5/8/11
Pierovich and Adamson Garner SpeedyDry, er, Make
That Vukovich Classic Wins
by Gerald Laurie
After a sunny and warm afternoon at Madera Speedway’s annual Vukovich Memorial Race, the
evening turned cool and windy and the racing turned into what would have been a typical Full
Moon event (no, there was only a sliver of Luna showing). With ten different classes of racecars in
the pits, including three vintage exhibition groups, it would turn out to be a curfew buster for
track promoter Kenny Shepherd. The BCRA Midgets and the Wild and Wooly Supermodifieds
were the featured classes and are covered in this article.
There were eight Supermodifieds (three 360 class cars and five Open Cars) and ten Midgets in the
pits to start practice. Kody Swanson was the fastest Midget and Jim Birges was the fasted
Supermodifed pilot during the warm ups.
Real competition started with individual qualification runs and Chad Nichols (17) was the fastest
BCRA entrant with a lap of 14.056 seconds on the 1/3 mile banking, He was followed by Kody
Swanson at 14.167, Nick Chivello(27) at 14.209, Tanner Swanson(10) at 14.329, and Nick Foster, Jr.
(1) at 14.683. Scott Pierovich (35) made two qualifying attempts only to have mechanical ills
relegate him to the back of the pack.
The Supermodified field had some driver changes due to illness as Kyle Vanderpool took over
his father’s number 3 Open Car when Dan fell ill, and younger brother Shane Vanderpool jumped
in his Kyle’s number 1 360 car to fill out the field. When all was said and done, Lonnie Adamson
(98) was fastest of the fast at 12.660 seconds with Jim Birges(32) hot on his heels at 12.683. Kyle
Vanderpool put the 3 car in the field at 13.018. Carl Johnson(07) was the fastest 360 at 15.456.
Kody Swanson(72) shut down on the backstretch and coasted to the line when the changer
gears in the rear end shattered and ruptured the Center Section spreading synthetic gear oil
through the topside of turns 3 and 4 and down the front stretch. The Speedy Dry came out for the
first time in the evening and the lengthy clean up put the show well behind schedule.
Heat races were up next. There were a couple of oil downs from other classes during the heats,
further delaying the schedule and adding a bunch of speedy dry at the end of turn two and on the
front straight. The Bay Cities Racing Association fielded two five car, eight lap heats. The first
eight lapper lined up with ageless Floyd Alvis on the pole pursued by Nick Foster, Jr., Nick
Chivello, Chad Nichols, and Mike Snider. At the drop of the green, Foster and Nichols blasted
around Alvis on the top of turn one and Chivello followed through on back straight. Snider
brought up the rear. Nichols got around Foster on lap two and pulled out a substantial lead.
Chivello took second on lap three and there was no additional passing. Nichols won followed by
Chivello, Foster, Alvis, and Snider
The second Midget Heat Lined up with Scott Pierovich and David Prickett on the front row
followed by Dillon Silverman, Tanner Swanson, and Kody Swanson. Pierovich’s mechanical
gremlins raised up again and the 35 car scratched putting Silverman up front. Lap one saw the
Brothers Swanson (Tanner first and Kody second) jump to the front followed by Silverman and
Prickett. Again, that was the extent of the passing and lap eight reflected lap one perfectly.
The Supermodifieds were relegated to one combined heat with Lonnie Adamson and Jim Birges
on the front row followed by Kyle Vanderpool and Davey Pombo in row two. The two remaining
360 cars were Carl Johnson and Shane Vanderpool. Birges and Adamson went side by side for
nearly two full laps with Jim leading at the line each lap. He finally cleared Adamson and gained a
small lead while K. Vanderpool, Pombo, S. Vanderpool, and Johnson rounded out the field. And
that was how the heat race wound up, with Birges taking the win. Carl Johnson( 1 second) and
Shane Vanderpool (3 seconds) ran substantially faster laps than where they had qualified.
After another substantial oil down on the back straight from the late model feature, the open
wheel features were next up. The schedule was revised to make sure the open wheel features
would be run and there were some unhappy vintage racers in the pits. The midget line up for the
thirty lap main event had Dillon Silverman, Nick Foster, Tanner Swanson, Nick Chivello, Kody
Swanson, and Chad Nichols in the six car invert. Rounding out the field were Floyd Alvis, David
Prickett, Scott Pierovich, and Mike Snider. Coming down for the start, Silverman turned the car
sideways coming off turn four and collected both Swansons to bring out red flag (and added
some more speedy dry to the now very slippery surface). Restart order was Alvis, Foster,
Pierovich, Chivello, Nichols, T. Swanson, K. Swanson with Prickett and Snider in the rear.
