Motiva Motor Speedway Dirt Track 10-4-2014
Bob & Ray Ingram


The final show for Modifieds and Street Stocks saw a smaller field than expected but there was still some very close racing throughout the field. The A-Mods had 14 cars on hand to do battle and the field was evenly split with 7 true A-Mods that were joined by 7 very competitive X-Mods. Heat #1 saw the #45X of Todd Budlong take off from the outside of row one and never look back as he took the win in front of the #3J of Josh Cain and the #13 of Luigi Truden taking home the 3rd spot. Heat #2 was a dog fight from beginning to end as virtually all 7 starters were in the hunt for the win. At times these guys were running 3 wide without ever touching each other. The #28CF of Cooter Frazier was leading at the white flag with the rest of the field close behind. Coming out of turn 4 heading to the checkered flag the #58 of Clint Miller made his move on the outside of Frazier and took the win by inches with the X-Mod of Mychal Lucero in the #1 coming home in 3rd place. This was by far the closest race of the day. The 30 lap main-event saw all 14 drivers make the call and start the race. This race was slowed by 4 yellow flags due to minor spins or mechanical problems and 1 yellow for debris on the track. At the drop of the green flag the #45X of Todd Budlong jumped out to the lead as the rest of the field jockeyed for position behind him. Entering turn 1 on the second lap the 45X came to a sudden stop with mechanical issues that ended his night, but fortunately all of the other drivers did a great job of missing the Budlong car and were able to continue without any damage. On the restart there were 5 or 6 cars fighting for the top spot with the #3J of Josh Cain taking the point. In between the caution periods Cain maintained his lead by a very narrow margin with several cars fighting over the 2nd position and keeping Cain in sight. As the laps wound down the battle for 2nd was heating up with the #13 of Luigi Truden, #15 Dee Yates, #1 Mycal Lucero and #58 Clint Miller. As in heat race #2 the pack was running 3 wide most of the time. The best race on the track was the fight between the #13 of Luigi Truden and the #15 of Dee Yates in his X-Mod putting on a great performance. Miller in his #58 was also in the battle but spun with only a few laps to go and had to come back from the back of the field to finish in the 7th spot. At the Checkered flag it was Cain taking the win with Truden nudging out Yates for the 2nd spot. Hat's off to the X-Mod drivers who did more than a respectable job of running with the A-Mods.

The X-Mods had a nice field of 19 cars to start the afternoon then had 20 as the #14C of Bennie Chavez was a late arrival that was able to run only the main-event. However there were only 19 starters in the main-event as the #77 of Cory Hatch who was making his first start of the year tangled with the backstretch wall and rolled his new car causing enough damage to end his day, Hatch was uninjured in the crash. Heat #1 went green to checkered with the #0 of J.R. Bonesteel taking of from the outside of the front row and taking the win by a large margin. Chasing Bonesteel home was the #19 of Patricia Gallegos and the #33 of Wild Bill Lynch. Patricia Gallegos is the only female driver in the Modified divisions who moved up from the Hornet class and has been getting faster and faster every week. Billy Lynch has been racing since the late 60's in the old Sportsman division at Speedway Park on south Eubank and is still a competitive racer. Heat #2 saw the #K3 of Kevin McDonald jump out from the outside of the front row and take a fairly easy win over the #7 of Shorty Steven Bertetto with the #98 of Toy Fisher close behind in 3rd position. Heat #3 had the only red flag of the night as the #77 of newcomer Cory Hatch from Los Lunas tagged the backstretch wall and did a pretty hard rollover that heavily damaged his ride. Fortunately Hatch was not injured though his day was over. Michael O'Neal in the #29 led from the git go until 2 laps to go when the #1 of Mychal Lucero made contact with O'Neal taking away his chance for the win. At the checkered flag it was Lucero taking the win with the #00 of Steve Bonesteel coming home in 2nd with the #95 of Andrew Fowner making a good run to finish in the last podium spot. The main-event saw 19 of the 20 cars on hand take the green flag as only the #77 of Cory Hatch who had the rollover in his heat race not be able to make the call. J.R. Bonesteel in the #0 who usually gives up his good starting position at or near the front of the field and starting at the back of the field elected to take his earned starting spot on the inside of the front row. Bonesteel took off and never was challenged as he led all 30 laps. However the battle behind Bonesteel was terrific with 8-10 drivers in a position to take the runner up spot. Here are some of the drivers that were fighting for that 2nd spot although there were a couple of others who fell back along the way, #98 Toy Fisher, #63 Justin Weber, #00 Steve Bonesteel, #29 Michael O'Neal, #15 Dee Yates and #58 Julius Billy. Julius Billy in the #58 is one of our favorite drivers as he is from the thriving metropolis of Haystack, New Mexico and always does a very good job running among some very tough competition. With many changes throughout the field at the end the #15 of Dee Yates held on for 2nd position with the #63 of Justin Weber coming home a very close 3rd spot.

