Fast action, champions crowned at season finale
September 12, 2020, Lakeport, CA — Lakeport Speedway held its season finale Saturday night as NCRA competitors made things happen in front of the no-spectators crowd. Simi Tour of Potter Valley out-powered Forrest Kuecker to win in the Taco Bell Bombers class.
Cody Winchel of Sebastopol held off the challenges of Kylie Daniels to capture his third consecutive win in the Legends Cars ranks. Johnny Barker of Upper Lake bought a new car and won his second season victory in the AAA Energy Solutions Pro-4 Modified division. Noel Mccormack Jr. of Lakeport beat veteran driver Bill Binns to lay claim to the late model feature. And Landon Snider of Kelseyville was the victor in the Bandoleros.
The conclusion to the evening was the recognition of Kylie Daniels of Fort Bragg at the NCRA Legends Car champion and Donovan Cox from Kelseyville as champion of the Taco Bell Bombers.
Forrest Kuecker, owner of the bomber that Mikey Collins had been driving, decided to pilot the car himself for the season finale. He set fast time over the 10 car field with a 13.812 second lap and started 8th in the main. Tour started 6th and it only took him two laps to steal the lead away from front row starter Jim Kollenborn when the outside row filed by pole setter Amber Portlock.
Both Kuecker and Mickey Snider passed Kollenborn on lap six and set their sights on the leader. Cox drove under Kollenborn three rounds later. The 30 laps went non-stop with Tour the happy winner over Kuecker, Snider, Cox and Kollenborn. Next across the finish line were Trevor Abella, Klinton Waite, Portlock and Kasey Horat.
Heat wins went to Kollenborn and Kuecker. Horat won the trophy dash. Prize money was donated by JB Motorsports & Consulting and George Abella. Napa
Lake Parts donated a floor jack to Trevor Abella.
Jeremy Doss set a new track record (13.736) in the Legends Cars class and took the lead away from Marc Burch on the second lap of the feature event. He held the lead all the way until the yellow flew on lap 24 when Winchel spun while running a strong second.
On the restart, Doss’ rear end broke sending him into a wild spin in front of the pack. All cars scattered to avoid Doss. This left Kylie Daniels out front, but Winchel moved up fast and stole the lead away from her on lap 25. Winchel and Daniels lapped the rest of the competitors to finish first and second. Tom Summers was third followed by Burch, Dan Camacho, and Trey Daniels.
Doss was the winner of both the heat race and the trophy dash.
After Chris Straka set fast time over the 6-car Pro-4 Modified field, John Baker purchase Straka’s #22 and drove it in the rest of the competition. He lead the 30 lapper wire-to-wire to claim the win. Mike Peterson passed second place runner Ron Portlock in the early stages of the race to finish second. Portlock settled for third with James Gard fourth. Both Wil Robertson and Wade Eldridge had problems and were not able to start the race. Barker had a near clean sweep by also taking the heat race and trophy dash win.
The newly-formed late model division was reduced to only two cars, but that did not stop the close competition. The “Kid”, Noel Mccormack out-paced the “Old Guy”, Bill Binns, by .36 seconds in time trials, but Binns won the trophy dash.
Binns led the first 4 laps of the 20 lap feature, but Mccormack’s car worked well on the outside and he inched by Binns on lap five. Binns made several attempts in the inside groove to re-gain the lead, but could make it stick. With only 2 laps to go, Binns’ car lost power and retired to the infield. Mccormack accepted the trophy for the win.
Three Bandoleros gave the youngsters time on the track and it was 2019 Bando champ Landon Snider who stole the show with a clean sweep. Second place went to Courtney Portlock and Braydon White finished third.
NCRA will begin planning for the 2021 racing season with the hopes of bringing spectators back to the grandstands.