At the drop of the green, Alvis advanced rapidly rearward putting Chivello in the lead, followed by
Foster, Pierovich, Nichols and K. Swanson. With some banging and bumping on lap two, Chivello
maintained the lead with Kody moving to second followed by Foster, Nichols, and Pierovich. Lap
four saw both Pierovich and Tanner blow by Foster to take fourth and fifth. Kody Swanson
grabbed the lead on lap eight. At the end of ten laps, the top five were Swanson the elder,
Chivello, Nichols, Pierovich, and Swanson the younger.
The yellow was in the wind on lap sixteen when Chivello rolled to a stop in turn four. Just before
the green restart, Tanner Swanson was black flagged as he had deposited his muffler on the front
straight. Restart order was K. Swanson, Nichols, Pierovich, Foster and Silverman. Then Snider
spun in turn four and Tanner rejoined the field at the end of the lead lap after replacement of the
muffler by a crew member with apparently asbestos fingers. They found oil in turns three and four
on the bottom of the track and another lengthy delay ensued as the Speedy Dry concession
owner got richer. The bottom of three and four were very slippery and more resembled a skating
rink than a race track as the track crew headed to the storage barn for more speedy dry. On the
restart, Kody led over Nichols, Pierovich, Tanner and Foster as everyone tip-toed through three
and four when the yellow flew again for a spin by Alvis. On this restart, Pierovich got smart and
moved to the top of the track in the North turns to take second on lap nineteen and grab the lead
a lap later. Order after two thirds distance was Pierovich over K. Swanson, Nichols, T. Swanson,
and Foster.
Lap twenty one saw Tanner follow Pierovich’s line and move to second followed by Kody and
Nichols. A lap later Nichols reasserted his hold on third position at Kody Swanson’s expense.
The rest of the race ran cleanly although there was still a lot of skating around in turns three and
four with the still slick bottom and the grains of Speedy Dry contaminating the rest of the turns.
Scott Pierovich went from rags to riches after his earlier problems to win over T. Swanson,
Nichols, K. Swanson, and Foster
The remaining six Supermodifieds lined up with Davey Pombo on the pole followed by Kyle
Vanderpool, Jim Birges, and Lonnie Adamson. The 360 Supers of Shane Vanderpool and Carl
Johnson rounded out the field. The outside row moved quickly forward on the green flag lap with
K. Vanderpool leading over Adamson, Birges, and Pombo. Vanderpool was holding the middle
line as Adamson kept trying to pass on the bottom. There was absolutely no traction on the
bottom of three and four and both Adamson and Birges buzzed the tires trying to pass. Finally,
Adamson did a bonsai move across the bump at the entrance to turn one to get a slide job on
Vanderpool and then took off for another zip code. At ten laps, Adamson led over K. Vanderpool,
Birges, Pombo, and S, Vanderpool. Birges was all over the back of the 3 car but had the same
problem as Adamson in getting by. There was just no traction on the bottom of three and four.
Johnson headed for the pits on lap fourteen .After twenty laps, Adamson had a two thirds lap lead
over Vanderpool and Birges with Pombo one lap down, and Shane two laps down. With
Adamson quickly catching the other lead lap cars, Birges finally swept around Vanderpool on lap
twenty one and took off in pursuit of Lonnie who, by now, had the 98 on cruise control. Adamson
had caught Kyle by lap twenty six when Birges broke a water line and spun in turn two to end his
evening. Jim had a substantial steam burn on his right leg when visited later in the pits. The
yellow kept Kyle from getting lapped and the remaining four laps were uneventful. Adamson won
over K. Vanderpool, Pombo, S. Vanderpool, and Birges. It was about eight minutes past the 10:30
curfew with the vintage cars still to go. To really top off the lunacy of the evening, The 98 crew
was entertaining fans in the pits when the fickle wind blew the newly acquired Vukovich Classic
Trophy off the top of the pit box and shattered it into several pieces. There had to be full moon
somewhere!
