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| Kruseman Wins 2007 Kindoll
By .005 by Ed Hollowell |
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PERRIS, CA-RIS- According to Michael Spencer there is a big
difference in first and second place but the clock said that it was
only .005 of a second. That was the margin of victory for Cory
Kruseman who passed Spencer out of the fourth corner to win the
USAC/CRA finale which was the 2007 Jack Kindoll Classic. Spencer had looked to be the winner. He had passed Kruseman to take the lead on the 18th lap and lead without to much trouble right up until the final laps of the 40 lap feature when Kruseman turned on the heat. On lap 39 Kruseman got beside Spencer in the second turn but Spencer was able to regain the advantage by turn three. He lead Cory by two car lengths out of turn two on the final lap but Cory was able to drive down off the banking in the final turn to nip Spencer at the line by that tiny .005 second margin. It was the fourth time that Kruseman had won the Kindoll Classic. “I wish Wilda (Kindoll) was here tonight you know.” Said Kruseman after the win. Wilda had been there to congratulate Cory the first three times he won but could not attend this years race because of her health. Kruseman had lead the race early after having beaten back a challenge from Levi Jones. Jones and Kruseman had shared the front row of the grid and Jones took the lead from the outside position but Cory got it back as they left the fourth turn. Levi dropped back after that as Chris Windom took over second from him on lap two. Spencer started in the eight spot and moved to fifth on the first lap. He took the third place on the seventh lap. Kruseman, Windom and Spencer put on a show for several laps as they fought each other for position. On the seventeenth lap Spencer finally got past Windom to control second and a lap later he got the best of Spencer to make himself the leader. The race had been 'clean' up until the 24th lap when Alan Ballard and Alex Schutte got together and flipped in the third turn. That brought out the red flag and changed the race for Kruseman. “We got fortunate we got that red flag when we did because we were able to make some changes. Mike, obviously did some right calls and got the front end tamed down so that I could start driving with the throttle peddle a little bit more.” Said Kruseman. The win was Kruseman's fifth of the season and tied him with Spencer and Tony Jones for the most wins for the season. Chris Windom showed that he has some talent as he held on to third place until Damion Gardner took it from him on lap 30. He ended up finishing fifth as R. J. Johnson took fourth from him in the final laps. Several drivers were out from 'back east'. Damion Gardner did the best with his third place finish. Others were Levi Jones in sixth, Darren Hagen in ninth, Jon Stanbrough in eleventh, Cole Whitt in 13th and Brady Bacon in 22nd. Brad Kuhn qualified but failed to get into the feature after an oil line failed in his car. Thirty eight drivers qualified for the event with Michael Trimble being the fastest at 16.643 seconds. The heat race winners were Rip Williams, Mike Spencer, Brady Bacon and Jimmy Crawford. Rickie Gaunt reinforced his claim to on the title of 'King of the B Mains” with his eighth B win of the year. Tony Jones celebrated his 2007 USAC/CRA Drivers title which he had cinched the week before at Manzanita by winning a special trophy dash race in honor of the late Glen Howard. The season is over but the 2008 season will start at Perris on the first weekend in February. |
