Las Cruces Hot City Nights turned out to be a windy one at the Vado Speedway Park in Vado, NM on Saturday, April 17th, but the action on the track was definitely hotly contested in all five divisions that were in action throughout the evening.

14th starting Jake Gallardo didn’t waste much time storming to the front of the field in the USRA B-Mod main event and was able to wrestle the lead away from early leader Hector Barraza before the mid-point of the event. Once Gallardo got out front, he ran off to his third straight victory, while Greg Gorham raced from 7th up to 3rd ahead of Barraza, who crossed the line in third. 12th starting Mingo Jauregui and 19th starting John Carney Sr. worked their way through the field to finish fourth and fifth, respectively.

Eric McNutt and Sam Alonso shared row number one in the Southwest Late Model feature event, but 4th starting Rob Moseley, in his first ever Late Model start, quickly powered around the outside and took command early on. Moseley raced alone out front until 11th starting Levi DeMartino, also in his first Late Model start, began to work his way through the pack and raced his #73 into the top five. From there, he worked his way around the low side of the track and began to pressure Moseley out front as the leaders began to work through lapped traffic. The duo circled the speedway in close proximity in the late stages of the event, while Kent Rosevear, in his first ever visit to the speedway, was charging hard in third. The top three tightened up with just two laps to go and as the white flag flew, it was anyone’s race. DeMartino charged to the inside of Moseley as the field entered turn three for the final time and was able to steal the lead and the win with a last corner pass. Moseley crossed the line with a second place finish ahead of Rosevear, McNutt and Dave Deetz in the top five. Unfortunately for DeMartino, he failed to go to the tech area after his win and was disqualified, lifting Moseley to his first career Late Model victory.

A pair of young lions, Jett Carney and Daniel Blaeser brought the field of 305 Winged Sprint Cars to the green for their 25-lap main event and Carney was able to assume control at the start and hold off all challengers en route to his first career Winged Sprint Car feature win at the Vado Speedway Park. Jett blasted off out front and lead from wire to wire, hitting his marks lap after lap en route to the win, while Royal Jones, Rick Ziehl and Derek DeMartino put on a thrilling show for the runner up spot all event long. Ziehl was able to get the best of a late race green-white-checkered finish and cross the line with a runner up finish ahead of Jones, DeMartino and 11th starting Wes Wofford.

Aydan Saunders continued his winning ways at the Vado Speedway Park as well, racing from his 11th starting position to claim his third win of the season after a torrid battle with Peter Smith, Dave Smith and Eli Woody up front in the waning stages of the 20-lap event. Josh Jackson, who worked his way toward the front from his 12th starting spot, fell out of the race, setting up a Saunders-Smith showdown as the laps wound down. Saunders was up to the challenge and raced his #8 to Western Tech victory lane ahead of Peter Smith, Woody, Jerod Candelaria and Eric LaCroix, who charged from the tail after a mid-race tire change.

The final event of the night saw 23 USRA Modified competitors storm to the green flag with Tom Georges and Josh Cain pacing the field to the 25-lap main event’s initial green flag. Georges jumped out front at the drop of the green with Cain applying heavy pressure early on, followed by Xavier Ortega and Royal Jones with Bumper Jones, looking for his third win in a row, in hot pursuit. 6th staring Carlos Ahumada Jr quickly appeared in the battle for the lead and stole the top spot from Cain early in the going and tried to drive off from the field, but multiple caution flags slowed the event and kept the field tightly bunched for the majority of the race. On each restart, Ahumada, Bumper Jones and 12th starting Fito Gallardo waged a slide-job throwing war around the 3/8 mile clay oval to the fans delight with Jones eventually overhauling Ahumada on a mid-race restart to take control, which he was able to hold to the end and extend his win streak to three straight. Gallardo crossed the line in second with Ahumada Jr third, followed by Cain and Jimmy Ray, who rallied from the tail after starting 23rd.

Full results: http://vadospeedwaypark.com/results

The Vado Speedway Park will be back in action this Saturday, April 24th at 7:30pm with another Hot City Nights promotion. This week, if you have a valid id from the city of El Paso, you will be admitted into the grandstand area for just $5! Racing action will feature USRA Modifieds, USRA B-Mods, USRA Stock Cars, Southwest Super Trucks and Claimers.

For fans not able to attend in person, all events held during the 2021 season at the Vado Speedway Park will also be live streamed online by PayPerView at www.WatchFYE.tv.

For upcoming schedule information and tickets, visit www.VadoSpeedwayPark.com.