Johnson captures another IMCA Stock Car victory at Speedway

Steve Drake continued his mastery of Bakersfield Speedway on Saturday night.

Drake took the lead with 11 laps to go then sailed to victory in the Late Model race on the third-mile clay oval.

“I just wanted to be patient but around lap 10 I thought we were in trouble,” said Drake, who was running fourth at that time. “The car was just good enough to get it done.”

Drake finished third in the first Late Model race and has won every one since then.

Mike Kirby was second with Tony Toste third.

The Senior Mini Dwarf feature produced a strange finish with championship implications as first the race was over. Then it wasn’t.

And the two different finishes determined the Senior Mini Dwarf champion.

Jakob Carey won the race the first time. And he won the second time.

But he was not involved in the championship battle.

Lane McDonald would have been the champion had the original checkered flag been the actual checkered flag. But when the last lap was rerun, Chloie Jones gained a spot and that secured the championship for her.

Yes, it was confusing.

Kercie Jung came into the night with a two point lead over Jones and four points ahead of Lane McDonald. But Jung spun and went a lap down midway through the race.

Carey had the lead as the white flag fell with Jung, a lap down, and McDonald right behind. McDonald tapped the back of Jung and she spun to the inside as the field powered by.

No yellow was thrown on the front straight and the race appeared to end with Carey winning, followed by McDonald, Tailer Morrison and Jones.

But an official on the back straight threw a yellow before the cars took the checkered flag. Officials decided to run the final lap again and that finish was different.

Jones got by Morrison on the last one-lap dash to finish third, leaving her in a tie with McDonald for the championship. The tiebreaker is feature wins and Jones has two while McDonald has none, thus the championship went to Jones.

“Shocked,” Jones said when asked what she thought of winning the championship. “I made my mom cry.”

There was nothing unusual in the IMCA Stock feature as Steven Johnson drove to his ninth win in 11 races.

“This year has been unbelievable,” Johnson said. “This wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for Mike and Sadie Hill and JR Motorsport who let me drive the car.”

Troy Patee was second and Alan Mendes third.

Jett Yantis look the lead on the fourth lap of the 12-lap Junior MIni Dwarf feature and secured the track championship by driving to his sixth win of the season. Yantis entered the final race of the season tied with Maston Ratcliff for the points lead. Ratcliff finished third. Broedy Graham was second.

James Bradburn raced to victory in the 20-lap Hard Top feature. Bobby Courtney was second and Jeff Gaddes was third. Less than half the field finished due to several on-track incidents.

Nick Spainhoward claimed another main event victory in the IMCA SportMod division holding off Brylon Holder, Chris McKellar and James Cecil rounding out the top four.

In the Hobby Stock division Michael Scruggs of Porterville raced his way to the front of the field and eventually took home the victory over Chris Settlemire, Mike Hill Jr. and Marc McCaslin.