TWO TRACKS HONORED THEIR CHAMPIONS AND OTHER DRIVERS IN SEPARATE CEREMONIES.

FERNLEY (Oct. 7) – Two tracks held their award banquets this weeend; one during the daytime and one during the evening. It was a time to honor their class champions and other drivers that raced this past season.

The fun began at Fernley 95A Speedway when the track hosted a small gokart track for some fun racing. Many drivers, both young and older, enjoyed themselves.

A buffet dinner followed that then, after the tables were cleared everyone assembled in the large meeting room where the awards and trophies were handed out. Leading the festivities were trophies for the Outlaw Kart racers.

The track has two divisions and their champions were Tempe Sherman, in Beginner Box Stock, and Robert McBroome, the Box Stock Champion.

A delighted Tempe Sherman holds her championship trophy in Box Stock Beginner Outlaw Karts.

Sherman’s father then added that next year they’ll have some loaner karts for those that have youngsters that might want to try this..

After that it was the adults turn.

This year’s track champion is IMCA racer Robert Miller.

Driver Robert Miller (left) and car owner Randy Miller hold their IMCA championship trophies.

Asked about the year he said, “At Fernley it’s my fourth championship and you realize you’re going to win it when you won it. You don’t know if you’re going to win it until mathematically the other guys are eliminated, anything can happen in the racing world.

“With two to go I think we had it locked up as Jake Holland had some other things he was doing, so that kind of made a gap there. If he didn’t go do those things, who knows what would have happened.”

This year Miller has dedicated the season to a cousin fighting cancer and he was pretty emotional explaining it to the group

Then he thanked his brother and car owner Randy Miller, who owns RJ Landscaping, Sandi at Premier Auto Body, Al at Friesen Chevrolet, MJ Construction as well as crewman Lyle Hopper, Steve and Wyatte Caccamise.

Gary Nevers stands with track manager Matt Ramthun after picking up his Pro Stock champion’s trophy.

After Gary Nevers received his trophy for winning the Pro Stock title he said, “It was a good season for me, I knew if I was going to win the championship it was going to be close. I was just trying to figure out the track rules of missing two races. It was hard for me to figure out and I didn’t know I was champion until I got here.”

For Nevers, who has six championships on asphalt, this was his first at Fernley. This year he won the title by 24 points over Rob Grace.

Then he thanked his brother Brandon Nevers, sister Valerie Nevers, Bill Miller and Ken Miller, Delany Marshall and added a special thanks to his old crew chief Mike Priene, who gives him advice.

Dwight Bolton is the 2015 Street Stock champion.

This year’s Street Stock champion is Dwight Bolton and he too wasn’t quite sure of locking in the title until the end.

“We didn’t know until the end as we were pretty close, a couple of bad nights would have ruined everything. I was challenged, between Jake Baker, Robert Miller and J.T. Stark and while it was a small field it was a tough field.”

He explained the key was making the car would make it through the night, a lot of commitment as well as a lot of preventative maintenance.

Then he thanked his wife Valerie, crew chief Mike Carpenter, Mike Tripp, Cito Diez, Richard Smith and David Vivo, who he said was a big factor in helping Bolton keep his head on an even keep. And finally he thanked his sponsor who has been with him from day one, Silver City Napa Auto Parts.

When the season began Bolton didn’t plan on competing for the championship. After he pulled into the sign up area a woman that used to work there said, “I think you should run for the championship and wouldn’t that be special for the first year of a new class.”

Bolton said that really kicked started the effort that ended with him winning the title.

Dwarf Car champion Joe Frock stands with his two sons.

While they may be small the Dwarf cars are either almost as fast or faster, depending on the track, than the modifieds. And this year’s champion is Joe Frock.

“We had success at almost every track we ran this season and we won at six different tracks, 14 total races and it’s the best year I’ve ever had,” he said. “I missed the first race because I was racing in Chico so it was kind of hard to see where things would have played out.”

He only realized the title was his with two races to go in this season.

Asked about his most memorable race Frock said, “I’ve had to say the Western States Regional, the memorial race for Dave and Leroy. Winning it the first time was amazing, winning it the second time meant even more.”

Next year he plans to race at Fernley but will also travel to other tracks as well. This week he heads to Las Vegas for the Duel in the Desert where he’ll drive Robert Miller’s IMCA modified.

“I was really flattered they asked me to step in,” he said.

