The West Coast Sprints provided race fans with another close finish Saturday night at Kings Speedway. Peter Murphy took the checkered flag in the 20-lap main event, in which the top five finishers were within two seconds of each other.

Richard Vanderweerd was second, .464 seconds behind, followed by Justyne Hamblin (.098 behind), Ricky Kirkbride (1.650 behind) and Michael Faccinto (1.868 behind).

Not to be outdone, the IMCA Modifieds race went down to the wire as well, with Tony Toste holding off Mike Johnson by .568 seconds in the 20-lap race. David Addamo was third, 1.538 off the pace.

Loren DeArmond took the 15-lap IMCA Stocks race, defeating Ron Hurt, and Bobby Hogge beat Jeff Decker to take the 30-lap Late Model Stocks race.

Heat wins in the Late Models went to Jeff Decker, Ryan McDanial, and Rob Mayea.

Other heat winners included Jimmy Reeves and Mike Johnson in IMCA Modifieds, DeArmond in IMCA Stocks, and Hamblin in the West Coast Sprints.

Dozen named to City-County games

The annual City-County basketball all-star games will have a definite Kings County flavor this year, with 11 players and one coach invited to participate in the games set for June 25 at Clovis North High School.

Lemoore's T.J. Wilkins, who guided the Tigers to the West Yosemite League title and the Central Section Division II boys semifinals, will coach the County team.

He'll be joined by Lemoore's Cheyane Alcala, Kameron Hoyt and T.J. Johnson.

Also named to the squad were Warren Moon from Section Division III champion Hanford West and Cougar Williams and D.J. Jackson-Maciel from Hanford.

Mark Beebee of Sunnyside (Fresno) will coach the City team.

Two-time Section girls champion and Southern California playoff semifinalist Hanford landed two players on the County team, Courtney Rose and Lacey Gibbons.

They'll be joined by Taylor Serna-Guzman and Coty Head from Hanford West and Kim Gomez from Section Division IV champion Corcoran.

Mark Gradoville of Roosevelt (Fresno) is the City's coach, while Dave Campbell of Sanger will lead the County squad.

(March 30, 2009)