Madera Speedway was back in action on Saturday, August 1st, with the “HotWood 333” Series for the NASCAR Whelen All American Western Late Models as part of the 3rd Annual “Boots & Bikini Night” bash. Also taking on the “Fastest 1/3 Mile in the West” were the American Limited Stock Cars, Modified Super Toyotas, Toyota Sedans and the wild and wacky Hornets.
The 111-lap “HotWood 333” feature was the second of three on the 2009 schedule. The opening round took place on April 11th and the series finale will be held on September 26 at Madera.
In addition to regular season prize money, the special “HotWood 333” Series will have an end of Season Series Points Fund payout to the top 12 drivers of $19,500 plus a separate Qualifying Points Fund payout to the top five drivers of $1,500 for a guaranteed series payout of $21,000 and an overall payout grand total of $50.000! The “HotWood 333” Series prize fund will be distributed at the Madera Speedway championship awards banquet on November 7.
As has been the case numerous times this year, the Western Late Model features turned into a battle between 22-year-old “Young Guns” Ross Strmiska, of Stockton and 2008 HotWood champion Kyle Gottula, of Modesto.
Rick Thompson, of Clovis, held the pole for the 111-lap HotWood feature until Gottula took the spot from him with a pass down the back straight on lap 28. Thompson regained the lead when Gottula suddenly slowed on lap 35 with ignition issues, only to lose it again 10 laps later to the hard charging Strmiska.
Gottula would eventually work through his issues and by lap 48 he was mounting a challenge to his friend and rival Strmiska for the lead. They would battle for the remainder of the race, but Gottula could never gain position to make a serious play for the lead as Strmiska took a five-car length win. Thompson held on for third while Fremont’s Glen Cook and Merced’s Carlos Vieira rounded out the top five.
“That was a hard race. After Kyle had his problem we were able to get in front of him and that was all it took. We are so close that it seems to come down to whoever can get the lead will win the race,” said Strmiska. “This is new car and the first night out we win a big race like this. I can’t thank my dad an my sponsors enough.”
Although Gottula came up just short in the race, his second place finish was good enough to maintain his lead for the track championship by a 288 to 251 margin on Strmiska and hold the lead in the HotWood points also over Strmiska, but by a much narrower 219 to 215 count.
“We had some problems with the ignition in practice, but we didn’t think anything of it until it did it again in the race. I came off of turn two and it was dead so I shut it off, wiggled the switch and it came back,” explained Gottula. “I burned up the tires and boiled the brakes trying to get back to the front after that.”
The championship battle in the always competitive American Limited Stock Car division continued to be a barn burner as a determined Dennis Saunders Jr. of Modesto looked to regain the season points lead he lost to rival Jason Aguirre last Saturday.
Saunders grabbed the lead in the 30-lap main from Fresno’s Larry Pasquale following a lap three restart necessitated when defending division champion Howard Holden’s car caught fire in the rear end.
Starting from the 10th position after taking fast qualifying honors, Aguirre finally made his way to the front on lap 18, setting up a multi lap shootout with Saunders. Aguirre would finally get the best of Saunders after he used a backmarker as a pick on lap 22. As Aguirre marched to his third win of the season, Saunders held off a hard charging Matt Erickson, of Lake Don Pedro, to salvage second.
“Earlier in the week I told my dad that if you are going to win a championship you have to win races,” said Aguirre. “Tonight we qualified first, went right through the pack and whipped some butt.”
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