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SANTA MARIA, CA., May 2 - Bruce Hiroshima, of Camarillo, started and finished first Saturday in the NMRA-TQ Midget Series 25-lap main event on the banked, clay third-mile Santa Maria Speedway. The victory made him the fifth different winner in five NMRA features this season. The four sites have been in Perris, Bakersfield, Ventura and Santa Maria. The 46-year old 2004 NMRA-TQ rookie of the year drove his own Rick Stewart chassis with 836cc Honda power.
The triumph was Hiroshima's fourth career victory and first since the 2006 season when he won three main events in a row at Bakersfield, Santa Maria and Ventura. His 66 points earned Saturday propelled him from third to first position in current point standings. He now has a lead of four points (271-267) over Richard Ortega, Jr, the 2005 NMRA-TQ rookie of the year. The triumph also moved Hiroshima's No. 5 TQ from fourth place to the car owners' point lead by two points (284-282) over Ortega's No. 8 Stealth/Kawasaki.
Ortega started sixth at Santa Maria and made Hiroshima work for his race victory and lead in driver and owner points before settling for second place. Scott Dobson came from fourth grid spot to finish third. Jimmy Dodson raced from eighth to fourth and edged his 2008 NMRA-TQ co-rookie of the year Anthony Lopiccolo, who started and finished fifth. Scott Niven, West Evans, rookie Amanda Thomas and Dave Lambert followed. The first seven finishers completed all 25 laps and the next two ran 24 laps.
A pair of 10-lap heat races, with six drivers in each heat, went to front row starters Hiroshima and Dobson. All 12 drivers present ran two qualifying laps and eight drivers ran their fastest lap on their second timed lap. Fastest qualifier Dodson set his quickest lap of 16.502 on his second lap. The TQ one-lap track record at SMS is 14.820 by Jimmy May in one of Greg Edenholm's cars on April 10, 2004. The next NMRA-TQ race will be Saturday, May 16 at the third-mile clay Bakersfield Speedway. It will be the TQers third visit of six scheduled at the Kern County track this season.
Summary:
Heat 1: Bruce Hiroshima, Richard Ortega, Jr, Jimmy Dodson, Chuck West, Dakota Schweitzer, Amanda Thomas.
Heat 2: Scott Dobson, Anthony Lopiccolo, Scott Niven, Ron Ahrendt, West Evans, Dave Lambert.
Main: Hiroshima, Ortega, Jr, Dobson, Dodson, Lopiccolo, Niven, Evans, Thomas, Lambert, West, Ahrendt, Schweitzer.
POINT STANDINGS
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