Race Night In Stockton

I went with my brother, a friend, and the friend's father to see the races in Stockton, CA. Most notably, we went to see Burney Lamar, who is second in the points race in the NASCAR Elite Division, Southwest Series. Burney is currently in the race camp of NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick. Under Kevin's tutelage, Burney is racing in five Busch Series races and five Craftman's Truck Series races.

The race was scheduled for a 2100 start time, with the race lasting 125 laps on the 1/4 mile track.

On lap 3 Burney blew a left front tire. [In this race, there are no pit stops]. So, Burney pulled the car onto the infield grass to get a tire change. It looked as though Burney got back into the race two laps down.

With a crash on lap 25, the field lined up, the cars on the lead lap to the outside and the lapped cars to the inside. Burney was next to the leader on the restart. For many laps, Burney battled the race leader and was finally able to get in front and thus gained a lap back. Then, there was a crash. The pace truck picked up the leader and Burney was able to come all the way around to line up next to the leader once more.

Again, Burney raced the leader hard. Again, he was able to get in front of the leader. And, again, there was another wreck. The fans of Burney were hootin' and hollerin'. Only to find out that Burney was originally three laps down, not two. So, with only 30 laps to go and Burney forced to the rear of the lead lap cars, the race towards the front wasn't nearly as exciting as we had hoped. Burney finished the race mid-pack.

All in all, though, it was an exciting evening of racing.

Although, I must say that getting home at 0000 was tough, with a 0400 wake up time for work.