MACHADO STORMS FROM 18TH TO WIN TRI STATE PROSTOCKS AT ANTIOCH

(6/7/2020 from Tri State ProStock Challenge PR) – After nearly four months on hiatus, the Tri State ProStock Challenge returned with a bang on Saturday night. Racers across the West Coast have been clamoring for the chance to get back on track, resulting in a strong 24 car showing for the tour’s first visit to the East Bay facility.

With the quarter-mile oval making major changes to the track layout and surface over the offseason, the night would prove to be a learning process for all in attendance, evidenced by the seven cautions that would wave during the 20-lap feature. In the end, it was one of the West Coast’s most recognizable names in the class, Rohnert Park’s Mitch Machado, who would tame the Antioch bullring and pull out a close victory.

Machado’s win was no small task as he rolled off 18th in the 20 car field, while Merced’s Peter Coberly, making his third ever start, and Reno veteran Bill Pearson leading the race to green. As the green flag flew, it was Pearson jumping out to an early advantage, with Coberly and Matt Micheli following close behind.

While Pearson kept his narrow advantage up front, Coalinga, California’s Ryan Smith was making plenty of early headway, moving up six spots in the opening five circuits to take sixth.

Heartbreak struck just a short time later, as the rookie Coberly’s promising outing came to an end after breaking a left tie rod and bringing the car to a halt just shy of the Turn 1 wall. Despite the short outing, Coberly noted that he was ecstatic with how the night went, as the car was much more competitive than even he expected.

The race would resume for a brief moment before another caution waved for the young Randy Miramontez spinning in turn one.

As the race got going again, the race up front returned to a three car battle, as Micheli and Ryan Smith took turns peeking to the outside of Pearson with little success. The third caution of the race waved ten laps in, as Redding’s Bill Hall went for a spin in turn four. The ensuing restart went nowhere, as fourth place runner Jerry Bartlett looped it in turn two to bring out yellow number four. Bartlett, one of the tour’s more vocal drivers, was openly supportive of the new Antioch. Bartlett cited that despite not being the biggest fan of dry slick surfaces, the new layout provided a much racier track that proved to be a blast.

Yet again, the caution would wave on the restart, as former Antioch Limited Late Model Champ Jim Freethy spun. The field would manage a single lap under green on the next go, before we once again were under yellow for local driver John Evans and Oregon’s James Flowers getting together on the backstretch.

While under caution, new race leader Matt Micheli was ordered to the rear of the field, as officials had warned the Live Oak driver twice about his speeds under caution, causing Micheli to pull off and end his night prematurely. With Micheli gone, Pearson inherited the lead as we got back to racing. At this point, 20th place starter Matt Kile had found himself in fifth, in a nearly 30 year old car that had sat for the last five years. Kile noted that the team’s goals coming in were to just make the main and maybe sneak into the top-ten, so the success they found Saturday made team owners the Calhoun Brothers extremely happy.

Back under green, Pearson was faced with a new challenger in the form of Lake Isabella’s Wayne Coffman. The SoCal native started 15th on the grid and had methodically worked his way through the field to eventually take the lead on lap 12. Pearson, Ryan Smith and 18th place starter Machado would get together in turn four, not bringing out a caution but ultimately ending Smith’s night with a broken front spindle. Smith mentioned after the race that he believed he had a car with a great shot to win, but that incident derailed any of those ideas.

Just as it looked like Coffman possibly had the race in hand, drama struck once again with four to go, as his pull bar mount had completely ripped off the chassis, ending his night and handing the lead to Machado. After the race, Coffman commented on how despite the tough ending, he was happy with the car and how well the changes he made after the heats worked, as he admitted he didn’t think he stood a chance going into the feature considering how deep he started.

As one final caution waved with three to go for Miramontez and Hall, Pearson’s night came to a sudden end as he had to pull into the infield with an apparent mechanical failure, handing 2nd place over to Ryan Smith’s father Chris Smith.

Smith, who had spent a good portion of the race running midpack, now found himself with a chance to take home a huge win. Despite all of Smith’s attempts, Machado would hold off the late race charge from Smith to claim the $1,000 payday. Kile, Freethy and Mike Walko would round out the top-five. After the event, Smith mentioned how he thought he was going to see his son Ryan win the biggest race of his career, but was happy to find himself with a chance to win late.

Heat Race wins earlier in the night went to Mike Walko, Kimo Oreta, Jerry Bartlett and Terry Decarlo Sr.

Unofficial Top 10:
1st Mitch Machado
2nd Chris Smith
3rd Matt Kile
4th Jim Freethy
5th Mike Walko
6th Jerry Bartlett
7th Ryan Cherezian
8th Chris Long
9th Bill Hall III
10th James Flowers

The Tri State ProStock Challenge would like to send out two big thank yous. The first goes to Chad and Tina Chadwick for hosting the tour, as well as for the invite back later this season. The 2nd goes to Lyle Hopper of Winning Attitude Motorsports, for his continual support of the series and contributions to the Antioch purse.