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Dennis Moore
Jr. Returns to GSC victory lane in Antioch
by Gary Thomas
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Antioch, Ca - July 2,
2006... Prior to this past weekend Grinnell,
Iowa’s Dennis Moore Jr. hadn’t captured a win in
over two years. On Friday night Moore won a track points
race at Chico’s Silver Dollar Speedway to end the
drought and it took him just one more night to get back
into victory lane after winning Saturday night’s
Golden State Challenge Series race at Antioch Speedway.
The colorful driver last won a GSC race on March 20,
2004 at Kings Speedway in Hanford. In 2004 and ‘05
Moore was one of the drivers to beat for the
championship early on, but injuries sidelined him for
much of the season those years and took away his chance
at the championship. Moore has been driving in
California since 2003 for car owner Morrie Williams and
that first year was the only full season of action he
has seen yet.
Moore came into Antioch ranked sixth in the Golden State
Challenge Series point standings and started on the pole
in the 30 lap feature by way of his win in the night’s
dash. It wasn’t easy getting into the dash for Moore,
however, as he spun out midway through his heat race and
had to charge back to make a last lap pass to transfer
out. The first start of the feature event was called
back for a false start and at the same time Jason
Mcintosh spun in turns one and two. Moore got the
advantage on the next start and led two laps before the
caution light’s came back on for a tangle between Jon
Maiwald, Jason York and Mark Workentine.
As the green flag waved again Moore continued to lead as
the battle for second through sixth heated up. The track
had slicked off and become very tricky but the drivers
did a great job with it and put on some of the best
racing seen in Antioch since coming back in 2003. Once
traffic came into play, the top five cars closed up on
each other and ran wheel to wheel and nose to tail in a
terrific display of racing. Ronnie Day had gotten around
Robert Ballou for
second around lap nine and poked his nose under Moore
for the lead off turn four multiple times but Moore was
able to fend off every challenge. Day made a mistake in
traffic which allowed the young gasser Ballou
to reclaim the second spot. Ballou
then went to work on Moore for the lead. At the same
time Stephen Allard was on the move from his eighth
starting spot and made a brilliant move to get into the
top five on lap 12.
Lap 14 saw GSC point leader Jonathan Allard get upside
down in turn four with Brent Kaeding also getting into
it and flipping himself. Allard was able to go to the
work area and get back out for the restart but
Kaeding’s night was done as his 69 sat in the infield
and marked his fourth dnf since Memorial Day weekend in
Calistoga.
Moore continued to lead as the green flag waved again
with Ballou, Day, S.
Allard and Statler following. Just as traffic was
getting ready to come into play again Chase Wood slowed
to bring out a caution.
The racing again heated up when the green came back out
and traffic soon became a factor. As the top five cars
bunched up again, second running Ballou
got loose off of turn two which resulted in Day getting
over his front end and flipping. Fourth running Statler
had nowhere to go and also came to a stop. It was a
tough break for all three competitors as they were all
doing a magnificent job with the difficult track
conditions. Ballou
and Day had an exciting personal battle within the race
as they traded second a couple times and ran close to
each other every step of the way.
Statler had started the race in sixth but fell back
early on and then put on a great charge to get up to
fourth place. Statler and his team have gone back to an
older car following the flip at Dirt Cup and it has
seemed to be a help as Statler is really starting to
look like the "Big Guy" of old. Statler
finished second the previous night in Chico after
leading much of the race and then in Antioch looked very
strong. With the way he’s been running, Statler will
be a good bet to get into victory lane before the GSC
season ends.
Moore led the final four laps without challenges and
went on to pick up his fifth career Golden State
Challenge Series victory. It was an awesome performance
for DMJ in the Katie’s Country Kitchen, Weld Racing 0K
and unofficially moved him up to fifth in GSC points.
Stephen Allard drove one of his finest races of the
season while finishing second in the GP Development, Tom
Rolfe Trucking 10. Allard had scored just one previous
top five finish with GSC, which was a win in the Chris
Faria Memorial at the Tulare Thunderbowl. The second
place finish in Antioch came after spinning around on
two separate occasions in the dash. Allard looked very
strong and showed what the they are capable of doing
when running well.
Kevin Pylant drove the Riley Collins Body Shop, D &
D Roofing 14p to a third place finish. It was Pylant’s
third top five finish with GSC in just six starts.
Peter Murphy returned to action with GSC after missing
the event last weekend in Tulare and drove the Redi-Green
Motorsports, Pam Kumar Real Estate 1k to a fourth place
finish. Murphy’s season has been filled with bad luck
but seems to be getting it turned around and has
finished sixth or better in four of his last five races
with GSC.
Rounding out the top five was the WB Equipment, Skinner
Motorsports 73 of Jim Skinner. Skinner who lives in
nearby Discover Bay, always seems to do well at the
Antioch bullring and his fifth place finish Saturday
night was his first top five since July 3, 2004 which
came at, you guessed it, Antioch Speedway.
The rest of the top ten was completed by the Associated
Builders Inc 25 of Jason York, the Duppman Racing 96x of
Geoff Duppman, the Hambre Equipment 44 of Matt Shelton,
the Pheasant Run Shopping Center 00 of Jason Statler and
the G 10 Motorsports 31 of Brian Azevedo.
Dennis Moore Jr. led all six laps to win his first dash
of the season and earn the pole position for the feature
event. Finishing behind Moore were Robert
Ballou, Brent Kaeding, Jonathan Allard,
Ronnie Day, Jason Statler, Rick Fowzer and Stephen
Allard.
The night’s first heat race was dominated by sixth
starting Jonathan Allard who took the lead on lap two.
Heat two went to Peter Murphy who held off Brent Kaeding
every step of the way. The third and final heat was
captured by fifth starting Jason Statler.
Jonathan Allard set his series leading sixth fast time
of the season in qualifying by touring the 1/4 mile in
11.840 seconds
Due to the limited amount of push trucks that came to
Antioch Speedway, many crews were forced to use their
quads and mules to push off cars. None was more helpful
than Ballou Motorsports crew chief Darin "Heavy
D" Smith who did a great job especially in the
feature pushing cars following red flags. Darin worked
hard and we give him big thanks for all his help!
Next weekend the Golden State Challenge Series will
invade the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico for the
second time this season.
Full results are available on http://www.johnpadjenmotorsports.com
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