SCFTA Round 3
March 9th, 2013

Photos by Janice Blunt

Article by Jamey Blunt

 

S.C.F.T.A. Round #3

March 3rd, 2013

Photos by Janice Blunt

Article by Jamey Blunt

The one hundred eighteen entries that filled the twenty two heat races and nineteen main events at round three of the Southern California Flat Track Association at the Perris ¼ mile oval endured a low temperature of thirty eight degrees on this Saturday night. But none the less the racing was hot, the track was fast and the water truck stayed parked all through the heats and main events. As the sun dropped below the horizon to the west much of the moisture that had gone into the day long track surface prep came back to the top making; as many riders stated the best racing surface they had seen at Perris. Motorcycle legend/inventor/innovator Preston Petty was even on hand and raced the Premier Senior class (riders over seventy years of age) finishing second on a KTM to Gary Lane's Bultaco. Another well known racer making an appearance at Perris was former National number eleven Jim McMurren who brought out one of his fast H.D. Sprints for Tom Ferguson to compete on in the Classic Vintage 500-750 class. Due to the larger turnout and support from racers as this association continues to grow, the riders meeting was moved forward to 4:00 p.m. with practice starting at 4:30p.m.

The competition is stiff in the newly formed Youth 250cc class, with three riders all lapping under the sixteen second mark. Allison Stacey launched from pole position into the lead with Clayton Williams, Sean Heeney, Justin Hanson, and Monica Gil all giving chase. Stacey had the fastest lap of the race at 15.33 seconds which no one could match.

Lap after lap it was follow the leader as Stacey pulled away at the front. Williams and Heeney were oh so close in lap times, with Heeney at 15.67 seconds and Williams at 15.76 seconds. But matching someone's pace and passing them are two different things. Heeney was applying pressure on Williams for second until Heeney made a mistake between turns three and four on lap three giving Williams a gap and some breathing room. Meanwhile up front Stacey had stretched her lead to over three seconds and would cruise to the victory with Williams second, Heeney third, Hanson fourth, Gil fifth, and Jaycee Jones sixth.

Young Zach Gross from Lake Arrowhead California was a double winner earning victories in both the 50cc 4stk Beginner class over Race Reed and the 65-70cc 4stk Beginner class over Zach Earwood and Natalie Gross. In the 65-70cc 2stk Novice final Travis Perron the 4th and Porterville's Grant Holmes really went at it swapping the lead several times with Petton leading the lap that counted most, the last one!
The entire field of the 85-100cc 2stk Novice main event all lapped in the fifteen second bracket. Clayton Williams was on a mission and nailed the start to lead Travis Petton the 4th, James Ott, and Grant Holmes. Try as he might Petton just couldn't close the ten bike length gap to Williams at the front; in fact Petton had his hands full holding off a hard charging Ott within striking distance behind him. Petton looked a little off his game, perhaps from the nasty high side he suffered in practice, either way there was no catching the Bakersfield Bandit, Williams on this night as he sailed to an easy victory. Petton was strong enough to hold off Ott for second and Holmes who would come home in a close fourth.
The Billy Katkov show, sorry the Men's 4stk class actually had a lady in it as well, a former S.C.F.T.A champion Harly Legowski, who has stepped down in displacement to compete in this class. Katkov shot into the lead from pole position and opened up a seven bike length lead over Henry Canan by the completion of the first lap. Lap two saw Katkov turn his fastest lap at 15.52 seconds as he stretched out his lead. In fact no other rider in the field could break the sixteen second barrier with Canan's fastest lap being the closest to Katkov at 16.33 seconds. With three laps complete Katkov held a three and a half second lead over Canan with Legowski up to third while Paul Trunz went down in turn two bringing out the red flag stopping the race. On the single file re-start Katkov picked up where he left off, and disappeared from sight, at least for the rest of the field. Sean Stevenson made a move on the re-start to take third away from Legowski but she's a crafty racer and wasn't about to give up a podium position easily. The war was on and would continue to the checkered flag with Legowski regaining third from Stevenson on the last lap and Katkov winning by a straight over Canan.

