Wheeler wins in VMRA at Ephrata

Everybody was having trouble getting a grip on the track at Ephrata Raceway on a hot, hot July night. There was lots of slipping and sliding going on during the hot lap sessions, also some broken pieces. Leonard Schmidt discovered and repaired a chronic distributor problem with help from Uncle Ron of Jim Jones’ crew. Chuck Peterson’s car was overheating badly requiring a jet change and Robert Rux changed a broken transmission just before time trials.

Mid season standing trophies were presented to Jim Jones- 1st, Mike Clother –2nd, and Bobby Wheeler-3rd. At the end of the evening it was evident Wheeler was not satisfied to be in 3rd place. The night was to be full of close racing, sometimes too close, and lots of exciting passes.

Jones once again set the fast time for the event but his 15:32 was only .03 seconds faster than John Mustered’s time.

The B dash was led off by Pete Tice, Jr. in his second start of the season in a Vintage Modified car. Pete held the lead momentarily but was bettered by more experienced driver Ike Hoskinson who collected the win and the trophy.

Past champion Mike Clother started on the point for the A dash with former champion, Bobby Wheeler, to his right. Reigning champion Jones was behind them next to potential future champion Mustered. Clother held the low line for all 4 laps while Wheeler worked his butt off to try to get around in the high groove. Jones later told the others he saw a “hell of a race” from his position. Clother accepted the trophy amongst a crowd of children and donated it to them. They in turn gifted it to Grandma “B” who was attending her first car race ever in her 80 plus years of life. Where have you been Grandma????

The heat race was lined up with Tice once again on the pole and Rux on his outside. There was lots of close racing and position changes in the first four laps until caution was displayed for Tice who spun and kissed the wall when his transmission jumped in and out of gear on the back straight-away. Rux’s engine began misfiring and he fell to the rear. The race restarted with few laps remaining and Wheeler and Hoskinson battling for the lead. Wheeler prevailed in the final laps over Ike who was followed by Mustered and Jones.

The starting line up for the 40-lap main was scrambled and confused due to Tice’s car not being able to start the race and Rux deciding after entering the track to start from the rear. Chuck Peterson moved to the pole position just ahead of Hoskinson. Wheeler, seeing no one on the outside of Peterson, moved up to the front row. Clother followed Bobby. The rest of the drivers held their positions and the race was soon on. At the waving of the green flag Wheeler quickly took the lead and opened a large gap while Clother took several laps to finally pass Peterson for 2nd place. Jones caught Clother and was doing his best to take away that second position. As the two exited turn 2 they both opted for the same line. The result was contact that sent Clother spinning in front of Jones, Mustered and the rest of the field and a caution flag flew to realign the cars and let things cool down. Everybody was able to restart with Clother now near the rear of the field once again working hard to pass Peterson. Jones moved to second with Hoskinson on his bumper, literally. Contact caused Jones to spin and brought out another “rest period”. Jones was asked to restart in the rear and he was clearly not happy with that decision. He did a little tire spinning as he drove away from a track official while the caution flag was still being displayed. The track’s race director decided to penalize Jones one lap for his hot foot. On the restart Wheeler was still leading with Mustered 2nd and Clother now up to 3rd. Jones moved back through the field, driving a great race, but was not able to make up his lap. Wheeler led flag to flag to pick up his first feature win of 2009. As Wheeler accepted his trophy in front of the grandstand crowd one drive swung by to give Bobby a big “thumbs up”. Meanwhile Jones did a congratulatory smoke show for the crowd in the turn 1 area. Mustered maintained 2nd, Clother took 3rd, Peterson held on for 4th with Hoskinson right behind to round out the top 5.

With all the banging and bumping and spinning out that went on during the races one would think there would be hard feelings among the drivers, possibly even some name calling and brawling. NOT SO! These folks got together for BBQ and bench racing at the evenings end. But don’t be surprised if the memories kick back in during the next race at South Sound Speedway August 1st.