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Ventura, CA....Sept
11......Fighting off a late challenge from Blake Miller, VRA
Unwinged 360 sprint car point leader Tom Stansberry from Bakersfield
got his third 30 lap feature win of 2004 Saturday night at Ventura
Raceway. The $1000 win extended Stansberry's point lead to 1855
points as the season winds down. B Miller was a $750 second and
point runnerup Rob Kershaw pocketed $500 for third after leading
some early laps. Third ranked Steve Conrad put on a show coming from
19th starting to finish 4th after problems in his heat race. Jimmy
May made his first VRA start of the year and ran fifth after
starting 15th. The VRA Regional for the dwarf cars was very
successful with a full scale Northern California invasion providing
a 34 car field. Petaluma's Howie Ross won the caution free 30 lap
main event ahead of Las Vegas NV charger Jimmy Ewing and three more
NorCal cars, Zack Hurst, Steve Alberdi Jr and Steve Alberdi Sr.
The unwinged sprint cars split 31 cars into four heat races with the
top four finishers in each advancing into the 30 lap A Main. Kershaw
won heat 1 from the pole with 4th starting Stansberry second ahead
of Senior Sprint Car point leader Bruce Douglas. B Miller got heat 2
from the pole ahead of third row starter Jimmy Crawford, Luis
Espinoza and Guy Woodward. Larry Lloyd came from the third row to
capture heat 3 ahead of an impressive debut race for Garrett Hanson,
who started in the 8th spot. Bill Welch was third in front of Mike
Whitcomb. Kevin Kierce won heat 4 from fifth as Stee Stasa edged out
John Wright for second. Four more transfers were available froim the
B Main were Bakersfield's Mike Broome won ahead of Bill Camarillo,
heat race crash victim Conrad and Dennis Rodriguez. Oren Prosser Sr
just missed the move forward along with Rodney Argo and John Nock.
Stasa and Stansberry had the front row assignment for the 30 lap A
Main, but both fifth starter Kershaw and third starting Crawford
paced laps before Stansberry got to the front. Stansberry worked his
way to the front for the win and fought off a strong challenge from
B Miller for those honors. Kershaw ran third ahead of Conrad, May,
Kierce, Broome, Tim Moon, Rodriguez, Wright and Crawford. 12th place
Welch was the final lead lap finisher. Newcomer Hansen started sixth
and was in the lead group when Crawford got sideways in front of
him, forcing him to stall. He restarted in the rear and battled back
to fifth before a spin ended his race with the two caution rule.
Welch is fourth in points, 595 ahead of Kierce. The VRA unwinged 360
sprint cars run their final out of town race for 2004 when they
travel to Bakersfield Speedway Park on Sept 18.
The solid dwarf car count came despite the other Southern California
club, CDCRA, having a point race in Santa Maria on the same night.
Alberdi Jr won the first heat race over Ross and Telly Philo. Shawn
O'Leary took the heat two win back to NorCal as Marc Lippert ran
second over car builder Frank Munroe. Hurst won heat 3 and Ventura
Senior division dominator Mike Sweeney ran second over Ewing.
Alberdi Sr won heat 4 over fellow NorCal racers Josh Hiatt and Mike
Grenert. The 12 lap B Main had 16 starters and transferred the top 8
to the back of the 24 car A Main grid. Ventura point leader Jeff
Shelton won the B Main over Pat Weger, Ed Niedzwiecki, Gary Conditt,
Ryan Blade, Chris Taylor, Rick Denny and Jon Prechtl. Despite
filling the 1/4 mile clay oval with 24 cars, the talented A Main
field ran the 30 lap distance without a single yellow flag. The top
ten finishers in the quick paced event finished on the lead lap and
22 of the 24 starters saw the checkered flag. Alberdi Sr and O'Leary
had the front row assignments ahead of Alberdi Sr and Hurst, but it
was fifth starter Ross posting the win as Nevada's Ewing battled
from 10th to finish second. Hurst pocketed third ahead of Alberdi Jr,
Alberdi Sr, Philo, Munroe, Grenert, Hiatt and Sweeney. The next 7
cars were one lap down and five more finished two laps behind the
winner.
Summary
Dwarf Cars
Heat 1-Steve Alberdi Jr, Howie Ross, Telly Philo, Mark Heinold, Jeff
Shelton.
Heat 2-Shawn O'Leary, Marc Lippert, Frank Munroe, Daniel Weger, Rick
Denny.
Heat 3-Zack Hurst, Mike Sweeney, Jimmy Ewing, Kevin Bender, Gary
Conditt.
Heat 4-Steve Alberdi Sr, Josh Hiatt, Mike Grenert, John Lynch, Chris
Taylor.
B Main-Shelton, Pat Weger, Ed Niedzwiecki, Conditt, Ryan Blade,
Taylor, Denny, Jon Prechtl, Jim Kojaku, Jerry Doolittle.
A Main-Ross, Ewing, Hurst, Alberdi Jr, Alberdi Sr, Philo, Munroe,
Grenert, Hiatt, Sweeney, Heinold, Bender, O'Leary, Shelton, Conditt,
Blade, Lynch, D Weger, Niedzwiecki, Lippert, Denny, Taylor, P Weger,
Prechtl.
Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars
Heat 1-Rob Kershaw, Tom Stansberry, Bruce Douglas, Jimmy May, Steve
Chuhaloff.
Heat 2-Blake Miller, Jimmy Crawford, Luis Espinoza, Guy Woodward,
Mike Broome.
Heat 3-Larry Lloyd Garrett Hanson, Bill Welch, Mike Whitcomb, Bill
Camarillo.
Heat 4-Kevin Kierce, Steve Stasa, John Wright, Tim Moon, Hobie
Conway.
B Main-Broome, Camarillo, Steve Conrad, Dennis Rodriguez, Oren
Prosser Sr, Rodney Argo, John Nock, Ron Butler, Jim Porter, Conway.
A Main-Stansberry, B Miller, Kershaw, Conrad, May, Kierce, Broome,
Moon, Rodriguez, Wright, Crawford, Welch, Woodward, Hanson,
Espinoza, Douglas, Whitcomb, Stasa, Lloyd, Camarillo. |
