Foulger, Hoff Win Big At Antioch Speedway

Racing continues at Merced Speedway tonight in Round #3 of the West Coast Nationals.  I'm hoping the locals are ready to come out and play.  We didn't see as many of them as I hoped we would at Antioch, but I'm thinking they were saving their cars for tonight at Merced and tomorrow at Chowchilla.  Anyway, check out the Merced Speedway Website for all of the latest information.

We have a new DCRR Racing Radio Show ready to go at the end of this story.  I look at a couple of special anniversaries to me, results from the big West Coast Nationals event at Antioch last night and things that should be considered to help promote racing at tracks like Antioch, Chowchilla and Merced.

Oh, by the way, I neglected to mention this on the show, but Merced Racers WILL have a banquet in Merced to celebrate their 2014 accomplishments on February 21.  Antioch's banquet is a week later.  I know people were worried, but there's no need for that. They've got you covered.  Check out the Oval Motorsports Website for more details.

Anyway...

With the money on the line, the stars stepped up big time at Antioch Speedway to lay claim to the big first prize money and the nice trophies on the line at the West Coast Nationals.  After a good battle with Thursday night winner Kellen Chadwick, four time champion Troy Foulger collected the $2500 first prize in the Dirt Modified feature.  2013 Antioch Sport Mod champion Jeremy Hoff stepped up to score the biggest win of his career in the Sport Mod feature.  In DIRTcar Late Model action, 2014 Northern All Stars Champion Richard Papenhausen won that division's Main Event.

The beautiful trophies for the IMCA Modified and IMCA Sport Modified winners were sponsored by Delta Transmission of Antioch.

The Top eight finishers in the Modified race on Thursday night were staggered as those drivers prequalified for either this race or tonight's race at Merced.  This meant that Chadwick, Nick DeCarlo, Michael Paul Jr. and Les Friend were automatically entered into Friday's race and could skip the heat races.  Foulger, Collen Winbarger, Chris Clark and John McDougall are automatically entered into tonight's $2500 to win event at Merced, but that still left them needing to get a top two heat race finish Friday night to avoid a B Main.

Heat 1 turned out to be the "heat race from hell" as three Dirt Modified Champions, Joe Carr, Scott Busby and Ryan McDaniel, were in the race.  Alex Wilson was not intimidated as he held off McDaniel to get the win.  Collen Winebarger used a pole start to win the second heat ahead of Shawn DeForest.  The third heat went to Jeremy Richey ahead of Bobby Motts Jr.  Foulger came from fourth starting to beat past Merced Champion Jim DiGiovanni in the fourth heat.  Carr had the pole for the B Main and scored the victory ahead of Busby, Kyle Wilson, Tim Berry Jr. and Ethan Dotson.  Chester Kniss was sixth to just make the Main Event cut.

Not surprisingly, the top three of the night before were the ones mixing it up at the front of Friday's Modified feature.  Chadwick thought he might be on his way to another win, but Foulger beat him on a late race restart to grab the lead.  A last lap pass gained DeCarlo second as Foulger brought it home to the impressive win ahead of DeCarlo and Chadwick.  McDaniel skipped Thursday's event and still drove to a solid fourth place finish ahead of Winebarger, Alex Wilson, Scott Busby, Shawn DeForest, Chester Kniss and Jeremy Richey.               

The Sport Mods also took the top eight finishers from the night before and staggered them with four automatically entered into the Friday Antioch race and four more entered into tonight's Merced race.  This meant Bruce Nelson, Keith Brown Jr., Wayne Dotson and Megan Ponciano were automatically entered into Friday's race, while Jeremy Hoff, Nick Spainhoward, Richard Mueller and Michael Shearer can skip the heat races at Merced tonight and go straight to the Main Event.

B Mains weren't an issue Friday as the attrition factor dropped Thursday's 23 car field down to 17 cars for Friday   The heat races were still a nice tune up for the feature, and Spainhoward won the first heat ahead of Fred Ryland and Al Johnson.   Hoff won the second heat ahead of Ryan Larimer and Mueller.

As it happened, Hoff had a front row start for the Sport Mod Main Event, and this was not an opportunity he would waste.  Hoff would score the victory with second row starter Ryland bringing it home in second.  Passing honors went to Nelson and Brown.  Nelson came from the eighth row to finish third, while Brown started back in the seventh row and charged to fourth.  Mueller rounded out the top five with the top ten completed by Megan Ponciano, Al Johnson, Jimmy Ford, Wayne Dotson and Ryan Larimer.

Not to be forgotten in the shuffle were the DIRTcar Late Models.  There were 11 drivers in action for this event, and Papenhausen won the first heat race ahead of Randy Shafer and Dominic Stone.  The second heat race saw Placerville star Ray Trimble score the victory ahead of past Antioch, Petaluma and Watsonville champion Jeff Decker and Danny Malfatti.  

Not surprisingly, it was Decker and Papenhausen at the front of the pack for the Late Model Main Event.  Papenhausen started behind Decker, but he would outrun him to lead the 1-2 finish at the checkered flag.  Rounding out the top five were Shafer, Malfatti and Dave Newquist.  Trimble settled for sixth ahead of Dennis Souza, Chester Kniss, Dominic Stone and Troy Foulger.

The West Coast Nationals continues at Merced tonight with more big money and nice trophies on the line for IMCA Modifieds and IMCA Sport Modifieds.  The Northern All Stars Hobby Stocks will also be in action for this season opener.  For more information, check out the Merced Speedway Website.

And now for another special edition of the DCRR Racing Radio Show...


DCRR Racing Radio Show: Episode 3 by GenWhat