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Monday, July 30, 2012

Chado Memorial @ Solomon Valley Speedway 7-27-2012

  Finally, a break in the terrible heat we've been having! It was "only" about 90 at 5 o'clock, which felt almost cool after the last month or so. The pits were almost full when I got there and the teams that showed later had to squeeze in. I counted 24 midgets and about 35 or so mini sprints. It turned out Davey Ray wasn't running, so there turned out to be 23 midgets.
  The track was heavy early and a little rough, but that didn't slow 'em down any and the racing was close and action packed from the start. The only serious incident in the heats saw Cameron Hagin bicycle & flip in 3, but he was OK and back in time for the B.
  Kansas driver CJ Johnson took off to an early lead, but Scott Hatton was close behind. After several restarts, Hatton got by Johnson for the lead. Johnson then lost several more spots and soon pulled off. He later said he'd started having engine problems about lap 5 which kept getting worse.
  Scott held the lead from that point, but Zach Daum kept things interesting posting a serious challenge for the lead during the closing laps. You can read a more complete report on the POWRi site here...... http://www.powri.com/newsdetail.asp?NewsID=13599
  This was also a Jayhusker (mini-sprint/TQ club) event, but since I've recently posted several albums of their shows, I am mostly putting up midget pics plus a few nice antiques......not sayin' if I mean the cars or the guys in 'em.
I decided to use Zach for the cover shot since it seems like he's in about half of the good action shots from this show.

Blake Hahn in hot laps.

Daniel Robinson

Chett Gehrke, who is really becoming a good driver.
A guy I'm always glad to see, Don Droud Jr. and Gavin Galbraith.

Galbraith, Robinson, & Austin Brown.

Mr. Hard Luck, Andrew Felker.

This is one of the few shots I got of Conner Kassic. He had problems in hot laps, & I don't think he got back on the track.

The Canadian Riley Emmel. Notice the "eh" on the number. :)

My cuz, Terry Goodwin.

Jonathan Beason.

C.J. Johnson
Garrett Aitken

Brad Kuhn

Andy Malpocker

Deen Woods in his new classic.

Ken Tatro

Neither this car nor Don McChesney are new, but he just recently got it.

First heat; Zach Daum & Gavin Galbraith.

Zach & Austin Brown


Brown & Galbraith.

Daum & Galbraith ran just like this for several laps....

....and got real close a time or two.
While these guys were battling for 2nd, Jake Blackhurst ran off with the heat.

In a preview of the feature, Scott Hatton and C.J. Johnson in the 2nd heat.

Hatton & Hahn.

Johnson & Hahn.

Third heat; Chett Gehrke & Matt Sherrell.

Cole McDaniel (4c) must've made his Uncle Chado smile, he was faster than I've ever seen him!




Lynn Anderson showboating again.

Randy Boyer tries the same thing in the B.

Droud & Robinson
Cameron Hagin had taken a pretty good tumble in his heat, but he came back to run 2nd in the B.

Lining up for intros.

Getting strapped in for the feature.

Nice formation guys.

What a 4-wide looks like from behind.

Jake Blackhurst & Austin Brown at the start of the feature.

Gehrke, Malpocker, & Aitken.

Brown & Blackhurst.

Malpocker & Gehrke.

Garett Hood, Hagin, & Robinson.

Daum & Brown.
Sherrell & Malpocker.

Darren Kingston & Tim Siner (15).

After taking this shot of Beason & Blackhurst going into turn 1, I turned back to watch the cars coming at me until I heard a bang and.......

....turned just in time to see Jake bouncing off Jonathan's car. Unfortunately, the camera hadn't quite caught up to the change in distance yet.

By here, the focus was OK, but his cage had thrown up this mini haboob. He was fine afterwards.
Garett Hood

Scott Hatton got around C.J. Johnson on this restart.

Just after this, C.J. pulled off with engine problems.

Gehrke & Sherrell.

Daum & Hood.

Hatton lapping Hagin just before the finish.

Scott seemed happy afterwards.


The midgets ran their feature first. During the MSL feature, this little dustup occured. Going into #1, Darren Heitmann slides up into Blake McMillan, climbs a tire, &.......

....goes for a little ride.





 Heitmann was fine & they exchanged a comment or two afterwards, but soon worked it all out.

  Kenny Brown and the rest of the POWRi gang did a great job running the show and I would like to give a huge THANK YOU to Garett Hood, Tyler Odle, and everyone else who poured so much time & effort into making this event happen.
  Finally, just a note for Chado. I and everyone involved with this show love & miss you bud.