Voigt Turns In His Third Victory : Auto racing: Goleta driver takes lead from McGraw coming around final bend at Ventura Raceway.

Friday night’s 20-lap Street Stock main event at Ventura Raceway was not just the toughest of Greg Voigt’s three victories.

The Goleta driver called it his toughest race of the year, period.

Voigt started eighth and spent the evening fighting a slick track, traffic and Ventura’s Randy McGraw to land his third victory in five races on the quarter-mile clay oval.

McGraw inherited the lead on the 17th lap after a tailpipe fell off the lead car, driven by Joel Remmenga of Camarillo, who started on the pole.

Voigt had worked his way up to third place by then, which led to a shootout for the final three laps.

In fact, Voigt thought McGraw had the race in the bag as the cars came into the final turn side by side, with Voigt on the inside and McGraw on the outside.

Voigt’s car slid into McGraw’s, and McGraw’s Camaro fishtailed across the track and down the straightaway while Voigt sped on to the checkered flag.

“I didn’t mean to run him into the wall,” Voigt said, “Although he thought I did.

“In Turn 4, I thought it was all over. I thought he had something left for me.”

In the 20-lap Modified main event, Thomas Bowser of Santa Maria captured his first victory at the seaside race track, grabbing the lead on the second lap and cruising from there.

Bowser, who has won this year at Bakersfield and Pahrump, Nev., lost a fan belt midway through the race, but the engine lasted the race without overheating.

Doug Thornton of Ventura was second, Ryan Cole of Santa Maria was third, and Scott Pounds of Bakersfield showed the form that earned him the 1994 national championship by working his way up from a ninth-place start to finish fourth.

Eddie Patterson of Oak View won the 15-lap Mini Stock feature, taking the lead from pole-sitter Jim Tietz of Camarillo on the third lap, but a post-race technical inspection revealed that the car may not meet specifications, leaving the victory in jeopardy until further review.

Tietz finished second and defending track champion Richard Webster of Camarillo came in third.

Forrest Lucas of Corona started second, passed pole-sitter Robb Gantt of Port Hueneme as the green flag dropped, and went wire to wire in the 15-lap Pony Stock main event.

Jim Jewett Jr. of Oxnard was second, and Trish Remley of Oxnard was third.

Lucas, Jewett and Remley were the winners in the three seven-lap heat races, and Don DeAzevedo of Port Hueneme captured the 12-lap Figure Eight race.