STOCKTON — The bomber category started out as a very exciting and competitive race at The New Stockton 99 Speedway this past Saturday.

Tyler Guzman of Oakdale, started near the middle of the field in the seventh qualifying position. He skillfully avoided several on track incidents and worked his way into the fourth position.

At this point, the competitive and exciting racing was replaced by very unprofessional driving by the driver of the 819 car from Stockton, Bobby Simpson Sr. and his co-rider (and son) Bobby Simpson Jr. Each bomber car consists of a driver and a co-rider. Both the driver and rider wear all the proper safety equipment, including flame suits, safety harnesses and helmets. The 819 car and driver, known often to be over-aggressive on the track, battled for position with the 351 car driver by Jeremy Tucker of Stockton.

These two had the crowd on its feet, as they battled for position, bumping doors as they raced down the straights. Then Bobby Simpson turned down into the 351 car coming out of turn 4, causing it to spin out of control in the front straight. Since both were battling for the same position, no penalty was issued.

Within a couple of laps, Bobby Simpson was taking on the No. 22 car, driven by Ben Lewis of Stockton. As Simpson continually tried to knock the 22 car out of his way the battle grew ugly. As they exited turn 2, Simpson tried to spin the No. 22 car, but Lewis was able to hold his inside lane position and the two cars battled down the back straight.

As they approached turn 3, Simpson became angry and turned his car into the No. 2 car  in an attempt to force him off the track. Lewis would not relinquish his position, which caused the 819 to spin towards the turn 3 outside wall. Unfortunately, Guzman, who had just picked u the fourth position and was making a move towards the front, was in the outside lane and had nowhere to go.

As the 819 slid out of control outwards, it slammed the 93x car, of Guzman, hard into the wall. Both Guzman and his co-rider exited the car safely when the safety crews arrived and neither suffered any injuries.

The Simpsons, father and son, exited their car prior to the arrival of the safety crews, in violation of NASCAR rules, looking to vent their anger. They were immediately restrained by the NASCAR and safety crews, but their actions ruined what was to be a very exciting bombers main event. Their punishment and penalty is still under review.

The race was won by Brandon Jones of Lodi.

Young Darren Peterson of West Sacramento simply dominated the USAC Ford Focus mini-sprint racing at Stockton 99. He handily won both main events by convincing margins. In the first main, he started on the front row and quickly left the pack behind. In the second main, the young driver started in the back row. Within less than 10 laps of the 30-lap event, he was in the lead and simply drove away. When the checkered flag waved, he was in front by over six car lengths.

The Super Stocks featured two heat races followed by what was scheduled to be a 40 lap main event. “Attrition” was the word of the day in the Super Stock category. Approximately 10 cars were at the track at the start of racing action. By the end of the test/tune and qualifying sessions, only seven remained running.

Brock Monroe and Mike Graham of Oakdale were finished due to mechanical problems during their heat races, and the No. 78 of Sam Solari from Escalon was also out of competition following contact with the wall.

Monroe spun hard into the turn 3 and 4 outside wall, causing major damage to his race car. His back was sore, but his racing spirit took the biggest hit, as he was unable to get his car repaired in time for the main event.

Graham suffered from mechanical problems affecting his rear brakes, causing the car to spin out in turns 3 and 4. He had just moved into the third position when the spin occurred. Though he was able to avoid contact with the wall and his car suffered no damage, he and his team were not able to correct the problem. He elected to sit out the main event, rather than risk damage to his race car.

With two weeks until the next event, Graham and his team will have plenty of time to fix the rear brake system problems. Robbie Knittel of Lodi in his No. 03 car won the Super Stock Main event holding off Howard Holden of Merced, Rich Harper (who won the four-lap trophy dash earlier in the day) and Jason Aguirre of Atwater.

Due to only four cars left running to compete in the Super Stock Main event, the race was reduced to 20-laps to meet track event time restraints.