Dyke, Andy Reinbold, Cody Cambensy, Ronnie Clark and Steve Lohn.

Terry Shaw

Ziehl entered the race with only a two point lead over Shawn Sander and was running fourth to Sander’s third which would have left them tied for the points lead. Sandy dropped out in the closing laps and was credited with an eleventh place finish. He now rests 22 points behind Ziehl.

Gregg showed his power early as came from last to first in the first six lap heat race. He beat Josh Pelkey and Williams and made it look easy. The second heat went to Mike Rux, Jr. who took the win away from Billy Chester, III with Shawn Sander in third.

The final heat had O’Donnell’s Mopar on the pole and he lead all six laps with Gaston and Sander giving chase.

The winged car/non winged car race attracted the most fans of any outing since the Copper on Dirt show in February.

The 15 lap dwarf car feature went green all the way and LeMoine was quick in traffic as he came out of the sixth row to take the win. Troy Wilkinson finished second with Randy Johnson taking third. Rat Stafford had one his best races as he started in the front row and lead from laps 5-11 before fading back to fourth. Brian Stehr, ranked second in points had a fifth place finish and close the gap on points leader Chris Snyder who finished 17th. Rounding out the top ten were Todd Bennett, Taylor Cuzick, Chad Stewart and Robert Ostrom.

The race was the cleanest in several years and LeMoine stopped the clock at 4:50.56 which came close to the 15 lap record of 4:37.87 held by former champion Tim Jones. The record has been on the books since April 8, 2006.

LeMoine started off his evening by leading all eight laps in the first heat race. Randy Johnson came out of the third row to finish second ahead of Bennett. The final heat went to Stehr with Steve Davis edging Stafford for third.

Bennett captured the four lap trophy dash after a close battle with Stafford. Following them to the finish line were Ostrom, Jeff Hoch and Ryan Irish.

SUMMARY

ASCS CANYON REGIONAL SPRINT CARS (1/3rd MILE TRACK)

Main Event: (30 laps) 1. Bob Ream, Jr. 2. Mike Martin 3. Jeremy Sherman 4. Charles Davis, Jr. 5. Nathan High 6. Mike Leslie 7. Bobby Taylor 8. Andy Reinbold 9. Thomas Ogle 10. Seainn Hendricsen 11. Ken Caskey 12. Jody Wirth 13. Zack Sawyer 14. Jesse Dunham 15. R.J. Johnson 16. Jeremy Reagles 17. Derek Williams 18. Carson Ditsh 19. Robert King, Jr. 20. Stevie Sussex 21. Brian Swinehart 22. Lealand Michael 23. Josh Pelkey 24. Rick Calderwood.

Lap leaders: laps 1-8 Martin, laps 9-12 Ream, laps 13-17 Martin, laps 18-30 Ream

1st Heat Race: (8 laps) 1. Charles Davis, Jr. 2. Andy Reinbold 3. Brian Swinehart 4. Mike Martin 5. Jody Wirth 6. Josh Pelkey 7. Derek Williams 8. Rick Calderwood 9. Carson Ditsh (no time, yellow flag.

2nd Heat: (8 laps) 1. Jeremy Sherman 2. Zack Sawyer 3. Jeremy Reagles 4. Robert King, Jr. 6. Lealand Michael 7. Thomas Ogle 8. Ken Caskey (time: 2:02.22)

3rd Heat: (8 laps) 1. Nathan High 2. Bob Ream, Jr. 3. R.J. Johnson 4. Mike Leslie 5. Seainn Hendricsen 6. Jesse Dunlap 7. Bobby Taylor 8. Steven Harms (time: 2:02.37)

Arizona Race Mart Trophy Dash: (4 laps) 1. R.J. Johnson 2. Andy Reinbold 3. Charles Davis, Jr. 4. Nathan High (time: 1:01.63)

ASCS SOUTHWEST REGIONAL WINGED SPRINT CARS (1/2 MILE TRACK)

Main Event: (25 laps) 1. Ben Gregg 2. Rick Ziehl 3. Brian O’Donnell 4. Joshua Williams 5. John Gaston 6. Jessica Van Dyke 7. Andy Reinbold 8. Cody Cambensy 9. Ronnie Clark 10. Steve Lohn 11. Shawn Sander 12. Josh Pelkey 13. Davey Johnson 14. Billy Chester, III 15. Mike Rux 16. Alex Pettas

Lap leaders: laps 1-10 Gaston, laps 11-25 Gregg

1st Heat: (6 laps) 1. Ben Gregg 2. Josh Pelkey 3. Joshua Williams 4. Andy Reinbold 5. Cody Cambensy 6. Steve Lohn (no time)

2nd Heat: (5 laps) 1. Mike Rux 2. John Gaston 3. Shawn Sander 4. Rick Ziehl 5. Alex Pettas (no time)

3rd Heat: (6 laps) 1. Brian O’Donnell 2. Billy Chester, III 3. Ronnie Clark 4. Jessica Van Dyke 5. Dave Johnson (time: 1:48.47)

DESERT DWARF CARS (1/3rd MILE TRACK
Main Event: ( 15 laps) 1. JJ LeMoine 2. Troy Wilkinson 3. Randy Johnson 4. Rat Stafford 5. Brian Stehr 6. Todd Bennett 7. Steve Davis 8. Taylor Cuzick 9. Chad Stewart 10. Robert Ostrom 11. Jesse Patterson 12. Ryan Irish 13. Kevin Cain 14. Sandy Matthews 15. Kevin Stalbaum 16. Denny Dowty 17. Chris Snyder 18. Steve Kapaun 19. Daniel Lamm 20. Jerry Hartnett 21. Theron Bobbitt 22. Chuck Vallone 23. Jeff Hoch 24. Tom Wormley 25. Eddie O’Neill (time: 4:50.54)

Lap leaders: laps 1-4 Irish, laps 7-9 Stafford, laps 10-15 LeMoine

1st Heat: (8 laps) 1. JJ LeMoine 2. Randy Johnson 3. Todd Bennett 4. Denny Dowty 5. Kevin Stalbaum 6. Steve Kapaun 7. Chuck Vallone 8. Jerry Hartnett 9. Jeff Hoch (time: 2:33.34)

2nd Heat: (8 laps) 1. Taylor Cuzick 2. Kevin Cain 3. Chad Stewart 4. Troy Wilkinson 5. Eddie O’Neill 6. Sandy Matthews 7. Tom Wormley 8. Theron Bobbitt (no time, yellow flag)

3rd Heat: (8 laps) 1. Brian Stehr 2. Steve Davis 3. Rat Stafford 4. Ryan Irish 5. Jesse Patterson 6. Chris Snyder 7. Robert Ostrom (no time, yellow flag)