Uncle, nephew Doziers go 1-2 in winged sprints

On a night when 30 members of the Francis family were on hand to honor Marysville Raceway Park's first track promoter, Cy Francis, it was the Dozier family that came away as the night's biggest winners as Cort and Brandon Dozier raced to a 1-2 finish in the Pacific 360 sprint car main event on Saturday.

Cort wasted no time roaring to the front, as he passed pole-sitter Shawn Amos of Gridley before the first lap was completed and led the race wire-to-wire.

By lap seven, Cort had opened up a huge 2.5-second lead before a flat tire in turn three caused Kevin Lovell of Yuba City to spin out, bringing Dozier back to the rest of the field.

The crowd held its breath on lap nine when Elverta's Mike Wasina Jr. took a nasty spill after hitting an infield tire sideways at full speed and flipped twice before his car ended up back on four wheels.

The accident brought out the red flag and although Wasina was able to walk back to the pits under his own power, his car was left in pieces.

With Cort and nephew Brandon starting 1-2 on the restart, the Marysville natives took off to break away from the rest of the field to finish first and second, well ahead of third-place finisher Amos.

Three-time track champion Korey Lovell of Yuba City took fourth and series points-leader and two-time track champion Brent Dothage of Kelseyville finished sixth.

Tony Richards of Paradise took the checkered flag in a caution-free wingless sprint car main event, beating second-place finisher Jay Youngman of Grass Valley by nearly a full straightaway.

Series points-leader John C. Anderson of Sacramento started on the pole and led until encountering lap traffic on lap 13, where Richards made the pass on the outside of turn four.

The rest of the race belonged to Richards, who battled his way through lap traffic to win by nearly two seconds.

Youngman took second, Anderson settled for third and Tim Sherman Jr. of Rocklin, who started the evening se ond in the points standings, took fourth.

Jeff Olschowka of Yuba City took the checkered flag in the street stock main event that saw just six cars take the green flag to start the race.

Olschowka started on the outside of row one, took the lead before one circuit was complete and opened up a nice four-second lead until a mix-up on the sixth lap brought out the first yellow flag of the evening.

With just four cars left on the track, Olschowka and Lisa Shelby of Yuba City battled until Shelby spun out on lap nine.

Although she stayed on the lead lap, Shelby was not able to keep up with the pace and fell to the back of the pack.

With no lap traffic to contend with until the final lap, Olschowka cruised to an easy victory, easily out distancing Corey Hall of Sutter by nearly six and a half seconds.

Shelby regrouped to finish third and Brian Lewis of Brownsville took fourth.

Marysville's Jamey Ollar utilized great driving skills — and a little bit of luck — to take first in the mini-stock main event.

Eric Jones of Marysville started on the pole and was followed closely by Los Molinos' Kevin Brown until the first yellow flag dropped on lap eight.

Jones led the entire race until a mechanical failure sent him to the pits lap 18, allowing Ollar to take the lead and the checkered flag followed by Brown.

Olschowka finished third, Brent Hall of Sutter took fourth and series points-leader Joel Giusti of Sutter overcame a heat race mishap to finish fifth.

Browns Valley's Misty Castleberry, who entered the evening 21 points behind Giusti, battled technical problems all night and finished 14th.

Heat race winners were Phillip Shelby of Yuba City and Blain Varner Jr. of Sacramento in wingless sprints, Hall in street stocks, Wasina and Amos in winged sprints and Ollar, Brown and James Gillaspie of Olivehurst in mini-stocks.

Contact Appeal-Democrat sports reporter Andy Arrenquin at 743-0512 or e-mail him at aarrenquin@appealdemocrat.com