Reno racer captures main event at Fernley

Reno’s Jake Holland scored his second IMCA Modified victory of the season at Fernley 95A Speedway last Saturday night, beating Joel Myers of Santa Rosa, Calif., to the checkered flag.

Points leader Robert Miller of Gardnerville was third with a dodgy ignition, and the Goetz brothers from Dayton, Royce and Rocky, finished fourth and fifth respectively. Fallon’s Rob Grace took home the winner’s trophy in the Pro Stock main with a wire-to-wire victory. Big Al Goss of Carson City brought his new car home in second, followed by Reno’s David Rauscher and Carson City drivers Gary Nevers and Ed Goss. The Street Stock win went to Randy Boyd of Dayton, who led every lap in his first start this season. Reno’s Jake Baker was second, points leader Dwight Bolton of Gardnerville was fourth, and Sun Valley teammates Rick Miller and J.T. Stark finished third and fifth. Joe Frock of Reno dominated the Dwarf Car division main to take the win. Fernley’s Calvin Ryle was second followed by Billie Canham of Sparks. Yerington drivers Glenn Sciaranni and Roy Peterson, with Bobby Wilson of Carson City rounded out the top five. Justin Busch of Fernley took the Super Stock 4 win and Carson City’s Danielle Paine came home second, her best finish of the season. Steve Crook Sr. of Fernley got credit for third and Steve Singly of Idaho got fourth-place points. Reno’s Rich Innis scored his ninth victory out of ten races so far this season, dominating the points race in the Pure Stock division. Jim Paulk of Reno took second, and Carson City’s Trevor Quell came home third.

Fernley 95A Speedway is on a three-week hiatus, returning to action on Aug. 15.

•••

Kyle Busch is on his way to a Chase berth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series with his third win in the last four races at New Hampshire last Sunday. Going into Sunday’s Brickyard 400, Busch is in 33rd place in the point standings, 58 points out of 30th, with seven races to make up the difference. If he makes the Chase and goes on to win the championship, there’s going to be a big asterisk in the record books, explaining he did it while running 11 fewer races than anyone else.

•••

Last Wednesday night Kyle Busch Motorsports scored another Camping World Truck series win, as young Christopher Bell banked his No. 54 truck off the wall to take the dirt track victory at Eldora. The race was great fun to watch, Another mid-week event was the Pittsboro, Ind., “Jeff Gordon Day” parade on Thursday, honoring the hometown hero in his final NASCAR season. I’m sure Jeff enjoyed the parade, but not nearly as much as he would enjoy becoming the first man to win six races at Indianapolis this weekend. Of course, to do he’ll have a lot of hungry drivers to contend with, as NASCAR’s “regular season” winds down and securing a Chase berth is on everybody’s to-do list. Gordon is second in points among the non-winners currently in the top 16 in the standings, just one point behind Jamie McMurray. With the likelihood of Kyle Busch bumping his way into the Chase field, and perhaps one or two additional first-time winners locking in, there won’t be all that many drivers qualifying for the Chase on points alone. Gordon is at the top of the list to be one of those first-time winners, but if he doesn’t accomplish that he’ll need solid points finishes in the next seven races.

•••

Congratulations to Ryan Hunter-Reay on turning a pretty crummy season around last Saturday night in Iowa. The whole Andretti Autosport team has struggled this season, but lack of results was particularly galling to Hunter-Reay, an IndyCar champion and Indy 500 winner.

•••

Hot August Nights is just around the corner, and two local events precede it. The Silver Dollar Car Classic kicks off Thursday, with the cars inhabiting Mills Park Saturday and Sunday. And the Iron Rebels car show for pre-1972 vehicles, will be held on Monday, Aug. 3 at Shelton Racing, 3600 Challenger Way in Carson. Watch this space for more info next week.