Riverside FANatic 5/27/06
by Alan Plummer
Welcome to the first edition of the Riverside FANatic for the 2006 racing season at Riverside Speedway, a P.A.S.S. sanctioned speedway. It was a double header weekend, of which I was only able to attend the Saturday Race, the Bobby Shores Memorial Day Classic. It was a great night of racing, with only a few accidents, none of which were very serious.
The Daredevil youth division is now divided into three classes, the rookie, novice, and veteran class. I was trying a new way to take notes during the youth races, a digital voice recorder. Needless to say when I checked after the races, I couldn’t understand a thing on it. So off to my pictures I went. In the rookie class the 3x of Jamie Kenison Jr. nearly rolled it in turn four. The car went up on its side, and returned to the upright position. After a quick check, it was determined he, was alright and the racing continued. Eventual winner was Jessie Switser in the 5 who held off a late race challenge by the 19 of Walter Bandy.
In the novice division the 00 of Ciara McCoy and the 8 of Tyler Leighton got together, and I thought for sure they would wreck, but both did a great job of recovering. The yellow was thrown for safety just before they got straightened out. Leighton grabbed the checkers, followed by Dayna Randall in the 7 then McCoy.
The veteran division was side by side action nearly the whole race. The 04 of Shawn Swallow managed to hold the hard charging 01 of Sammy Gooden off. Their battle was definitely a crowd pleaser. Rounding out the top three was the 48 of Tyler Barrows.
I reverted to taking notes for the rest of the night. The Street Stocks were up next. The 67 was on the pole, with the 2 of Arnie Krupula Jr. on the outside. 67 took the early lead than fell back giving the lead to Krupula. Watching the rest of the field I noticed the 03 of Jason Kenison moving up through the field. By lap 8, Kenison had come to the front. The 68 of Derrick O’Donnell quickly moved into second. On lap 14 the 73 of I believe Jason Emerson and the 07 of Bill Stebbins Jr. got into each other. They were both sent to the rear. Kenison edged out the lead on the restart. Kenison and O’Donnell quickly started leaving the rest of the field behind racing only themselves. Kenison was victorious, with O’Donnell in second and the 22 of rookie Michael Smith taking third.
In the Super Stock division the pole sitter, the 48 of Willey Holbrook stayed out front the whole race. The 31 of rookie Brian Middleton seemed to be having a bad night spinning the car several times. Hopefully he can get the car to handle better for him in the coming races. He purchased the car from last years Super Stock champ just after the 05 season ended. The 04 of rookie Nathan Swallow, taking over the car from his big brother who moved up to Late models, came through the field rather well. I had heard he was having a hard time with the car, looks like he figured it out to me. Swallow took the second spot followed by the 74 of Dan Sidney.
In the Late Models, sophomore contender Mike Kenison wheeled his way to victory after starting on the outside pole. On a side note, I know some people say that people really don’t look at who sponsors the cars, but they are totally wrong. I work for one of Mike’s sponsors, and I had four people on Sunday, who I didn’t even know were race fans come up to me and say “you guy’s driver had a great night last night”. So remember, the sponsors are really noticed on a car. Now back to the race: The 90 of Floyd Bennett Jr started on the pole and was briefly in the lead, apparently there was something wrong with the exhaust, and it was dragging and making a whole lot of sparks. The Bennett team was unable to make repairs to the car. For most of the race Kenison battled with his coworker the 4 of Ken Dufour. Dufour tried and tried but just couldn’t complete the pass. The two were very entertaining to watch.
The PASS tour descends upon Riverside next Sunday, June 4th. The PASS Super Late Models and Modifieds will be on tap as well as the Riverside Super Stocks and Cyclones. The racing is scheduled to begin at 1:30 pm. If you haven’t seen a PASS race, I urge you to attend, you’ll love it. Pictures and archived FANatic articles can be seen at http://racing.apcomptech.com If you have any questions or comments email me at riversidefanatic@apcomptech.com