CASA GRANDE, Ariz. -- Adam Crippen’s snake bit 2006 season continued Saturday night as his ignition burned up on the final lap while leading at Central Arizona Raceway. After missing the pill draw with a 4th place heat race finish, defending series champion Lonnie Parker Jr battled from 11th starting and retook the 2006 point lead with his $1000 win. A Crippen was the fastest car all night, turning a 16.62 best lap in his heat win. Parker Jr raced from 11th to 2nd in just five laps and took the lead from A Crippen on lap 10, but A Crippen was able to regain the top spot in lapped traffic on lap 12. A Crippen and Parker Jr then put on a show in constant traffic with A Crippen staying a car ahead until his turn 1 failure on the final round. Parker Jr has now won the last seven point races staged at the 3/8 mile clay oval and his 3rd win in four 2006 point races regained him the point lead in his Parker Concrete sponsored Rocket using a Baker motor. The final 20 laps in the 25 lap feature were run without a caution flag. As he and car owner Wayne Noyes continue to struggle on why the car will not run prior to the feature action, Keith Noyes battled from last in the 18 car field to finish a $500 second. Ted Robinson won $400 for third in the Keith Ames entry and Brad Williams was the final lead lap finisher, earning $300 for fourth. Mark Fowler was the point leader coming into the event, but lost a lap changing an early flat tire and finished two laps down in 12th. Parker Jr is now 16 points up on Fowler and 28 ahead of Robinson. Noyes is just 2 points back of Robinson and Williams rounds out the top five in points, 57 behind the leader.

With the Southern California teams busy at Perris, the Casa Grande action drew a 19 car field and they were divided into three heat races. Outside front row starter John Cornell was a wire to wire winner in heat 1 with a best lap of 18.18. Williams was a race long second ahead of Fowler as the outside row dropped pole starter Noyes back to 4th on the opening lap. Noyes ran off the top of the track on the final lap to relegate him to the back of the pack assignment in the 25 lapper. The quickest car in hot laps, A Crippen pushed his Ford powered Rocket to an easy win in heat 2 with several laps in the 16’s topped by the 16.62 effort. A Crippen won from the pole and Keith James impressed with his drive from third to get second ahead of sixth starter Robinson. Parker Jr started fifth and couldn’t find a passing lane, settling for a fourth. Randy Carder made it another Ford win as he won heat 3 from the pole to get his first ever heat race win. It was interesting that his teammate Karl Tipton was filling in as track announcer this evening. Carder’s best lap was a 18.28. Young Tommy Hussak III, racing in all three classes for the first time, ran off the top of the track while 2nd on lap 2 and Randy Anderson finished second ahead of Curtis Odom. Casa Grande’s Odom is returning to racing after a 9 year absence as his partner recently purchased a car from Mike Tahtinen. The top 3 finishers from each heat redrew for the starting order in the front 9 slots in the 25 lapper. Williams and A Crippen drew the front row ahead of James, Fowler, Robinson, Odom, Carder, Anderson and Cornell. Scott Smith was a feature scratch after getting into the inside guardrail in a heat race incident. The A Crippen car had to struggle to make repairs in time for the 25 lapper as electrical problems saw his mount lose power after the checkered flag and a piece of the brake rotor had also broken.

Work by Tucson based super stock racer Tom Campbell produced a very fast racing surface, but the drivers complained that it was extremely rough. A Crippen raced into the lead at the start of the 25 lapper ahead of Williams, Fowler, Robinson and James. Wes Hall crashed for a lap 1 caution. On the restart, Robinson shuffled Fowler back to fourth and Fowler’s right rear tire was beginning to go flat. Hall dropped out and Parker Jr leaped into fourth on lap 3 as Fowler got shuffled back to fifth. Parker Jr passed Robinson on lap 4 and took second from Williams on lap 5. As Fowler was trying to gut it out until a caution, he became the caution when contact from another car sent him flying off the top of the track for the final yellow flag on lap 5. The Fowler team had problems making the tire change and returned to action a lap down and just ahead of the flying leaders. A Crippen continued to lead Parker Jr, Robinson, a flying Noyes and Williams. Both Cornell and Jerry Fincher ran off the end of the track. Fincher is driving the Bruce Duckett car in 2006. Anderson had worked his way into sixth ahead of James, Cornell, Carder and Steve Ricehouse. An inside move in turn 4 gained Parker Jr the lead over A Crippen on lap 10, but Parker Jr got hung up behind Dennis Crippen a couple laps later and A Crippen raced back into the lead. Both A Crippen and Parker Jr have their fathers as racing teammates. Hussak and Fincher both fell out as Noyes got around Robinson for third on lap 16. The dueling leaders had opened a half-lap lead over third place Noyes. In the final half of the race, the two leaders had to make a dozen passes of the slower cars. Parker Sr fell out on lap 21 and A Crippen made a wild pass of Anderson taking the white flag. Suddenly in turn 1, a burned up MSD box on the A Crippen car sent it slowing to a stop and Parker Jr regained the lead and the win. Noyes ran second ahead of Robinson and Williams. A Crippen was scored as the last car of the group that finished 24 laps, giving fifth to Anderson ahead of Cornell, James, Carder, Ron Pyle and Ricehouse. A Crippen got 11th and Fowler was two laps down in 12th.

The Southwest Dirt Late Models now get a couple weekends off as they return to action at Canyon on April 29. They return to CAR on May 6th and also have May events at USA Race Park and the brand new West Valley Speedway.

RESULTS

Heat 1-John Cornell, Brad Williams, Mark Fowler, Jerry Fincher, Ron Pyle, Lonnie Parker Sr, Keith Noyes. Heat 2-Adam Crippen, Keith James, Ted Robinson, Lonnie Parker Jr, Wes Hall, Dennis Crippen.
Heat 3-Randy Carder, Randy Anderson, Curtis Odom, Steve Ricehouse, Scott Smith, Tommy Hussak III. Main-Parker Jr, Noyes, Robinson, Williams, Anderson, Cornell, James, Carder, Pyle, Ricehouse, A Crippen, Fowler, Odom, D Crippen, Parker Sr, Hussak, Fincher, Hall.