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VENTURA, CA-RIS- Tony Jones was missing but Cory
Jones was there to take
his place and win the USAC/CRA feature at Ventura raceway.
Well, would you believe Cory Kruseman?
It said Jones on the car but substitute driver Cory Kruseman took
over for the injured Tony Jones and won at Ventura, Cory's home
track. Starting from seventh position Cory watched while front row
starters Rodney Argo and David Cardey fought for the lead before he
broke up their party and took over the lead on lap 18. Clearly
faster than Argo
he built a one straight lead and appeared to be running away with
the win until Rickie Gaunt flipped on the 28^th lap of the 30 lap
contest. As things were set to resume Cory had a new problem names
Danny Sheridan.
Sheridan had started on the last row in 19^th
position and had been moving through the field with authority but it
appeared he would never be able to get near Kruseman before the race
was over. The restart changed that. Danny would have three laps to
try and seal this race.
On the first restart Kruseman showed why he is the master at this
track as he ran the car down the banking and found the stickyist
part of the track on the inside of the front straight. He had taken
a four car lead into the first turn and Sheridan could only whittle
small parts of that away. Then the yellow came out once more, on the
final lap as Rodney Argo spun in the first turn and collected Greg
Taylor and Troy Rutherford. Sheridan had one last shot at winning
and he made a much better start this time. Kruseman was forced to
run high in the third and fourth turns as they came to the checkered
flag and both drivers slowed.
The beneficiary of this was David Cardey who was still in third. He
got down low out of the final turn and almost passed both Kruseman
and Sheridan. In the end he was still third, about two feet behind
Sheridan and a car length behind Kruseman.
It was double good news for Tony Jones as his closest competitor for
the season championship, Michael Spencer was put out the second lap
and couldn't have gained much on Tony as he finished 19th of the 20
starters. Tony had lead by 157 but that has been cut to 131 points
though it could have been much worse. Jones was unsure about when he
would be driving next.
Preliminary action:
Rip Williams pushed his way past Brian Camarillo to take the lead on
the first lap of heat one. He went all the way to win heat one
wire-to-wire with Rodney Argo, Garrett Hanson and Scotty Weir also
transferring.
Heat two was a close contest with Danny Faria Jr.
holding off Cory Kruseman by less than s car length at the finish.
Faria started on the pole and lead all the way. Besides Faria and
Kruseman, Dennis Rodriguez and Alex Schutte also transferred.
In heat three Danny Sheridan took the lead at the
start but Blake Miller got past him on a second lap restart and went
on to win. Michael Spencer took second place with Sheridan third and
Rickie Gaunt in fourth.
Troy Rutherford was the heat four winner after
took the lead from front row starter Tyler Brown at the start. Troy
was driving the 11R car which is owned by his family. Brown finished
second while David Cardey and Greg Taylor took the final two
transfer spots.
Luis Espinoza, driving the Moose Racing #92 took
the win in the 12 lap B main with Michael Trimble and Josh Ford
taking second and third.
Garrett Hansen on Manhattan Beach was the nights
fast qualifier with a 12.785 second lap. He beat out Cory Kruseman
in the Alexander car normally driven by Tony Jones who was second
with a 12.763 second effort. Twenty eight cars participated in
qualifying.
The Lucas Oil USAC/CRA Series
returns to Perris, California on September 15^th for their next
race.
Cory Kruseman with Danny Sheridan on his right and David Cardey on
his left.
Cory Kruseman is interviewed following his race win with the name
Jones
shown on the car he just won in as a sub for Tony Jones.
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