Traveled west to Grants/Milan for the opening night races at UCS. The track was in prime condition for fast action. There was a respectable car count for their season opener. Quite a few of the Motiva Motor Speedway racers came to support the opening.
The Cruisers/Pure Stock had the two Hornets of Lena Duke and Chris Dowd join them for their races. #038 Lynette Antonio, last years Pure Stock champ won a hard fought battle with #49 of Brandon "Bubba" Cauldwell, and #99 of Lena Duke making a good show in her Hornet.
The Mini Sprints had the highest car count with 12 cars. They ran on the big track and were the fastest lap times of the night. The first heat was wont by Phoenix driver in #6 (sorry I didnt get his name), with #5 and #9x hot on his tail. The second heat was won by #4s of Spencer Hill with #17j of Jacob Johnston (last years division champ at Napa Speedway) and #22 of Robert Turner completing the podium.
The A mods had only 3 cars so some of the X mods joined them for their heat. Winner was #71m of Derel Meek of Rio Rancho, followed by #32 of M. Sadler from AZ.
The Street Stocks had a fast field of cars with the often winner #69 of George Beison (sp?) the winner, second was #24 of Scotty Morelane and #99 Joel Duke in third.
The X mods had a strong field of cars with several of the Albuquerque bunch showing well. The first of two heats was won by #1 of Mycal Lucero with #55 of Kimber Ward and #3xx of Bre Bunny following. The second heat had new comer Tanner Higdon #60 showing he has talent by winning top spot with #11 of Shorty Rodriques (last years division champ at UCS)coming in second and rounding out that heat was #28 of Ronnie "Skimmer" Latham.
The mains were fast and sometimes wild with several roll overs. Thankfully no one was injured. First out were the Cruisers/Pure Stock class. #038 of Lynette Antonio winning and #99 of Lena Duke finishing a fantastic second place in her Hornet. Third place came to rookie (first race ever) of #77 Chris Dowd.
Next out were the mini sprints. These little cars can really hall the mail. The #17j of Jacob Johnston ran 1/2 lap ahead of the rest of the field in a showing of pure speed. Spencer Hill in his #4s did a respectable job of trying to keep Jacob in site, with the Arizona car of #6 third, and #9x fourth. All in all, a great show by the Mini Sprints on the BIG track. Motiva are you listening???
The A Mod main had a short field with 5 cars starting. The golden take away from this race was the #71m of D. Meek, he was FAST and I do mean FAST. One of the best shows of drivership I has seen in a while. #32 followed and kept Meek honest and #11 of Shorty Rodriquez in third.
The Street Stock main had #69 George Baison (again spelling questioned) sorry George. He lead most of the race with #24 Scotty making sure George didnt bobble. Joel Duke in his #99 came in third looking good most of the night. Not a bad night the the Duke clan.
Now for the race of the night. X Mods. WOW what a show, Mycal Lucero #1 had the field covered but it was the race for second and third that you could not take your eyes off. The #98 of Toy Fisher (first time in an X Mod after moving up from the Street Stocks0, and the #28 of Ronnie "Skimmer" Latham. These two switched positions two or three times per lap. Some of the best driving by these two of the night, and all with out ever touching one another. Great job guys.
I'm glad I took the drive west and got to see some mighty fine racing. Join us next week at your favorite dirt tracks, you won't be sorry you did.
God Bless all Bob and Ray Ingram
The "new"Grants...
Posted by mychal on April 20, 2014, 4:44 pm, in reply to "ucs opening night"
Color me impressed... All the upgrades,improvements. The attitude,Rick Stevenson(UCS pres.)is focused on making this deal work. The track...smooth as glass,sticky,multi groove,flat out racey.
Not many people know this but, in the off season UCS acquiesced & changed their schedule so that the Barnett series races would not interfere with Sandia/Motiva.
Car counts were a little light(except for mini sprints)hopefully the locals show up and support this deal.. They seem to be making a concerted effort into moving the show along, even with 2 lengthy reds for rollovers...we were done by 10;45
Track was in perfect shape,just hammer down show us what you're made of...kinda deal...stupid fast. It was a good night with really competitive racing. Had a blast...i'll be back Hopefully a few more of my X mod buddies will tow due west in the future...it's worth it. Gotta give props to couple rookies who ran X mod last night... Tanner Higdon won his heat 2nd time ever in a mod. Hayden Foy got a top 5... Both these guys are ex-military,fresh out of the service...good kids. They'll make some noise this season in X mod.
Again,thanks to all the people from UCS...who volunteer to keep the place going,so that we can all have a place to throw dirt.
Re: The "new"Grants...
Posted by gguinn on April 21, 2014, 10:11 am, in reply to "The "new"Grants..."
You couldn't be more right Mychal, and congratulations on another victory! That was so much fun with none of the B.S. that we had grown accustom to in ABQ, or Grants from previous years. A few small improvements still to go, whoever talks on the Raceceiver needs to be a little louder but that's the extreme side of the improvements that need to be made. UCS has it together, I foresee some big car counts in the near future! Most fun I've had behind the wheel in years, and I didn't even finish thanks to flat!
They're pretty similar... I'd always heard that Grants was patterned after Speedway Park. If you go to joe sherwood's nostagia website and look at the wooden grandstands, it's hard to argue.
The ironic part is... When speedway closed there was so much animosity towards the the other track in town(Raceway)that the association(SPSCRA)voted to go race in grants every weekend, rather than race locally. They even had bumper stickers made up... SPSCRA, Racing for pride. Racing in Grants.
...ah, the good old days of Speedway park/Albuquerque Raceway.
In 1974 both Speedway Park and Raceway were combined to as to "Not to compete" with each other. It ended up being a disaster! All the Speedway Racers went to Grants for the entire 1974 season.
on April 20, 2014, 4:01 pm