PERRIS, CA., Mar. 13 – Veteran racer Bruce Hiroshima, of Camarillo, began his sixth season of NMRA-TQ Midget competition on a victorious note Saturday night at the Perris Auto Speedway. The series used the shorter quarter-mile track during a multi-series night of racing at the Riverside County oval. (See track release for results of other series.) The event, postponed one week by rain, was the first of 17 NMRA-TQ 2010 point events from March to November at four tracks—three dirt and one paved. Other tracks on the schedule include Bakersfield Speedway, Santa Maria Speedway and Orange Show Speedway. The PAS will host the series finale on November 20.
Owner/driver Hiroshima started fourth in a ten-car field and won the 20-lap TQ feature after passing early leader /pole starter Steve Parke on the fourth lap. Parke dropped out on lap 14 and became the only non-finisher. Seven of the nine finishers completed all 20 laps. Hiroshima, 47, drove his Rick Stewart chassis powered by a Honda. It was his fifth career NMRA-TQ feature victory and his first at Perris. He won three main events in a row during 2006 and one at Santa Maria in May, 2009. Hiroshima tied for fifth place in final 2009 NMRA driver point standings.
Anthony Lopiccolo started fifth and finished second in a Stewart/Honda owned by his father Paul. Kenny Wiley, the 2007 NMRA driving champion, came from eighth grid position to finish third. West Evans, the NMRA series business manager/leader since 2002, started seventh and finished fourth. Three-time series driving champion Chuck West, started sixth and finished fifth in an Evans Motor-sports team car. Scott Niven and Ron Ahrendt followed in that order and also logged 20 laps. Dave Lambert was down a lap and Amanda Thomas was down two laps after they started in the back row.
NMRA teams ran a pair of five car, six-lap heat races. Wiley started fifth and won the first heat Lopiccolo came from fourth to capture the second heat. The next NMRA-TQ event will be held Saturday, March 27 at the third-mile Bakersfield Speedway, in Oildale, as part of another multi-division racing card. The next scheduled NMRA-TQ event at The PAS will be June 19.
Results:
Heat 1: Kenny Wiley, Scott Niven, Bruce Hiroshima, Chuck West, Amanda Thomas.
Heat 2: Anthony Lopiccolo, West Evans, Steve Parke, Ron Ahrendt, Dave Lambert.
