# Sequoia Speedway opens it's regular season.



## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

Because of excessive heat in the 102° range today’s Sequoia Speedway opening race in Fresno, California was postponed to later in the evening and moved into an air conditioned environment. The track sat in the sun for less than ½ an hour even with the ambient air temperature at 90° and was noticeably warping. We immediately relocated the track and drivers. 

A field of 28 cars sat in the qualifying line, all but the Darrell Waltrip K-Mart #66 car qualified. Fast qualifier was brother Michael Waltrip in the #15 DEI Napa Chevrolet at 1.02 seconds. The remaining cars ran 3 rounds of 9 heat races in qualifying for the 13 spaces set for the mains. Heats took just over an hour to run; three cars went perfect (3 wins in their heat races). Michael Waltrip’s #15 NAPA Chevrolet, the UPS Ford of Dale Jarrett and Rusty Wallace’s #2 Miller Genuine Draft Ford. The Waltrip car by virtue of being fast qualifier was placed in the A Main along with Jarrett’s car. Wallace would have lane choice in the B Main.

Each Main was 50 laps in length, and F Main winner #00 Bill Elliott in the Burger King Chevrolet advanced all the way to the C Main before finally losing to winner #20 Tony Stewart and #1 Steve Park. But Stewart’s string was cut short in the B Main when once again the black Taurus of Rusty Wallace advanced to the A Main by an astounding 4 lap victory. 

The 100 lap A Main saw Waltrip take the center lane (lane 3) with Jarrett’s car being placed in the outer most lane. Wallace was stuck on the inside (lane 2), and would have to deal with the wider arc and smoother surfaces of the outer lanes. After two warm up laps the race was green flagged and run caution free the entire 100 laps. Only one spin by Waltrip caused concern on the track, however he spun away from traffic and was quickly back in the event. 

But at the end nobody could catch the UPS Ford of Dale Jarrett, winning by 4 laps at the end of the 100 lap A Main and setting a new track record of one second flat. Waltrip came in second with Wallace 9 laps down and having tire problems. This was not a point’s event and was the last warm-up race for next weeks Kid’s Race at the Mosqueda Community Center in Fresno. Many of the cars that raced tonight will be given away at that event, and races are planned once a month following the Memorial Day weekend event. 

In two weeks the Sequoia Speedway Summer Points Series begins, although we won’t have a 28 car entry list for this event we will run between 12 and 15 cars until the cars given away are replaced. Each participating driver will be responsible for his own cars from that point on, except for a planned IROC race sometime in July. 

_We would like to salute Dale Jarrett and his 31 years of racing. I was a long time fan (until he switched from Ford to Toyota) and still have much of my NASCAR UPS collection. I wish he would have had more success in his last year but one of my best memories was watching his second Daytona win in 1996. I met Dale on numerous occasions while working for Ford, he was always a gentleman. Dale will continue to be represented at Sequoia Speedway by the #88 UPS Taurus until the LifeLike Toyota CoT's become available, then a #44 UPS car will be created for "him". _


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