With the addition of Brancato’s 82 and the Tatro owned 72 for Kody Swanson, the Supers gained
a little in the car count sector. But both were eliminated before the heats and we were down to six
cars. The midget field was only a bit better, but at least all of them started the feature. Hopefully,
additional owners will get their cars to the tracks before pavement style open wheel racing
disappears from the Western States landscape.
Madera Speedway Vukovich Classic
Bay Cities Racing Association Midgets
Qualifications: 1. Chad Nichols(17), 14.056; 2. Kody Swanson(4), 14.167; 3. Nick Chivello(27) ,
14.209; 4. Tanner Swanson(10), 14.329; 5. Nick Foster, Jr.(1), 14.683; 6. Dillon Silvermann(4K),
15.165; 7. Floyd Alvis(83), 15.309; 8. David Prickett(15), 15.524; 9. Mike Snider (2), 15.687; 10. Scott
Pierovich(35), 17.297.
Heat 1: 1. Nichols; 2. Chivello; 3. Foster; 4. Alvis; 5. Snider.
Heat 2:1. T. Swanson; 2. K. Swanson; 3. Silverman; 4. Prickett.
Feature: 1. Pierovich; 2. T. Swanson; 3. Nichols; 4. K. Swanson; 5. Foster; 6. Silverman; 7.
Prickett; 8. Snider; 9. Alvis; 10. Chivello.
Open and 360 class* Supermodifieds
Qualifications: 1. Lonnie Adamson(98), 12.660; 2. Jim Birges(32), 12.683; 3. Kyle Vanderpool(3),
13.018; 4. Davey Pombo(10), 13.508; 5. Carl Johnson(07)*, 15.456; 6. Shane Vanderpool(1)*,
17.097;, 7. Kody Swanson(72), 19.489; 8. Gerry Brancato(82)*, N/T.
Heat: 1. Birges; 2. Adamson; 3. K. Vanderpool; 4. Pombo; 5. S. Vanderpool*; 6. Johnson*.
Feature: 1. Adamson; 2. K. Vanderpool; 3. Pombo; 4. S. Vanderpool*; 5. Birges; 6. Johnson*; 7.
Swanson, DNS; 8. Brancato*, DNS.
Pierovich and Adamson Garner SpeedyDry, er, Make
That Vukovich Classic Wins
by Gerald Laurie
After a sunny and warm afternoon at Madera Speedway’s annual Vukovich Memorial Race, the
evening turned cool and windy and the racing turned into what would have been a typical Full
Moon event (no, there was only a sliver of Luna showing). With ten different classes of racecars in
the pits, including three vintage exhibition groups, it would turn out to be a curfew buster for
track promoter Kenny Shepherd. The BCRA Midgets and the Wild and Wooly Supermodifieds
were the featured classes and are covered in this article.
There were eight Supermodifieds (three 360 class cars and five Open Cars) and ten Midgets in the
pits to start practice. Kody Swanson was the fastest Midget and Jim Birges was the fasted
Supermodifed pilot during the warm ups.
Real competition started with individual qualification runs and Chad Nichols (17) was the fastest
BCRA entrant with a lap of 14.056 seconds on the 1/3 mile banking, He was followed by Kody
Swanson at 14.167, Nick Chivello(27) at 14.209, Tanner Swanson(10) at 14.329, and Nick Foster, Jr.
(1) at 14.683. Scott Pierovich (35) made two qualifying attempts only to have mechanical ills
relegate him to the back of the pack.
The Supermodified field had some driver changes due to illness as Kyle Vanderpool took over
his father’s number 3 Open Car when Dan fell ill, and younger brother Shane Vanderpool jumped
in his Kyle’s number 1 360 car to fill out the field. When all was said and done, Lonnie Adamson
(98) was fastest of the fast at 12.660 seconds with Jim Birges(32) hot on his heels at 12.683. Kyle
Vanderpool put the 3 car in the field at 13.018. Carl Johnson(07) was the fastest 360 at 15.456.
Kody Swanson(72) shut down on the backstretch and coasted to the line when the changer
gears in the rear end shattered and ruptured the Center Section spreading synthetic gear oil
through the topside of turns 3 and 4 and down the front stretch. The Speedy Dry came out for the
first time in the evening and the lengthy clean up put the show well behind schedule.
