WMRA News

Roseburg, Oregon August 26th, 2005 By Loren Doolittle Assistant reporter: Dolan Lannan. Roseburg, Douglas County Oregon, a race which saw car count down for the first time in 2005, however, zero decline in WMRA excitement. Three sessions of hot laps gave all sixteen competitors present a chance to try out their cars and the 4 tenths of a mile Roseburg track. Of the sixteen cars that registered for the event, fifteen made qualifying attempts. A disappointed Bob Eldridge encountered series motor difficulties, was unable to attempt a qualifying lap, and was destined to be a fan for the evening, as his motor simply refused to run. The field qualified as follows: 8 Spence Gatrell 14:735 50 Rick Moss 14:813 44 Tony Seoidelman 14:825 10 Matt Stone 14:850 93 Kenny Wood 14:897 11 Evan Margesonm 14:925 02 Stuart Birkinbine 14:947 25 Brea Lopez 14:968 28 Ken Ferris 15:002 23 Rob Lindsey 15:140 14 Ken Muth 15:174 9 Dallas Melby 15:326 45 Mark Torres 15:512 69 Alan Norton 15:705 5 Tony Carabello 15:910 Line up for the "B" dash; pole, first row, 14 Ken Muth Nissan powered, outside 23 Rob Lindsey, Lindsey motor sports, pole in row two, 28 Ken Ferris, Ferris racing, outside the 9 of Dallas Melby – Blue Dot Fabrication. At the start Ken Ferris dove under Ken Muth as Rob Lindsey took the high line to pass Muth. Exiting turn two Ken Ferris took the lead and was hard pressed by Lindsey for the first lap. Ferris opened a gap which widened to about 10 car lengths at the checkered flag. Following Ferris across the finish line were, Rob Lindsey, Ken Muth, and Dallas Melby. Ferris had tipped his hand of things to come. Absent from the “B” dash was the 25 car of Brea Lopez. Dan Press was again throwing the kitchen sink at the car, and ran short of time for making the dash due to changing gears. This changing of the gears, and some well taken advice that came from a former racer following heat one would have considerable impact for Brea in the main. The "A" dash lined up as follows, Pole first row, in the 10 car Matt Stone – Vander Hoek Windows and doors, outside in the 44, Tony Seidelman, Seidelman racing in the first "A" dash of his midget career. Inside row 2 was the 50 car of Rick Moss, Ed Pink race engines – HVB racing, while outside row 2 was fast qualifier of the evening Spence Gatrell in the Pro Fab, Ridgecrest Homes number 8. At the start Tony Seidelman grabbed the lead with a nice move into turn one, Rick Moss passed the ailing 10 car with Matt Stone aboard as did Spence Gatrell. Moss in second and Gatrell in third gave chase to the Dave Clark 5 “catch me if you can” Tony Seidelman who was power drifting every turn and leaving the front left wheel to wonder why it was even on the car as he repeatedly lifted it into the air as he powered down the stretches. On the white flag lap exiting turn four and with youthful courage Spence Gatrell slung his car under Rick Moss in a power slide, riding the right rear, the car sideways, left front grabbing only air, to nip Rick at the wire, while finishing about 10 car lengths behind the flying Tony Seidelman. The fans roared their approval of the young racer hanging it out for them. The line up for the 8 lap heat number one was, row one, pole - the 69 car of Alan Norton, Umpqua Building & hardware, outside in the 45 car, Mark Torres – Dick Voss Kawasaki Turbo power, second row pole the 9 car of Dallas Melby, flanked by 14 Ken Muth. Third row was 23 Rob Lindsey on the inside and Ken Ferris to his right in the 28 car, the fourth and last row was composed of 25 Brea Lopez Forler Trucking and rookie driver Tony Carabello in his own #5 Beast Gaerte. The first attempt at a start saw a ragged stutter, stop, stutter field take a green flag which was immediately followed by a yellow to bring the field to a restart. Alan Norton on the restart set the field with a text book acceleration through turns three and four, and as the green flag flew, so did Mark Torres. Dallas Melby drove into turn three extremely fast, passed Torres only to see Torres arching smoothly through the turn and beating Melby onto the front stretch. Bearing down on Torres and entering turn one at a high rate of speed Dallas Melby spun and found himself sitting sideways between turns one and two. If this wasn’t enough, Ken Ferris with zilch time to evade clipped the exposed right front wheel with the right rear nerf bar of the 28 car, ripping the right front wheel literally off of the 9 car, as the rest of the field scattered in all directions. The fans in a unified moment let out a collective gasp. Dallas Melby climbed out and could be seen patiently holding the wounded suspension