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Perris, CA....August 2......Planning
to race all four VRA unwinged 360 sprint car shows at Perris Auto Speedway in
the month of August in the Shoemaker #0, versatile Mike Kirby scored a clean
sweep Saturday night. He earned the most qualifying points by winning his heat
race, then charged forward from sixth starting to win the 30 lap feature ahead
of Will Perkins and point leader Chris Wakim. Kirby recently ran second in an
SCRA unwinged 410 race at Perris, ran his dirt late model to a third in Fernley
NV to close July and tonight's win was his second VRA triumph of the year. He
also plans to race the August 9th Hollywood Hills race in New Mexico that opens
the SCRA Tour. Perkins had to charge from 15th starting after just making the
feature with a fourth place heat run while Wakim came from 9th to finish third.
Wakim built his point lead to 740 points as Tom Stansberry drove the borrowed
Ron Bach car to a 7th. Stansberry had won the last three VRA events, two at
Ventura and one in Bakersfield. The unwinged sprint car action drew a 39 car
field. The VRA Dwarf Cars made their first visit to the Perris 1/2 mile clay
oval. They ran the Pro and Senior divisions in a single 20 lap feature. Point
leader Jeff Shelton won the Pro portion with newcomer Mark Lippert a solid
second ahead of Carl Behmer. In the Senior action, Thursday night Ventura Fair
winner Ed Niedzwiecki scored a clean sweep as he won the 7 lap heat race and
then beat Gary Conditt in the 20 lap feature.
The large field of unwinged 360
sprint cars were divided into four heat races. Josh Ford beat Clark Templeman
III in the first and Kirby outraced Northern California invader Rick Williams in
heat 2. SCRA regulars Steve Ostling and Keith Williamson were 1-2 in heat 3 and
Santa Maria's Mike Knopf won heat 4 over Ron DiDonato. Two B Mains were run with
four cars to advance out of each. Tom Downing beat Larry Lloyd and Dwight Cheney
in the first. After missing his heat, Kyle Hancock ran fifth behind Jonas
Reynolds. Ronnie Case outraced young Jayson May from Taft and Luis Espinoza in
the second B Main. Point title contender Rob Kershaw missed the main as he ran
fifth behind Ryan Devitt. Kirby outpointed Ford, Ostling, Knopf, Templeman and
DiDonato in the passing point heat race system and the feature inversion came up
a six. That put DiDonato and Templeman in the front row with Ford and Kirby in
row 3. Williams and Williamson lined up right behind the inversion. Kirby drove
to the $1000 win with Perkins a $750 second and Wakim winning $500 for third.
12th starter Steven Conrad ran fourth ahead of Knopf and Greg Taylor. Taylor was
driving the Alex Pruett car. Stansberry came from 13th to place 7th ahead of
Case, Cheney and May. Ford ran 11th, Ostling 14th, Kevin Kierce 16th and
Williams 21st as the feature started a car short with 23 cars. Wakim's point
lead is 740 points over Stansberry with Kershaw 960 behind the point leader.
Knopf is just 80 points ahead of Kierce and 330 ahead of Espinoza in their duel
for fourth. The VRA sprint cars return to Perris on August 16, then run the
first ever VRA Nationals on the clay half-mile on August 22-23. Over 40 entries
have already been received for that weekend with several Arizona cars joining
the action as Saturday night's feature will pay $5000 to win after the normal
$1000 to win Friday night action.
The VRA dwarf car
first visit to Perris produced a 7 car Pro turnout and five Senior entries.
Visitor Brian Saxton from CDCRA won the Pro heat race over Shelton and Behmer.
Niedzwiecki won the Senior heat race with Conditt second ahead of Glen Monk. In
the Pro feature, it was Shelton winning ahead of M Lippert, Behmer and Mike
Bradley They were all on the lead lap as Cindy Addison finished four laps down.
Saxton and Chad Kincaid were early dropouts. On the Senior side, Niedwiecki
lapped everyone but runnerup Conditt. Monk and Taft's Rick Denny were one lap
down and Jon Prechtl went out on lap 4.
Summary
VRA Senior Dwarf Cars
Heat-Ed Niedzwiecki, Gary Conditt, Glen Monk, Rick Denny, Jon Prechtl.
Main-Niedzwiecki, Conditt, Monk, Denny, Prechtl.
VRA Pro Dwarf Cars
Heat-Brian Saxton, Jeff Shelton, Carl Behmer, Mark Lippert, Chad Kincaid.
Main-Shelton, Lippert, Behmer, Mike Bradley, Cindy Addison, Saxton,
Kincaid.
VRA Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars
Heat 1-Josh Ford, Clark Templeman III, Kenny Brown, Will Perkins, John
Aden.
Heat 2-Mike Kirby, Rick Williams, Mark Deskovick, Tom Stansberry, Rob Kershaw.
Heat 3-Steve Ostling, Keith Williamson, Chris Wakim, Greg Taylor, Tom
Downing.
Heat 4-Mike Knopf, Ron DiDonato, Steve Conrad, Kevin Kierce, Jayson May.
1st B Main-Downing, Larry Lloyd, Dwight Cheney, Jonas Reynolds, Kyle Hancock,
David Sinsley, Aden, Bill Camarillo, Bill Welch.
2nd B Main-Ronnie Case, May, Luis Espinoza, Ryan Devitt, Kershaw, J J Ercse,
Steve Hess, Steve Gresham.
A Main-Kirby, Perkins, Wakim, Conrad, Knopf, Taylor, Stansberry, Case, Cheney,
May, Ford, Espinoza, Templeman, Ostling, Downing, Kierce, DiDonato, Deskovick,
Devitt, Lloyd, Williams, Williamson, Brown.
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