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(Ventura, CA.....Nov 17) Second
generation racer Greg Taylor passed track champion Gary Howard at the white flag
and won the 30 lap season finale for the VRA unwinged 360 sprints Saturday night
at Ventura Raceway. The win made Taylor the winningest sprint car racer at the
track in 2001 as he posted his 7th win compared to six for Howard and he nearly
caught Taylor in the track money winning list. The $1,000 win boosted Taylor's
earnings to $12,880 while Howard pocketed $13,990. Taylor's late season surge
that saw him win 3 of the last 4 races netted him second in points. Chris Wakim
also got by Howard on that final round for a $750 second with Howard a $500
third. Taylor only managed a fifth in his heat, won a B Main to earn a 9th row
starting spot for the 30 lapper and then won with a sterling drive. A track
record 43 cars turned out in the track's featured class. Bradley Prows posted
his second feature win of 2001 in the season finale for the street stocks, but
fell 40 points short in his bid to overtake Craig Germanetti for the track
title. Germanetti ran third and won his 3rd straight track championship. Steve
Bulpitt was second in the 20 lapper and Watsonville Speedway's Steve Ewbank was
fourth in the Greg Raap car. It was a big night for the Bulpitt clan as Scott
Bulpitt won his first 20 lap Pony Stock feature. He finished 11th in track
points as Jody Davis won the championship with a 10th place run. Bryan Rungaitis
finished 2nd in the A Main, but finished 45 points back of Davis.
The large turnout
of unwinged sprint cars produced 11 car heat races. With the draw lineup format
and only four cars transferring to the 30 lap A Main from each heat, the action
was furious. Mike Davis beat Gene Godepski in heat 1. Third ranked point racer
Richard McCormick won the second heat over Howard and talented rookie Josh Ford.
Taylor ran fifth behind Kenny Brown in this heat. Tony Dighera captured heat 3
with Steven Conrad second over Bill Welch. Wakim won the fourth heat race over
John Wright and Mike Knopf. The two B Mains each had 11 starters with just two
cars advancing to the 30 lapper. Rob Kershaw beat Ron Bach and Larry Lloyd in
the first. Taylor did race to a win in the second over Luis Espinoza and Steve
Chuhaloff. The first half of the 30 lap A main saw Howard, Conrad and Wright
dueling for the win. Howard eventually built a small lead and a yellow flag fell
around midrace. Taylor had been passing cars like crazy, but was still buried in
9th place. The race then went green until a car spun on the final lap. Normal
Ventura procedure is to have the field race through the incidents on the final
round, but this time a caution flag dropped. Howard had one lapped car to
cushion him from new runnerup Taylor on the final green flag, but the lapped car
let Taylor go by. Taylor was right on Howard's rear nerf as they took the final
green. Howard got into turn 1 too hard and Taylor pulled alongside. Taylor's
slide job in turn 4 saw them make contact and Taylor surged ahead at the white
flag. Taylor picked off the win over Wakim, Howard, Clark Templeman III, Conrad,
Jimmy Crawford, McCormick, Wright, Godepski and Espinoza. Howard won the point
title by 2630 points over Taylor. McCormick was 285 points back of Taylor and
205 ahead of Crawford. Wakim was fifth in points and Wright ranked 6th.
The street stocks had a
14 car turnout for their season finale. Marty Highland won the first heat over
Rick Johnston and Steve Bulpitt. Tom Stephens won heat 2 with Prows second ahead
of Ewbank. Prows won the 20 lap feature with Bulpitt second over Germanetti,
Ewbank, John Romero, Tracey Pallais and Stephens. The absent Raap still finished
3rd in points and rookie Bulpitt was fourth as he passed the absent Paul Moore.
The pony stocks had a 24
car turnout, so they used three heat races and a B Main to determine their 20
car feature field. The heats each advanced 4 cars while 8 more came from the B
Main finish. Heat winners were Eric Chambers, Joel Chavez and Tom Burroughs.
Trevor Rauch won the B Main over Jack Fullerton. Scott Bulpitt finished 2nd in
his heat and won the 20 lap feature ahead of Rungaitis, Andy Frank, Bruce
Blackman Jr, B Main winner Rauch, Chambers, Steve Klingberg and Joe Henderson.
Burroughs finished 3rd in points.
Summary
Pony Stocks
Heat 1-Eric Chambers, Andy Frank, Steve Klingberg, Bryan Rungaitis, Trevor
Rauch.
Heat 2-Joel Chavez, Jody Davis, Dave Revard, Cliff Ashlock, Jack Fullerton.
Heat 3-Tom Burroughs, Scott Bulpitt, Bruce Blackman Jr, Julie Masters, Ben
Caswell.
B Main-Rauch, Fullerton, Jon Everhart, Joe Henderson, Caswell, Travis Furr,
Scott McNichols, Dawn Stutzman, Ed Graham, Tom Stephens Jr.
A Main-Bulpitt, Rungaitis, Frank, Blackman, Rauch, Chambers, Klingberg,
Henderson, Ashlock, Davis, Everhart, Chavez, Revard, Masters, Caswell,
Burroughs, McNichols, Furr, Fullerton, Stutzman.
Street Stocks
Heat 1-Marty Highland, Rick Johnston, Steve Bulpitt, John Romero, Craig
Germanetti.
Heat 2-Tom Stephens, Bradley Prows, Steve Ewbank, Tracey Pallais, Joe Porche.
Main-Prows, Bulpitt, Germanetti, Ewbank, Romero, Pallais, Stephens, Highland,
John Hard, Erick Karlsen, Porche, Johnston, Frank Woodward, Mark Heurung.
Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars
Heat 1-Mike Davis, Gene Godepski, Ronnie Case, Jimmy Crawford, Larry Lloyd.
Heat 2-Richard McCormick, Gary Howard, Josh Ford, Kenny Brown, Greg Taylor.
Heat 3-Tony Dighera, Steven Conrad, Bill Welch, Jeff Heaton, Rob Kershaw.
Heat 4-Chris Wakim, John Wright, Mike Knopf, Clark Templeman III, Luis Espinoza.
1st B Main-Rob Kershaw, Ron Bach, Lloyd, Ron Wade, Jim Porter, Shawn Kautz, John
Geyer, Bil Camarillo, Tim Moon, Richard Terry.
2nd B Main-Taylor, Espinoza, Steve Chuhaloff, Chris Tramel, John Woodward, Oren
Prosser Jr, Russell DeBlauw, Jake Ford, Jeff Wilson, Max McNutt.
A Main-Taylor, Wakim, Howard, Templeman, Conrad, Crawford, McCormick, Wright,
Godepski, Espinoza, Bach, Davis, Brown, Dighera, Case, Heaton, Kershaw, Ford,
Welch, Knopf
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