REVERSAL OF FORTUNES - OLSON OVER MESERAULL IN MERIDIAN SERIES.

By Floyd Busby

 MERIDIAN, ID., JULY 23: Brian Olson emerged the winner over Thomas Meseraull, a reversal of fortunes from the previous night, as the third round of the Pacific Northwest Midget Championship Series was recorded at the two-race Meridian Speedway segment of the four-race series -- and again, as with the previous evening, it was misfortune that removed the perceived winner from victory circle in the WMRA, BCRA and IMRA sanctioned event.

Eric Mostin, the leader from the green flag, spun in water on the 33rd lap. The incident also took out new one-lap track record holder Rick Moss as he was rammed from behind while running fifth.

The incident put race-long battlers Olson and Meseraull into the front two slots.

At the green Mostin led off from the pole aboard the Mike Mostin Gaerte Chevy powered Beast over Matt Stone and fourth-starting Meseraull. John Sarale brought up the next position over Olson and Moss.

Meseraull moved by for second on the second lap as Stone's Gaerte Chevy Beast dropped two spots with Sarale's Chevy Beast rocketing into third.
The caution flag appeared on the fourth lap after Pete Davis was helped into a turn-four spin and, independently of Davis, Spence Gatrell was forced into the turn-three protective barrels, sending him to the pits.

At the green Meseraull, aboard the Bill Ferrari Esslinger Beast in which he had won the previous evening, began working on the leader, and Olson, now in fourth in the Richard Flake Ford Beast, put pressure Sarale. Olson made good his bid on the eighth circuit to command third.

It soon became apparent that Meseraull and Olson had the faster cars, but Mostin did exactly what he needed to do by driving his own race, forcing his competitors to try to out-drive him on the one-groove oval.

Nearing the half-way point of the 40-lapper, Olson made every attempt to pass Meseraull with the duo side-by-side on several occasions, leading to the 23rd round when he finally pulled slightly ahead to take over second. Meseraull battled back, attempting to run on the outside, but success outside of the groove was nearly impossible. At one point Meseraull got the advantage exiting turn-two and returned to second, only to have Olson take back the advantage two laps later in their tight concentrated struggle.

Meanwhile Mostin was running his flawless race up front - but that all came to an abrupt end when Davis spun in his own escaping water into the turn-one wall. Mostin could not correct for the slick track and spun in the middle of turn-one. During the braking and evasive action to miss Mostin, Stone was unable to react in time and he plowed into the rear of Moss, lifting the Ed Pink Ford/Beast into the air and sending the nine-time WMRA champion into a spin. Both Mostin and Moss were able to restart in the rear.

As with Kenny Ferris the previous evening, Mostin's nearly-assured first win of the season went awry, putting the Meseraull/Olson due into the lead, but this time with Olson holding the upper hand!

The race resumed to its conclusion with Olson holding off Meseraull. Sarale brought up third over Stone, Chuck Gurney Jr., Skeeter Flake, Rob Lindsey, Steve Spoor, Brea Lopez and Dallas Melby rounding out the top-ten of the 17 cars running at the finish.

Olson was the first to eradicate the 1999 one-lap qualifying mark held by John Starks of 13.294, but Moss came out several cars later to lower the mark to 13.219.

Twenty-nine cars took the green flag for time trials after losing two cars from the previous evening.

Bobby Dalton won the B-Dash with Sarale winning the A-Dash.

Heat wins went to Mark Torrez, Kenny Wood, Spence Gatrell and Chuck Gurney Jr. Kenny Ferris, Garratt Boyden, Tony Seidelman and Stuart Birkinbine took the top-four semi positions to transfer to the rear of the feature.

