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FEBRUARY
25, 2006 - TULARE, CA...Steve Kinser found a huge
burst of speed going "up top" in the final laps
of the Saturday night feature at Thunderbowl Raceway in
Tulare, CA. His momentum shot him by Paul McMahan
(20) into second.
All history of the Swindell/Kinser rivalry could be felt
as the King set his sights on the leader, Sammy Swindell
(5). Prior to moving to the high side it seemed
unimaginable that Sammy could be caught let alone passed.
Wrong. Swindell looked low and slow as Kinser ripped
by on the outside of turns 1 and 2. Despite a number of
opportunities during restarts and lapping traffic Sammy
was unable to match the speed of the high line. The white
flag saw Sammy spinout in turn 4 ending his evening.
Winged sprint car fans love their drivers and they
especially appreciate the rivalries that develop over
time. Opening night at the Tulare Thunderbowl saw an
unexpected rivalry develop between Steve Kinser and his
hired gun California driver Tim Kaeding. It's hard to
imagine that the second night of the inaugural Tulare
Thunderbowl event could top the first, but by scoring each
race separately, the drivers had a clean slate Saturday
night and they were ready. Track conditions were still
"heavy" but lap times improved significantly
faster for the whole field.
Ronnie Day, a California legend and a crowd favorite, in
the 1D sprinter used his pole position start to prove that
"they are not going to (beat me up) in my back
yard." After dominating his dash and the early
laps of the main event, he spun out avoiding a Travis Rutz
(8r) spinout, much to the disappointment of the fans.
When asked at the end of the forty laps main, how he felt
Steve replied, "I sorta feel like a survivor."
Very true as there were many challenges to surmount with
the large field and very close racing. Steve
mentioned that the team had prepared the car to run low
but the handling allowed him to "come on strong at
the end, and that's what we wanted to do."
In post race interviews, Paul McMahan (20) was very
pleased with his third place finish. When he tried
the high line late in the race he said "I broke a
shock mount trying to follow Steve." He ran in
the top three most of the race and was happy to survive.
Jason Meyers when asked about his second place finish
said, "I was about the same all evening just not
quite good enough."
The National Sprint Tour travels to New Mexico Speedway in
Las Cruces, NM for a double-header March 10 and 11, 2006.
Fred Brownfield, NST President has said, "We are
committed to bringing the very best sprint car drivers to
SNM, and we will. Our guys had better be strapped in
tight, though, because I know Johnny Herrera and the other
guys in the S.C.O.A. who run there
regularly are gonna be laying in wait for us. It will be
one heckuva two nights of racing."
NATIONAL
SPRINT TOUR - TULARE THUNDERBOWL RACEWAY - TULARE, CA
FEBRUARY 25, 2006
QUALIFYING
1) 83 Danny Lasoski 12.790, 2)
8 Brooke Tatnell 12.838, 3) 0 Jon Allard 12.846, 4) 1d
Ronnie Day 12.904, 5) 26 Shane Stewart 12.912, 6) 11k Tim
Kaeding 12.941, 7) 14 Jason Meyers 12.947, 8) 5 Sammy
Swindell 12.965, 9) 9 Joey Saldana 13.008, 10) 6 Tim
Shaffer 13.009, 11) 7s Jason Sides 13.047, 12) 11 Steve
Kinser 13.048, 13) 20 Paul McMahan 13.113, 14) R19 Jason
Solwold 13.153, 15) 12 Robert
Ballou 13.185, 16) 1 Kevin Swindell 13.188, 17)
71g Garrett Ishii 13.194, 18) 4 Peter Murphy 13.302,
19) 89 Ricci Faria 13.303, 20) 93 Mike Henry 13.335, 21) 3
Craig Stidham 13.360, 22) 99 Kyle Hirst 13.371, 23) 8r
Travis Rutz 13.392, 24) 28 Brian Paulus 13.473, 25) 11h
Lucas Wolfe 13.474, 26) 69 Brent Kaeding 13.476, 27) 0k
Dennis Moore Jr. 13.488, 28) 5c Brian Coehlo 13.489, 29)
51 Chuck Gurney Jr. 13.678, 30) 71 John Gray 13.792, 31) X
Charlie Louden 13.841, 32) 4x Toni Lutar 13.900, 33) 14j Brandon
Johnson 14.170, 34) 22b Ben Gregg 14.335, 35) OB1 Orval
Burke 14.339, 36) 78 Mark Barroso 14.387, 37) 1m Willie
Hernandez 14.438, 38) 9j Steve Osburne 14.442, 39) 44 Matt
Shelton 15.152, 40) 83m Mike Stallings No Time.
