Wingless Spec Sprints
Petaluma, CA August 2, 2008
By Debbie Shipherd

 Billy Aton Blazes to Victory at Petaluma

 Benicia’s Billy Aton won his sixth Wingless Spec Sprint feature, his first at Petaluma Speedway’s fast 3/8 mile track on Saturday August 2 in an exciting battle down to the wire with RC Smith of Biggs. Rounding out the top five spots were Geoff Ensign in his first podium finish of the season, Oakley’s Bob Newberry, and Foster City’s Dave Press.

 A season high record, twenty six Spec Sprints towed to Petaluma for the ninth race of the track’s first season running this fast growing class. Two new drivers experienced their first race in a Spec Sprint: Dan Payne of Petaluma and Ford Cook of Sonoma. Two young brothers made their first appearance at Petaluma, Kody and RC Smith from Biggs, who usually run Friday nights at Chico. Missing from tonight’s roster was veteran Darrell Hanestad, who has seven feature wins at Petaluma this season. This would tighten up the point race for contenders Bob Newberry and Dave Press.

 The large field of Spec Sprints had the rare opportunity to qualify for positions, and Gotelli Speed’s Dave Press qualified fastest with a quick time of 14.951, followed very closely by RC Smith with 14.954, Billy Aton with 14.958, Delta Demolition’s Bob Newberry with 15.073, and Nickles Steel Erectors’ Keith Shipherd with 15.147 in the fifth spot.

 Three eight lap heat races followed, with positions lined up by pill draw. The top five finishers in each heat would make the A main and line up by qualifying times, as well the top 4 from the B main would line up by qualifying behind the invert drawn.

 Heat one began with Martinez’s Dave Ellis and Santa Rosa’s Jason McIntosh grid to start on the front row, but McIntosh’s magneto issue prevented him from starting which moved Kody Smith up to the front. Smith took the lead at the start and Press moved into second on lap two followed by Ellis and Napa’s Lucas Nerlove. Newberry passed Nerlove to take fourth, and the final finish was K.Smith, Press, Ellis, Newberry and Nerlove in the top five transfer spots.

 Santa Rosa’s Jack Clark and Napa’s David Goodwill sat in row one of the second heat. Goodwill took the point at the green with Antioch’s Jeff Kindt, RC Smith and Clark in tight formation. Shipherd overtook Antioch’s Roy Fisher and then Clark for fourth, with Goodwill taking the checkers followed by Kindt, RC Smith, Shipherd and Clark. Both heats ran fast and flag to flag with great clean racing.

 Heat three began with Ed Amador on pole with Santa Rosa’s rookie Marcus Hardina next to him. Hardina hammered into the lead at the green with Sebastapol’s Geoff Ensign and Aton battling for second, and Aton carved his way to the front with an inside pass on Hardina. A rookie spin brought out the yellow, Aton led on the restart, but a lap later he was stopped in turn four which brought out a lap six checkerd flag. Hardina, Ensign, Martinez’s Troy Caraway, Antioch’s Dan Gonderman and Amador finished in the top five spots.

 Aton and Jason McIntosh sat in front for the 12 lap B main. Aton throttled into the lead and brought home the win followed by McIntosh, Santa Rosa’s Scott Dupont, Sacramento’s Eddie Gardner, Rick Sharp, Rookie Ford Cook and Concord’s Burt Siverling.

 The wild main event began with pole sitter Press powering into the lead and RC Smith, Aton, Newberry and Gonderman in a tight bunch behind him. Aton took third from Newberry on lap three and by lap five he was in second, launching his assault on the leader. Aton stormed into the lead on lap seven followed by Press, Newberry, RC Smith, Gonderman and Shipherd as lapped traffic became another factor in the fast paced action. Smith moved into the third spot as Aton and Press led the field. A red flag flew suddenly on lap twelve as Amador pulled into the infield with a fire which was quickly put out by the excellent safety crew. The restart order saw Aton, Press, Smith, Gonderman and Newberry as the top five and the race continued at a brisk pace. At lap fifteen Shipherd dropped from his sixth spot with magneto problems and Nerlove also pitted. Aton boldly continued to lead the charge with RC Smith right on his tail and tenth starting Ensign with his elbows up in third. A red flag flew for Dave Ellis who was upside down on the front chute. Ellis emerged unharmed and racing resumed with Aton, RC Smith, Ensign, Gonderman and Newberry all hard on the throttle. The action was again abruptly halted on lap seventeen for a flip by Kody Smith, who was OK. With a curfew looming closer a green and white checkered flag was to end the race, but on the restart Gonderman and another car tangled and the race ended with Aton and Smith dueling down to the wire. Aton brought home his first Petaluma win and RC Smith, Ensign, Newberry and Press rounded out the top five. Hard charger Jason McIntosh posted sixth from a fourteenth start.