Jim Wood one of only four riders to lap under the fifteen second mark on this night led the Senior Vet +50 Expert field into turn one. Jeff Lessley on a vintage 360cc Bultaco ran in second with Jim Ottele third and Larry Earhart fourth. Then entering turn one Lessley showed Wood a wheel and as they came out of turn two for the run down the back straight they were side by side. Entering turn three Lessley dove to the inside to take the lead from Wood as Earhart had also dropped Ottele to the fourth place position. Also on the move forward at this time was Dr. Wes Powell who was all over a fading Ottele and within a lap would move Ottele back to fifth. Up front Lessley held a three bike length gap over Wood who didn't seem to be the same Wood from the heat races, something looked amiss… With a lap remaining Powell had closed in on Earhart at third while Ottele had faded a full straight behind in fifth. At the finish Lessley took the victory over Wood with Powell making a mistake which cost him any shot at Earhart in third and Ottele looking as though something was wrong finishing in fifth. Lessley would also come back to take the overall victory in the Vintage 360-250cc 2stk Air Cooled combined class on the same Bultaco.

Eleven riders made up the Open Amateur field with Rich Hanson being the pole sitter. As the light went green Hanson and Paul Herman hit turn one side by side with Jimmy Gillen not shutting off the throttle emerging out of turn two to run in second down the back straight for the first time. Kevin Wybenga left the line in fifth but quickly disposed of Herman who was in third, dropping him to fourth as Allison Stacey and Jason Craven were fighting mid pack. At the end of three laps the running order was Hanson, Gillen, Wybenga, Herman, Stacey, Craven, and Bill Britt, a lap later Wybenga took over at second from Gillen as Hanson got it real sideways on the exit from turn four allowing Wybenga to close the gap. Hanson's fastest lap time was 15.12 seconds to Wybenga's 15.13 time, so the last lap was going to be interesting. They were a bike length apart as they entered turn three where Wybenga made a small mistake which was all Hanson needed to secure the victory. Wybenga finished a heart pounding second with Gillen third, Herman fourth, Stacey fifth, Craven sixth, Britt seventh and Sean Heeney eighth.

Nick Armstrong and David Bush nailed the start of the twenty lap pro final. However Armstrong chose wisely while Bush chose poorly as what line to take through turns one and two and Bush was pushed back to third by Jim Rosa. Nick Gil who was away in fourth didn't waste any time and on the second run through turn two advanced two positions with an aggressive but clean move under both David Bush and Jim Rosa to slot into second behind Armstrong. For the next two laps David Bush and Rosa would trade the third place position while Dylan Morin who started in seventh had worked his way up to the fifth place position. (Morin was also the class of the field in the Vintage 750cc class aboard a Norton). Paul Ott ran in sixth with Robert Bush seventh and Ian Foulds eighth. Back up front Armstrong turned a 14.78 second lap time and was stretching his lead over Gil. On lap five between turns one and two Morin made his move on David Bush to take over at fourth and locked his sights on Rosa who was in third. On the next exit from turn four Morin went past Rosa for third but had a greater distance to cover to work his way forward to Gil in second and even further to go if he wanted a shot at Armstrong. Two laps later Foulds had worked his way up to sixth with Robert Bush back to seventh and Ott in eighth. Just after the halfway point Gil bobbled in turn two but Morin was some twelve bike lengths back and couldn't take advantage of it while David Bush found some more energy and was all over Rosa again for the fourth place position. Checking in on Armstrong at the front, he now held a 2.8 second gap over Gil in second with Morin still some ten bike lengths back in third. The best battle at this point was for fourth between Rosa and David Bush. At the white flag it was Armstrong's race for the taking with Morin closing to within two bike lengths of Gil in second, but Gil has been in the Pro ranks for awhile and didn't fade under pressure and rode the final lap mistake free to come home second. Armstrong put in a superb ride for the wire to wire victory the first of his pro career at Perris, while Morin finished a close third and the war for fourth went down to the last foot of real estate with Rosa holding off David Bush. Foulds would stay in sixth with Robert Bush seventh and Ott eighth. Now with Armstrong's first Pro victory out of the way look for him toward the front of the pack more often and Gil as well as the K&N rider nears closer to that top step of the podium.