SUMMARY:
QUAL: 1. Rick Moss, #50 Beal 13.219 (Record); 2. Brian Olson, #71 Flake 13.241; 3. Thomas Meseraull, #69 Ferrari 13.353; 4. John Sarale, #32 Sarale 13.361; 5. Matt Stone, #10 Stone 13.407; 6. Eric Mostin, #12 Mostin 13.466; 7. Skeeter Flake, #17 Flake 13.475; 8. Chuck Gurney Jr., #47 Dennett 13.489; 9. Brea Lopez, #25 Press 13.497; 10. Rob Lindsey, #23 Lindsey 13.531; 11. Steve Spoor, #23i Spoor 13.532; 12. Joe Ransom, #86 Hampe 13.562; 13. Dallas Melby, #9 Melby 13.568; 14. Spence Gatrell, #8 Gatrell 13.575; 15. Michael Hubert III, #56 Hubert 13.621; 16. Pete Davis, #00 Davis 13.639; 17. Bobby Dalton, #36 Dalton 13.656; 18. Kenney Ferris, #28 Ferris 13.656; 19. Garratt Boyden, #42 Boyden 13.683; 20. Stuart Birkinbine, #02 Birkinbine 13.688; 21. Tony Seidelman, #44 Manners 13.751; 22. Kenny Wood, #93 Wood 13.789; 23. Ken Muth, #14 Muth 14.076; 24. Nick Seidelman, #4 Seidelman 14.162; 25. David Prickett,
#15 Prickett 14.197; 26. Mark Torrez, #45 Voss 14.286; 27. Bob Dalton Sr., #36D 14.401; 28. Alan Norton, #69X Norton 14.437; 29. Joe Lindsey, #23X Lindsey 14.559.

B-DASH: B. Dalton, Davis, Ferris, Hubert. 54.37.
A-DASH: Sarale, Moss, Meseraull, Olson. 53.53.

HEAT-1: Torrez, N. Seidelman, Prickett, Dalton Sr., J. Lindsey, Norton. 1:53.25 (8-lap).
HEAT-2: Wood, T. Seidelman, Birkinbine, Ferris, Boyden, B. Dalton, Davis. 1:51.00 (8-lap).
HEAT-3: Gatrell, Hubert, Melby, Ransom, Spoor, R. Lindsey, Lopez. 1:44.75 (8-lap).
HEAT-4: Gurney, Flake, Mostin, Sarale, Meseraull, Olson, Stone, Moss. 1:45.21 (8-lap).

SEMI: Ferris, Boyden, T. Seidelman, Birkinbine, B. Dalton, Prickett, J. Lindsey, Dalton Sr., Norton, Torrez. 3:19.93 (15-lap).

MAIN (40-laps): 1. Brian Olson, 2. Thomas Meseraull, 3. John Sarale, 4. Matt Stone, 5. Chuck Gurney Jr., 6. Skeeter Flake, 7. Rob Lindsey, 8. Steve Spoor, 9. Brea Lopez, 10. Dallas Melby, 11. Michael Hubert III, 12. Garratt Boyden, 13. Tony Seidelman, 14. Kenny Ferris, 15. Joe Ransom, 16. Rick Moss, 17. Eric Mostin, 18. Pete Davis, 19. Stuart Birkinbine, 20. Spence Gatrell. NT

NOTES: During the caution period in the feature following Mostin's spin, Chuck Gurney Jr. snagged the starting line cone when he was forced low because of a push truck in the one-lane path at the line.
He proceeded to drag the cone around the track about 20-feet behind the Dennett Chevy/Beast to the crowd's delight!
At the conclusion of the feature, a "pumped" Thomas Meseraull rounded the fourth turn and gave a "thumbs up" to Brian Olson. In his jubilation of the exciting battle, he hit the throttle a bit hard and proceeded to perform an unintentional smoke emitting spin at the finish line.
In the two-race point chase to determine the track champion of the event, it was a tie between Olson and Meseraull!
The final BCRA/WMRA Pacific Northwest Midget Championship Series race will be held at the Shasta Raceway Park in Anderson, CA on September 24.
Bob Dalton Sr., with race driving experience only on dirt in stock cars in the 80's, took the team dirt car, prepped for pavement, for a ride. He qualified and ran in a heat and semi with a big smile under his helmet, I'm sure! This is the same nine-year-old chassis that he had loaned to friend Chase Barber to use for his Ford Focus after the regular car was severely damaged. Barber, the series point leader, won a couple of races in the old Dalton chassis before getting his new chassis.