Jul 27 - The 12th Running of the Mike Cecil

The 12th running of the Mike Cecil Memorial race was well worth the price of admission as Jim Pettit II and Bobby Hogge IV brought fans to their feet with exciting side-by-side racing in the twin 25-lap feature race Friday night at Ocean Speedway.

Due to car set-up problems, Hogge and Pettit both had to race their way through the "B" main event to make the feature race.

Pettit edged Hogge for the win on the final lap to claim his first win in the 50-lap race honoring a great local competitor. Cecil, a Watsonville native, lost his life to cancer in 1997. A champion of the Street Stock division in 1995, Cecil moved into modifieds the season prior to his death.

"I'm very proud to be a winner of the Mike Cecil race," Pettit said. "I've know the family my whole racing career and it's an honor to be here at our home track. Honoring Mike is putting on the best show for the fans we can and tonight we definitely did that."

The memorial race began as an event for the track's Street Stock division in 1998, and later in the modified division when street stocks were discontinued in 2006. Hogge won the first two modified memorial races and was looking for his third win Friday night.

Santa Maria's Jared Domingos led the first 10 laps, ceding to Gilroy's Jerry Movrich for the next six laps. Starting 13th, Pettit used 17 laps to reach Movrich and take the lead. Hogge moved from 16th to fourth, ending the first 25-lap segment in third. After a 10-minute break for fuel and chassis adjustments, first- and second-place positions were offered an additional $500 to win, if they would restart the race at the rear of the field. Both declined.

"I'll keep my first-place position this time," Pettit said. "There aren't enough laps and too many really good drivers. Besides, Bobby's right behind me. Nobody gives Bobby Hogge that much real estate and then tries to get it back in 25 laps."

Hogge and Movrich traded places numerous times through Lap 35, before Hogge mounted a charge on Pettit for the lead. The tension was high as the two banged wheels on the final lap trying to pass a slower car. Movrich held on to third with Chadwick and Nick DeCarlo finishing fourth and fifth, respectively. San Martin's Michael Dalton finished sixth.

The unique and entertaining qualifying portion of the program set the stage for an unusual format of the trophy dash for cash race. The modifieds qualified in groups of six, running five high speed laps, taking the fastest lap for each driver.

In the "Dash for Cash," the top six qualifiers lined up for six laps of racing. The last two cars were eliminated after Lap 6, leaving four cars to race four laps. At the end of four laps, the top two cars raced for two laps with the winner earning $300 cash.

Hogge won the cash and trophy. Oakley's Kellen Chadwick, Pettit, Kenny Nott, Keith Smith and Movrich completed the dash.

Former track champion Bobby Hogge III set fast time, beating son Bobby by 0.47 seconds. Unfortunately, a broken engine during qualifying ended his night of racing.

It took five lead changes before American Stock point leader Wally Kennedy could take control on Lap 11 of the 20-lap feature race over Andrew Camperud. Prunedale's Ed Cain III led the first two rounds; Camperud grabbed the lead on Lap 3. In the second half, he could pull alongside on almost each lap but lacked the power or traction complete a pass.

The rookie battle is still going strong with Aptos' Nick Silva finishing third, taking a six-point lead over Andrew McKenzie, who finished 11th.

Carmel Valley's Grant Koontz won the 4-Banger main event withstanding heavy pressure from four-time winner and current point leader Matt Sotomayor. The two also provided fans with extremely close competitive racing for an entry level division.

Gilbert Toste of Gilroy won his third feature of the season, passing Salinas' Camron Diatte at the half way mark of the Dwarf Car 20-lap main event.

Morgan Hill's Jeff Decker dominated the Ocean Late Model division main event with his sixth consecutive win.

The qualifying round for the GLR Investments 360 Johnny Key Memorial race is Friday night. Supporting the show will be the traditional wingless sprint cars, IMCA modifieds and the American Stock division.