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By Steven Blakesley
Blakesley Sports Media
WATSONVILLE, Calif. (Aug. 23, 2024) – Ocean Speedway in Watsonville concluded its 2024 IMCA Speedway Motors Weekly Racing point season Friday night at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds on an exciting night on the dirt.
Jim Pettit wrapped up back-to-back Friesen Performance IMCA Modified titles while 18-year-old Emali VanHoff claimed her first Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod championship.
The Modifieds had an outstanding quality field for a 25-lap feature. Robert Marsh went through the middle down the backstretch to lead lap one after starting third. Marsh then spun in turn two, sparking a chain reaction crash. Fred Lind flipped side over side wildly to draw a red flag. Lind was uninjured.
Bobby Hogge drove into the lead on lap seven with former champ Cody Burke and Pettit in pursuit in second and third.
A series of cautions over the next 10 laps kept the field in close quarters. Hogge survived an onslaught of challenges from Burke and Pettit to score the championship finale win over Pettit, Burke, eighth-starting Jacob Mallet Jr. and Austin Burke.
Pettit’s second place finish was enough to seal a second consecutive championship for the Hall of Fame driver.
Matt Hagio claimed back-to-back IMCA SportMod feature wins, topping a 17-car turnout in the 20-lap main event.
Hagio led all 20-laps wire-to-wire. Gavin Espino and Steven Allee had a spirited battle for second for the first half of the contest. Espino was held up in lapped traffic and fell back to the seventh position on lap nine when he was freight trained backwards. Fred Ryland took over second on lap 12 and Allee also went the wrong direction back to fifth.
Hagio accumulated a 4.5 second advantage but it was nullified by a caution flag on lap 16. Hagio held off Ryland over the final four circuits for the win. Jeff Mead, Rob Gallaher and Buddy Kniss rounded out the top five. Despite not having a win this season, VanHoff used consistency to wrap up the championship with a seventh place finish.
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