Jason Sneep Picks Up Win #3 at Antioch
By Steve Hazelton
Lites video guy, Dennis Parker, and myself returned to covering the BCRA Midget Lites, on a breezy, comfortable delta day at Antioch. Roaming the pits prior to racing, I found a new driver in the #1 car of Lonnie Lopez, and one of our new drivers celebrating his 23rd birthday.
Hard charging, Australian sprint car driver Scotty Males joined the Lonnie Lopez race team for the night, in the #1 car. #28 Marcus Smith from Tracy, one of the new Lite rookies, was celebrating his 23rd birthday, and driving a car that was the first car of Ken Hoover racing.
The 11 car field had a 4 car invert, putting the 2 main event winner, #10 Brian Corso
on the pole, with hard charger #35 jr Dakota Albright on the outside of the front row.
Corso jumped out to the lead on the first lap, and 11x Jason Sneep quickly jumped from the second row, into second going into turn one. #11 Scott Kinney, 3 time main event
winner pulled to the infield in turn 2 with chain problems, but the race stayed green since he was off the racing surface.
Corso was distancing himself from the field when the yellow came out as #1 Scotty Males came to a stop in turn two of lap two, with a broken crankshaft. Two of the
normally bullet proof, Lonnie Lopez cars were out of the race.
On the restart Sneep pulled up on Corso in turns one and two, making the pass on the back straight, and leading the rest of the way. Corso and Albright were turning the same lap times as Sneep, but the distance between them from the start made the difference. #76 Joey Hoover, #77 Zack Beard, and #75 Richie Hoover battled it out for the 4th, 5th, and 6th places.
Heat 1 saw Sneep and Albright battling for the win. Kinney and Corso came through traffic to finish first and second in heat 2, setting up a battle of the 2010 main event winners, in the feature.
Nuts and Bolts:
Marcus Smith is a working Cowboy in Tracy on the Double B Ranch. He did not get the birthday gift he wanted, as he exited the main event on lap two.
We kicked around a story for the spectators, about Scotty Males in his trailer with Lonnie, and settled on the story that he was a circus performer, (at the next door circus) and he came over to drive a car, so Lonnie put him in his #1. A couple of fans came up to me in the announcing booth to ask about him. Before the main, I gave Scotty his true credits, as a sprint car driver.
Cars were stopped in the front straight, before the main event for driver announcements, which was a pleasant surprise to give the cars and drivers credit. If I knew it was going to happen I could have been more prepared with sponsor lists also.
Next race the Hall of Fame Picnic at Placerville August 7, with Midgets. I am working on a new female driver for Petaluma.
Main: Sneep, Corso, Albright, J. Hoover, Beard, Holsted, R. Hoover, Paulson, Males, Smith, Kinney
Heat 1: Sneep, Albright, Males, Beard, Holsted, Smith
Heat 2: Kinney, Corso, J. Hoover, R. Hoover, Paulson
