Bobby Hogge IV Wins $6,000 Lon Skinner Memorial

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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Dennis Daniel – (530) 605-9453
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September 5, 2010 – Southern Orgeon Speedway, Medford, OR – As has become a tradition over Labor Day weekend, many of the top drivers in the open wheel Modifieds converged on Southern Oregon Speedway for the annual Lon Skinner Memorial.  On Sunday night, things were no different, as 56 drivers  from 3 states and Canada, were ready to battle for the $6,000 top prize in a 100 lap feature.  After preliminaries the night before, the stage was set for 2-time defending winner of the race, Bobby Hogge IV from Salinas, Calif., to go for his third consecutive win.    After winning Saturday nights preliminary feature, Hogge would go on to take home his third consecutive Lon Skinner victory Sunday, as he was chased across the finish line for the second straight year by Scott Lenz.

Sunday’s night’s program would begin with the “alphabet” set of qualifying mains, beginning with a D main.  After running through the D, the C and the B mains, two last chance qualifiers were run.  With 12 drivers earning a spot in the feature from Saturday’s preliminary, 6 more drivers advanced from the B main.  The top 2 drivers in each LCQ also made the feature and finally two track provisionals were added, setting the 24 car field ready to battle for 100 grueling laps.

With the top 12 from Saturday drawing for their starting spots, the front row would be Klamath Fall’s Jeff Hudson and Brentwood, Calif.’s Kevin Fitzgerald.  Hogge drew the number 9 starting spot and would have to battle through some tough competition if he wanted to find his way to the lead.  The green flag flew at just a few minutes before 10:30 PM on a cool, breezy southern Oregon night.  Fitzgerald wasted no time grabbing control of the race, using the top of the track to pull ahead.  Fourth starting Chris Shannon followed in the tire tracks of Fitzgerald and quickly followed him into second.  Jeremy Richey, who started 8^th, was one driver on the move early, as he was running 3^rd by the completion of the second lap.

Muddled back in the field, Hogge got off to a slow start.  He fell back to 14^th place on lap 3, “I fell back when we started.  The track cleaned up and the car really hooked up,” he said afterwards.  Soon he was charging towards the front.  On lap 5, the first caution flag flew when Mark Wauge, Dan Thomas and Michael Paul Sr. tangled in turn 3.  By then, Hogge had already moved back up to 11^th.  Up front, Fitzgerald was holding off early pressure from Shannon, while Richey was being chased by Travis Peery and Alex Stanford.  Stanford had caught a break before the feature started.  With a special hot lap session scheduled for the Saturday night qualifiers, Stanford took to the track, only to pull off after a couple of laps with right front damage to his car.  He pulled to his pits to find a broken right front hub.  He and his crew were able to make repairs, leaving his hopes of a victory intact.

When the green flag waved again, Richey got passed by Peery, with Stanford getting bye a lap later.  Fitzgerald was still holding off Shannon, while Hogge was running in 10^th.  One driver who was riding things out early was Ryan McDaniel.  McDaniel started Sunday deep in the D Main, after suffering a blown engine and broken rearend on Saturday.  He ran the D, where he was able to transfer to the C main and battled hard late in the race to get a 3^rd place finish and a transfer spot into the B main.  He was only able to move up the 10^th after completing the 20 lap B main, leaving him only one chance to make the feature in his LCQ.  He completed the 12 lap LCQ in 2^nd and grabbed the final transfer spot.  Before the start of the feature, he had already run the maximum 72 laps possible for one driver on Sunday.  Early in the feature, he said, “I just wanna ride around for a while.  I’m already tired.”  When the second caution of the race flew on lap 11 for a spin by Nick Trenchard, McDaniel was running in 19^th with 89 more laps left.

Up front, the race continued to be paced by Fizgerald, as the front half of the field was trying to sort themselves out and log some laps.  Shannon continued to dog him in second, followed by Peery, Stanford and Richey.  The racing resumed and not long after, Shannon was applying pressure to Fitzgerald for the top spot.  Hogge was quickly charging towards to front.  On lap 14, he moved past C.J. Putnam for 7^th and a lap later got by Lenz.  Stanford was also charging, as he overtook Peery for 3^rd on lap 17.  On lap 19, Shannon made his move and took over the point, while Hogge overtook Peery and was now running 4^th .  The caution flag flew again when Paul, Sr. came to a rest on the front straight, where he would be towed off.

The action over the next few laps would be plagued with a couple of more cautions, while Shannon led the field and Hogge had been able to wrestle 3^rd away from Fitzgerald.  With racing back under way, Stanford was trying to get under Shannon but Shannon was able to hold off the challenge from the young Chowchilla, Calif. star.  Shannon, who resides in nearby Merced, Calif., has had several battles over the past month with Stanford at Merced Speedway and some good, hard, clean racing continued but Shannon maintained the early advantage.  Hogge wanted in on the action, and on lap 29 made his move to overtake Stanford for 2nd.  Hogge and Shannon are also familiar foes, as the two regularly compete in Super Late Model competition throughout the West Coast.

As the leaders were getting into the back markers, Hogge got under Shannon and took over the lead on lap 36.  Just a lap later, Hogge would get a scare as Thomas spun right in front of the leader in turn 4, with Hogge having to take evasive action to miss colliding with him.  The caution flew again, with Shannon still 2^nd, followed by Stanford, Peery and Lenz.  With only 14 laps to go before the mid-race break, the drivers had to endure a couple of more cautions but the top 8 drivers maintained their running order, with Fitzgerald in 6^th, followed by Richey and Putnam.  McDaniel was still riding around and got to the mid-race break running in 12^th.