SCFTA Race Results March 9th, 2013

Youth 250cc Open

1.    Allison Stacey

2.    Clayton Williams

3.    Sean Heeney

4.    Justin Hanson

5.    Moncia Gil

6.    Jaycee Jones

7.    Nicky Reimer

50cc 2Stk Novice

1.    Colin Petton

50cc 4Stk Beginner

1.    Zach Gross

2.    Race Reed

65-70cc 4 Stk Beginner

1.    Zach Gross

2.    Zach Earwood

3.    Natalie Gross

4.    Paige Britt

65-70cc 2Stk Beginner

1.    Patrick Erdeman

2.    Ava Bush

65-70cc 2 Stk Novice

1.    Travis Petton

2.    Grant Holmes

85-100cc 2Stk Novice

1.    Clayton Williams

2.    Travis Petton

3.    James Ott

4.    Grant Holmes

5.    Noah Bush

85cc-100cc 4Stk Novice

1.    Monica Gil

85cc-100cc 2Stk Beginner

1.    Evan Harich

2.    Sara Cords

85-100cc 4Stk Beginner

1.    Evan Harich

2.    Reece Watowa

3.    Mathew Ott

Super Senior +60

1.    Vince Grave

2.    Jim Wood

3.    David Molitor

4.    DeWayne Jones

5.    Charles Caspay

Men’s 4 Stk

1.    Billy Katkov

2.    Henry Canan

3.    Harly Legowski

4.    Sean Stevenson

5.    Sasan Pirovzlar

6.    Joe Pape

7.    Paul Trunz

Vintage 750

1.     Dylan Morin

2.    Jim Ottele

3.    Charles Caspary

Premier Senior

1.    Gary Lane

2.    Preston Petty

3.    Jack Neeley

4.    Allan Girdler

Classic Vintage 500-750

1.    Tom Ferguson

2.    James Kohls

3.    Joe Pape

4.    Lenny Rodiguez

Classic Vintage 250cc

1.    Fred Berger

Open UnClassified

1.    Jimmy Gillen

2.    Allison Stacey

3.    Sean Heeney

4.    Cristian Olguin

5.    Jeremy Templeman

Vet +35

1.    Donnie Harroll

2.    Paul Herman

3.    Brad Rudy

4.    Josh Craven

5.    Derrick Porter

Senior Vet Experts + 50

1.    Jeff Lessley

2.    Jim Wood

3.    Larry  Earhart

4.    Wes Powell

5.    Jim Ottele

6.    Jeff Johnson

Vintage 360-250cc 2Stk Air Cooled

360cc Novice

1.    Tim Watters

2.    Bryan Erdeman

3.    Gary Lane

250cc Expert

1.    Will Ott

250cc Novice

1.    Brandon Watters

360cc Expert

1.    Jeff Lessley

250cc Amateur

1.    Keith Bryant

Bomber

1.    Joe Steffen

2.    Travis Petton

3.    Keith Bradford

4.    Jeff Gonzales

5.    Richard Fox

Senior Novice +50

1.    Fred Berger

2.    Greg Powell

3.    Roy Stafford

4.    Mike Boal

5.    Paul Claybaugh

6.    Danny Mathis

7.    Tim Watters

Senior Amateur +50

1.    Larkin Wight

2.    Corey Bauman

Open Novice

1.    Brandon Watters

2.    Derrick Porter

3.    Cristian Olguin

4.    Ryan Reed

5.    Jeremy Templeman

6.    Brain Harmon

7.    LJ Gronek

Open Amateur

1.    Rich Hanson

2.    Kevin Wybenga

3.    Jimmy Gillen

4.    Paul Herman

5.    Allison Stacey]

6.    Jason Craven

7.    Bill Britt

8.    Sean Heeney

9.    Corey Bauman

10.    Nick Ottele

Pros

1.    Nick Armstrong

2.    Nick Gil

3.    Dylan Morin

4.    Jim Rosa

5.    David Bush

6.    Ian Folds

7.    Robert Bush

8.    Paul Ott