Riverside International Speedway Season Opener By: Gary Boggan

Posted Jody Shannon on April 24th, 2008 | Filed under Articles, Gary Boggan

After five weekends of rain, Riverside International Speedway located just across the Mississippi River in West Memphis, Arkansas finally got their season opener in the books. With cool weather in the forecast I made the trip to spectate and observe on this Saturday night. After finding my spot high atop the left side bleachers on the West Side and rejoicing with some of my racetrack friends I haven’t seen in a while I got geared up for some racing. With 101 race cars signing in spread out among 27 street stocks, 15 mini-stocks, 17 mini-sprints, 15 wingless sprint cars, 12 crate late models, and 15 winged sprint cars, the fans were sure in for a treat.

The night started off with the 4 cylinder mini-stock heats. Mark Clark won the first heat but contact with a lapped car resulted in the front end being knocked out of the car, which would show up later in the night. He was followed by Greg Fisher, Roy Webb, and Michelle Ward. Heat two saw Bud Ward taking the win with Britni Swindell, Paul Kimbrough, and Paul Hill finishing 4th. Jeff Swindell came home sixth. The main event would see Bud Ward take the checkers, with Paul Kimbrough, Britni Swindell, Greg Fisher and Roy Webb were the top 5. Jeff Swindell finished 13th with heat one winner Mark Clark in 15th.
Next up was the 600cc heats. The 1x machine of Curt Shumacher got some air time as he flipped in turns 3 and 4. Greg Fritts went on to win heat number one followed by Andrew Teuscher, Samantha Gargus, and Justin Webb. Heat two saw Bobby Z claim the win, with Clayton Robertson, Jimmy McClain Jr., and John Campbell in tow. The feature would see a pile up on the start as the 96s of Samantha Gargus and the 69r of Clayton Robertson make contact in turn 1 causing four cars to retire. Gargus would later on have mechanical failure and drop out of the race. Once the race got started Bobby Z held off John Campbell, Greg Fritts, Jeff Willingham, and Dane McCord to record his first win of the season at RIS.
The street stock division would see four heat races. The heats went to George Washington, Keith Graham, Neil Brown, and Mario Espinoza. The B-Main went to Robby Williams with James Poag, Joe Olive, John Pentz, and Gene Goins transferring to the nights main event. Before I tell the story of the main event I would like to share a story here. Some 5 years ago my uncle, Chuck Fletcher, drove a Brim’s Snack Foods #14 street stock. The last two years that Memphis Motorsports Park was open (2004 and 2005) he ran a GM602 crate engine in the car and posted several wins. All this with no engine work at all done to it, not even a rebuild. JD Ballinger, who owns Race-On Driving Experience and is Chuck’s employer, stepped behind the wheel of this car for maybe his 5th time. Now back to the story at hand. The feature race started, and Mario Espinoza took the lead and pulled away after a few laps. With almost a straightaway lead, he encountered lapped traffic, when contact was made turning Mario head on into the outside wall with the field headed his way. Mario’s teammate, Neil Brown, collided with Mario resulting in both of them being knocked out of the race. Wimp Gatlin took the lead, and led from then on till about two laps to go. JD Ballinger made his way to second by this point, after narrowly avoiding the Espinoza/Brown incident and getting his spot back after being spun out by the #51 of Justin Glover. With two to go JD pulled along side Wimp and went on to win the main event. Proving that you don’t always have to have a lot of power. That’s a good little motor right there. He was followed closely by Wimp Gatlin, Lance O’Brien, Josh Ray, and Buck Scallorn.

Next up was the wingless 305 class. Two heat races would see Troy Dow taking the win. During the race Troy made contact with another car, knocking his right side battle bar off. After two laps with this bar laying on the track, the track decides to throw a caution. Troy would keep his spot in the lead, and went on to win the race trailed by Tim Sites, Josh Baker, and sprint car ace Eddie Gallagher. In the second heat Andy McElhannon took the win, with Jan Howard, Justin Carver and Steven McCain in tow. The main event would see Tim Sites sitting on the pole based off passing points. Coming off four for the initial green flag Sites makes contact with a tractor tire and does three endos. Tim would walk away, but the car was done for the evening. When the race resumed it went caution free with Jan Howard taking the black and white, Troy Dow, Josh Baker, Andy McElhannon, and Justin Carver followed.
Next on the agenda was crate late models. Heat one would belong to Mike Carr, with Dalton Davis, Austin Orman, Christie Kirkman, Richie Kirkman, and Dillon Knight rounding out the field. Heat two would see 2007 Champion Dalton Alexander win, with Steve Strieder, Jusitn Taube, Nathan Brown, and Cody Knight your top 5. The main event would go rather eventless with defending champion Dalton Alexander picking up where he left off, in victory lane, followed by Mike Carr, Dalton Davis, Justin Taube, and Steve Strieder.

The final class of the night would be the 360 winged sprint cars. With 15 cars signed in to do battle on the ¼ mile. Heat one would belong to Eddie Gallagher, followed closely by Jeff Swindell, Chris Williams, Phillip Faulkner, and Jan Howard rounding out your top 5. Heat two was all A.G. Rains, with Marshall Skinner, Dewayne Prince, Lee Sowell, and Henry Gustavus in tow. The main event would promise to be a good one. As Eddie Gallagher, and Jeff Swindell would battle side by side for the first half of the race, till it looked like Eddie’s car started going away. A mid-race flip by Jan Howard would result in a chance for Gallagher to regain his composure and give Swindell one last charge. Swindell jumped out front, but Gallagher slowly reeled him in but it would be too late, and Jeff Swindell went on to win and perform the famous “Wing walk” for the fans. Gallagher would claim second, Prince third, Faulkner fourth, and Ernie Ainsworth rounding out the top 5.