BUZZ SODEMAN MORE COLUMNS HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT Stock cars head for the finish line at the Pahrump Valley Speedway, where dry-slick conditions ruled the quarter-mile dirt oval Saturday night. Advertisement

One of the goals of promoter Joe Rogers Jr. was to jump-start the super stock division at the Pahrump Valley Speedway.

While the numbers have shown an increase, it is highly improbable that they will reach those of the mid-'90s when 30 to 40 of the stock-bodied hot rods were the norm.

At that time, when gas was at a reasonable price, drivers from Mohave Valley Raceway would often make the trek to the Pahrump speed plant.

High costs in maintaining a competitive race car, plus the increased cost of fuel and the graduation of super stock drivers to higher, more competitive classes decimated the class.

Heading the resurgence of the division are the likes of Bryan Wulfenstein, Dan Snowden and Michael Hildebrand, all of whom were present at Saturday evening's slugfest.

These three hot shoes made it rather obvious in the heats that they would be contending for the weekly bragging rights. All three easily won their heats, setting the table for a battle royal in the feature.

There is always one constant at the speedway: No matter what the conditions, it's a level playing field with everyone having to deal with the complex and changing track conditions, in this case dry slick.

Dry slick is a condition akin to taking your car out on a frozen pond and trying to maintain a constant speed while negotiating, or tiptoeing through, the turns.

Despite some controversy concerning alignment after the first yellow was displayed, it didn't take long before the aforementioned drivers were nose to tail in the running order.

Wulfenstein was on the point followed by either Snowden or Hildebrand. These three put on a clinic on how to pussyfoot on eggshells, race door handle to door handle with minimum contact. In the end, it was Wulfenstein taking the checkered flag, followed by Hildebrand, who made a late move on Snowden, who was relegated to third.

Rounding out the top five were Ron Moffatt and Shane Davis, subbing for Dale Daffern. The Daffern powerplant has the power to compete with the top three but lacks the consistency with each lap to muscle its way on to the podium.

One of the most popular divisions is the bombers, who never fail to bring their own brand of bravado and devil may care driving styles.

Much of the plaudits to the success of this division are the result of the traveling amigos from Las Vegas, who have abandoned the asphalt of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway's Bull Ring.

As always, it usually boils down to a Ford vs. Chevy showdown, and while it wasn't a Chevy in the winner's circle, it was a General Motors product.

At various stages of the main event, heat winners would assume the point only to suffer some malady or another.

Wade Pearson had the engine blow in his Chevrolet and there were spinouts by Billy Grasser and Gary Wyatt.

In the end, it was J.J. Nunn edging out Jim Sherard for his first feature win of the season. Dennis Thorn rounded out the top three. Following were Grasser and Wyatt. Heat winners were Pearson, Wyatt and Grasser.

It looked like one of two new faces was headed for a celebration at the flagstand in the mini stock feature.

It boiled down to Michael Brown and Robert Pearson. While Brown is a stranger to victory circle, his mount has visited it on several occasions when it was driven by Terri Little.

Pearson took advantage of the Browns' souring engine and closed what had been a healthy lead on the last lap on the backstretch.

Brown tried to make his little four-banger as wide as possible, but Pearson and his 1979 Toyota Celica muscled him out of the way in turn four to claim his first feature ever, if my statistics are correct.

Brown's Geo was able to hold on for second, barely edging out the pickup of Tony Martin.

Terry Hiser, also struggling after some early adversity, came home fourth with Anthony Broadhead and Jonathan Burch rounding out the top five.

Fifth was hard to call as both Broadhead and Burch had left the track at different stages of the battle for repairs and/or to replace a flat tire.

If the super stocks race was a slugfest, the modified main was a barroom brawl.

Again, the race would have to deal with the same playing field requiring the precision of a craftsman. This was a driver's race, where getting the horsepower to the track became secondary to being able to coordinate the manipulation of brake, power pedal and steering.

A couple of multi-car altercations slowed the action; the last was precipitated by a spin in between turns three and four by past feature winner Jay Rode that gathered Dave Jurist (driving a Modified owned by Corey Simoneau) and Jeff Talley.

The attrition found just three cars vying for the checker with Nunnally, the master of dry slick, nabbing yet another feature victory. Rode made a pass after a green/white start to edge out Talley for second.

This has proved to be a breakout season for the amiable Nunnally, who has been able to tame the changing conditions thus far through the season. Heat winners were Talley and Levi Kiefer.

Kiefer, who had been in the mix in the feature, left the fray with front-end difficulties after contact with Jurist in turn one just past the halfway mark of the race.

Perhaps the largest turnout of Nevada Cam Coupes this season found Donny Berger's son, Justin, making a clean sweep of the division.

The youngster has seen limited seat time behind the wheel of the vintage 305-cubic-inch racer. Another new face in a familiar car was Richard Grimm in a car formerly piloted by Bob Clark.

J. Berger led flag to flag in both the heat and feature. His dad, Donny, finished second in the main while David Banks completed the podium. Grimm finished fourth while multi-feature winner Hiser was unable to complete the required number of circuits.

If you blinked in the outlaw karts, you might not have missed a thing. The heat and the feature mirrored each other in their outcome.

Shane Nunnally, obviously looking into a feature seat in his dad's modified, had broom in hand to take home the laurels. Right in his rear view mirror were Matt Talley and Haley Nunnally.

Kart drivers dealt with more than their share of dry slick; they competed on a totally dry track that created considerable visibility challenges.