parts as the safety crew, already present, called for the tow truck. The car was towed to the pits where Dallas Melby’s crew chief, his father, immediately set to work. Dallas would be back in action for the main, with a fully rotating and attached right front wheel. The restart saw an order of: 45 Mark Torres, 14 Ken Muth, 23 Rob Lindsey, 28 Ken Ferris, 25 Brea Lopez, 5 Tony Carabello, and 69 Alan Norton. The field remained in these positions until the white flag lap when Mark Torres, apparently on his way to the heat win, and having fended off the strong pressure applied by Ken Muth, suddenly broke a radius rod on the back stretch and left the track in a huge shower of sparks at turn three, coming to rest mere inches from the retaining wall sending a huge dust cloud some thirty feet into the air. Not to mention providing a bird’s eye view for all the railbirds in the back stretch grandstands of the mishap. Final order of finish for heat one: 14 Ken Muth 1st, 23 Rob Lindsey 2nd, 28 Ken Ferris 3rd, 25 Brea Lopez 4th, 5 Tony Carabello 5th, and 69 Alan Norton 6th. Heat two saw Stuart Birkinbine in his 02 “On the river RV Park” car on the pole with the 11 car of Evan Margeson outside. Row two was 93 Kenny Wood and the 10 car of Matt Stone. Row three inside was the “A” dash winner Tony Seidelman in the 44, with the 50 car of Rick Moss outside. Row four the, number 8 with Spence Gatrell aboard. Restarts seemed the order of the day for the heats as the first start was waved off. The restart was called for and at the second green flag, Stuart Birkinbine went into the lead with Evan Margeson second, Kenny Wood third. The second tour of the track found Spence Gatrell moving into the fourth spot. A lap later Matt Stone exited the track with a motor problem which was to plague him for the rest of the night. Spence Gatrell continued to thrill the fans with strong driving, advancing past Birkinbine for the lead going into turn three as Kenny Wood in the 93 car exited the track with problems. What should not be overlooked is the way the veterans Rick Moss in the Dash and Stuart Birkinbine made sure Spence Gatrell’s moves were fan thrilling, as both Moss and Birkinbine planted their own cars mere inches from the hard charging Gatrell, drag racing Gatrell out of turn four and down the home stretch, providing for some very exciting finish line drama. The finish order for heat two was: 8 Spence Gatrell 1st, 02 Stuart Birkinbine 2nd, 11 Evan Margeson 3rd, 50 Rick Moss 4th, and in fifth position, 44 Tony Seidelman. Roseburg did not leave the fans wanting for racing, as Outlaw Hobby Stocks, Modified, and Late Models all ran their mains, late into the evening. For this fan, some concern etched across his brow that the fans would leave before the midgets main. Oh woe of little faith for this one, as the midgets emerged from the pits at 11:10 pm for their main, this fan saw not one Roseburg fan leave. I did see, however, a spotter for one of the late models roll up her radio, tuck it away in a bag, and than lean back to watch the WMRA midgets. They lined up for the "A" main as follows; row one inside, Dallas Melby in the 9, outside Ken Muth in the 14. Second row was 23 Rob Lindsey and 28 Ken Ferris. Row three was 25 Brea Lopez and the 02 of Stuart Birkinbine. Fourth row the 11 of Evan Margeson and the 93 with Kenny Wood. The fifth row was to have been Matt Stone in the 10 with the 44 of Tony Seidelman on the outside. Matt had to pull into the pits before the green flag dropped. Fuel pick-up problems brought the spirited and hard charging Stone deep disappointment at not being able to start. Row six was the 50 of Rick Moss and fast qualifier Spence Gatrell in the 8. Row seven found Alan Norton in his white and red 69, with rookie Tony Carabello in his newly purchased 5 car on the outside. The green flag flew and out of turn two, Dallas Melby grabbed the lead, followed closely by Rob Lindsey, Ken Ferris and Ken Muth. Lap two the field is a freight train of nose to tail cars, Melby, Lindsey, Ferris, Muth, Lopez, Birkinbine, Margeson, Moss, Gatrell, Seidelman, Wood, Carabello, Norton. Lap four going into turn one Ferris tries the high side to get around Lindsey, exits the turn side by side and gets into turn three ahead of Lindsey. Lap five finds Melby with about a ten car length lead over Ferris who leads a slowing Lindsey by nearly 12 car lengths. Ken Muth skirts around Rob Lindsey for third who continues slowing and then exits with brake problems. For Rob Lindsey no brakes was the brake problem, as the spindle cap of the right front had become dislodged and fallen off. Centrifugal force caused