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After what has to have been one of the wettest off seasons in the last 6 years, we dried it off as much as possible and brought it all together once again to kick off yet another race season at ARP. With the flu running rampart through the ranks of the track staff, and new staff positions yet to be filled, it was a struggle to just get this day completed but after the races started things began to come together and we had some awesome races with a LOT of new racers and fans. Turn out was on the low side for many reasons. We have never raced this early in the season before, and the weather was not as comfortable as we had hoped for. We had only 79 entries, but, like I said a lot of those were new and very welcomed faces. We also had many of our regulars who showed they still had the set up pretty well laid out from last season with some really awesome runs. The pace was about 1/2 to 3/4 of a second off the record, but considering the moisture of the track, that wasn't really too bad at all. In the Novice Junior class, it was first time racer Scott Stephens who took the feature win. Taylor Moore took the rookie sportsman victory. Collin Stephenson grabbed the victory in the Purple Sportsman Champs. The Akers race team came from Arkansas and Seth Akers took a hard fought title in the Aqua Sportsman Champ Class. This was an awesome race and it shows what this 2005 season is going to bring us all in close and fast side by side racing this year. We had another Prewitt begin racing with us this season, If you remember last season it was Lindsey Prewitt, who came and raced with us and made some very awesome impressions as she let everyone know she was there to race; well this year brings her little brother Matthew to the track he took his first ever win in our Sportsman Champ Novice Class. I think you'll hear the name Prewitt mentioned a lot over the course of 2005. Tyler Ortiz returned in the Stock Heavy class to take a great win. That hard charging #10 junior champ driven by Austin Billops came away with a victory in our Junior Champ feature. Veteran driver Justin Rochelle, let everyone know he's back and ready with a well earned victory in the Junior 1 Aqua feature. Another racer who has not been to ARP in a while visited from Arkansas. It was good to see Tyler, "the rocket man" Stevens once again and Tyler was on a roll capturing the Stock Light AND Medium feature wins, and he gave veteran Senior Champ driver Jason Moss all he wanted and more in a very close second place finish in the Senior Champ feature. Tyler was driving a very familiar Champ kart usually driven by another well known Arkansas driver, Jesse James; and the #3 was awesome. Tyler and Jason were bumper to bumper the last few laps, but the #73 pulled a very close victory with the rocket man tight on his heels. In our Junior 2 class, he finally did it. I say he because *he* tried so hard last season, and *he* came so very close on numerous occasions, and *he* had the most second place finishes in his class and *he* always maintained extreme composure....he???...Cody Caldwell driving the # 9 took the victory that has eluded him so very often in this class. This class, Junior 2, will be one to watch this season for sure. A driver on a mission was David Harkness in the Junior 3 class. David took a well deserved win in this awesome race in our unrestricted class. Veteran Wade Massey took home a victory in the Super Heavy Class, and in the return of the unlimited class it was Brent Eldridge taking the victory. This wasn't a points race; the track was green, the staff was mostly sick and very undermanned, but we had help arise to our needs and that help made the day go by with out many incidents. All in all it was a very good day of racing and it was so good to see familiar faces and meeting the new faces that came to race with us. We have one more non points race on the 19th, and then we get it on with the 2005 Points Season on April 2nd. Thanks again to everyone who came out and you can see the individual results below at My Laps Dot Com. Stay Safe and we hope to see each of you on the 19th. Thanks for your support!! Danny Davis
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