Fairgrounds Raceway
Santa Maria, California

June 28, 1997 - Fairgrounds Raceway
From: Gary Roberts

Fairgrounds Raceway held the final round of the Spring Fling Series. Again the hot weather meant that the track had to be well damped, which made the first few races a bit heavy going.

Overall winner of the series was Robbie Sauer, second was Marvin Sonnier, third was Brian Thompson, all from Bakersfield, fouth and fifth were local men, Charlie Powell and John VanderMuellen.

For the second time, the Winner was 17 year old Charlie Powell from Paso Robles. He scored a maximum 15 points in the qualifying rounds, then won the main A final.

The A final was the best race of the night. Best gate went to John VanderMuellen, who qualified by winning the B final. John led for half a lap until Robbie Sauer took over. John began making mistakes then, letting Charlie Powell and Brian Thompson through. Robbie pulled out a good lead, but for no reason at all, fell going into turn one on the last lap.

Results:
Charlie Powell      15
Brian Thompson      14
Robbie Sauer        11
Gerry Duttweiller   11 
Tim Appel           11
Marvin Sonnier       9
Kitt Nay             9
John VanderMuellen   7
Billy Lyons          7
Paul Baldwin         7
Jimmy Collins        6 
Jason Montgomery     4 
Paul Hitchcock       4
Mark Maynard         3
Kraig Moss           2
Jason Chabot         0

A final:
Powell, Thompson, Duttweiler, VanderMuellen, R. Sauer
B final:
VanderMuellen, Sonnier, Nay, Appel, Lyons
C final:
Lyons, Montgomery, Baldwin, Chabot, Collins (n/s)
D final:
Chabot, Hitchcock, Moss, Maynard (n/s)

Next weekend is the County Fair and entry to the speedway is free to Fair attendees.

Gary Roberts - gary_rob@ix.netcom.com