Peter W. Moss/NSCS Media 6/9/07
Howard Ford won the North State Challenge Series presented by Scottfeild Executive Hotels curfew shortened feature at Shasta Raceway Park on Saturday night, and he did it the hard way. Forced to the pits, to repair body damage after contact on lap 12 while running 6th, Ford tagged the back of the 20-car field and began his march to the front. He passed a struggling Randy Houston on the 57th circuit, and took the checkered flag after 73 laps, in the scheduled 100 lapper.

Eureka's Mic Moulton finished a strong second and scored his best finish of 2007, after qualifying fifth, and moved up to second in the point standings. "The car was good tonight," he said after the race, "but it just wasn't quite there. I was out of brakes. I could stay with Howard but I just didn't have enough for him tonight."

2003 champ, Dave Miller, finished third in his first start of the season, after starting ninth. Carson City's CJ Bawden finished a season high fourth, after qualifying fourth and moved into fourth in the 2007 points. Wilbur Oregon's Riley Watson rounded out the top five in his second NSCS start. "I'm happy with the finish," he said, "but I hate it that I got into the #75 (Mike Doss). I just hammered him and it was my fault."

Hometown racer, Randy Stutesman, topped the qualifying charts with a surprising 15.686 to Ford's 15.815 and Luke Hall's 15.960. CJ Bawden rounded out the dash field with his 16.009. Stutesman won the dash.

Stutesman drew an inversion of eight, putting Mike Doss on the pole and Thomas Martin on the outside of the front row. Martin used the outside to clear Doss and grabbed the early lead. Martin held the lead through several early caution periods. As the race started to find a rhythm, Doss got under Martin, on lap 24, and took the lead with Randy Houston and Moulton following. Four laps later, Houston and Moulton got by Doss and started to pull away.

Watson and Doss tangled on lap 39 and Doss pitted, returning minus front-end bodywork. On the ensuing restart, the charging Ford passed Miller for third and the top three started to put some distance on the pack. Ford took second from Moulton on lap 44 and got by Houston, for the lead, on lap 57. Houston retired two laps later with a broken oil line. After recovering from a lap 19 solo spin, the hard charging Stutesman retired on lap 68, while challenging for the third position.

With curfew looming, officials decided that the next yellow flag would bring out the checkers. Doss and Kristi Schmitt got together on lap 73 and the race was over.

"After I got together with the #17, the toe was knocked out, but the car actually seemed better," Ford said. "Our luck has been better lately. A couple years ago, I wasn't sure I'd ever win another race. My luck started changing when I went to Mike Naake for shocks and I learned another way to do things." "I've got a great crew now. We've got good chemistry together. Things go a lot better when people are happy!"

Fast Time- Randy Stutesman 15.686

Trophy Dash- Stutesman, Ford, Luke Hall, CJ Bawden

Main-Howard Ford, Mic Moulton, Dave Miller, CJ Bawden, Riley Watson, Alan Cress, Thomas Martin, Allen Gibney Jr, Jerry Allec Jr, Kristi Schmitt, Mike Doss. Junior Roddy, Randy Stutesman, Brad Wasmund, Randy Houston, Jeremy Hopkins, Sean Hays, Luke Hall, Kyle Pope, Jim Bawden.

Random Notes

It was great to see Randy Stutesman set fast time and be fast in the race too. That's the best I've ever seen Randy run. He had a blast doing it and he's going to try to make the next race at RAR.

While too many caution flags slowed the action, there was also lots of exciting racing all around the track. It was fun watching the quick cars of Ford, Stutesman, and Kristi Schmitt coming through the pack.

Randy Houston has been snake-bitten for the last two races. After winning at RAR he's had mechanical problems ever since. He lost his power steering about ten laps before he retired with a broken oil line.

CJ Bawden's Dad, Jim, started the race in CJ's backup car. It was his first time in a car in about five years. He had fun but was uncomfortable in an ill-fitting seat and retired early. The Landmark Communities team plans to install a custom seat for him and he plans to be at RAR.

Luke Hall's streak of bad racing luck continued. He had a fire under the hood and brought out a lap 7 yellow flag. Surprisingly, the Turnbull team made repairs and returned 3 laps later, eventually retiring and finishing 18th in the final rundown.

Mike Doss had a rare rough outing. He was involved in two incidents and his 11th place finish was his lowest in as long as I can remember.

Early leader, Thomas Martin, held on for a 7th place, lead lap finish. The car is an older car out of the John Krebs shop and they decided to dust it off, bring it out and have some fun. "We were just way too free. I was loose in and loose off. This was a lot of fun, though. We were better than we were in the last race and we're starting to get the car dialed in." They hope to make the RAR race after Thomas runs the GNW race at Infineon on Saturday afternoon.

Sean Hays had a fuel pick-up problem and was forced to retire after 38 laps.

Junior Roddy was fast, at times, and avoided mechanical gremlins. He was sent to the back of the pack, he felt mistakenly, on a lap 64 yellow. "I don't know what they were watching," he said later. "The #11 spun in front of me and I stopped. I never hit him or the wall or anything. When they send you to the back, you just go. What are you going to do? I think they made a mistake but oh well. I'm over it!"

Kyle Pope brought his old Howe chassis, as the engine wasn't ready for his regular car. He never found much speed and struggled with mechanical problems before retiring on lap 13.

Craig Raudman, Gary Glenn and Kent Black were all late scratches.

Howard Ford and his crew survived an exhaustive tech teardown that lasted into the wee hours of the morning.

The NSCS sponsored trophies for the winners of the last race at AMP. Randy Houston received one for his dash win and Howard Ford for his feature win. They were presented at the driver's meeting at SRP. Good call Dane!

The fastest race lap was Randy Houston's 16. 235.

I'll see you at the races!

Contingency Award Winners

Competition Carburetion -$75.00 cash
Fast time: Randy Stutesman

Eibach Spring-One free spring per event
1st Place: Howard Ford
15th Place: Randy Houston

Finishline Racing Equipment -$50.00 Gift Certificate
5th Place: Riley Watson
10th Place: Kristi Schmitt

Frank’s Radio Service -$50.00 Gift Certificate
7th Place: Thomas Martin
8th Place: Allen Gibney

Joe Gibbs Driven Racing Oil-One free case of oil
9th Place: Jerry Allec Jr

Joe’s Racing Products -$35.00 Gift Certificate
2nd Place: Mic Moulton
6th Place: Alan Cress

Joiner Motorsports - Free re-valve for four shocks
Hard Charger: Kristi Schmitt

Larsen Racing Products -$50.00 Gift Certificate
3rd Place: Dave Miller

Mud-Racing.net -$100.00 off any web design or advertising
12th Place: Junior Roddy

Qualifying / Inversion was 8