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Bakersfield, CA., Sept. 11 – Hometown driver Dakota Schweitzer won his second main event in the 2010 NMRA-TQ Midget Series as 11 three-quarter midget teams competed Saturday at the third-mile, clay Bakersfield Speedway. It was round 13 of the 15 event season. The 2009 NMRA-TQ rookie of the year won his second career main event in his second different TQ ride. He started second and led all 25 laps. Schweitzer won round four on April 24 at the same Bakersfield site driving Steve Parke's No. 59 Stewart/Honda..
This time he drove Bruce Hiroshima's No. 20 Bob Meli chassis with Honda power that racing promoter Chris Kearns raced two weeks ago at his Santa Maria Speedway. The winner, from the Bakersfield Speedway track-owning family—Scott and Crissy Schweitzer—has raced in 11 of 13 events this season. He remained seventh in driver points. He earned 63 points and cut the distance from the sixth place driver from 33 points to 13 points.
Car owner Hiroshima ran shotgun for his new team driver by starting fourth and finishing second in his newer No. 5 Stewart/Honda. West Evans started fifth and finished third in his own No. 36 Spike/Suzuki 750cc. He took over the point lead by five points (729-724) after entering the event one point in back of Anthony Lopiccolo, the 2008 NMRA co-rookie of the year. Lopiccolo started sixth and finished fifth, one position behind Chuck West in the second Evans car.
Scott Niven (from 9th starting spot), Ron Ahrendt (from P. 3), Dave Lambert (from pole), Scott Dobson (from P. 8) and rookie Brian Baker (from tenth in his fourth start) completed the top ten and all ran 25 laps. Doug Ellis made his TQ racing debut in the third Hiroshima team car—No. 4. Ellis completed 21 laps. Evans and Lopiccolo, the two leading first-time TQ driving championship contenders, won the two eight-lap heat races. Six drivers started the first heat and all ran eight laps. Five drivers started the second heat and four of them completed all eight laps. Niven dropped out on the second lap.
To date 18 drivers have earned NMRA-TQ points and 16 TQs have scored points. The final two NMRA-TQ events will take place October 16 at Santa Maria Speedway and November 20 at Perris Auto Speedway. So far this season there have been seven different winning drivers and eight different winning cars. There were nine different NMRA winners in 17 races last year.
Summary:
Heat 1: West Evans, Chuck West, Dave Lambert, Dakota Schweitzer, Scott Dobson, Brian Baker.
Heat 2: Anthony Lopiccolo, Ron Ahrendt, Bruce Hiroshima, Doug Ellis, Scott Niven.
Main: Schweitzer, Hiroshima, Evans, West, Lopiccolo. Niven, Ahrendt, Lambert, Dobson, Baker, Ellis.
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