RACE REPORT-WILD NIGHT AT IRWINDALE-APRIL 14, 2001

It must have seemed that the bad luck usually associated with Friday the 13th had somehow leaked over into the14th at the Speedway on Saturday night as accident after accident happened, even during the most unlikely occasions, like on the warm-up and pace laps.

Virtually no race went without incident and one had to be stopped to extricate a driver from a car that rolled and landed on its lid. Luckily, all of the drivers left the mechanical carnage with little more than a few bumps and bruises. Not the same can be said for a lot of machinery which got "used up" in a night that seemed to be run under the influence of a full moon and then some!

Motors blew, trannies imploded, and more people found more ways to whack a track wall than ever dreamed possible. If the Easter Bunny was watching, he might have been scared back into his warren; as it was we had a number of new winners and a wrung-out bunch of racers and fans by show's end. Fans being fans, they enjoyed the hot racing, clapped and cheered for the guys whose cars got wounded, and then came to visit the victors and the vanquished in the pits after the race.

Here's a few of the highlights:

In the Food 4 Less Super Late Models, former NASCAR Winston West Sean Woodside champ went wire-to-wire to win the 50-lap race and take home points for both the division and for second round honors in the Miller Lite Big 10 Challenge series as well. A first lap mis-step put contender Tommy Fry (Simi Valley) into the turn three wall and out of the competition for the night. Fry had co-lead the points with San Marcos' Nathan Wulff going into the night's competition but his DNF/DNS in the night's two points-paying events and Wulff's success (a second and a seventh place) leave Wulff alone at the top of the division points list.

First Nick DeFazio (Newport Beach) and then Wulff tried to work on Woodside, but the Saugus citizen stayed in front despite what was going on behind him to pick up his first-ever Irwindale Speedway main event win. 2000 Late Model champ James Weston, from Goleta, ran hard, raced smart and ended up third, with Camrillo's Charlie Utts charging hard in fourth, and Jack Roush's newest team driver-designate, Tim Woods III of Chino Hills up for a solid fifth place in the war-torn race.

The second Food 4 Less "50-lapper" was as spectacular as the first with a lap 23 accident that saw Tony Bruncatti of Glendora upside down and sliding on his roof toward the turn one crash wall. He was fine, his car (definitely) was NOT fine. The red flag condition that his tipover called for shortened the scheduled 50-lap event to 35 laps to just squeeze it in a minute or two under curfew.

The race for the front in the last ten laps was a ding-dong battle between a leading David Gilliland (Chino Hills), El Cajon's Eric Ferguson, and Tim Woods. On lap 31 Woods made a good looking way-down-low move on Ferguson and sailed into second behind the determined Gilliland. That's how they finished, with Escondido's Brent Reynolds up for fourth place and Chargin' Charlie (Utts) barking at their heels in fifth.

Jim Smith of West Covina led the King Taco Legend Cars to the checker, Orange's Ed Reed did the same for the MSRA Pro-4 Modifieds, and Hawthone's Robert Rice won the NASCAR Grand American Modified main event.

At the end of the evening, if you had a complete, intact race car loaded up and heading for home you had to consider yourself a winner. It really was "One of those nights". Mal-aligned stars, sun spots, peanuts in the pits, solar storms, bad karma, full moon, Friday the 13th (a day late) …Your explanation is as good as anyone's. In the end smart, heads-up driving was rewarded and smart and lucky driving was an even better set-up to be running on this particular Saturday night.

IRWINDALE SPEEDWAY TOP 5 RESULTS SATURDAY APRIL 14, 2001

FEATURE RACE #1: NASCAR FOOD 4 LESS SUPER LATE MODELS - 50 LAPS (Miller Lite Big 10 Challenge Points Race 2) Name Hometown Car 1) Sean Woodside Saugus Chevy 2) Nathan Wulff San Marcos Chevy 3) James Weston Goleta Chevy 4) Charlie Utts Camarillo Chevy 5) Tim Woods III Chino Hills Ford

FEATURE RACE #2: NASCAR FOOD 4 LESS SUPER LATE MODELS - 35 LAPS 1) David Gilliland Chino Hills Chevy 2) Tim Woods III Chino Hills Ford 3) Eric Ferguson El Cajon Pontiac 4) Brent Reynolds Escondido Pontiac 5) Charlie Utts Camarillo Chevy

MSRA PRO-4 MODIFIEDS - 31 LAPS 1) Ed Reed Orange 2) Kenny Smith El Monte 3) Kevin Bernhardt Fontana 4) Scott Porter El Monte 5) Martin Elzig Tustin

NASCAR GRAND AMERICAN MODIFIEDS - 40 LAPS 1) Robert Rice Hawthorne 2) Rick Crow Simi Valley 3) Mike Knapp Valencia 4) Steve Luecht Chula Vista 5) Rod Johnson Simi Valley

KING TACO LEGEND CARS - 35 LAPS 1) Jim Smith West Covina 2) Tom Landreth Alta Loma 3) Jim Kalawai Garden Grove 4) Ryan Schrug Riverside 5) Charlie Wahl Altadena

THIS WEEK: The Touring Pros of the Featherlite Southwest Series compete in the Food 4 Less 150 ... APRIL 21 ... Plus those hard-charging Automobile Club of Southern California Late Models.

Plenty of great seats now on sale: (626) 358-1100 -DS