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(Ventura, Ca.....Oct 27) Taking the lead from talented rookie Josh Ford on a lap 14 restart, Greg Taylor raced to his fifth 30 lap VRA unwinged 360 sprint car 30 lap feature win of the 2001 season Saturday night at Ventura Raceway. It was his first win in three months and left him just 580 points back of Richard McCormick in their duel for second in track points. Point leader Gary Howard will have to wait one more week to wrap up the season title as he flipped in his heat race and failed to make the 30 lap feature. It marked the first time that Howard has failed to qualify for the A Main since his USAC midget days in 1997. Taylor’s win paid $1,000 and Ford continued his strong recent runs with a $750 second ahead of Chris Wakim, who pocketed $500. Part time racer Marty Desbrow made it six wins in 2001 in the VRA Modifieds as he beat second ranked Rick Rodarte and Mark Gallimore to the checkered flag. Both Rodarte and Gallimore are rookies in this class. Rookie Steve Bulpitt won his second 20 lap street stock feature and stands sixth in points. Bradley Prows kept his track title hopes alive by placing second ahead of point leader Craig
Germanetti. Germanetti ended the night with a 30 point lead over Greg Raap, who finished 8th. The pony stock 20 lapper was decided in the post race tech area when both winner Mike Frazier and runnerup Darren Gunnell were disqualified. This gave the win to Tom Fish. He is 17th in points and this was his first win. Chris Tramel ran second and Jody Davis used his 3rd place run to pass the absent Bryan Rungaitis and take over the track point lead.
The unwinged 360 sprint cars had a huge 35 car turnout and they were divided into the normal four qualifying heats with only the top four finishers in each heat advancing into the 30 lap A Main. The feature finish of Taylor, Ford and Wakim was previewed in the first heat as the three drivers finished in that order. McCormick won heat 2 ahead of John Wright and Jimmy Crawford. Steven Conrad won the third heat over Jessie Denome and Ronnie Case. Howard flipped in the third heat race. Rookie Gene
Godepski, a graduate of the USAC TQ Midgets, won the fourth heat over Rob Kershaw and dwarf car racer Ron Bach. With the big turnout, the track elected to run two smaller B Mains each tranferring two cars rather than fill the track with 19 cars in one big race. Clark Templeman III won the first B Main over Mike Knopf as senior sprint car ace Jim Porter ran third. Mark Weitzman won the second B Main over Kenny Brown and Russell
DeBlauw. Howard took the lead from Ford on a lap 14 restart and won the 30 lap A Main with Ford second ahead of Wakim, Conrad, McCormick, Wright, Luis Espinoza and Ronnnie Case. The race was slowed by two red flags. Bill Welch flipped for the first and Templeman, Brown, Weitzman and Godepski crashed for a second. Howard still holds a huge 2385 point lead over McCormick with three point races remaining and just 1050 points available each night. Taylor ranks third over Jimmy Crawford, Wakim and Wright.
Even with just a 9 car turnout, the VRA Modifieds were divided into a two heat format. Desbrow won the first heat over third ranked Joe Henderson. Rodarte won heat 2 over Marty McLaughlin. Desbrow won the 20 lap feature over
Rodarte, Gallimore, McLaughlin and point leader George Kreider IV. Kreider’s point lead is 195 over Rodarte and Henderson is another 110 points back. McLaughlin ranks fourth.
The street stocks have been told that the track is considering dropping the division in 2002. They had 14 cars in action this night. Harvey Jones won the first heat over Stephen Suchowirsky and Paul Moore. Raap took heat 2 with Tracey Pallais second over Prows. Bulpitt fell into the 20 lap feature win when pacesetters Raap and Moore tangled late in the race. Prows finished second over Germanetti and John Hard. Tom Stephens raced for the first time in 2001 and ran ffith with Moore 7th ahead of Raap. Germanetti holds a 30 point lead over Raap and is just 80 ahead of Prows. Moore is fourth in points.
The pony stocks had 28 cars in action. Heat winners were Scott Bulpitt, Jeff Graham, Steve Klingberg and Bruce Blackman Jr. Usual IMCA Modified racer Kathy Pierson ended up with the B Main win over Adam McPhail and Jon Everhart. With the disqualifications of apparent winner Frazier and runnerup Gunnell, Fish ended up with the 20 lap win over Tramel, new point leader Davis, Tom Burroughs, Klingberg, Bulpitt and Julie Masters. Davis holds a 135 point margin over the absent Rungaitis with two point races left. T Burroughs is 225 points behind the point leader.
Summary
Pony Stocks
Heat 1-Scott Bulpitt, Joel Chavez, Julie Masters, Travor Rauch, Brian Burroughs.
Heat 2-Jeff Graham, Tom Fish, Jack Fullerton, Dave Revard, Kathy Pierson.
Heat 3-Steve Klingberg, Tom Burroughs, Andy Frank, Cliff Ashlock, Tim Frazier.
Heat 4-Bruce Blackman Jr, Chris Tramel, Jody Davis, Bobby Arenz, Eric Chambers.
B Main-Pierson, Adam McPhail, Jon Everhart, Phillip Stevenson, Arenz, Jeff Long, T Frazier, Chambers, Aaron Main, B Burroughs.
A Main-Fish, Tramel, Davis, T Burroughs, Klingberg, Bulpitt, Masters, Blackman Jr, Chavez, Pierson, Frank, Rauch, Fullerton, McPhail, Revard, Graham,
Ashlock, Everhart.
Street Stocks
Heat 1-Harvey Jones, Stephen Suchowirsky, Paul Moore, Rick Johnston, Craig
Germanetti.
Heat 2-Greg Raap, Tracey Pallais, Bradley Prows, Mark Heurung, Steve Bulpitt.
Main-Bulpitt, Prows, Germanetti, John Hard, Tom Stephens, Jones, Moore, Raap, Suchowirsky, Heurung, Erick Karlsen, Johnston, Pallais, Frank Woodward.
VRA Modifieds
Heat 1-Marty Desbrow, Joe Henderson, George Kreider IV, Mike Schwellinger.
Heat 2-Rick Rodarte, Marty McLaughlin, David Lidren, Ray Martinez.
Main-Desbrow, Rodarte, Mark Gallimore, McLaughlin, Kreider, Lidren, Schwellinger, Martinez, Henderson.
Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars
Heat 1-Greg Taylor, Josh Ford, Chris Wakim, Luis Espinoza, Mike Knopf.
Heat 2-Richard McCormick, John Wright, Jimmy Crawford, Jeff Heaton, Mark
Weitzman.
Heat 3-Steven Conrad, Jessie Denome, Ronnie Case, Bill Welch, Jim Porter.
Heat 4-Gene Godepski, Rob Kershaw, Ron Bach, Oren Prosser Jr, Larry Lloyd.
1st B Main-Clark Templeman III, Knopf, Porter, Richard Terry, Trevor Brilman, John Woodward,
Scott Tener, Ryan Devitt, Tony Dighera, Gary Howard.
2nd B Main-Weitzman, Kenny Brown, Russell DeBlauw, Lloyd, Steve Chuhaloff, Jason Yount, Errol Sack, Shawn
Kautz, Brett Butler.
A Main-Taylor, Ford, Wakim, Conrad, McCormick, Wright, Espinoza, Case, Knopf, Bach, Kershaw,
Denome, Brown, Heaton, Crawford, Weitzman, Prosser, Godepski, Welch.
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