the bearing grease to saturate the brake disc, and the bearing, now devoid of grease quickly burned out, and not only were the brakes gone, but the right front was now a wobblers special. Rob Lindsey retired for the evening, joining Stone in disappointment at what could have been. The nose to tail freight train continued for laps six through ten as the field slowly, but steadily, reeled in the front runner, Dallas Melby. Lap ten Ken Ferris moved around Dallas Melby and took over first, a spot he would not yield. Ken Ferris than set his newly installed Ed Pink racing engine to work, and steadily distanced himself from the field. Ken Ferris actually had the Ed Pink power plant sitting in his garage for some weeks, his hope to install it for Turkey night. Having fought dropped valves in the last two of three races, Ken Ferris opted to bring the new engine to life at Roseburg. In post race discussion Ken Ferris said “It was a quandary for me. Try and finish the season on a tired engine plant, or install the Ed Pink, and accept the need to have to refresh the engine after Turkey night for the 2006 season. I decided I wanted to be as competitive as possible for the final races of the season, so I made the decision to change engines.” After passing Melby, Ferris never looked backed. Lap 14 Rick Moss goes by Melby for second place as Tony Carabello pulls off the track. Spence Gatrell fighting braking problems continues to drop back, and the 93 car of Kenny Wood trails the field also with brake related problems. As Ferris opens up nearly a stretch on the tightly bunched and now very hard racing field, on lap sixteen Rick Moss hooks the inner berm exiting turn four and spins, resulting in the only yellow flag of the race. In post race discussion, Rick Moss frankly admitted, “it was my fault, I was running that line all night, cutting down off the center of turn three and four, slicing off the berm and picking up full acceleration while still exiting turn four. It was a line that was very fast. Unfortunately, I was just that two inches inside of my mark, caught the berm, and around I went.” The running order for the single file restart was, 28 Ken Ferris, 9 Dallas Melby, 25 Brea Lopez, 14 Ken Muth, 11 Evan Margeson, 44 Tony Seidelman, 02 Stuart Birkinbine, 93 Kenny Wood, 69 Alan Norton and 50 Rick Moss. At the restart Dallas Melby put pressure on Ferris for nearly a lap before Ferris began opening a gap which continued to increase as the race progressed. As the laps of 110 plus mph in the front stretch reeled off Rick Moss, having stared at the rear of the line from the spin, was moving steadily through the field. Sixteen year old Brea Lopez in a dog fight for rookie of the year with Dallas Melby hit her stride, and moved up to just inches off of Dallas Melby and begqn applying relentless pressure. Ferris had advantaged himself in first with about a 20 car lengths lead over the 9 car of Melby. At lap 30 Ferris begins to show signs of the hard pace he is setting as his brakes are beginning to light up like a neon sign in Las Vegas. The effort at chasing the fast pace setting Ferris and the nose to tail pressure from Lopez takes its toll on Melby, as going into turn three Dallas pushes high and Lopez drives under for second. In short order Rick Moss and Evan Margeson move past Melby, Rick moss claiming third and Margeson fourth. At lap thirty five Ferris streaked across the finish line leading by nearly a third of a lap. As Brea Lopez, Rick Moss and Evan Margeson all gained position with two laps to go Brea Lopez ran a 14.77 lap, the second fastest time of the entire evening. Rick Moss was sitting mere inches off her when Brea crossed the line for second, Rick Moss for third. Ken Muth faded as the race progressed, however he showed his Nissan to good advantage on this track, larger than WMRA normally runs. Other drivers having a very strong run were Tony Seidelman, Brea Lopez, and Dallas Melby. Rick Moss did a masterful job after starting in the rear with twenty laps to go, garnering a third place finish. Gatrell, Stone and Lindsey all saw problems develop during the night taking them out of contention. Official Order of finish: 1) #28, Ken Ferris – Ed Pink Engine 2) #25, Brea Lopez – Ed Pink Engine 3) #50, Rick Moss - Ed Pink Engine 4) #11, Evan Margeson – Gaerte Engine 5) # 9, Dallas Melby – Gaerte Engine 6) #44, Tony Seidelman – Gaerte Engine 7) #02, Stuart Birkinbine – rayton Engine 8) #14, Ken Muth - Nissan 9) #93, Kenny Wood - Gaerte 10) #69, Alan Norton – Gaerte DNF – #23 Rob Lindsey, #5 Tony Carabello, #8 Spence Gatrell DSN - #45 Mark Torres, # 10 Matt Stone Next up - Ephrata