Dome Valley Raceway Winter Shootout - Saturday Coverage

Saturday January 11, 2020

Day two at the Dome Valley Raceway Winter Shootout started with some open test and tune action. Cars and bikes were getting a feel for the excellent track conditions. The big car classes were eliminated from the schedule to make way for additional testing times. Sport classes began their dedicated time runs around 1:00PM with individual ATV, UTV, and Car Sport classes. After two test passes were complete and dial-ins were turned in, elimination racing action began.

Sport ATV

The combined Sport ATV class saw a mix of 4 stroke and 2 stroke entries battling for dominance. It came down to a battle of four stokes in the final as Grant Hutchinson took out fellow native Arizonian Mike Brock. Mike had to not only conceit defeat, but also had to open his Lucas Oil product box to Grants choice of products.

Sport UTV

Grant would also find himself racing his Can-Am in the Sport UTV class. Hutchinson and Brad DeForest were the only entries and a decision was made to make it a best two out of three race. DeForest got the first win as Hutchinson ran too quick. A dial-in change helped Grant turn the tides in the second round making them one a piece heading into the third and final round sudden death style. Grant was able to hold DeForest off taking his second win of the weekend and another trip into the Brock Racing supplied Lucas Oil product box.

Sport Car

Sport Car saw a great mix of Jeeps, trucks, dragsters in the fray. Several competitors South of the border showed up to duke it out in this class with some very unique rides. Many of the typical front runners went out early leading to an all pickup final as Juan Garcia of Mexico in his Toyota drag truck took on Israel Quintero’s gorgeous white walled Blazer. Quintero used a reaction time advantage to catch up to and stay out in front of Garcia. Israel grabbed some Lucas Oil goodies from Brock Racing for his victory.

A brief open test and tune session divided the Sport action from the Saturday night Gambler class. We saw a few wild passes from the nitrous entries out here with the Starns/ Chapman backed buggy leading the charge. With Junior Alimoot behind the wheel, they led the quickest time of the weekend so far with a 3.471. The Power Special Buggy is still battling some traction control issues with other passes sending the VW buggy towards the center or guardrail. We’ll see if they can hold onto the low ET as a one and done 3.61 pass came form one of the Yuma built Jeeps unfortunately having a nitrous backfire about half track. If they can get it repaired, we may see a battle for low ET of the weekend. Another entry to not forget about it the Brock Racing “Extreme” laydown trike. It has yet to make a pass, but a lot of tinkering has been going on the pits. If they come out tomorrow and make a representative run, we may see low ET drop significantly.

Pro Gambler

After a quick discussion with the racers and track staff, it was decide to combine the ATV and Car Gambler classes into one single class. This boosted the entries and the purse. Like the old school days where cars raced bikes on the regular, competition was stiff. Wide ranging ETs led to a few impatient racers that turned on the red bulb as the night went on. The final was a perfect storm as ATV and Car collided. WSDN’s own Caleb Mings on his tried and true 205R ATC was up against the K5 Blazer of Israel Quintero. While Quintero had already proven himself a winner earlier in the Sport Car class, he was too impatient against the slower Mings Racing entry turning on the red light and hanging the Pro Gambler win to Caleb. Brock Racing came over to congratulate Mings (who took out the entire Brock Racing camp en route to his victory) and give him a pick of Lucas Oil products.