Stock car

Cajon Speedway race notes 2002-10-05

Coors Cajon cash to JBIII. EL CAJON, CA. John Borneman III is one of the rising stars on the west coast. He is always one of the drivers to beat on the Winston West circuit and recently won that series' race at Stockton. Saturday night he came ...

Published: Oct 8, 2002, 12:12 PM

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Coors Cajon cash to JBIII.

EL CAJON, CA. John Borneman III is one of the rising stars on the west coast. He is always one of the drivers to beat on the Winston West circuit and recently won that series' race at Stockton. Saturday night he came back home to Cajon Speedway. The second generation racer stepped into the Chevrolet Monte Carlo of fellow plastering contractor Jeff Seifert and claimed the $2750 first place money in the Coors 100 late model sportsman open competition main event on the 3/8-mile paved oval.

Borneman took the checkered flag three lengths ahead of a determined John Tyczki in the marathon grind, which was punctuated by way too many on track incidents and yellow flags. Virtually none of the 24-starters escaped the contest unscathed. Taking third was Steve Teets, who was subbing for Brandon Whitt, who was racing in England. John Manke came back from a pair of spins to take fourth. Fifth went to 2002 Las Vegas Motor Speedway champ Thane Alderman. Jack Lee was sixth, the final car on the lead lap.

Despite the carnage 15 of the 24-starters were still on the track at the checkered. Borneman's winning check of $2750 included the $250 bonus from Sid's Auto Body. The Sid's Auto Body Hard Charger Award of $200 for improving one's starting position the most went to Orange Show regular Kenny Chirstensen, who started 24 and finished seventh.

Randy Brown paced all 75-rounds of the companion Mechanix Wear Speed Truck Challenge. He was chased the entire distance by Dave Digiacomo. Lee Hatch was third ahead of Darren Young and Doug Ingraham.

By comparison, the truck contest was a piece of cake. While the Coors contest for the sportsman had three restarts and 13 slowdowns, the trucks had only a pair of yellow flags. They ran the opening 34 circuits non-stop until Ron Nava spun out in turn three. Eight laps later Danny Williams and Scott Saunders got together in turn four. Casey Kingsland just nicked the spinning cars and smacked into the turn four barrier. He was not hurt.

But yes, the sportsman race was gory at times. On the first attempt at a start Jeff Wright and 1997-98-99 Cajon champ and 2001-02 Orange Show titlest Gary Tamborelli ended up backward in turn three. Try number two was aborted when Steve Teets went all the way around exiting turn four just before the green. The on the third attempt front row starters Rick Chavez and Bob Wickey locked horns in turn four. When Wickey recovered on the front stretch, there just wasn't enough racing room. Cars went everywhere. Knocked out of the race for good were Tamborelli, Wright, Mark Meech, and Roger Brown.

The officials decided to go single file for the next start. It stuck. Wickey and Chavez jumped out front. On lap 5, Teets and Ken Sapper knocked wheels in turn four and ended up tangling in turn two. Sapper, who has never had all luck at Cajon, was done for the night.

Meanwhile Wickey and Chavez were having a terrific duel out front with 2001 Cajon champ Todd McLauchlan, David Beat, and Borneman in hot pursuit. The field was slowed again on lap 24 when Tyczki tapped Manke who spun. Both were sent to the rear for the restart and immediately started marching back up through the pack. Things ran clean until lap 36 when Michael Haslam spun in turn three.

On lap 39, Chavez's fine ride came to an end. Chavez nudged Wickey in turn three on lap 38. Then going into turn one a half a lap later, Chavez's right front tire went down. Borneman was carried up the track in the first turn and both cars came to a stop. The officials ruled that Borneman was not involved in the accident and he sat second behind Wickey on the restart. Borneman made short order of Wickey when the race resumed. He was out front to stay by lap 42. A spin by Claude Bell on lap 47 resulted in the officials deciding to finally start counting yellow flags.

On lap 51 Bell lost the plug on his rear end and oiled down the track in turn three. Before the field could get slowed down, McLauchlan, Alderman, Haslam, Dee Cable, Jerry Gay, and Ed Hoffman were caught up and wrecked. Yellows were required on lap 59 when Gay spun, again on lap 65 when Lee spun, on lap 73 when Wickey's chance at victory ended with a spin, and on lap 77 when Wickey and Rod Hildebrand met in turn three.

All this left David Beat on Borneman's tail. Those two veterans went at it. Beat tried to put a move on Borneman on the high side on lap 86 and got pinched into the crashwall at the starting line. Now Tyczki was back to second. He two posed a challenge to the leader, but lost his chance at the trophy when he broke loose in turn three and four just four laps from the finish.

In all during the last 52 rounds of the race when they were counting yellow flags, 36 laps were run at reduced pace.

Ed Hoffman captured the 25-lap late model sportsman semi over Jack Lee. Mike Mendenhall, who had motor problems during a Friday practice, didn't arrive at the track until the trophy dash was being started. His team spent all day Saturday assembling another motor. He joined the semi field at the back as it was being lined up and came home third.

The Coors contest was the final local appearance of the year for the late model sportsman. The event drew a strong field of 30 cars. The only casualty during afternoon practice was a broken motor suffered by Ray Hooper Jr. of Las Vegas.

-cs-

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