Welch battles for Street Stock main victory
BY STEPHEN LYNCH Special to The Californian
It took every bit of Lonnie Welch’s finely tuned driving skills for him to best Billy Simkins and win the 20-lap Super Street Stock feature Saturday night at Bakersfield Speedway.
The two drivers went back and forth with each other in a spirited battle, swapping the lead three times until Welch, running the high line around the track, powered in front of Simkins for good with seven laps to go.
“I thought the bottom was going to be the way to go but the top held held up,” Welch said after claiming his second straight A-main event win in a row and third of the year.
Simkins finished second. Brady Bell was third. Randy Schweitzer took fourth and Wayne Coffman came home in fifth.
The IMCA Sports Mod feature race was not completed by press time. A recap of that races will appear in Monday’s Bakersfield Californian and online atbakersfield.com
Dakota Brown out-dueled Mark Irwin to win the 20-lap American Stock A-main event.
Brown led the final four laps after passing Irwin for lead following a late-race restart.
The two drivers battled for several laps until Brown finally gained the upper-hand diving low under a lap car in turn four while Irwin went high, losing valuable ground.
Irwin powered around the outside of early leader Kyle Eurto in turn two on Lap 6 to take over the point and appeared to be on his way to Victory Lane until a yellow flag bunched back up the 10-car field.
The win comes one race after Brown was involved in a accident that left his car severely damaged.
“I didn’t know what it was going to do,” Brown said of his rebuilt car. “We worked on it until 1:30 every night this week to get it ready. Just got it done at one this afternoon.”
Points leader Brian Childress was second followed by Irwin, Kyle Eurto, and Wade Eurto.
Anthony Balcazar won the Sr. Mini Dwarf feature. The scheduled 15-lap race was shortened to four laps due to seven caution flags.
Kaden Cochrun took second. J.D. Brown finished third.
