1st, Tony was there, but he didn't race.
2nd, they ran late on qualifing so the autograph session was shortened so I din't go down. I didn't think I could get DL in her wheelchair down there before they'd call to clear the track.
3rd, Parnelli Jones made a few laps in an old midget that won this race in 1948 & 1955. (55 being the first year the Agajanian's started promoting, so this was their 50th anniversary.) Very Sharp restored Gerhardt Offy, man those were race cars! They also had the 1934 winning car there and a bunch of beautiful old midgets and sprits. Some still original but most professionally restored.
4th, Garry Selzi has potential as a sprint car driver, LOL don't take no crap from nobody but that didn't help get him in the race.
What a fantastic way to spend Thanksgiving!
Jason was by far the fastest and was on the pole.
On the start they went 4 wide and Dave Steele jumped to an early lead and was running away as Jason was battling 3 wide to keep second. Finally Jason broke away and was chasing Dave down, but he was a long ways back by then. A caution came out for a spinner on lap 10 closing the field back up.
From then on Jason stayed pretty close to Steele with several good battles. On lap 33 Bobby East got into the wall while running 3rd, considerably behind 1st & 2nd place. There was a battle going on for 3rd with 4th & 5th place cars and I think one helped Bobby into the wall.
On that restart something happened to Steele's car, (I think he sucked a valve) Jason got around him andAaron Fike and Tracy Hines followed him. On the next restart just a few laps later Steele started dropping like a fly with long flames shooting out of his exhaust when he let off and the car sounded terrible. Wasn't to many laps before he just pulled into the in field.
Also about the same restart Steele was having his problems Josh Wise (Tony's driver, 2005 National Midget Champion) was in 4th and something went amiss with his car and he dropped back through the field.
Meanwhile the 2x Steeles teammate and the 20s Kevin Swindell (Tony's 2nd entry) were moving right through the field with the 2x the faster of the 2, made for some pretty exciting racing.
The 2x was passing people like crazy, got up to second and was battling with another car (#70 Hansen I believe) closing in on Jason when the 2x and #70 got together putting the 70 in the wall hard. 2x was penalized, sent to the rear a lap down. He was NOT a happy camper!! On the restart he started driving like a total madman, diving to the apron below cars squeezing them up into other cars all creating very exciting racing. When the race ended he was like in 5th from the leader trying to unlap himself.
Any USAC guys out there? If so, please explain something to me. Under caution Jasons car was scrapping and sparking very bad all around the track even on the straights, so much that the pace car driver (Wendy) and the tower were discussing black flagging him, but under green the car only sparked in turn 3 as he hit a bump?
Anyway, Jason Leflier won, Aaron Fike 2nd, and JJ Yeley was 3rd.
Not a bad showing for now NASCAR guys.
Jason joined a very small group of 12 guys since 1934 to be a 2 time winner, and the only 2nd (Dave Steele) to win 2 since the race came to Irwindale
Unfortunatly, Brea Lopez didn't make the race, there were 59 cars trying to qualify.
Quote:
2005 Race Results
USAC National Western States Midgets - 100 Lap Grand Prix - November 24, 2005
Pos No. Name Laps Total
1 32L Jason Leffler 100
2 32 Aaron Fike 100
3 9 J. J. Yeley 100
4 125 Teddy Beach 100
5 25x Jerome Rodela 100
6 11 Tracy Hines 100
7 19 Jay Drake 100
8 7 Cole Carter 100
9 40 Michael Lewis 100
10 80 Billy Wease 100
11 20s Kevin Swindell 100
12 67 Bryan Clauson 100
13 11x Jerry Coons 100
14 5 Tom Hessert 100
15 79 Robby Flock 100
16 35 Scott Pierovich 100
17 20 Josh Wise 100
18 50 Rick Moss 100
19 8 Wally Pankratz 100
20 4x Tony Hunt 100
21 37 Matt Mitchell 100
22 2x Kyle Nicholas 99
23 34 Tyler Brown 98
24 70 Garrett Hansen 84
25 22 Ron Gregory 69
26 21 Ryan Kaplan 66
27 2 Dave Steele 56
28 74 Brad Kuhn 37
29 71b Brian Olson 37
30 4 Bobby East 33
31 05 Brad Loyet 24
32 71 Darren Hagen 10
