Zach Cail (6) leads Pete Olsen (9) in the Sport Mod feature.
Hobby Stock winner Carl “Fireball” Barlow (27N) leads runner up Dean Clark (6).
Christy Rasmussen celebrates her first Gen-X feature victory.
Russ Cazier (C4) on his way to winning the IMCA feature had to hold off a determined David Ausano (63).
By Dan McGee
FALLON (July 4th) – Once again Rattlesnake Raceway hosted its annual race on Independence Day. Also as part of that traditional event the track is the site of the town’s fireworks show.
This means the largest crowd of the year, estimated to have been over 1,000 spectators plus mote that sat on the hill adjoining the track on the west side.
Those in attendance got to see both fireworks in the sky as well as an evening of fireworks on the clay oval.
Early in the evening the Sports/B Mods took to the track and this time there were three of them. Once again heat race winner Zach Cail won the main although Pete Olsen tried his best to make a race of it.
Over the past two seasons the Hobby Stock division has been growing and once again it fielded the most cars.
When the green waved Nathan DeRagen led the charge with Alex Pettit and Tami Buehn giving chase. Soon Dean Clark would take over third and by the fifth lap the leader was already lapping the slowest cars.
Behind the leaders Carl Barlow was on the move and heading toward the front.
The first caution came out on Lap-15 when Rob Cary’s car came to a stop. After he was taken to the pits then it took two attempts before racing resumed.
Now Barlow was second and he wasted no time making an outside move to grab the point.
Three more cautions came and went but every time Barlow would show the pack his heels. At the checkered he scored his first victory of the weekend followed by Dean Clark, Chris Christiano and Shane Crazel.
While it appeared an easy victory for Barlow it was anything but that.
“Shortly after it started I though I had a flat tire and the race was a tough one with lost of cars,” he said. “I lost the power steering or something broke in the front end as I really had to strong arm it.”
Actually a bolt broke that caused the power steering to fail. Going into a turn was no problem but getting the wheels straight again took a lot of effort.
Fred White grabbed the point when the IMCA A Modified feature began but the start was called off after one car brushed the wall exiting Turn 4.
When the green waved again David Ausano was on point but soon surrendered it to Robert Mull. A few laps later Jeff Olschowka grabbed the lead and appeared to be on his way to the victory.
But a flat sent Olschowka to the pits and put him two laps down to the field. Up front there was more action when Russ Cazier saw his chance and dove inside of the then leader Dave Ausano.
From that point Cazier was holding off Ausano. For his part Olschowka apparently took advantage of the “Lucky Dog,” feature and then was only one lap down.
After making that up he finally got past Cazier, who took the checkered just ahead of Ausano.
However there was a mistake as it appeared that Olschowka actually won the race but after checking the rules IMCA doesn’t allow a “Lucky Dog,” where a driver can make up a lap on a caution.
Back in the pits Olschowka thought he had won the race while Cazier was sure he had, which was confirmed after the score keepers rechecked their charts.
Earlier that night Cazier said he was glad to be back act the track but after the race allowed he already had plans to tow over to California for another money race so would be gone on Saturday.
After the dust settled Olschowka said, “Pretty interesting little race, got the lead and came back then got a flat, then came back again. I do need to thank B&S Motorsports, Olschowka Racing, Roberts Truck and Tractor and Napa Auto Parts.”
Only three Gen-X cars were on hand Friday and it appeared that Lee Ketten Jr. would score a runaway victory. However racing is never a sure thing for anyone.
During his run Ketten made a mistake and bounced off the wall so he headed for the ptis. This put Christy Rasmussen into the lead and she stayed there for the rest of the race scoring her first feature victory.
Asked how she felt Rasmussen said, “It was awesome, I felt like I was on cloud 9. I still have a little bit of fear from hitting the wall three times last year so I’m getting my courage back up. And I need to thank all of my cheer leaders from the Fallon All Stars, Easy Auto and my husband Shane as well as my kids.”
• RESULTS
RATTLESNAKE RACEWAY -July 4:
IMCA A Modifieds:
Heat Winners: #1 Jeff Olschowka, #2 David Ausano
Main: 1. Russ Cazier, 2. Dave Ausano, 3. Robert Mull, 4. Steve Evenson
Sports/B Modifieds
Heat Winner: Zach Cail
Main: 1. Zach Cail, 2. Pete Olsen, 3. Chris Neal
Hobby Stocks:
Heat Winners: #1 Scott Tenney, #2 Jimmy Berhorst, #3 Carl Barlow, #4 Brice Wyatt
Main: 1. Carl Barlow, 2. Dean Clark, 3. Christ Christiano, 4. Shane Crazel
Gen-X:
Heat Winner: Lee Ketten Jr.
Main: 1. Christy Rasmussen, 2. Jeremy Christen, 3. Lee Ketten Jr.
Northern Nevada Outlaw Karts:
250cc – 1. Jacob Dias, 2. Grasen Tensora, 3. Shansen Tenora
Box Stock – 1. Jensen Tenora, 2. Xavier Frock, 3. Jayden Hopper, 4. Tanner Danielson, 5. Sarah Anderson
Beginner – 1. Robert McBroome, 2. Tanner Frock, 3. Landon Tangreen, 4. Hayden Leach, 5. David Carerra