Heat races were up next. There were a couple of oil downs from other classes during the heats,
further delaying the schedule and adding a bunch of speedy dry at the end of turn two and on the
front straight. The Bay Cities Racing Association fielded two five car, eight lap heats. The first
eight lapper lined up with ageless Floyd Alvis on the pole pursued by Nick Foster, Jr., Nick
Chivello, Chad Nichols, and Mike Snider. At the drop of the green, Foster and Nichols blasted
around Alvis on the top of turn one and Chivello followed through on back straight. Snider
brought up the rear. Nichols got around Foster on lap two and pulled out a substantial lead.
Chivello took second on lap three and there was no additional passing. Nichols won followed by
Chivello, Foster, Alvis, and Snider
The second Midget Heat Lined up with Scott Pierovich and David Prickett on the front row
followed by Dillon Silverman, Tanner Swanson, and Kody Swanson. Pierovich’s mechanical
gremlins raised up again and the 35 car scratched putting Silverman up front. Lap one saw the
Brothers Swanson (Tanner first and Kody second) jump to the front followed by Silverman and
Prickett. Again, that was the extent of the passing and lap eight reflected lap one perfectly.
The Supermodifieds were relegated to one combined heat with Lonnie Adamson and Jim Birges
on the front row followed by Kyle Vanderpool and Davey Pombo in row two. The two remaining
360 cars were Carl Johnson and Shane Vanderpool. Birges and Adamson went side by side for
nearly two full laps with Jim leading at the line each lap. He finally cleared Adamson and gained a
small lead while K. Vanderpool, Pombo, S. Vanderpool, and Johnson rounded out the field. And
that was how the heat race wound up, with Birges taking the win. Carl Johnson( 1 second) and
Shane Vanderpool (3 seconds) ran substantially faster laps than where they had qualified.
After another substantial oil down on the back straight from the late model feature, the open
wheel features were next up. The schedule was revised to make sure the open wheel features
would be run and there were some unhappy vintage racers in the pits. The midget line up for the
thirty lap main event had Dillon Silverman, Nick Foster, Tanner Swanson, Nick Chivello, Kody
Swanson, and Chad Nichols in the six car invert. Rounding out the field were Floyd Alvis, David
Prickett, Scott Pierovich, and Mike Snider. Coming down for the start, Silverman turned the car
sideways coming off turn four and collected both Swansons to bring out red flag (and added
some more speedy dry to the now very slippery surface). Restart order was Alvis, Foster,
Pierovich, Chivello, Nichols, T. Swanson, K. Swanson with Prickett and Snider in the rear.
At the drop of the green, Alvis advanced rapidly rearward putting Chivello in the lead, followed by
Foster, Pierovich, Nichols and K. Swanson. With some banging and bumping on lap two, Chivello
maintained the lead with Kody moving to second followed by Foster, Nichols, and Pierovich. Lap
four saw both Pierovich and Tanner blow by Foster to take fourth and fifth. Kody Swanson
grabbed the lead on lap eight. At the end of ten laps, the top five were Swanson the elder,
Chivello, Nichols, Pierovich, and Swanson the younger.
The yellow was in the wind on lap sixteen when Chivello rolled to a stop in turn four. Just before
the green restart, Tanner Swanson was black flagged as he had deposited his muffler on the front
straight. Restart order was K. Swanson, Nichols, Pierovich, Foster and Silverman. Then Snider
spun in turn four and Tanner rejoined the field at the end of the lead lap after replacement of the
muffler by a crew member with apparently asbestos fingers. They found oil in turns three and four
on the bottom of the track and another lengthy delay ensued as the Speedy Dry concession
owner got richer. The bottom of three and four were very slippery and more resembled a skating
rink than a race track as the track crew headed to the storage barn for more speedy dry. On the
restart, Kody led over Nichols, Pierovich, Tanner and Foster as everyone tip-toed through three
and four when the yellow flew again for a spin by Alvis. On this restart, Pierovich got smart and
moved to the top of the track in the North turns to take second on lap nineteen and grab the lead
a lap later. Order after two thirds distance was Pierovich over K. Swanson, Nichols, T. Swanson,
and Foster.
Lap twenty one saw Tanner follow Pierovich’s line and move to second followed by Kody and
Nichols. A lap later Nichols reasserted his hold on third position at Kody Swanson’s expense.
