Lovelady’s victory honors Clark

Tom Lovelady wanted to finish opening night of the short-track season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in a manner befitting the way it began.

About three hours after the unveiling of a monument to late Bullring champion Spencer Clark, the 18-year-old Lovelady paid further tribute to his friend by winning the Super Late Models feature.

Lovelady won in a race car maintained and tuned by Clark’s father, T.J.

Clark was 19 when he died as a passenger in a traffic accident in New Mexico in May.

“It was an all-around great night,” said Lovelady, a senior at Spring Valley High School. “Spencer taught me everything he knew when I was starting to race.”

Lovelady applied those lessons well before an estimated crowd of 3,500 in the NASCAR All-American Series opener at the three-eighths-mile oval. He led the 40-lap feature from start to finish and held off Jimmy Parker Jr. over the last half of the race.

Parker, 20, passed Lovelady twice, but each move was negated by cautions caused by crashes at the rear of the pack. When a yellow flag comes out, the running order reverts to the last green lap.

But Parker saved his most aggressive move for the final turn of the race. He nudged Lovelady’s left rear bumper, but Lovelady maintained control coming off the turn and sprinted to the line first.

“He gave us a little boot in the bumper. I got back into the throttle and was able to straighten it out,” said Lovelady, who logged his third career victory in the division.

Parker had several chances to use his bumper to take the lead but said he had no intention of causing Lovelady to crash.

“Tom and I are friends,” he said. “My dad always taught me to race the other guy the way I want to be raced.

“And I knew if I’d have taken him out, I’d have been sent to the back, too,” Parker said, referring to the Bullring rule that penalizes a driver for causing an accident.

“I’m not going to ruin a friendship over racing,” he added.

The night marked the introduction of heat races and other changes to the Bullring program that provided a near nonstop, three-hour show.

The most excitement resulted from what at first seemed to be a horrific crash in the Legends Cars race.

Josh Gross, 16, spun at the front of a pack of cars at the start-finish line with six laps left in the 25-lap race. Two cars veered around the wrecked car, but a third, driven by John Davis, plowed into Gross broadside at about 60 mph.

Emergency workers had to remove the top of Gross’ car to extricate him and he was unconscious for almost 15 minutes. He was kept at University Medical Center overnight for observation and was still in the hospital Sunday night.

Other winners Saturday: Doug Hamm, Late Models; Jentry Pisca, IMCA Modifieds; Brian Matzke, Chargers; Chris Buscher, Legends Cars; and Jacob Bishop, Bandoleros.