HEAT 1 - 10 LAPS (TOP 5 TRANSFER TO A-MAIN)
1) Paul McMahan, 2) Joey Saldana, 3) Shane Stewart, 4)
Danny Lasoski, 5) Craig Stidham, 6) Garrett Ishii, 7)
Chuck Gurney Jr., 8) Lucas Wolfe, 9) Brandon Johnson, 10)
Willie Hernandez.
HEAT 2 - 10 LAPS (TOP 5 TRANSFER TO A-MAIN)
1) Tim Shaffer, 2) Kyle Hirst, 3) Tim Kaeding, 4) Brooke
Tatnell, 5) Brent Kaeding, 6) Jason Solwold, 7) John Gray,
8) Steve Osbourne, 9) Peter Murphy, 10) Ben Gregg.
HEAT 3 - 10 LAPS (TOP 5 TRANSFER TO A-MAIN)
1) Jason Meyers, 2) Jason Sides, 3) Dennis Moore Jr.,
4) Ricci Faria, 5) Travis Rutz, 6) Jon Allard, 7)
Matt Shelton, 8) Charlie Louden, 9) Orval Burke, 10)
Robert Ballou.
HEAT 4 - 10 LAPS (TOP 5 TRANSFER TO A-MAIN)
1) Steve Kinser, 2) Brian Paulus, 3) Mike Henry, 4) Sammy
Swindell, 5) Ronnie Day, 6) Kevin Swindell, 7) Toni Lutar,
8) Mark Barroso, 9) Mike Stallings, 10) Brian Coehlo.
DASH 1 - 6 LAPS
1) Ronnie Day, 2) Tim Shaffer 3) Steve Kinser 4) Sammy
Swindell 5) Danny Lasoski 6) Tim Kaeding.
DASH 2 - 6 LAPS
1) Joey Saldana, 2) Jason Meyers, 3) Brooke Tatnell, 4)
Shane Stewart, 5) Paul McMahan, 6) Jason Sides.
C-MAIN - 5 LAPS (TOP 4 TRANSFER TO B-MAIN)
1) Mark Barroso, 2) Willie Hernandez, 3) Steve Osbourne,
4) Matt Shelton, 5) Mike Stallings.
B-MAIN - 15 LAPS (TOP 4 TRANSFER TO A-MAIN)
1) Jon Allard, 2) Garrett Ishii, 3) Kevin Swindell, 4)
Robert Ballou, 5) Chuck Gurney Jr., 6) Peter
Murphy, 7) Toni Lutar, 8) Lucas Wolfe, 9) Steve Osbourne,
10) Brandon Johnson, 11) Mark Barroso, 12) Matt Shelton,
13) Ben Gregg, 14) Willie Hernandez, 15) Orval Burke, 16)
Jason Solwold, 17) John Gray.
A-MAIN - 40 LAPS [STARTING POSITION]
1) Steve Kinser [5], 2) Jason Meyers [4], 3) Paul McMahan
[10], 4) Brooke Tatnell [6], 5) Danny Lasoski [9], 6) Tim
Kaeding [11], 7) Brent Kaeding [23], 8) Kevin Swindell
[15], 9) Brian Paulus [22], 10) Jon Allard [13], 11) Tim
Shaffer [3], 12) Kyle Hirst [20], 13) Jason Sides [12],
14) Lucas Wolfe [26], 15) Sammy Swindell [7], 16)
Robert Ballou [14], 17) Garrett Ishii [16], 18)
Mike Henry [18], 19) Craig Stidham [19], 20) Shane Stewart
[8], 21) Ronnie Day [1], 22) Jason Solwold [25],
23) Dennis Moore Jr. [24], 24) Joey Saldana [2], 25)
Travis Rutz [21], 26) Ricci Faria
[17].
Lap Leaders: 1-3 Ronnie Day, 4-18 Tim Shaffer,
19-28 Sammy Swindell, 29-40 Steve Kinser
Provisionals: Jason Solwold & Lucas Wolfe
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