Lopez leads Washington drivers with first win in Eureka BCRA clash

by Andrew Kunas

EUREKA, Calif. - Brea Lopez was talking about it just a few hours before the main event. In her third full season racing midget cars she had yet to win a feature race and it was starting to get to her.

Worry no more. Later on Saturday night, the barely five-foot tall 18-year-old from Vader, Wash. charged forward from her 12th starting position to win the Bay Cities Racing Association event at Redwood Acres Raceway.

Lopez was one of three full-time competitors from the Washington Midget Racing Association who ventured to northern California for the event that saw 19 cars take part. A fourth car with strong WMRA ties was also in Eureka. Evaluating the group’s achievements on Saturday, Lopez’s victory was the biggest highlight of an otherwise up-and-down evening for the Washington teams.

“I’m so happy, I can’t put it into words,” said an elated Lopez about her first career midget triumph. Lopez was eager to celebrate and would’ve done just that on the front stretch where she first parked her car and jumped out of it, if only she didn’t have to go back to the pits immediately as one of the local classes was coming onto the track for their main event.

Saturday’s event was the second BCRA event attended by a group of WMRA teams this season. The first race, March 31 at Shasta Raceway Park, was also won by a WMRA driver, Dallas Melby.

Melby of Ravensdale, Wash. earned top honors in qualifying, while Ethan “Snake” Livernash of Spanaway and Lopez were second and third quick, respectively. Melby, however, drew a pill that resulted in a staggering 14-car invert for the main event. Evan Funk, driving a car for former WMRA standout Rob Lindsey, ended up outside the front row as a result of that invert.

Funk led laps two to 13 aboard Lindsey’s No. 23 Beast with an Esslinger motor. Funk, however, started having problems and faded as Ralph Cortez of Sacramento took the lead on lap 14 after surrendering it to Funk earlier. It was a discovered that the fuel pick-up hose in the tail tank was sitting on the wrong side as it had been knocked over during Funk’s crash a month ago at Madera Speedway in central California.

Funk, who is third in the Northwest Sprint Challenge Series point standings in his family’s dirt sprint car, later spun in the race and would finish ninth. Funk and Lindsey were clearly disappointed as their car was running well after many changes were made following Funk’s 13th place effort in qualifying. After the changes to the car, Funk started seventh and drove his way to a second place finish in the first heat race. Funk was running well up front during the main event until his motor began starving for fuel to consume.

Lopez, also driving the No. 25 Beast with an Esslinger owned by her grandfather Dan Press, found herself in the third position on lap 15 and second on lap 18. She immediately went after leader Ralph Cortez of Sacramento and attempted to pass him on the next lap. Lopez tried to go high into turn three of the 3/8-mile, semi-banked asphalt oval, but ended up catching Cortez’s right rear wheel, which kicked her up the track and allowed two cars to pass for position.

“The first time I may have gone a little too fast going in,” Lopez admitted. “I just tried to get around Cortez on the outside and tagged his right rear, which knocked me out.”

The yellow flag came out on lap 21 for Funk’s spin in turn four, bunching the field back together. Lopez, still running fourth, caught a break on lap 22 when second running Travis Berryhill of American Canyon, Calif. and third running Michael Faccinto of Hanford got together on the back stretch, allowing Lopez to drive right back by them into the second position.

Lopez went back to Cortez, but this time waited four laps to make her move. On the 26th circuit, Lopez got to the outside of Cortez as they exited turn two and went down the track’s curved back stretch. Lopez shot ahead into the lead as they entered turn three and led the remaining laps from there.

Funk’s early lead and Lopez’s eventual win were the pluses for the WMRA contingent, but not all was well as good nights turned sour in the 30-lap feature for Melby and Livernash, who started side-by-side in the seventh row because of the invert. The Redwood Acres track had a lot of room which allowed a lot of fast, close racing, but several crashes occurred and Livernash became the innocent victim of one crash on lap three he was not a part of at first.

Livernash, who was earlier surprised when he learned he was second fastest in qualifying aboard his father Scott’s No. 55 Beast with an Esslinger, avoided the crashed cars of Kevin Morris and Michael Binswanger to his outside in turn four without trouble from them, only to get tagged hard in the left side by another car. The car was still rolling but Livernash parked it as there was severe damage to the port side of the car that made it unsafe to continue.

