Hogge win streak continues with victory Saturday night
BY STEPHEN LYNCH For The Californian
It was only a matter of time before Bobby Hogge IV moved to the front of the field during the Super Late Model feature Saturday night at Bakersfield Speedway.
Hogge IV, the dominant driver in the division at the track this year with two wins in two races, stalked Tony Toste for 18 laps before powering around the outside of the race leader with 12 laps remaining in the 30-lap event.
Hogge passed Toste as both drivers attempted to pick their way through several lap-cars.
“I feel awesome,” Hogge IV said. “… Tony knows as well as I do when your’e leading like that, you’re a sitting duck. We got behind some lap-traffic there.”
Toste held on to finish second. Jason Papich was third, followed by Andy Obertello and Nick Bartels.
Earlier in the evening Hogge IV, based out of Salinas, won the Late Model Trophy Dash.
“(The track) is a little one-lane right now,” Hogge said following that victory. “I had the preferred line for the dash for sure. The outside is real dominant right now. I don’t know if we’re going to push it up high enough where the bottom will be competitive, but you never know here. Things can turn around.”
Kevin Collier kept his hot streak in the Hobby Stock division going. The Porterville driver picked up his second feature win in as many races, with another impressive performance on the third-mile clay oval.
The Porterville driver raced his way up from seventh position on the starting grid to wrestle the lead away from Aaron Stewart on Lap 10.
Collier, the division’s points leader, led the rest of the way. The win was the third of the year for Collier.
“Everything just opened up,” he said. “It worked out just fine.”
Stewart got together with Lloyd Wren Jr. as they battled for second place on Lap 15. The incident caused both drivers to fall to the back of the field. Stewart rallied to finish fifth, one spot ahead of Wren Jr.
Chris Settlemire took second. Robert Lawler was third, and Ralph Cooke came home in fourth.
Brian Childress out-dueled Nicholas Johnson to win a highly competitive 20-lap American Stock feature.
The two drivers swapped the lead four times in the final 10 laps, with Childress, the defending track champion, finally getting around the 13-year old Johnson for good on Lap 18.
“The kid (Johnson) back there can drive,” Childress said. “It was an exciting race.”
Childress came into the night third in the points, 14 behind Traci Childress, his cousin. She finished fifth. Trevor Baker led the first four laps and took third. Tyler Johnson was fourth.
Randi Pancratz of Atascadero won the 30-lap Honda Development Performance A-main event.
Pancratz slipped low under Tom Paterson for the lead coming out of Turn 4 during the second lap of the race and held the point position the rest of the way.
“There was nothing out there on the top (of the track),” Pancratz said.
Shawn Buckly was second, followed by Jett Davison, Ron Hazelton and Robert Dalby.
Jonathan Conley dominated the 20-lap CDCRA feature.
Conley led from start to finish, beating runner-up Angel Figueroa to the checkered flag the by about 20 car lengths.
Brandon Wiley was third, followed by Devlin Autry and D.J. Lebow.
West Evans of Moorpark picked up the win in the 20-lap NMRA TQ Midget A-main event.
The 2010 and 2013 series champion took over the lead from last week’s feature winner Chuck West on Lap 15 and then pulled away for his first A-main win of the year.
West took second. Bruce Hiroshima, who won the series first race at Bakersfield Speedway this year, was third. Scott Dobson finished fourth, and Chris Thomas crossed the finish line fifth.
