STOCKTON — Stockton’s Buzz Devore staved off a ferocious late-race charge by Escalon’s Sam Solari to capture his first win of the season in Saturday’s Stockton Late Model feature.
Devore, along with Stockton veteran Greg Potts, held the front row to start the 40-lap main while an invert draw of six put Solari, who topped the eight-car field in qualifying with a 14.57-second lap, on the third row.
Devore immediately pulled ahead of Potts to take the early lead as Solari steadily worked his way up through the pack before finally overtaking Potts to move into second place on lap 24. A few laps later, Solari caught up to Devore, but despite using every trick in his arsenal, the veteran driver was never able to find a way to get around Devore for the lead.
Tracy’s Justin Philpott was also able to get around Potts in the final stages of the race to earn third.
A small four-car field of Pure Stocks was whittled down to three before they even took the green flag for their 20-lap main when Stockton’s Tony White inexplicably hit the wall during the warm-up laps. When the race finally started, Lodi’s Brandon Jones ran away from the rest of the field to take the win by almost three seconds over Stockton’s Jerry Crawford.
Freddy Irvin of Modesto was equally as dominant in the 4 Fast Car Solutions Mini Modified 30-lap feature. Starting from the fourth position, Irvin quickly sliced through the field to grab the lead from Stockton’s Mike Brooks Jr. on lap six. He would never look back as he rolled to the checkered flag 3.5 seconds ahead of Brooks. Pole sitter Barrett Sugden of Stockton made a late race pass on Patrick Geiger to salvage third.
CJ Stubbles of Grass Valley cruised to victory by almost half a lap over the rest of the 10-car field in the 20-lap Legends of Kearney Bowl race.
Stockton 99 Speedway will be back in action next Saturday night, July 25, with a special “Night of Destruction” program, which will include a Motorcycle Stunt Show, Boat Trailer Racing, Spectator Racing & Drift Exhibition. The gates will open at 5 p.m.
