Chili Bowl 2019- night four

The fourth preliminary night A-main feature at the 33^rd annual Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire was eventful from beginning to end. The first start was aborted when the midget of Joe Miller came to a stop in turn one. Pole sitter Danny Stratton in the Andy Bondio machine tried a little too hard to push the start and starter Roger Slack set Stratton back one row which moved defending champion Christopher Bell to the pole position. The third attempt to start the 25-lap finale was again called back when the car of Andrew Deal rolled to a stop in turn one.

Once the field was turned loose, Bell raced away to a comfortable advantage over Jerry Coons Jr., Strattion, Shane Golobic and Ryan Bernal in the Kevin Swindell entry. By running the low line through turns one and two and the high line on the cushion through turns three and four, Bell built a lead of 1.6 seconds before the caution flag flew on lap 7 when Thomas Meseraull tangled with another car and his 7R machine suffered a crushed tail tank but was able to continue.

When the green flag re-appeared Bell drove away from Coons as the cars of Golobic Bernal. CJ Leary and Stratton fought for third place. Once again Bell built a big lead of 1.7 seconds before the yellow flag flew again on lap 12. When racing resumed Bell streaked away again to a lead of 2.5 seconds when the field slowed again for Jake Morgan’s crash in turn four that eliminated the #19 car from the race.

Once the field was back to up to speed, on lap 20 Merseraull’s machine took a series of vicious flips into turn three that also caught up the cars of Tracy Hines and Kyle Cummins. The latter pair were able to continue, but “T-Mez” was done for the night. The last few laps of racing were wild as Golobic challenged Bell several times through turns three and four for the race lead but was unable to make the pass stick. 

At the finish the top four finishers were Christopher Bell, Shane Golobic, CJ Leary and Danny Stratton. This finish continues the Keith Kunz Motorsports (KKM) domination of the 2019 Chili Bowl was four KKM cars claiming all four preliminary night wins thusfar.

Golobic dominates 

the Stockton dirt track

On Saturday night May 26 a group of thirteen Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) midgets were part of the $5,000 to win winged 360 cubic inch sprint car program along with the Joe Hunt sprint car series. Two of the thirteen BCRA drivers, young Kalib Henry and Michael Faccinto, were set to perform double duty in both the BCRA and Joe Hunt races. Due to the size of the fields in both the sprint car divisions, the BCRA competitors did not qualify through time trials, rather the field was set using a blind draw conducted by Jimmy Montgomery.

Unfortunately, two of the BCRA midgets did not survive the hot laps warmups – youngster Jackson Dukes’ car broke a rear end, and Frankie Guerrini III flipped his midget hard in turn three and the car was too damaged to continue. Kalib Henry exhibited great sportsmanship and offered to step out of the Finkenbinder #3F midget in favor of Guerrini.

In the first 8-lap heat race, the pole position starter Shane Golobic seized the lead early and was never challenged, as Guerrini moved up from the tail of the field to finish second with David Prickett third, Rick Cook fourth and JR Williams finished in fifth place.

Late arrival Marvin Mitchell tagged the tail of the second heat race, and at the drop of the green flag, outside front row starter Maria Cofer swooped across the track in front of John Sarale to take the early lead.  Entering the first turn, second place runner Alex Schutte encountered a rough spot in the clay surface which sent his car flipping high in the air and it continued to roll over the first turn banking. After a few anxious moments, Alex emerged uninjured but his #28 midget was done for the night. When the race resumed, Michael Faccinto in the Dodenhoff #9D powered past 2017 BCRA champion Cofer to take the lead which he held to the finish. Following Faccinto and Cofer across the finish line were Sarale in third, multi-time West Coast champion Ronnie Gardner fourth and Mitchell finished in fifth place.

Maria Cofer and Guerrini shared the front row for the start of the 25-lap feature race, with Faccinto and Golobic side-by-side for row two. At the drop of the green flag, Maria grabbed the race lead, but her advantage was short-lived, as Golobic soon powered past. As Golobic built his lead as the leaders maneuvered through traffic, Faccinto and Cofer dueled for second place, with Maria able to hold off Michael with Sarale in third place and Guerrini in fourth place.

Faccinto cleared Cofer on lap thirteen, but Golobic already had built a straightaway lead over second place, and the driver of the #9D midget was unable to close the gap as the race wound down. At the drop of the checkered flag, Shane Golobic in the Wood #17W had lapped up to the fourth-place finisher and won by ¾ lap over Faccinto. Cofer finished third, with Sarale fourth, Guerrini fifth ahead of David Prickett.  Ronnie Gardner finished seventh, Rick Cook eighth, JR Williams who battled a fuel leak in ninth and Marvin Mitchell in tenth place.

Next up for the BCRA mighty midgets is a big doubleheader weekend with races at Ocean Speedway on tap for Friday night June 8 and the next night June 9 at Petaluma Speedway.