Fluid leaks and spinning cars were the highlights of an exciting night of racing June 13th at South Sound Speedway.

John Mustered ended his evening early when a part failure during hot lapping caused his transmission to become unattached from his car. There were too many broken parts to replace so John put his beautiful orange Chevy on the trailer and headed for home.

As the evening progressed the temperatures cooled and the cars got faster. In time trials Jim Jones set a fast mark of 15:06 seconds but Kevin Rinkel edged him out for fast time of the night with a 14:98.

The trophy dash was lead off by Mike Clother with Dave Trapp on the outside. Jones and Rinkel made up the second row. Clother got a great start and Trapp dropped to the rear as Jones and Rinkel followed Clother for the four fast laps. Clother protected the low line and held on to win his second trophy dash of the season.

The B heat had Ike Hoskinson on the pole with veteran Chuck Peterson on his right. Charlie West Jr. and Robert Rux made up the second row. Hoskinson took the lead early pulling West and Rux along while Peterson faded fast. After 8 caution free laps two-time champion Bobby Wheeler Jr., who started in the rear, had worked his way past Peterson and West to finish 3rd behind Rux in 2nd and winner Hoskinson.

Bob Fulmer started on the pole position for the A heat. Henry Weichel had the outside; Clother and Trapp were behind them. Fulmer took an early lead as Jones and Rinkel followed Clother past Trapp and Weichel. Clother took the high line in turn 1 and was rewarded for his effort by contact with Fulmer that sent Clother spinning in front of the field. All the other drivers managed to miss Clother’s spinning car but the caution flag was displayed and the race restarted with Clother in the rear. Fulmer went on to win by leading all 8 laps. Jones and Rinkel finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.

The scheduled 30-lap main started with drivers looking straight at the setting sun from turn 2. Just as in the B heat start Hoskinson had the Pole with Peterson to his right. Hoskinson again got the jump and was followed closely this time by West and Wheeler. On the second lap Peterson got a bump from a not so patient Robert Rux who in turn got bumped harder by the car behind him. The result was a flat tire for Rux that sent him to the pits. He would return to the track 11 laps later and finish 10th. As the race continued the track began getting slicker due to oil on the racing surface. Even in the slick conditions Kevin Rinkel patiently worked his way through the field to take the lead by the 10th lap. Bobby Wheeler moved up to 2nd place just ahead of West. Bob Fulmer maneuvered into 4th place with Jones hot on his tail. The track kept getting slicker and in the 11th lap Dave Trapp spun twice and several other drivers had very intense moments as traction became nonexistent. Caution was displayed after Trapp’s second spin that took him within a few feet of the trackside officials. Even so no track clean up was performed and the race was restarted. On lap 13 Weichel spun in turn one again bringing out the caution flag. Officials “red flagged” the race to inspect the track, spread out some oil dry, and inspect cars to find the leaking culprit. Jones was asked to take his car to the pits for inspection and returned as the race restarted. He was black flagged a few laps later due to oil leaking from a cracked oil pan, a tough break for the current championship point leader. In 3rd place West’s car was overheating a bit and watered down an already slippery track. Fulmer and Clother had all they could do to stay in order behind him. Former champion Rinkel won easily to take his first feature win of the 2009 season. Wheeler, West, Fulmer and Clother followed in a bumper-to-bumper line rounding out the top 5. Weichel, Hoskinson and Trapp made up the remaining cars on the track at the finish.

It was a fun night of racing and these guys will do it all again next week, June 20th, at South Sound Speedway.