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(Ventura, CA....Nov
3) Jimmy Crawford used his second win of the season to move into third place in points as he collected $1,000 for his 30 lap victory in the VRA unwinged 360 sprint car feature Saturday night at Ventura Raceway. Defending champion Gary Howard used his sixth place finish to wrap up the 2001 season title with two point races remaining on the schedule. Clark Templeman III was a $750 second and Bob Graham returned to action with a $500 third. The busy Graham raced in both the regular and Senior divisions for the sprint cars. Having finished in the top 5 in his three previous visits, New Zealand transplant Greg Keegan from Clovis won the Senior Sprint feature in front of Dale Harwood and Ron Bach. Jim Porter wrapped up the first track championship in this new class as he holds a 1095 point lead over Bob Moody with just one race remaining on their schedule. Marty McLaughlin won his first VRA Modified main event with rookie Mark Gallimore second ahead of George Kreider IV. Defending champion Kreider holds a 205 point lead with one race remaining and 220 points available on that night. Joel Chavez won the feature race for the pony stocks with third ranked Tom Burroughs finishing second. Jody Davis ran 7th and will carry a 115 point lead over Bryan Rungaitis into their final point race. It was the second feature win for rookie Chavez, who stands 20th in the track points.
Another large 33 car turnout for the VRA unwinged sprint cars required four heat races and a pair of B Mains to set the 20 car grid for their 30 lap feature. Ronnie Case beat Graham in the first heat, Tony Dighera won the second heat ahead of Mike Knopf and Josh Ford took the third heat with Jeff Heaton in second. Second year sprint car racer Luis Espinoza won the fourth heat ahead of Crawford. The first B Main saw top runners Chris Wakim, Richard McCormick and John Wright run 1-2-3 with only the first two transferring into the 30 lapper. Rob Kershaw and Steve Stasa transferred from the second B Main. Crawford won the 30 lap A Main ahead of Templeman, Graham, Ford, Dighera, Howard, Wakim, Welch, Knopf and Kershaw. Last week’s winner, Greg Taylor, was 20th with McCormick in 19th. While Howard holds an uncatchable 3055 point lead with just two point races left, McCormick, Crawford and Taylor are dueling for second in points. McCormick is 600 ahead of Crawford and 615 ahead of Taylor. Wakim stands fifth and has an outside shot at climbing to second in the final standings.
The Senior Sprints had one of their largest fields to date with 21 cars on hand and all 21 started their main event. Dayle Henry beat Keegan in the first heat race, Mike Cook and Oren Prosser Sr were 1-2 in heat 2 with Bob Moody and Sam Vail 1-2 in the last heat race. Keegan won the main event ahead of Harwood, dwarf car star Bach, Cook, champion Porter, Jim
Blenkarn, Ron Butler and Brian King. While Porter has wrapped up the track title, Moody ran 14th and has three challengers for second in points. Harwood is just 165 points back of Moody, Henry is 590 back and Bach is 755 back. They have 1050 points available each race night.
The VRA Modified count improved to 12 cars and McLaughlin preceeded his feature win with a victory in the first heat over rookie Rick Rodarte and Daniel
Shrubb. Gallimore won the second heat over Kreider and Joe Henderson. McLaughlin and Gallimore then ran 1-2 in the feature ahead of Kreider,
Rodarte, Henderson and Doug Cason. Rodarte is second in points, 205 back of Kreider and 130 ahead of Henderson. McLaughlin in fourth is 120 points ahead of
Gallimore.
The pony stock field was down to 20 cars so everyone raced in the A Main. Chavez also won his heat with Steve Klingberg second. Dave Little won the second heat over Jon Everhart and Burroughs. Bryan Rungaitis returned after missing the last race and won heat 3 in front of Shane
Rungaitis. In the feature, Chavez won ahead of Burroughs, S Rungaitis, Andy Frank,
Klingberg, B Rungaitis, Davis, Little and Jeff Graham. Burroughs has an outside shot at the track title as he stands 175 points back of Davis. Graham has fourth all wrapped up.
Summary
Pony Stocks
Heat 1- Joel Chavez, Steve Klingberg, Jody Davis, Andy Frank, Bruce Blackman Jr.
Heat 2-Dave Little, Jon Everhart, Tom Burroughs, Julie Masters, Tim Frazier.
Heat 3-Bryan Rungaitis, Shane Rungaitis, Dave Revard, Jack Fullerton, Adam McPhail.
Main-Chavez, Burroughs, S Rungaitis, Frank, Klingberg, B Rungaitis, Davis, Little, Jeff Graham, Everhart, John Duque, Revard, Blackman, Cliff Ashlock, Fullerton, Frazier, Masters, McPhail, Phillip Stevenson, Jeff Long.
VRA Modifieds
Heat 1-Marty McLaughlin, Rick Rodarte, Daniel Shrubb, Doug Cason, Ray Martinez.
Heat 2-Mark Gallimore, George Kreider IV, Joe Henderson, David Lidren, Tommy Fowler.
Main-McLaughlin, Gallimore, Kreider, Rodarte, Henderson, Cason, Martinez, Shrubb, Mark Joe, Mike Schwellinger, Lidren, Fowler.
Senior Sprint Cars
Heat 1-Dayle Henry, Greg Keegan, John Woodward, Ron Bach, Dale Harwood.
Heat 2-Mike Cook, Oren Prosser Sr, Tim Moon, Jim Porter, Bob Graham.
Heat 3-Bob Moody, Sam Vail, Sparky Edmonston, Preiss Movius, Jack Erickson.
Main-Keegan, Harwood, Bach, Cook, Porter, Jim Blenkarn, Ron Butler, Brian King, Graham, Henry, Edmonston, Vail, Erickson, Moody, John Richards, Curtis Richards, Chuck Tyler, Moon, Prosser, Woodward, Movius.
Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars
Heat 1-Ronnie Case, Bob Graham, Bill Welch, Mike Davis, Chris Wakim.
Heat 2-Tony Dighera, Mike Knopf, Kenny Brown, Larry Lloyd, Brett Butler.
Heat 3-Josh Ford, Jeff Heaton, Gary Howard, Greg Taylor, Mark Weitzman.
Heat 4-Luis Espinoza, Jimmy Crawford, Jessie Denome, Clark Templeman III, Rob Kershaw.
1st B Main-Wakim, Richard McCormick, John Wright, John Geyer, Weitzman, Oren Prosser Jr, Gene
Godepski.
2nd B Main-Kershaw, Steve Stasa, Steve Chuhaloff, Shawn Kautz, Butler, Jake Ford, Dwayne Marcum, Ryan
Devitt.
A Main-Crawford, Templeman, Graham, Josh Ford, Dighera, Howard, Wakim, Welch, Knopf, Kershaw, Espinoza, Heaton, Davis, Brown,
Denome, Lloyd, Case, Stasa, McCormick, Taylor.
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