The Street Stocks as has been the case all year struggled with car count as only 6 drivers showed up to race, and 5 of the 6 were basically running for 2nd place as the #53 of youngster R.C. Combs in his beautiful red car easily won both the heat race and the main-event. The heat race saw Combs take the win in front of young lady driver Cheyenna Yates in her #15 taking 2nd place with the orange #3 of Mario Truden Sr. taking 3rd place. The main-event was was a virtual replay of the heat race as the five cars that took the green flag finished in the same position as they did in the heat race. There were only 5 cars taking the green in both races as the #94 of Rick Boelter who looked really fast in hot laps did not make the start in either race ??????

During the intermission break there were 5 Hornet drivers who took along a fan passenger who had purchased a chance to take a ride along with the regular drivers. The money that was generated through the ticket sales was split between the driver and passenger in the first and second place finishing cars. After the 20 lap race the winning car was the #97B of Justin Morgan who was the champion this year in the Hornet division and the 2nd place car was the #99 of Lena Duke who finished in 2nd place this year in the Hornet division. We did not get the names of the passengers in these cars but the female passenger in the #99 of Duke seemed to be having more fun than anyone at the track as she could be seen clapping and waving her fist every time the car passed the flagstand.

Next week 10-11 will be the final show on the dirt track at Motiva Motor Speedway with the Sprint Car Stampede. Running will be the Non-Wing Sprints, 305 Winged Sprints along with the Mini-Sprints running both with wings and without wings.

Here are the full results for the Modified Madness. These results are not official and we apologize for all errors.

A-Mods
Heat #1 #45X Todd Budlong, #3J Josh Cain, #13 Luigi Truden, #0 J.R. Bonesteel, #K3 Kevin McDonald DNF, #7 Steven Bertetto DNF

Heat #2 #58 Clint Miller, #28CF Cooter Frazier, #1 Mychal Lucero, #15 Dee Yates, #63 Justin Weber, #36 David Radman, #98 Toy Fisher DNF, #71 Deral Meek DNF

Main-Event #3J Josh Cain, #13 Luigi Truden, #15 Dee Yates, #K3 Kevin McDonald, #1 Mychal Lucero, #7 Steven Bertetto, #58 Clint Miller, #63 Justin Weber, #36 David Radman, #28CF Cooter Frazier DNF, #M71 Deral Meek Sr. DNF, #0 J.R. Bonesteel DNF, #98 Toy Fisher DNF, #45X Todd Budlong DNF

X-Mods
Heat #1 #0 J.R. Bonesteel, #19 Patricia Gallegos, #33 Wild Bill Lynch, #28 Skimmer Leathem, #18 Kevin Hibdon, #60 Tanner Higdon

Heat #2 #K3 Kevin McDonald, #7 Steven Bertetto, #98 Toy Fisher, #55 Kimry Ward, #63 Justin Weber, #58 Julius Billy DNF

Heat #3 #1 Mychal Lucero, #00 Steve Bonesteel, #95 Andrew Fowner, #29 Michael O'Neal, #24 Deral Meek Jr., #15 Dee Yates DNF, #77 Cory Hatch DNF

Main-Event #0 J.R. Bonesteel, #15 Dee Yates, #63 Justin Weber, #00 Steve Bonesteel, #29 Michael O'Neal, #98 Toy Fisher, #58 Julius Billy, #19 Patricia Gallegos, #33 Wild Bill Lynch, #18 Kevin Hibdon DNF, #28 Skimmer Leathem DNF, #24 Deral Meek Jr. DNF, #14C Bennie Chavez DNF, #95 Andrew Fowner DNF, #7 Steven Bertetto DNF, #K3 Kevin McDonald DNF, #60 Tanner Higdon DNF, #1 Mychal Lucero DNF, #55 Kimry Ward DNF, #77 Cory Hatch DNS

Have A Great Day
God Bless Everybody