Jones blisters VMRA track record at South Sound!

Jim Jones appears to be a man on a mission. His record setting lap time of 14:86 blew away the old mark of 15:04 set by Bobby Wheeler shortly after the track was repaved. Jones passed the entire field of 14 cars to win the evening’s feature main and moved from 6th to 2nd place in the season points standings. Not a bad night’s work. It should be mentioned that Kiel Hobbs also surpassed the old track record but did so after Jones had set the new mark.

During hot laps, last week’s main winner Dave Trapp broke a transmission and Charley West, on his first race back in a Vintage Mod, had a left rear wheel come loss and break the studs. Several other teams pitched in to change the rear gear and transmission in for Trapp and repair the axle for West allowing both to make time trials.

Veteran driver Chuck Peterson lead off the A dash and was able to hold off Jim Jones for four laps earning himself a nice trophy.

The B heat had rookie Josh Petersen on the pole flanked by Mel Smith. At the start those two faded and Ike Hoskinson took the lead for what appeared to be an easy victory. A lack of fuel in the tank caused Hoskinson’s car to slow with one lap remaining giving the win to West on his first night back in a modified. Jim Milligan was second driving Bob Stubbs’ #04 car. Milligan filled in at Wenatchee, and enjoyed finishing 5th there so much, that he made a return visit.

Defending champion Mike Clother started the A heat from the pole and got ahead of John Mustered on a green flag hole shot. Bob Fulmer worked his way around on the high side pulling Trapp with him. Fulmer was up beside, but just a bit behind Clother, when the checkers flew. Trapp finished 3rd followed by Jones, Hobbs, Mustered and Peterson.

Fourteen cars lined up for the 30 lap Main event. Josh Wyne dropped from the pole position to start in the rear giving Robert Rux an opportunity to get a good start. Rux had Hoskinson (all fueled up now) to his right. As the green flag flew Charlie West was on Rux’s bumper but spun out in front the remaining field of cars. Miraculously West hit nothing and no one hit him. A complete restart was called for. This time the start was clean and Rux took the lead. Jones went straight to the high groove and began passing the field one by one. As it seemed no passing would be done on the low side Clother, running 5th, fell in behind Jones and attempted to follow him as Jones took over the lead. Clother finally passed Rux to take over 2nd with Hobbs and Fulmer close behind. A little incidental contact put Clother in a bit of a slide off turn two but both Fulmer and Hobbs slowed enough to allow Clother to regain control and maintain his position. That was short lived though, as first Hobbs, and then Fulmer passed Clother to his right. Some minor bumping further back in the field sent 3 cars spinning in turn one and brought out the second caution of the race. No damage was done and all cars were still in the race as the green flew again at the halfway point. Jones, Hobbs and Fulmer were bumper to bumper and easily pulled away to finish 1,2,3. Clother finished 4th 10 lengths ahead of Rux, Mustered, and Trapp. Wyne, Peterson and West rounded out the top 10. Hoskinson and Petersen finished behind them followed by Mel Smith. Jim Milligan was the only casualty in the race, leaving late with a blown transmission.

Next race for the VMRA is the 5th of July open-wheel extravaganza at Port Angeles Speedway. There are sure to be fireworks as the top 6 points positions are separated by only 29 points.