Jensen cruises to Super Streets feature win

BY STEPHEN LYNCH Special to The Californian

Bakersfield Speedway’s slick racing surface was difficult for some drivers to maneuver around Saturday night.

Lee Jensen wasn’t one of them

Jensen grabbed an early lead and never looked back en route to winning the 25-lap Super Streets A-main.

Jensen took over the point with a lap four pass of Lonnie Welch and was never seriously threatened for the top spot once he got it.

Earlier in the evening Jensen won his heat race.

“I love these tracks like this,” Jensen said. “I wish we could have them all the time.”

Mike Corwin ended up finishing second. Welch was third. Brady Bell took fourth followed by Tim Randolph.

Scott Kinney of Citrus Heights dominated the 20-lap Bay City Racing Association vs. California Lightning Sprints Civil War A-main.

Kinney powered to the inside past Cameron Beard going into turn three with nine laps to go and then cruised to an easy victory.

Kinney went from fifth to second in one lap after a restart with 11 laps remaining.

Not long afterward he blew by Beard, who finished second.

Dakota Albright was third and Bobby Michnowicz.took fourth.

During the caution Kinney drove down to the apron to cool his car’s tires in the wet dirt. Afterward he credited that strategy for helping him win the race.

Clay Wattenbarger proved to be unbeatable once again as he won a third-straight Mini Stocks feature.

Wattenbarger passed his teammate Doug Shepherd for the lead midway through the 20-lap race and then pulled away to win by a comfortable margin despite having to battle lap traffic late.

Shepherd led nine laps and finished second. Darren Sherman was third followed by Kyle Shannon and Gary Spiller Sr.

“That was a heck of race,” Wattenbarger said, “There was some bumping and grinding going on out there but that’s part of racing. The track was really dry and hard. It kind of felt like I was back on pavement again.”

Tina McGowan out-dueled Robbie Witwer to win an exciting 20-lap IMCA Northern Sport Mods main event.

McGowan led all but two laps in claiming her first victory at Bakersfield Speedway since her father, long-time racer and car owner, Richie McGowan passed away in February.

“It’s been crazy,” an emotional McGowan said. “I wish my dad could be here right now. I wouldn’t be able to race if it wasn’t for him.”

McGowan led the race’s opening three laps and regained the point after a lap five restart when she dove to the inside coming out of turn four to pass John Piker.

She spent the rest of the race trying to hold off the hard-charging Witwer, beating him to the checkered flag by less than a car length.

Darrell Hood, the division’s points-leader coming into the night, took third. Randy Schweitzer was fourth and Taylor Paddock came home in fifth.”

It took four attempts to the race going due to wrecks prior to the completion of the first lap in each of the first three tries.

There ended up being a total of five cautions.