Then Frock thanked Todd Damron, Robert Miller, Derrick Rosse, John Randall, Glen Sciarani was well as sponsors HRT Racing, Wild Waters, Nature’s Bakery, Excell Sports, Ignition Motorsport Designs and DRI.

Dennis Crook won the Super Stock 4 title but only by three points in the closest race of the year.

The closest championship battle was in Super Stock 4 where Dennis Crook won by only three points when he beat Danielle Paine.

“The season actually started off really rough, my car ran really bad, just wouldn’t run down the straight aways for most of the season and I had fuel problems,” he said. “It started out pretty rough but towards the end of the season we finally started figuring it out. The only way I won that championship was being consistent and ending up just staying toward the top every race and finishing races.

It came down to the last race, being tied in points and finally the car ran pretty good so I was able to pull it out.”

Then he thanked his Uncle Bob, who he credited as the person that kept him going through out the season as well as his father, girlfriend Kim and his daughter.

This year’s Pure Stock champion is Rich Innis.

Rich Innis holds the Pure Stock championship trophy.

“The year was awesome, we won 12 races out of the 15 and won the two-day show. The guys gave me a car that would win every week and I think we clinched it with three races to go.”

Then he thanked sponsors IBEW Local 401, Affordable Electrical, Northern Nevada Lath and Plaster, Ames Machine and Bayshore Truck Repair.

Currently Innis doesn’t know if he’ll return to the Pure Stock division or move up to Super Stock 4.

• Later in the evening Lovelock Speedway held its awards banquet. Unfortunately some of those receiving trophies weren’t in attendance due to either being hunting or down at the SEMA show in Las Vegas.

Ed Macedo was master of ceremonies and began the presentation after the assembled had finished dinner.

Two of the track’s three divisions had very close points races. First up were the Hobby Stocks where Tony Taylor won by a tiebreaker over Dennis Buehn as the ended up tied in points.

Unfortunately Taylor wasn’t there as he was hunting but Buehn was delighted to receive the second place trophy.

Dennis Buehn received his second place Hobby Stock trophy from Ed Macedo.

“You know we ran all summer long with Tony and I, coming up here on Friday nights and as the wash finally came out one point spread between first and second,” he said. “I want to thank all the volunteers here in Lovelock, all the people that support the community, the volunteers and the businesses that support the track. We love all the people up here as they treat us like kings and queens.”

Shirley Reeves was third at season’s end. Asked about her season she said, ” I just kept going out there and kept pushing my way up. Learned a lot from the guys and that was it, just kept going out.”

Then she thanked her husband Robert as he keeping the card together and she expressed appreciation for all the guys that kept the track going.”

The 360 Sprint Car season was a close one and at the end Loren Cooney won by only nine points over his brother Robert Cooney.

Loren Cooney holds his son as he receives the trophy for his 360 Sprint Car championship.

“It was a very good season, had my first couple of wins this year and it turned out really good,” he said. “Thanks to all my sponsors, Cooney Phillips Racing, Competition Carburetor and my family in general, dad and uncles put in a lot of time this year to keep me running. I knew I would get the championship after the last race.”

When the IMCA trophies were handed out Robert Miller and his team received their second champion’s trophy that night. Not only that but Ed Macedo pointed out that Miller is this year’s Nevada IMCA champion and ranked ninth in his region.

For the second time in one day, Robert Miller received an IMCA championship trophy.

Miller expressed his appreciation to the track crew, namely the Cooneys that usually prepare the surface. He complimented them on an almost dust free season.

“It was great racing at Lovelock, excellent people that run it and track crew, it was a pleasure running with the drivers out there especially my buddy Zach Cail, whose going to be the future. ”

Last year Cail was running a Northern Sports Modified but this year races in the IMCA and not only was second in the division but also awarded the only Rookie of the Year award.

At the end of the awards ceremony all the trophy winners from the Lovelock Speedway posed for a group photograph.

Now both Fernley and Lovelock tracks will be dark until the spring. Both will work on improving their facilities and be working on the 2016 schedule.

OTHER RACING NEWS

• With one race to go in the Chase for the Championship things are critical at Phoenix this weekend as the field will be cut to the final four.

In Saturday’s Sprint Cup race at Texas, Kyle Busch started third and finished fourth. Older brother Kurt started and finished in seventh

Looking at the rankings Kyle is still ranked second (+4) but Kurt, after a bad finish in the previous race, is now seventh (-28) so he probably has to win or he’ll be eliminated.

