Taxi Cab Challenge Draws Rave Reviews

  Taxi Cab Challenge Held in Marysville 

 (FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE) 

By: Track Staff

(Marysville, CA 10/21/2023)  Veteran Yuba City racer Rod Oliver led the Extreme Late Model field and 71 total cars in the annual Taxi Cab Challenge Saturday night at Marysville Raceway.  While Oliver took the Late model 20 lap feature event honors, visitor Nicolas Johnson made the long haul from Bakersfield to top the 40 car Hobby Stock field.  Nick Baldwin won the 20 lap Pure Stock event and Richard Brace Jr., racing anonymously as Luke Warmwater, dominated the non-stop Pro Stock race.   

The West Coast Hobby Stock tour hosted the event and produced a strong 40 car field resulting in a 24 car B main event where only six would advance to the feature event.  A remarkably clean and trouble-free event was won by second row starter Paul Stephens.  Stephens was followed by Bobby Motts, Devin Koranda, Adriane Frost, Brian Horn, and Robert Arruda.  All transferred to the main event.   

Ken Johns parlayed the pole position of the Hobby Stock feature to immediately lead over Joe Gallaher and Paul Newman.  A brief yellow flew on lap 4 but just after the restart 8 cars were caught up in a frontstretch crash the left 5 parked including Newman who had a rear wheel ripped from his car.  No one was injured.  Once restarted the laps ticked off with Johns now being challenged by Nicolas Johnson, Stephen Johnson, and retiring local driver Jerry Bartlett.  As lapped traffic developed Nicolas Johnson made his move to the inside of Johns for the lead and kept it to the end.  Johns held onto second followed by Stephen Johnson, Bartlett, Kyle Cheney, and Devin Koranda.  Cheney came from 15th and Koranda from 19th in the starting grid. Hobby stock heat races were won by Newman, Brian Cooper, Bartlett, and James Foster.   

Ted Ahart set the pace for the Pure Stock feature before Baldwin chased him down just past the midway point.  Baldwin cruised to the win over Ahart, Jason Clayton Jr., Joe Conroy, and Niles Streever.  Heats were taken by Baldwin and Clayton. 

Oliver’s bold late model drive went flag to flag, Matt Micheli broke into second late in the race but settled for runner-up honors.  Anthony Slaney, Dan Brown Jr., and Tim Yeager followed.  Heats were taken by Brown and Yeager. 

Brace outran Phil Marino, Steve Studebaker, Ryan Cherezian, and Gene Gwin Jr. in the Pro stock race.  Chris Olexiwicz and Studebaker were heat winners.           (END)