The mid-race break was timed for 15 minutes, with 2 crew members from each car being allowed to make changes to the car, refuel and anything else they could accomplish by carrying on their back while crossing the track.  Hogge changed a left front tire, fearing it was slowly leaking and refueled.  Shannon checked over his car, and made minor adjustments after refueling.  Stanford seemed to be making the biggest changes, as he seemed to make changes to his left rear suspension while he had his buried beneath the body panels for much of the 15 minutes.

With 50 laps left, drivers would still have another long battle before this one would be settled.  As racing resumed, Stanford began pressuring Shannon for 2^nd.  Wauge, who had recovered from his early spin was charging back towards the front.  He move by Richey for 7^th on lap 51.  Two lap later, Lenz got by Peery for 4^th.  Another caution on lap 54 slowed the action yet again, this time for the stalled car of Mark Abouzeid, who had a right front flat.  After the restart, Stanford made his move on the bottom of turn 1 and took over second, while Hogge sped away.  Over the next 3 laps, two more cautions slowed the action, with Hogge leading over Stanford, Shannon, Lenz, Peery, Fitzgerald and Wauge.

Following the slow down, the longest green flag run of the event would take place when action resumed.  Hogge led the field back to green on lap 60 and looked in control of the event.  Lenz was pressuring Shannon for 3^rd and finally got the spot on lap 65.  Hogge was pulling away from Stanford but soon would be mired in heavy lapped traffic.  McDaniel was still going strong.  He was up to 8^th on lap 76, while Lenz pursued Stanford for 2^nd.  Lenz finally got by Stanford, after setting a pick with lapped car on the low groove.  Lenz went high in turn 2 and cleared the car before Stanford could get under him exiting the turn.

Hogge had distanced himself between Lenz in second, with three lapped cars in between the two.  The next caution flag flew on lap 82, which slowed the torrid pace and bunching the field back up.  With the single file restart, Hogge would have the benefit of having the lappers between he and Lenz.  McDaniel was still going strong.  Hogge was closing in on him to put him a lap down before the caution flew.  McDaniel was running in 7^th.

With two more quick cautions, the field was getting ready for the final 15 laps of the grueling race.  Lenz was able to move by the lappers and was on the rear bumper of Hogge when the green flew again on lap 86.  Stanford still ran third but was beginning to have some mechanical woes.  “During that final caution, the brake pedal was going almost to the floor.”  While running in third, Stanford entered turn 1 on lap 91 and he had not rakes.  He coasted off the track and headed to his trailer, ending a strong run by the speedy youngster.  A couple of laps later, Wauge was still charging to overtook Shannon for 3^rd, with Peery and McDaniel rounding out the field of cars still on the lead lap.

Lenz would get one more chance at Hogge as the final caution flew on lap 97 for debris in turn 4.  Did the racing Chiropractor anything left for Hogge or would he settle for the bridesmaid again, as he had done one year ago.  Hogge answered the call and went on to win by 4 car lengths, just over 1 second, ahead of Lenz.  Wauge finished in 3^rd, followed by Shannon, Peery and McDaniel.  McDaniel had completed all 100 laps, making a total of 172 total racing laps for the night. 

Lenz said after the race, “I had nothing left.  I drove the wheels off the car.  Thanks to my crew for the hard work.”  He charged all the way to second but it was Hogge once again taking home the Lon Skinner Memorial trophy, his third consecutive.  The win for Hogge also comes just one week after he swept the West Coast Nationals at Antioch Speedway and Merced Speedway.  Hogge picked up $8,000 in prize money the weekend before and now added $6,500 more.  It was his 8^th win in 9 races in his Joe Glade owned GRT chassis.  “Hats off to car owner Joe Glade and my crew.”   Hogge also had a noticeable cough exiting his ride, finding out later that he has also been battling bronchitis all week.

For full results, log on to www.sospeedway.com.

Official Results – Southern Oregon Speedway
Sunday, September 5, 2010 – Lon Skinner Memorial
A Main – 100 laps

Finish (Start) Name (Laps)

1. (9) 2h Bobby Hogge IV (100) $6,000

2. (10) 51L Scott Lenz (100) $3,000

3. (23) 28 Mark Wauge (100) $2,000

4. (4) 69m Chris Shannon (100) $1,000

5. (7) 6p Travis Peery (100) $700

6. (22) 81 Ryan McDaniel (100) $600

7. (8) 15j Jeremy Richey (99) $500

8. (6) 1m CJ Putnam (99) $450

9. (20) 77 Dan Estremado (99) $400

10. (1) 87 Jeff Hudson (99) $350

11. (2) 66 Kevin Fitzgerald (99) $300

12. (21) 45 Aaron Sheeler (99) $300

13. (18) 23m Donny Muth (98) $300

14. (15) 49 Troy Foulger (97) $300

15. (3) 98 Alex Standford (91) $300

16. (14) 4p Rich Papenhouzen (90) $300

17. (19) 54n Nick Trenchard (77) $300

18. (11) 0d Jon Debenedetti (69) $300

19. (12) 27 Mark Abouzeid (55) $300

20. (24) 34 Albert Gill (49) $300

21. (13) 25 Justin Holt (41) $300

22. (17) 6g Dan Gilder (40) $300

23. (5) 68t  Dan Thomas (22) $300

24. (16) 16sr Michael Paul, Sr. (18) $300