In Saturday’s Xfinity race Brendan Gaughan started 13th and finished 12th while Kyle Busch had a troubled run and finished 14th after starting sixth. Sparks native T.J. Bell started 27th but retired with problems and ended up 38th.

• While there won’t be any more racing this year in this region motocross riders still have a place to go. Livfast Exit 28 has practice sessions from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

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RESULTS

• Fernley 95A Speedway Final Points:

Pure Stocks: 1. Rich Innis, 2. Jim Paulk, 3. Trevor Quell, 4. Shawn Burton, 5. Genevieve Dieble.

Super 4’s: 1. Dennis Crook, 2. Danielle Paine, 3. Justin Busch, 4. Kenny Martin, 5. Kenny Schmitt, 6. Stephen      Crook, 7. Aaron McIlvain, 8. Steven Crook Jr., 9. Rich Innis.

Street Stocks: 1. Dwight Bolton, 2. Rick Miller, 3. Jake Baker, 4. J.T. Stark, 5. Jesse Vankol, 6. Jimmy Berhorst, 7.  David Ausano, 8. Tom Haxall.

Dwarfs: 1. Joe Frock, 2. Bobby Wilson, 3. Roy Peterson, 4. Calvin Ryle, 5. Jeff Foster, 6. Glen Sciarani, 7. Rodney Sweet, 8. Chris Knight, 9. Cameron Knight, 10. Billy Wilson, 11. Tyler Hornburger.

Prostocks: 1. Gary Nevers, 2. Rob Grace, 3. David Rauscher, 4. Gordon Russell, 5. Darrick Rauscher, 6. Malen Gonzalez, 7. B.J. Pearson.

IMCA: 1. Robert Miller, 2. Jake Holland, 3. Travis White, 4. Rocky Goetz, 5. Royce Goetz, 6. Keith Walsh, 7. Carl Barlow, 8. Mark Skender, 9. Paris Archie, 10. Cory Sample, 11. Walter Ball, 12. Shawn Natenstedt, 13. Malen      Gonzalez, 14. Mike White, 15. Dave Sciarroni, 16. Russell Rosario, 17. Bill Pearson, 18. Steve Boucher, 19. Melissa Natenstedt, 20. David Paine, 21. Joe Frock, 22. Vincent Evenson, 23. Steve Evenson.

• Lovelock Speedway Final Points:

Hobby Stocks: 1. Tony Taylor, 2. Dennis Buehn, 3. Shirley Reeves, 4. Tim  Russell, 5. Paul Shamlian, 6. Bob Shank, 7. Rick Ellison, 8. Scot Tenney, 9. Chris Christiano, 10. Tim Wearin, 11. Michael Bartlett, 12. Jason Irwin, 13. David Ausano, 14. TamiBuehn, 15. Jeff Tuttle, 16. Raul Dominguez, 17. Dan Edgington.

360 Sprints: 1. Loren Cooney, 2. Robert Cooney, 3. Bob Cooney, 4. Jeff Macedo, 5. Keith Mikaelsen, 6. Howie      Garretson Jr., 7. Orry Stevens, 8. Dan Stevens, 9. Wade Lumsden, 10. Joe Hood.

IMCA: 1. Robert Miller, 2. Zach Cail, 3. J.D. Jurad, 4. Malen Gonzalea, 5. Jeff Macedo, 6. Alec Childs, 7. Don Childs, 8. Trevor Gurley, 9. Travis White, 10. Joel Meyers, 11. Vincent Evenson, 12. Andy Strait, 13. Randy Artz, 14. Jeff Olschowka, 15. Shawn Larocque, 16. Jesse Gonzalez, 17. William Fryckman, 18. Steve Evenson, 19. Zane Devilbiss, 20. Cory Sample, 21. John Parmeley, 22. Wade Taylor, 23. Chris Sieweke, 24. Steve McKellip, 25. Keith Walsh, 26. Jim Lester, 27. Shawn Natenstedt, 28. Jake Aker, 29. Mark Skender, 30. James Thibodeaux, 31. Paris Archie, 32. Rocky Goetz, 33. Alex Stanford, 34.Russ Cazier, 35. Darren Manning, 36. Regan Tafoya, 37. John Demore, 38. Lisa Taylor.