GAY FINALLY PICKS UP FIRST WIN OF SEASON AT CAJON

Source: Robert Gardner
Date: 06/25/2000

EL CAJON, CA (June 24, 2000). Jerry Gay sat atop the Cajon Speedway all-time win list when the 2000 season started. He had 132 career victories spread out over his long career. Based on his career record, a new car, and Mike Hagerman at the helm of his team, few would have thought in April that the season would be nearly half over before Gay would visit victory lane again. But that was the case.

Saturday night, twelve races into the 2000 campaign, Gay finally picked off career victory number 133 in the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series on the 3/8 mile paved oval. He became the ninth different winner in the late model sportsman division this year. Gay's Monte Carlo was on rails all night. He outran Ron Overman by a dozen car lengths in the 40-lap contest. But it wasn't even that close. Third through fifth went to Todd McLauchlan, Gary Tamborelli, and John Tyczki, who ran the final ten laps nose-to-tail.

Lance Biggers passed Scott Brown on the next to the last lap of the 25-lap Grand American modified feature. It marked his seventh triumph in eight outings. Danny Gay, who leads the NASCAR Exide Shortrack Pacific Coast regional points chase, claimed his eighth street stock main event in nine starts. Neil Rodvold romped to his third pony stock win of the year. Tom Landreth put a move on the high side of Kevin Krauss on the 18th of 20 rounds and came home the victor in the legend main event.

The elder Gay had fast time for the first time this season (another anomaly). He came from sixth to third in the quick heat. And then it only took him eight rounds to work his way to the front of the feature. Rich Green paced the opening seven rounds. But Gay was on the move. With Green working the middle groove, Gay went way up the track and powered around the outside in turns three and four on lap 8. It took another half lap for him to gain a clear advantage.

There was only one slowdown. That came on lap 29 when John Manke coasted to a stop in turn four after being shown the black flag after tagging Green a few rounds earlier. On the restart Gay got a good jump on Overman, who had gained second from Green on lap 22. Gay was able to pad his margin in the final ten laps.

From all the jubilation in victory lane, one might have thought it was Gay's first win instead of his 133rd. "When did I take the lead - lap 4?" Gay asked of no one in particular in victory lane. "I thought I was my kid. Mike (Hagerman) wasn't here tonight. I told him that when he was at Irwindale, we would win. He's up there with Core Motorsports (for the Winston West race)."

It was obvious the car was working better than it had all season. Hagerman had purchased the car from Michael Alsup, who ran it at Mesa Marin a year ago. "Jerry made an adjustment Monday night at the shop," Gay responded when asked what they had done to the car. "We've been going the wrong way with the darned panhard bar. And then after the heat race I put a round in the front. Tyckzi's crew guy goes 'you're going to win tonight'. I asked him if he saw it in the stars. He said he had called everyone this year."

The younger Gay continued his domination of the street stocks as he aims to erase his dad's season record of 13 wins in the division. He moved quickly to the front of the 25-lap street stock feature after starting fourth in the 20-car field. Doug Catania jumped out to an early lead. But he had nothing for Gay once he was pressed. Once in front Gay had Scott Moses in his rear view mirror for most of the remainder of the contest. Three yellow flags kept the field bunched up. But Moses was unable to challenge for the victory even though he was only a car length back at the stripe. Rounding out the top five were Rich Green, Catania, and Rob Overman.

Biggers bided his time in the modified event. Dave Van Riper paced the opening 13 rounds before yielding to Scott Brown after the two bumped off turn four. Brown motored out to a comfortable lead but Biggers slowly reeled him in once he took over second on lap 17. By the 22nd round, the point leader was on the youngster's tail and it took him two more laps to get by. Mike Salm took the number two spot from Brown in the final turn. Ever-improving Randy Keatts ran fourth ahead of Van Riper.

In the pony stocks, the story wasn't who won the race or how Neil Rodvold did it. It was who finished second. Rodvold stormed from 12th starting position and moved into the number one spot in just five rounds. Meanwhile Douglas Wright Jr. was slowly working his way forward from 15th starting position. He cracked the top five on lap 12, only to have the "super team" of Jimmy Kyte, Marty Schmidt, and Ed Hale ahead of him. No problem. He took over fourth from Kyte on lap 16, mowed down Schmidt a lap later, and then powered under Hale coming off the final turn. He was the night's second fastest qualifier and his run for the evening enabled him to leapfrog from ninth to sixth in points. Rodvold meanwhile inched closer to point leader Kyte and now trails him by just 17 markers.

Krauss and low tow Joey Zampa of Napa put on a terrific struggle at the front of the legend feature after starting on the front row. The duo swapped the lead a couple of times before Landreth, who started eighth, moved up to challenge. Landreth used the high groove to move past Zampa on the 11th circuit and then ran side-by-side with the leader until a lap 18 yellow led to a single file restart. When the racing resumed, Landreth went back to the outside and had the lead by the time the field got to the backstretch.

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