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Ventura, Ca.....April
27..........Having threatened to win several A Mains since early last
season, Tony Dighera from Thousand Oaks scored a $1,000 win in the VRA unwinged
360 sprint car feature Saturday night at Ventura Raceway. This is Dighera's
third sprint car season and he is running third in track points. Santa Maria
Speedway star Jimmy Thompson made a rare visit to Ventura and finished a $750
second in the feature race. Second ranked point racer Josh Ford was a $500 third
ahead of point leader Greg Taylor. Ron Bach won his second straight Senior
Sprint Car feature and cut Wiley Miller's point lead to 300 points. Miller
finished second. Bach is a veteran dwarf car racer who moved into this new class
at the beginning of the 2001 season. The Legendy pavement late model racer Oren
Prosser Sr had his best ever finish in the class with a third place run. The
IMCA Modifieds had a fourth different race in four races as Mike Furlong won
ahead of Mark Fullerton and Donald Houghton. Point leader Randy McGraw was
fourth. After his car had broke leading in the previous week's feature, Adam
McPhail won his first pony stock main event with Jon Everhart second ahead of
point leader Cliff Ashlock.
Another great turnout of 38 cars in
the VRA unwinged 360 sprint cars filled the pit area. The usual four heat format
was used, but time problems forced by a rutty track surface saw them elect to
run one huge B Main instead of the usual two smaller B Mains. Some new soil was
added to the 1/4 mile clay oval this week to improve drainage, but it led to
deep holes in both sets of corners. Defending track champion Gary Howard won the
first heat ahead of Ronnie Case and Jason Yount. Chris Wakim took heat 2 ahead
of Thompson and Taylor. Dighera captured heat 3 with Jimmy Crawford second ahead
of Mike Davis. Young Jeremy Ellertson won heat 4 with Josh Ford second ahead of
Sean Buckley. The top four finishers in each heat advanced to the rich 30 lap A
Main. Twenty starters dueled for the four transfer spots out of the B Main. Jake
Ford won that race as it was called early after a large number of cautions.
Chris Tramel ran second over Steve Chuhaloff and Bill Welch. Young rookie Allan
Ballard just missed the transfer with a fifth ahead of Luis Espinoza and Steve
Gidney. A scary moment during this race saw rookie Renee Boudreau take the pit
entrance when she lost her brakes. As she approached the pony stock field lined
up to run their feature, she swerved to miss hitting some spectators and ran
headon into Wade Zimmerman's pony stock. Zimmerman had won his heat race, but
his car was totaled in the incident and he was only badly shaken.
Howard, Wakim and Dighera had
all won their heat races from the pole with Ellertson coming from outside front
row. The feature inversion was a four and that put Dighera on the pole as Josh
Ford lined up 4th as his drive from 4th starting to 2nd in his heat was the best
heat performance. Dighera started on the pole for the A Main, but lost the lead
quickly to fifth starting Thompson. Dighera regained the top spot a few laps
later and he posted his first VRA feature win. While they dueled for second,
Thompson and Howard got together on the front stretch causing Howard to to get
sideways, collecting Buckley and rookie Tramel. Howard was done for the night.
Wakim then challenged Thompson, but he broke. It was then Crawford's turn to
duel Thompson, but his car also broke. Thompson withstood all the challenges and
finished second behind Dighera. Ford ran third over 7th starting Taylor and 11th
starter Tom Stansberry. Rounding out the top 10 were Davis, Case, Welch,
Chuhaloff and Jake Ford. Taylor holds a 510 point lead on Josh Ford. Dighera is
350 points back of Josh Ford and 130 ahead of Crawford. Howard ranks fifth.
The Senior Sprints had a 19 car
turnout. Richard Terry beat Prosser Sr in heat 1. Bach and Miller were 1-2 in
heat 2 with John Woodward third. Ron Butler won heat 3 over Jim Porter and John
Richards. All three heat winners started on the pole and all three runnerups
started outside front row. Bach won the feature from 3rd starting ahead of fifth
starter Miller, pole starter Prosser Sr, Terry and 13th starting Rick Lewis.