Livernash, last year’s WMRA Rookie of the Year out of Spanaway, was credited with 17th place in his first visit to Redwood Acres Raceway. Livernash’s trip was made possible thanks to financial help they received from big sponsor Murray-Mac Motorsports.

Melby’s night ended on a bitter note as he crashed out of the race as the cars on the track all slowed for a caution. Melby was running ninth, with Lopez in front of him, on a lap 11 restart. All of the cars were racing closely together and Melby was tight behind Lopez as they raced around turns one and two. As that was happening, two other cars at the back to the field tangled on the front stretch and took out the restart cone. As the yellow lights came on and the cars started to slow on the back stretch, Melby ran over Lopez’s left rear wheel and crashed hard into the turn three wall.

Melby, winner of two races this season including the WMRA’s opener last month at South Sound Speedway, was clearly dejected about his night being over as the Chris Melby-owned No. 9 Blue Dot with a Stanton Mopar motor was severely damaged as a result of his major misfortune on the track.

Setting fast time and then finishing fifth in his heat race after starting at the back, Melby may have had the strongest car in the field Saturday. Moving forward in the main event, a strong finish, if not a win, seemed likely for Melby. Instead, he was credited with 12th place and went home with a badly wounded race car.

Melby, Livernash and Lopez, as the fastest three qualifiers, took part in the four-lap dash race with Berryhill, who was fourth quickest and the only non-Washington driver in that event. Berryhill, however, bested the visitors from the Evergreen State as he won over Lopez, Melby, and Livernash.

Funk’s second place finish in the first heat came behind Cortez. In the second heat which was won by Faccinto, Livernash took sixth behind Melby. Lopez was eighth as she holding back for a time to test changes made to her car. The heat races had no impact on the line-up for the feature race.

Justin Grant, the BCRA point leader, finished second behind Lopez in the feature. Cortez was third with Faccinto fourth and Gary Dickenson fifth. Eric Mostin, Rick Faeth, Bill Lindsey, Funk and Berryhill rounded out the top ten.

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Unofficial results provided by BCRA
WMRA-related cars are *starred*

Qualifying (WMRA cars only) -
1. 9 Dallas Melby, 14.977
2. 55 Ethan “Snake” Livernash, 15.071
3. 25 Brea Lopez, 15.081
13. Evan Funk, 15.704

Dash (4 laps): 1. 11 Travis Berryhill, 2. *25 Brea Lopez*, 3. *9 Dallas
Melby*, 4. *55 Snake Livernash*.

Heat 1 (10 laps): 1. 31 Ralph Cortez, 2. *23 Evan Funk*, 3. 8 Gary
Dickenson, 4. 26 Glenn Carson, 5. 15 David Prickett, 6. 3 Rick Faeth, 7. 61
Bill Lindsey, 8. 87 Joe Lindsey, 9. 18 Floyd Alvis.

Heat 2 (10 laps): 1. 41 Michael Faccinto, 2. 17 Kevin Morris, 3. 30 Justin
Grant, 4. 63 Michael Binswanger, 5. *9 Dallas Melby*, 6. *55 Snake
Livernash*, 7. 10 Shane Golobic, 8. *25 Brea Lopez*, 9. 11 Travis Berryhill,
10. 12 Eric Mostin.

Feature (30 laps): 1. *25 Brea Lopez*, 2. 30 Justin Grant, 3. 31 Ralph
Cortez, 4. 41 Michael Faccinto, 5. 8 Gary Dickenson, 6. 12 Eric Mostin, 7. 3
Rick Faeth, 8. 61 Bill Lindsey, 9. *23 Evan Funk*, 10. 11 Travis Berryhill,
11. 18 Floyd Alvis, 12. *9 Dallas Melby*, 13. 15 David Prickett, 14. 26
Glenn Carson, 15. 17 Kevin Morris, 16. 63 Michael Binswanger, 17. *55 Snake
Livernash*, DQ’d - 10 Shane Golobic, DNS - 87 Joe Lindsey.