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Holmes helps McNally team earn milestone victory
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John Force, the 15-time NHRA Funny Car champion, prepares for launch at Sonoma Raceway. - photo by Photo by Dale Bosowski

Eric Holmes, driver of the No. 20 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota, made history at Evergreen Speedway last Saturday by winning the NAPA AUTO PARTS “150” to give team owner Bill McAnally his 50th career win.

“I didn’t know about the 50-win thing until about a month ago and I wanted to be the one to get it,” the Escalon native said. “I’m really happy for the whole team now that we got it. Now it’s time to move on and get some more wins down the stretch.”

Holmes was dominating all weekend. He was in the top-five in both practice sessions and qualified for the race in the third spot.

After finishing in the top 10 in his three previous starts at the historic .646-mile oval nicknamed "The Superspeedway of the West”, Holmes was able to pass Michael Self, of Park City, Utah, for the lead on Lap 131 and remained out front the rest of the way to post his first win of the season and 17th overall in NASCAR K&N Pro Series West competition

            “This is a great win. We’ve been running pretty good, but we’ve had some really bad luck this season,” Holmes said. “Maybe this can get it turned around.”

Dylan Kwasniewski, of Las Vegas, finished in sixth which was just good enough to hold onto his lead in the 2012 NASCAR K&N West Series Championship chase by 6 points over defending series champion Greg Pursley while Holmes remains in fifth in the with six races left on the 2012 schedule

The NAPA Auto Parts 150 will air on SPEED on July 26 at noon PST and the next event on the schedule is the NAPA/Toyota 150 at Colorado National Speedway in Dacono, Colo., on July 28.

Stockton 99

The battle for the track championships in the premier Western Late Model and Grand American Modified divisions at the Stockton 99 Speedway is taking shape.

After 10events in the Late Models, Pine Grove’s Matt Scott holds a slim 452 to 450 edge over Modesto’s Jeff Belletto while Stockton’s Mike Beeler (410) and third generation driver Nic Belletto (394) remain within striking distance.

In the Modifieds Tracy’s Scott Winters (390 points) holds a comfortable, but hardly insurmountable lead over a trio of hard charging drivers with Nic Romano (358), Turlock’s Wes Miller (354) and Manteca’s Mike Reggleman (332).

There could be a major shuffling of those rankings after this Saturday’s USG Night
which will feature twin races for both divisions. Also racing on Saturday will be the Super Stocks, Pure Stocks, and Basically-4-Cylinders.

Merced Speedway

The 2012 All Star Racing Series programs at Merced Speedway have been moved to Sunday nights for the remainder of the season. The pits will open at noon, the main grandstands will open at 4 PM and racing will begin at 5 p.m. The July 22 program will include the Dirt Modifieds, Hobby Stocks, Valley Sportsmen, 4-Bangers and Sport Mods.

Sonoma Raceway

Drag racing fans are in for a high-speed treat over the next two weekends at Sonoma Raceway.  The NHRA Division 7 Drag Races, presented by Korbel, will be tearing up the quarter-mile this weekend, July 20-22, highlighted by the return of the Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car classes, as well as the West Coast Outlaw Pro Modified Series. In all, there will be 12 categories of racing and more than 400 drag racing machines will compete in the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event.

Sonoma will shaking  with 8,000 horsepower and 300 mph plus speeds, July 27-29, when the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series comes to town for the 25th NHRA Sonoma Nationals. These are the fastest race machines on the planet, headlined by the Top Fuel and Funny Car nitro classes. Six track records were smashed last year in Sonoma, and more are sure to fall in 2012 when the likes of John Force, Tony Schumacher and two-time defending Funny Car champ Ron Capps invade Sonoma.  Plus, there's also Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle, and don't forget Friday night qualifying under the lights! 

For tickets and additional info call 800-870-RACE (7223) or visit www.racesonoma.com/nhra or www.ticketmaster.com.

Mazda Raceway

Also on the weekend of July 27-29 MotoGP returns to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca to compete in the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix.

MotoGP is the premier motorcycle racing world championship; an 18-race series visiting 14 countries, four continents and with pan-global television coverage. Seven nationalities of the world’s most skilled riders line a grid armed with cutting-edge motorcycle technology with prototype machinery fielded by four manufacturers: Ducati, Yamaha, Honda and Suzuki.

At this past weekend’s Grand Prix of Italy at Mugello Yamaha Factory Racing’s Lorenzo scored his fifth victory of the season with a dominant ride ahead of Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) and Andrea Dovizioso (Monster Yamaha Tech3). Lorenzo now has a 19-point gap at the top of the championship ahead of Pedrosa and 2011 World Champion Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda Team), who he leads by 37 points.

The two American riders on factory machines find themselves in the top 10 with Ducati Team’s Nicky Hayden (Owensboro, Kentucky) in eighth and Ben Spies (Memphis, TN) of Yamaha Factory Racing in tenth. Colin Edwards (Houston, TX), who is competing for NGM Mobile Forward Racing with a CRT entry is in eighteenth.

Support races include AMA SuperSport, Daytona SportBike and National Guard Superbike.

For additional information call 1-800-327-SECA or visit www.mazdaraceway.com.

 

To contact Dale Bosowski, email dalebosowski@yahoo.com.