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4th annual Tom Manny Memorial Race goes to Jesse Love

On Saturday August 10th, the POWRi Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) mighty midgets visited the new Stockton 99 Speedway for the 4th annual Tom Manning Memorial race. There were ten cars signed in at the pit gate, but the machines of Mark Maliepaard and Cody Jessop were withdrawn following hot laps with mechanical maladies.

The day’s first qualifier, BCRA stalwart JR Williams was involved in an incident with a wayward push truck that left the #74 midget with a broken rear axle that ended JR’s day before it even started. JR declined the offer of a replacement rear end from David Goodwill and withdrew for the balance of the event.

Defending BCRA champion Jesse Love topped qualifying with a torrid 13.249-second lap around the Stockton high-banked oval, while the honors of second quickest qualifier went to the #60 of Cody Gerhardt who ran an identical lap time as the #3G of David Goodwill to the thousandth of a second, as both cars recorded a lap of 13.557 seconds. Gerhardt’s teammate Dylan Nobile was fourth in his #80 machine only 2 thousandths of a second slower at 13.559 seconds. Young Blake Brannon with assistance from Frank Guerrini was fifth fastest with the ageless Floyd Alvis sixth fastest and POWRi/BCRA points leader Robert Carson rounded out the field in the Segar #99 midget.

Front row starter Dylan Nobile surged into the lead on the backstretch on the first lap of the heat race with Gerhardt in close pursuit. Goodwill moved into second place on the second lap, as Love moved into fourth place, and on lap four Jesse Love went past Goodwill into second place/ On lap five, Love passed Nobile to grab the lead, and the following lap, Goodwill dropped Dylan into third place.

The heat race finish was Love, Goodwill, Nobile, Gerhardt, Brannon, Alvis and Carson.

David Goodwill grabbed the lead of the trophy dash from his outside front row starting position and led all four laps to grab the $100 bonus provide by Dakota Albright and this writer.

When the results were tallied following the heat race finish using the POWRi/BCRA system, the initial lineup showed Jesse Love as the pole position starter. Dakota Albright stepped up and offered Jesse a $100 bonus if he won the feature if he agreed to start at the tail of the field for the start, with this writer offering an additional $50. Jesse Love accepted the challenge, which put Dylan Nobile and Goodwill side by side of the front row for the start.
Dylan and his #80 midget surged into the lead at the start ahead of Goodwill, and the speedy pair headed the field for the first seven laps as Love carefully picked his way through the field. On lap eight, Love moved into second place, but Nobile held a ten-car lead over the blue Van Dyne #5 machine. Sadly, on lap 12 as he sped through turn four, the engine in Nobile’s midget let go, with smoke streaming from the exhaust pipe as the #60 slowed down the front straightaway.

With Love at the point for the restart, Goodwill and Gerhardt staged a stirring battle for second place over the next half-dozen laps which was settled when Cody went low for the position through turn three on the eighteenth lap. Meanwhile, ahead of the battle for second place Jesse Love was clicking off consistently fast laps and built up a commanding 10-car lead at the finish. The podium for the fourth annual Tom Manning Memorial race was Jesse Love, Cody Gerhardt, David Goodwill, with Blake Brannon in fourth place as he streaked past Floyd Alvis on the final lap, as the tires on Floyd’s iconic green #18 gave up over the final half dozen laps. Robert Carson and Dylan Nobile did not finish.

The POWRI/BCRA midgets return to dirt track action at Placerville Speedway on August 21, 2019 for a special mid-week program

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