MADERA — Madera Speedway and the North State Modified Series have partnered up to create the NSMS Street Stock/Madera Hobby Stock division for 2019. Saturday night was the inaugural event for this class, and Howard Holden of Clovis dominated the proceedings.
Along with setting the fast time of 16.185 seconds over the nine-car field, he led the final 23 laps of the Gone Fishin’ Marine 50-lap feature to pocket $750 for his impressive win.
Steve Schermerhorn of Oakhurst finished second, Chuck Dozhier of Tracy was third, Triston Hansen of Auberry came in fourth, and Stockton’s Mikala Stearns was fifth.
Dozhier was the $100 winner of the Buckhorn Bar & Grill Dash for Cash. Holden collected $50 for second place.
The fully inverted field saw Rodney Tripp and Triston Hansen share the front row for the feature. When the green flag dropped, Tripp bolted out into the lead. Schermerhorn came from fifth starting to steal the lead on the second go-round, and both Richard Herzog and Holden drove around Tripp on lap three.
Hansen and Dozhier moved into fourth and fifth on the fifth circuit just as the top three were driving away from the pack. Jo Jo Stearn dropped out with engine problems on lap 16.
The race slowed on lap 18 when Hansen spun in turn two. Herzog spun in his own oil the following round and retired to the pits with a blown engine.
Dozhier took over the lead on the restart and stayed there until lap 27 when Holden snuck under him. The two cars ran side by side for six laps before Holden made the winning pass. The remainder of the race went without incident with Holden taking the win over Schermerhorn, Dozhier, Hansen and Mikala Stearns.
The next NSMS Street Stock/Madera Hobby Stock race is June 15 at Madera Speedway.