 Thanks always to our sponsors who help make it possible to race and to Jim Soares and his friendly staff who make racing fun at Petaluma Speedway. The next Spec Sprint race at Petaluma is Saturday August 23, followed by the annual “Wingless 360 Run What You Brung” show on Saturday August 30. This show features the injected 360’s with the carbureted 360’s, and the top three carbureted cars receive extra bonus awards over and above their finishing positions of $300, $200 and $100. Drive safe, have fun and take care.

 Summary:

TIME TRIALS:
1. David Press, 41- 14.951; 2. RC Smith, 3X- 14.954; 3. Billy Aton, 26- 14.958; 4. Bob Newberry, 36- 15.073; 5. Keith Shipherd, 20- 15.147; 6. Dan Gonderman, 99- 15.169; 7. Kody Smith, 4- 15.201; 8. Jeff Kindt, 14- 15.201; 9. Geoff Ensign, 2X- 15.238; 10. Lucas Nerlove, 12- 15.259; 11. Roy Fisher, 22- 15.268; 12. Troy Caraway, 57- 15.278; 13. Jason McIntosh, 33- 15.322; 14. David Goodwill, 3G- 15.366; 15. Marcus Hardina, 21X- 15.398; 16. Dave Ellis, 0X- 15.489; 17. Jack Clark, 41S- 15.693; 18. Ed Amador, 76- 15.755; 19. Rick Sharp, 0- 15.763; 20. Eddie Gardner, 3- 15.773; 21. Ford Cook, 8C- 15.991; 22. Scott DuPont, 3XX- 16.409; 23. Burt Silverling, 77- 16.441; 24. Dan Payne, 32P- 16.699; 25. Bill Boosembark, 33B- 16.712; 26. Michael Vaughn, 48- 17.046.

HEAT RACE 1: (8 laps)
1. Kody Smith, 2. David Press, 3. David Ellis, 4. Bob Newberry, 5. Lucas Nerlove, 6. Scott DuPont, 7. Rick Sharp, 8. Bill Boosembark.

HEAT RACE 2: (8 laps)
1. David Goodwill, 2. Jeff Kindt, 3. RC Smith, 4. Keith Shipherd, 5. Jack Clark, 6. Roy Fisher, 7. Eddie Gardner, 8. Michael Vaughn, 9. Burt Silverling.

HEAT RACE 3: (8 laps)
1. Marcus Hardina, 2. Geoff Ensign, 3. Troy Caraway, 4. Dan Gonderman, 5. Ed Amador, 6. Ford Cook, 7. Dan Payne, 8 Billy Aton.

SEMI-MAIN: (12 laps)
1. Billy Aton, 2. Jason McIntosh, 3. Scott DuPont, 4. Eddie Gardner, 5. Rick Sharp, 6. Ford Cook, 7. Burt Silverling, 8. Bill Boosembark, 9. Dan Payne.

FEATURE: (Shortened Due To Time)
1. Billy Aton, 2. RC Smith, 3. Geoff Ensign, 4. Bob Newberry, 5. David Press, 6. Jason McIntosh, 7. Jack Clark, 8. Jeff Kindt, 9. Troy Caraway, 10. Dan Gonderman, 11. Kody Smith, 12. David Goodwill, 13. Roy Fisher, 14. Ford Cook, 15. David Ellis, 16. Burt Silverling, 17. Rick Sharp, 18. Marcus Hardina, 19. Scott DuPont, 20. Keith Shipherd, 21. Lucas Nerlove, 22. Ed Amador, 23. Eddie Gardner.