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Ventura, CA.....April 19......With
SCRA idle for Easter weekend, Cory Kruseman and Steve Ostling were able to make
rare appearances with the VRA Unwinged 360 sprint cars and they repeated their
1-2 finish of March 8 with Kruseman winning for the second time in three 2003
VRA starts Saturday night at Ventura Raceway. Kruseman drove the Cory Witherill
car to his $1,000 win with Ostling a $750 second ahead of young Luis Espinoza,
who pocketed $500. Incoming point leader Greg Taylor skipped the action to race
in the pavement USAC race at Madera and veteran Santa Maria racer Mike Knopf
moved into the point lead with his 4th place run. Knopf ended the night just 20
points ahead of the absent Taylor. Disappointed with his 2003 performances,
defending champion of the Senior Sprint Car class Wiley Miller put a lot of
preparation time into this week's event and he was rewarded with a feature win
ahead of point leader Ron Bach and Ron Butler. W Miller is fourth in points, 530
behind leader Bach. Russell DeBlauw's two race winning streak ended with a 14th
place run.
The Bandit sprint car group continues
to have their events rained out and a few towed down to Ventura. They along with
the SCRA visitors grew the field to 38 cars and they were divided into four
qualifying heat races. The top four finishers in each heat climbed into the 30
lap A Main. Ryan Devitt beat Knopf and 2002 champion Jimmy Crawford in heat 1
with Bakersfield's Tom Stansberry winning heat 2 ahead of Ostling and Ronnie
Case. Espinoza beat Santa Maria's Steve DeMott and Jake Ford in heat 3 Kruseman had a perfect night as he won the fourth heat ahead of Josh Ford and
dwarf car graduate Mike Broome. With the large car turnout, the track elected to
race two 11 car B Mains and transfer two out of each. Steve Conrad beat former
track champion Kevin Kierce and Rob Kershaw in the first. Clark Templeman III,
young Kyle Hancock and Brett Butler were 1-2-3 in the second. B Butler got into
the 30 lap A Main when Jake Ford scratched. Sixth starter Kruseman won the 30
lap feature as he pulled away in the final 14 laps after a pair of red flags.
Outside front row starter Ostling was second with Espinoza racing from fifth
starting to place third. Second row starter Knopf was 4th ahead of 10th row
starter Kierce. The top ten was rounded out by Stansberry, Conrad, Templeman,
Mike Davis and DeMott. Kierce is third in points, 475 behind new point leader
Knopf and 120 in front of Stansberry.
The 20 Senior Sprint Cars were divided into
three qualifying heat races. DeBlauw followed up his two straight feature wins
with a victory in heat 1 ahead of Curtis Richards and Jim Porter. Bach won heat
2 ahead of Steve Stasa and Oren Prosser Sr. W Miller was second in heat 3 as
Mike Cook won. W Miller won the feature race for the first time in 2003 from a
third row start with 4th row starter Bach second ahead of 6th row starter R
Butler. John Woodward was fourth ahead of Dale Harwood, Cook, Stasa, Rick Lewis,
John Richards and Tim Moon. Bach's point lead is 245 over DeBlauw and 440 ahead
of Cook. Miller is 90 points back of Cook and 110 ahead of Stasa.
Summary
Senior Sprints
Heat 1-Russell DeBlauw, Curtis Richards, Jim Porter, John Richards, Sammy
Iaconis.
Heat 2-Ron Bach, Steve Stasa, Oren Prosser Sr, Ron Butler, Dale Harwood.
Heat 3-Mike Cook, Wiley Miller, John Woodward, Rick Lewis, Danny Miller.
Main-W Miller, Bach, R Butler, Woodward, Harwood, Cook, Stasa, Lewis, J
Richards, Tim Moon, Dave Marini, C Richards, Mark Chulahoff, DeBlauw, Porter,
Ron Tjarda, Prosser, Bill Leonard, Iaconis, D Miller.
VRA Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars
Heat 1-Ryan Devitt, Mike Knopf, Jimmy Crawford, Chris Tramel, Kevin Kierce.
Heat 2-Tom Stansberry, Steve Ostling, Ronnie Case, Chris Wakim, Clark Templeman
III.
Heat 3-Luis Espinoza, Steve DeMott, Jake Ford, Mike Davis, Steve
Chulahoff.
Heat 4-Cory Kruseman, Josh Ford, Mike Broome, Steve Gresham, Joe
Henderson.
1st B Main-Steve Conrad, Kierce, Rob Kershaw, Bill Welch, S Chulahoff, Shawn
Kautz, Hobie Conway, Josh Davis, Randy McGraw, Jessie Denome, Jonas
Reynolds.
2nd B Main-Templeman, Kyle Hancock, Brett Butler, Henderson, Mark Weitzman, Dick
Stevens, Tony Dighera, Blake Miller, Nadine Keller, Bobby Elliott, Guy
Woodward.
A Main-Kruseman, Ostling, Espinoza, Knopf, Kierce, Stansberry, Conrad,
Templeman, Davis, DeMott, Hancock, Broome, B Butler, Josh Ford, Devitt, Tramel,
Case, Gresham, Crawford, Wakim.
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