BUZZ SODEMAN MORE COLUMNS BUZZ SODEMAN / SPECIAL TO THE PVT Stock cars race at the Pahrump Valley Speedway, a quarter-mile dirt oval. BUZZ SODEMAN / SPECIAL TO THE PVTStock cars race at the Pahrump Valley Speedway, a quarter-mile dirt oval. Advertisement

It's obvious that the residents of Pahrump are willing to stand in long lines to see Detroit iron being destroyed right before their eyes.

There were long lines at the pit gate, at the front gate, at the food concession, at the beer concession and at the relief stations.

That was the good news, as far as the promoter was concerned, but the bad news was that there were just two "tuna boats," out of the six that supposedly "pre-entered" according to the promoter, that showed up to be rendered into massive hulks of crumpled steel.

I know that modified driver Levi Kiefer had asked Ray Elam, owner/operator of City Auto, to purchase two cars at the Mannheim Auto auction, one for J.R. Caha and the other for Michelle Wulfenstein.

Elam came back empty- handed when cars that barely ran were going for over $300. The problem that exists is that junkyards are paying $225 for that hunk of steel. Casey Kiefer even offered an additional $200 to the winner if any of the bomber drivers opted to participate (no takers).

I opted to depart the racetrack as the water truck was turning the front stretch into a sea of slop. I can sit out on Highway 160, on any given day, and watch passenger cars nearly destroyed by the inattentive, rude and ill-tempered drivers that crawl through the thoroughfare on a daily basis.

More than 60 race cars turned out to test the tacky track against the skills of their fellow competitors. Testosterone hung as heavy in the air as the humidity and oppressive heat wafting through the spectator stands, it was a trio of females that tamed Pahrump's quarter-mile dirt track.

Terri Little, who no longer qualifies as the blonde bombshell, may soon be tagged with the Black Widow moniker as she definitely weaves her mojo that must have her husband, Cory, shaking his head.

In the Pro-4 feature, Terri dogged her husband's rear bumper before making a clean pass for the lead. Almost immediately, Cory spun out, much as he had in the heat race. In the heat race, Cory was leading when he spun.

The spin by Cory elevated Cody Connell to second place while C. Little rounded out the podium.

For whatever reason, less than half of the Pro-4's were running at the drop of the checkered flag. It was also painfully obvious that the lone Nevada Cam Coupe, a 305-cubic-inch-powered, eight-cylinder that was for sale was no match for the four cylinders of fury that propel the Pro-4's.

One driver who may be checking out resumes on Sunday morning may be Eric Slusher. During his heat race, in which he was leading, he suddenly lost power.

Then during the Southwest Modified Mini feature event, he literally dropped his radiator just south of the flagstand at the drop of the green flag.

With the class points leader on the trailer, last year's mini stock champion, Rick Gast, won the main event.

Gast was chased to the finish line by Keith Young. Rounding out the podium was Frankie England Jr., who was debuting his modified mini that arrived without a number. Bubba Ray claimed heat race honors.

It seems that whatever type of racecar that Terry Hiser chooses to pilot, she seems to set her sights on nothing less than the checker flag.

That was the case in the mini stock main event. Driving the car that Mike Lysinger captured his first feature win in, Hiser was never headed in making it two-for-two for the female contingent. Hiser, who is a grandmother, put away male counterparts that could easily be her children.

Attrition kept the track clear of lapped vehicles, so once the leader got to the point, she easily put distance between her and second place finisher, Tony Martin. Points leader Jonathan Burch was in third at the finish followed by Michael Brown and Jason Skinner.

Heat winners were Hiser and the youngster, Robert Preston.

There was a fine showing of super stocks, despite the absence of Frank Bridwell, Dan Snowden and Michael Hildebrand.

The Snowman's car was piloted by long-time crew chief Billy Couch. Thirteen supers streamed out of the pits, fodder for Bryan Wulfenstein, the third generation of the Wulfenstein Wrecking Crew.

After a very convincing win in the heat, Wulfenstein kept his car from falling into the jaundice that seemed to permeate the feature.

Jonny Petaros, who appears to have found some more ponies under Milo's old ride, was running very strong until one spin took him out of second and another earned him the black flag. The buzz in the stands was that if Danny Katzer could get close to Wulfenstein that just maybe there would be a challenge to the Wulfenstein juggernaut.

Katzer had the opportunity but watched it slip right through his hands, so he settled for second. Dale Daffern has the power to stay with Wulfenstein but erratic lap times relegated him to third on the podium. Rounding out the top five were Eric Henderson and Russ Meads. Daffern succumbed to the Wulfenstein mystique in the heat race while leading.

In the modifieds, Donny Berger proved once again that experience could temper youthful exuberance as he refused to fold under the pressure from challenges from Levi Kiefer and Dave Jurist.

In all the years that I have watched Berger wheel his modified around various dirt ovals in the southwest, this has to be the first time that he garnered a win without bouncing off any restraining walls. Berger was driving one of Jeff Talley's back-up cars instead of his usual mount.

Kiefer perhaps had the best chance to capture the checkered flag, until he encountered steering difficulties (diagnosed by Elam as a broken upper control arm) which put him in the hauler. It appeared that Kiefer's awesome chassis was almost too radical for the track conditions.

Jurist moved into the second slot following Kiefer's departure but was unable to rattle the unflappable Berger. Todd Nunnally was just as fast as the aforementioned drivers but had to settle for third. Last race feature winner, Jay Rode, finished fourth.

In one of the track promoter's better decisions, what would have been two heats of modifieds was turned into a prelude for the feature when Talley's car died on the warm up lap. Nunnally claimed the heat, holding off Kiefer and Berger. Talley returned for the feature but is dealing with some mechanical demons.

With the wealth of bombers in attendance, I had expected that they would provide their own brand of demolition derby but that wasn't the case as they only brought out three yellows.

The action was hot and heavy with cars exiting and then returning to the action. I actually had to watch the last few laps of the race from the scorers' tower so that I would have the official running order. These young ladies have an unenviable job of trying to keep everything in the right order.

Phil Goodwin, a regular competitor at the BullRing in Las Vegas, made the adjustment from asphalt to dirt and parlayed it into a feature victory. Goodwin was welded on the rear bumper of J.J. Nunn until he utilized lapped traffic to make the pass on Nunn. Early challenger Harold Sherrard caught fire while trying to re-fire after the second yellow of the event.

Nunn was forced to settle for second in his new ride followed by Utah's Matt Larson, Steven Creech and Jim Sherrard. Heat winners were Billy Grasser, J. Sherrard and Goodwin.

While the third female of the trio of ladies didn't win the outlaw karts feature, she did snatch the heat win. Haley Nunnally grabbed the win when Matt Talley had his engine go south, probably due to the heat and humidity. Haley's brother and points leader Shane also experienced difficulties.

Talley reversed the finishing order in the feature displacing H. Nunnally to second while S. Nunnally continued to experience motor problems.

During the intermission, a group of youngsters raced their bikes on the big track; the race was won by an 11-year-old named Bryce. It's newsworthy that the last place finisher, Davey Crockett, pedaling what appeared to be a mini dirt bike, received a standing ovation. Crockett couldn't have been more than 6 years old.

For the record, I was headed home just after the bewitching hour of midnight, having sweated out seven classes of race cars. Add the blast furnace breeze blowing the dust directly into the face of the spectators and you have all the ingredients for what one track scribe described as "horrible racing."