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Ventura, CA.....July 19........Gaining the lead when visitor Mike Kirby jumped the cushion, hit the wall and flipped on lap 21, Tom Stansberry from Bakersfield made it two straight $1000 wins in the 30 lap VRA unwinged sprint car feature Saturday night at Ventura Raceway. The two wins have climbed Stansberry into third in points, 975 points back of leader Rob Kershaw. The next date for the VRA sprint cars is at Stansberry’s home town Bakersfield Speedway. The fourth starting Stansberry was followed at the checkered flag by pole starter Will Perkins and B Main winner Luis Espinoza came from 15th starting to run third. Perkins won $750 and Espinoza $500. Kershaw battled back from a lap 5 spin to finish 9th, one spot ahead of closest point rival Chris Wakim. Wakim led the points entering the night, but now stands 10 behind Kershaw. Former dwarf car star Ron Bach came from 4th starting to win his 5th Senior Sprint Car main event and improve his season point point lead to 560 points ahead of defending series champion Wiley Miller. Russell DeBlauw and Richard Terry trailed Bach at the checkered flag.
The VRA unwinged 360 sprint cars fielded 32 entries and divided them into the usual four qualifying heat races. Perkins beat Bill Camarillo in heat 1. Former track champions Kevin Kierce and Jimmy Crawford dueled in heat 2 with Kierce winning. Heat 3 was all K’s as Kirby beat Kershaw and Kyle Hancock. Stansberry won heat 4 ahead of Blake Miller. Espinoza won the 13 car B Main ahead of Jake Ford, Richard McCormick and Ryan Devitt. The 20 car A Main grid was paced by Perkins, Kirby, Kierce and Stansberry. Kirby had checked out from the field with his high line effort only to jump the cushion on lap 21 and flip. Stansberry was the new leader and he fought off the challenges of long tow Perkins for the win. Espinoza used his climb to a 3rd place finish to advance all the way to 4th in the season point standings. Kierce salvaged a fourth ahead of Crawford, 17th starting McCormick, Hancock, 20th starter Devitt, Kershaw and Wakim. Espinoza is 340 points back of Stansberry and only 180 points ahead of Mike Knopf. Since the sprint cars do not race at Ventura during the annual county fair, they will not return to the 1/4 mile clay oval until September 13th. They have four dates at the Perris Auto Speedway half-mile after the July 26th Bakersfield race.
The Senior Sprints run identical unwinged 360 sprint cars and drew a season high 24 entries. That forced three heat races and a B Main to limit the A Main grid to 20 cars. Bach beat DeBlauw and W Miller in a talent filled heat 1. Jim Porter beat Bruce Douglas in heat 2 and Richard Terry won heat 3 over John Richards. Ron Butler was the B Main winner ahead of Dale Harwood and Dwight Cheney. Douglas and Porter shared the front row for the A Main, but it was 4th starter Bach charging to his second straigh win and 3rd in the last four races. Fifth starter DeBlauw ran second ahead of 3rd starter Terry and 9th starter W Miller. The top ten was rounded out by Douglas, Danny Miller, Sparky Edmonston, Mike Cook, Porter and John Richards. DeBlauw is third in points, 610 back of W Miller. This class also doesn’t race during the fair and will be idle until a Ventura date on August 30.
Summary
Senior Sprint Cars
Heat 1-Ron Bach, Russell DeBlauw, Wiley Miller, Mark Chulahoff, Ron Butler.
Heat 2-Jim Porter, Bruce Douglas, Tim Moon, Danny Miller, Mike Cook.
Heat 3-Richard Terry, John Richards, Steve Stasa, Sparky Edmonston, Curtis Richards.
B Main-R Butler, Dale Harwood, Dwight Cheney, Oren Prosser Sr, C Richards, Sammy Iaconis, Dave Marini, Ricky Lewis, Cook, Bob
Hedlund.
A Main-Bach, DeBlauw, Terry, W Miller, Douglas, D Miller, Edmonston, Cook, Porter, J Richards, Marini, Prosser Sr, Lewis, C Richards, R Butler, Chulahoff, Iaconis, Harwood, Stasa, Moon.
Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars
Heat 1-Will Perkins, Bill Camarillo, Bill Welch, Brett Butler, Ryan Devitt.
Heat 2-Kevin Kierce, Jimmy Crawford, Mike Knopf, Chris Wakim, Luis Espinoza.
Heat 3-Mike Kirby, Rob Kershaw, Kyle Hancock, Jonas Reynolds, Mike Davis.
Heat 4-Tom Stansberry, Blake Miller, Chris Tramel, Steve Gresham, Wally Pankratz.
B Main-Espinoza, Jake Ford, Richard McCormick, Devitt, Davis, Pankratz, Alex Pruett, Steve Chulahoff, Jeff Wilson, Larry Lloyd.
A Main-Stansberry, Perkins, Espinoza, Kierce, Crawford, McCormick, Hancock, Devitt, Kershaw, Wakim, Gresham, Reynolds, B Miller, Knopf, Ford, Kirby, Tramel, S Chulahoff, Welch, B Butler.
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