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From the 3-26-2000 edition of the
Los Angeles Daily News
Written by Keith Lair
Staff Writer
Michels best at the end
IRWINDALE - Perhaps Irwindale Speedway needed another week of Spring
Training.
Saturday night's opening night sellout crowd of 7,500 was in midseason form, but the
racing was filled with crashes, oil spills, spins and fires, as all but one main event and
the Super Late Model B Main event - which sent six cars into the $15,000 Home Depot 100 -
were all shortened.
The Grand American Modified main event was plagued by two red flags, including one that
knocked out leader Jimmy White of Covina. Something broke on Jeffrey Scott's
car and he went head first into Turn 4 on Lap 8.
Dennis Eckert of Canyon Country dropped oil in turn 3 of lap 12 and six cars went sliding
every which way, including White, who went into the wall.
Cars spun onto the grass and collided in the middle of turn 3, bringing out the second red
flag.
It seemed to open the race for Rip Michels of Mission Hills, who with White was running
away from the rest of the field.
But with one lap to go in the shortened race, Michels' engine let go.
The yellow flag came out, but because the flag fell before the next lap was complete, the
standings reverted to the previous lap, giving him the victory, blown engine and all.
In th 20-lap Super Stock race, there were no yellow flags and two spins. T.J. Karvasek of
North Hills led from the start for the victory.
The standing-room only crowd - on a cold night - even surprised track general manager Bob
DeFazio.
"No, I did not think we would (sell out)," said DeFazio. "Not with this
weather. Selling out (on opening day) last year was a given. I think this sell out is a
testament to Southern California racing fans." Track officials turned
away people at the gate and when the ticket sales ended, those in line got freebie seats
on the administration roof, arguably the best seats in the house. "We're getting a
little better about getting people in here," DeFazio said.
It is the third track sellout - opening day last year and the Motocross Free Ride
Championships. Saturday's sellout included a sellout of the 1,000 seats in the pit
bleacher.
The Super Late Model,B Main was more like a destruction derby, with 23 cars going for the
sixb spots in the main event.There were four yellow flags and a three accidents in the
14-lap race.
©2000 Los Angeles Daily News |
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