The rest of the race ran cleanly although there was still a lot of skating around in turns three and
four with the still slick bottom and the grains of Speedy Dry contaminating the rest of the turns.
Scott Pierovich went from rags to riches after his earlier problems to win over T. Swanson,
Nichols, K. Swanson, and Foster
The remaining six Supermodifieds lined up with Davey Pombo on the pole followed by Kyle
Vanderpool, Jim Birges, and Lonnie Adamson. The 360 Supers of Shane Vanderpool and Carl
Johnson rounded out the field. The outside row moved quickly forward on the green flag lap with
K. Vanderpool leading over Adamson, Birges, and Pombo. Vanderpool was holding the middle
line as Adamson kept trying to pass on the bottom. There was absolutely no traction on the
bottom of three and four and both Adamson and Birges buzzed the tires trying to pass. Finally,
Adamson did a bonsai move across the bump at the entrance to turn one to get a slide job on
Vanderpool and then took off for another zip code. At ten laps, Adamson led over K. Vanderpool,
Birges, Pombo, and S, Vanderpool. Birges was all over the back of the 3 car but had the same
problem as Adamson in getting by. There was just no traction on the bottom of three and four.
Johnson headed for the pits on lap fourteen .After twenty laps, Adamson had a two thirds lap lead
over Vanderpool and Birges with Pombo one lap down, and Shane two laps down. With
Adamson quickly catching the other lead lap cars, Birges finally swept around Vanderpool on lap
twenty one and took off in pursuit of Lonnie who, by now, had the 98 on cruise control. Adamson
had caught Kyle by lap twenty six when Birges broke a water line and spun in turn two to end his
evening. Jim had a substantial steam burn on his right leg when visited later in the pits. The
yellow kept Kyle from getting lapped and the remaining four laps were uneventful. Adamson won
over K. Vanderpool, Pombo, S. Vanderpool, and Birges. It was about eight minutes past the 10:30
curfew with the vintage cars still to go. To really top off the lunacy of the evening, The 98 crew
was entertaining fans in the pits when the fickle wind blew the newly acquired Vukovich Classic
Trophy off the top of the pit box and shattered it into several pieces. There had to be full moon
somewhere!
With the addition of Brancato’s 82 and the Tatro owned 72 for Kody Swanson, the Supers gained
a little in the car count sector. But both were eliminated before the heats and we were down to six
cars. The midget field was only a bit better, but at least all of them started the feature. Hopefully,
additional owners will get their cars to the tracks before pavement style open wheel racing
disappears from the Western States landscape.
Madera Speedway Vukovich Classic
Bay Cities Racing Association Midgets
Qualifications: 1. Chad Nichols(17), 14.056; 2. Kody Swanson(4), 14.167; 3. Nick Chivello(27) ,
14.209; 4. Tanner Swanson(10), 14.329; 5. Nick Foster, Jr.(1), 14.683; 6. Dillon Silvermann(4K),
15.165; 7. Floyd Alvis(83), 15.309; 8. David Prickett(15), 15.524; 9. Mike Snider (2), 15.687; 10. Scott
Pierovich(35), 17.297.
Heat 1: 1. Nichols; 2. Chivello; 3. Foster; 4. Alvis; 5. Snider.
Heat 2:1. T. Swanson; 2. K. Swanson; 3. Silverman; 4. Prickett.
Feature: 1. Pierovich; 2. T. Swanson; 3. Nichols; 4. K. Swanson; 5. Foster; 6. Silverman; 7.
Prickett; 8. Snider; 9. Alvis; 10. Chivello.
Open and 360 class* Supermodifieds
Qualifications: 1. Lonnie Adamson(98), 12.660; 2. Jim Birges(32), 12.683; 3. Kyle Vanderpool(3),
13.018; 4. Davey Pombo(10), 13.508; 5. Carl Johnson(07)*, 15.456; 6. Shane Vanderpool(1)*,
17.097;, 7. Kody Swanson(72), 19.489; 8. Gerry Brancato(82)*, N/T.
Heat: 1. Birges; 2. Adamson; 3. K. Vanderpool; 4. Pombo; 5. S. Vanderpool*; 6. Johnson*.
Feature: 1. Adamson; 2. K. Vanderpool; 3. Pombo; 4. S. Vanderpool*; 5. Birges; 6. Johnson*; 7.
Swanson, DNS; 8. Brancato*, DNS.
