Strmiska Jr. Grabs Third Victory at Stockton 99
by Eddie Alves
Stockton Calif. (July 13th)—Ron
Strmiska Jr. of Manteca, California grabbed his third SRL Wild West Shootout
Victory of the 2003 racing season Saturday night at Stockton99
Speedway.
Rookie Ryan Foster who won at Madera Speedway two weeks ago finished second,
Joey Zampa from Napa, California finished third, while Harry and Jeff Belletto
finished fourth and fifth.
“We are so lucky; all of the cars were so close tonight. It is so hard to pass out there. Our car was real good on the restarts, and on the longer runs. It took us awhile to get to the front (started 9th); I didn’t think we were going to have enough time. The 21 (Foster) car ran real good and raced me clean. We have run well in the years past, but we are trying to put a complete season together.” Says Race Winner Ron Strmiska Jr.
“We were real lucky to hold onto second tonight. We bounced off the wall real early in the race, and the car was loose all night. We had good track position tonight. We just want to come out and keep on finishing races.” Says second place finisher Ryan Foster.
Jeff Anthony the 2002 Series champion stopped the clock the quickest during qualifying with a lap of 13.987 seconds. Strmiska was second fast, Fremont’s Troy Ermish was third, John Gaalswyk fourth, and Jeff Belletto fifth.
A ten car inversion gave the front row to Tim Bost and Tracy Bolin. Bost led the field to the initial green flag. Bolin ran second while Joey Zampa made a move into third, Ryan Foster fourth and Harry Belletto fifth. Rookie of the year contender Steven Williams spun on lap nine and would end up finishing 19th. Michael Carver and Tim Stratmeyer each spun on lap 39 bringing out another caution. On lap 46 Strmiska passed Harry Belletto for fifth position, as Jeff Anthony followed to take sixth spot. Lap 48 brought out another caution as Chris Wadsworth of Oakley, California spun in turn four along with Troy Ermish.
At the half-way point, Bolin still trailed Bost, Zampa continued in third, Foster fourth and Strmiska fifth. Ken Boyd and Harry Belletto battled for sixth and seventh position. The two veterans ran side-by-side until Boyd made the complete pass on lap 68. Strmiska moved into fourth as he made a move on Foster on lap 78. On lap 86, after a lap 83 restart, Zampa gave up third position to Strmiska. Strmiska now had his sights on the leaders with less then 15 laps to go. With five laps to go, leader Tim Bost and Tracy Bolin made contact heading into turn one, as both cars spun, Strmiska continued and picked up his third win of the 2003 season. Bost would re-group and go on to finish sixth. Troy Ermish who spun in the first half of the race came home in seventh. Ken Boyd wound up eight in front of Tracy’s David Philpott, as Bolin rounded out the top ten.
Joel Theisen and Mike Doss transferred from the 20 lap qualifying race.
Davey Hamilton’s SRL Wild West Shootout would like to thank its 2003 Sponsors, which include: Sunoco Race Fuels, Hoosier Racing Tire, Western Speed & Fuel, Extreme Race Wear, Five Star Stock Car Bodies, Frank's Radio Service, F. R. E.--Finishline Racing Equipment, Paul Oil Co, Bassett, Dynatech, GP Fabrication, & Print Werx.
Unofficial Race Results
1. Ron Strmiska Jr.
2. Ryan Foster
3. Joey Zampa
4. Harry Belletto
5. Jeff Belletto
6. Tom Bost
7. Troy Ermish
8. Ken Boyd
9. David Philpott
10. Tracy Bolin
11. Mike Doss
12. Jeff Anthony
13. John Moore
14. John Gaalswyk
15. Michael Carver
16. Joel Theisen
17. Chris Wadsworth
18. Tim Stratmeyer
19. Steven Williams
20. Kyle Gottula