Mark Chuhaloff was sixth over Porter and Curtis Richards. Butler has slipped 155
points back of Bach and 155 ahead of Porter.
There were 14 IMCA Modifieds
including Bakersfield visitor Lee Jensen, who is trying to win the Western
Region rookie of the year honors. Fullerton beat Furlong in heat 1 over point
leader Randy McGraw. Daman Redman won heat 2 in front of Don Wright Jr and Steve
Greenland. Furlong then posted a feature win ahead of Fullerton, Houghton,
McGraw, Wright, Jensen, Wes Richardson and Redman. McGraw holds an 8 point lead
over Redman with Richardson one more point back. Furlong is just 2 points back
of Richardson and 6 ahead of Greenland.
The 24 Pony Stocks were split into
three heat races. Zimmerman won heat 1 over Dave Revard and McPhail. David
Peterson beat James Brown in heat 2. Dawn Stutzman made her division debut and
won heat 3 in front of Gary Yeates. McPhail won the A Main ahead of Everhart,
Ashlock, Bruce Blackman Jr, Joel Chavez, Jim Nakashima and Revard. Ashlock's
point lead is 110 over the tied duo of Brown and John Duque. Duque was 8th in
the main over Julie Masters and Jack Fullerton. Steve Klingberg was 21st and
dropped 60 points back of the second place tie in points.
Summary
Pony Stocks
Heat 1-Wade Zimmerman, Dave Revard, Adam McPhail, Joel Chavez, Charlie Faraci.
Heat 2-David Peterson, James Brown, Jim Nakashima, Jon Everhart, Julie
Masters.
Heat 3-Dawn Stutzman, Gary Yeates, Steve Klingberg, Bruce Blackman Jr, John
Mikkelsen.
Main-McPhail, Everhart, Cliff Ashlock, Blackman, Chavez, Nakashima, Revard, John
Duque, Masters, Jack Fullerton, Yeates, Brown, Stutzman, Mikkelsen, Tim Mohr,
Karen Klingberg, Jon Mortensen, Brian Burroughs, Morgan Cole, Tom Fish, S
Klingberg, Faraci, Peterson.
IMCA Modifieds
Heat 1-Mark Fullerton, Mike Furlong, Randy McGraw, Wes Richardson, Lee Jensen.
Heat 2-Daman Redman, Don Wright Jr, Steve Greenland, Jeff Graham, Joe Porche.
Main-Furlong, Fullerton, Donald Houghton, McGraw, Wright, Jensen, Richardson,
Redman, Porche, Graham, Brett Lynsky, Lyle Slater, Greenland, Ed Shelton.
Senior Sprints
Heat 1-Richard Terry, Oren Prosser Sr, Preiss Movius, Mike Cook, Rick
Lewis.
Heat 2-Ron Bach, Wiley Miller, John Woodward, Sammy Iaconis, Larry Otani.
Heat 3-Ron Butler, Jim Porter, John Richards, Sam Vail, Curtis Richards.
Main-Bach, Miller, Prosser, Terry, Lewis, Mark Chuhaloff, Porter, C Richards,
Vail, Cook, Butler, Otani, Iaconis, J Richards, Woodward, George Tuttle Jr, Tim
Moon.
Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars
Heat 1-Gary Howard, Ronnie Case, Jason Yount, Russell DeBlauw, Jake Ford.
Heat 2-Chris Wakim, Jimmy Thompson, Greg Taylor, Tom Stansberry, Kevin Kierce.
Heat 3-Tony Dighera, Jimmy Crawford, Mike Davis, Richard Harvey Jr, Chris
Tramel.
Heat 4-Jeremy Ellertson, Josh Ford, Sean Buckley, Steve Stasa, Bill Welch.
B Main-Jake Ford, Tramel, Steve Chuhaloff, Welch, Allan Ballard, Luis Espinoza,
Steve Gidney, Dick Stevens, Jeff Heaton, Max McNutt.
A Main-Dighera, Thompson, Josh Ford, Taylor, Stansberry, Davis, Case, Welch,
Chuhaloff, Jake Ford, DeBlauw, Harvey, Crawford, Stasa, Wakim, Ellertson,
Howard, Yount, Buckley, Tramel.
*eot
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