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Ventura, CA.....Oct 2.....A newcomer to the VRA unwinged 360 sprint cars, 19 year old Garrett Hansen from Manhatten Beach fought off furious late race challenges from Bandit Sprint Car dominator Danny Sheridan and Luis Espinoza to post his first $1000, 30 lap feature win Saturday night at Ventura Raceway. Hansen earlier won his heat race and had to come from sixth in his feature win. Espinoza chased Hansen over the final 10 laps, threatening to pass in every corner. On the final lap, Sheridan was able to dive underneath Espinoza to pick off the $750 runnerup prize. He had come from 14th starting and fifth starter Espinoza won $500 for third. Forced to come through the B Main action, versatile Mike Kirby rallied from 18th starting to a 4th place finish. Point leader Tom Stansberry finished 9th after starting on the pole, but still holds a huge point advantage. Third starting Ron Bach won the senior sprint car feature and Wiley Miller used a second place finish to take the point lead from Bruce Douglas, who crashed on the first lap and finished 20th. Bach is fourth in points. Rick Rodarte won the 20 lap VRA Modified feature to give him 8 main event wins in just 13 events this year. Marty McLaughlin and Andy Frank finished 2nd and 3rd. The pony stock feature had a surprise ending as Joel Chavez spun after leading the first 19 laps and Andrew Greiman led just the final lap for his third win. Point leader Mike Frazier was second ahead of Adam McPhail. Greiman also made his VRA Modified debut and ran a solid fifth in that 20 lap feature.
The VRA unwinged 360 sprint cars had another huge 36 car turnout, so they used four heat races and a pair of B Mains to set a 20 car feature field. Shawn Kautz won the opening heat race over Stansberry and Jeremy Ellertson. Mike Broome outraced Kevin Kierce and Blake Miller in heat 2 and it was Hansen on top of heat 3 ahead of Danny Ebberts and Steve Conrad. Espinoza won heat 4 over Clark Templeman III and Mike Whitcomb. The top four finishers in each heat advanced and they were joined by the top two in each of the two B Mains. Another usual unwinged 410 racer Jimmy Crawford won the first B Main over Bill Welch and Ryan Devitt. Kirby took the second with Josh Ford second ahead of Greg Taylor and Chris Wakim. Top runners Taylor and Wakim were forced to watch the 30 lap finale. Stansberry and Ebberts shared the front row ahead of Broome, Kautz, Espinoza and Hansen. Stansberry did set the pace until he got passed by Hansen. When Espinoza worked his way into second , he began to apply heavy pressure to the rookie leader but Hansen did not falter. Sheridan took a little longer to break into the lead pack from his 7th row start, but the hard charger made a veteran's move on Espinoza on the final lap to steal second. Hansen won ahead of Sheridan, Espinoza, Kirby, Kierce, Broome, Ebberts, Ronnie Case, Stansberry and Conrad. Stansberry's point lead is 2430 over Rob Kershaw with Conrad another 1135 points back in third. Kierce moved ahead of Welch into fourth and Wakim lost ground in sixth.
The senior sprint cars had a 23 car field split into three heat races. W Miller won heat 1 over Mike Cook and Sam Vail while Douglas outraced John Woodward and Dave Marini in heat 2. Ron Butler beat Bach and Curtis Richards in heat 3. The scratches of John Richards and Steve Stasa left a 21 car main event field. The first lap crash of Douglas and his 20th place finish shook up the standings as Bach won from third ahead of sixth starting W Miller. Woodward started on the pole and ran third ahead of 15th starter Jim Porter and 10th starting Tim Moon. The top ten was rounded out by Bob Alderman, Vail, Marini, Brian Kittle and Keith Iaia. W Miller emerged with a 445 point lead on Douglas. Moon is third in points, just 175 ahead of Bach while Danny Miller is ranked fifth.
The VRA Modifieds split 12 cars into a pair of heat races and Rodarte won heat 1 over McLaughlin and Frank to preview their identical 1-2-3 run in the 20 lap feature. In the heat, they started 5th, 3rd and 1st and the feature results came from 7th, 4th and again 1st. Tom Morley won heat 2 over Jeff Goddard and Ric Bronson. Six of the 12 starters finished lead lap in the feature with Rodarte beating McLaughlin, Frank, Morley, Greiman and Dave Lidren. While Rodarte holds a big 330 point lead on Lidren, Jody Davis is just another 75 points back in third and Bronson's 12th place finish dropped him 125 points back of Lidren in 4th. McLaughlin has a solid hold on fifth. The pony stocks had 13 cars and Brad Long won heat 1 from the pole over Greiman and second ranked David Peterson. Frazier won heat 2 from fifth with McPhail second ahead of Jon Everhart. Chavez ran fourth in his heat and started 3rd in the 20 lapper. He took a quick lead and was headed to his 2nd win only to spin on the final lap and fall to a 5th place finish. Greiman won ahead of point leader Frazier, McPhail and Everhart. The top ten were on the lead lap with Chavez recovering for fifth over Peterson, Jim Evans, Dave Revard, Jon Mortenson and Bakersfield regular Lulu Strub.
Summary
Pony Stocks
Heat 1-Brad Long, Andrew Greiman, David Peterson, Joel Chavez, Jim Evans.
Heat 2-Mike Frazier, Adam McPhail, Jon Everhart, Dave Revard, Jon Mortenson. Main-Greiman, Frazier, McPhail, Everhart, Chavez, Peterson, Evans, Revard, Mortenson, Lulu Strub, Jerrod Twomey, JoeWeaver, Long.
VRA Modifieds
Heat 1-Rick Rodarte, Marty McLaughlin, Andy Frank, Jody Davis, Bruce Blackman Jr.
Heat 2-Tom Morley, Jeff Goddard, Ric Bronson, Andrew Greiman, Mark Moise. Main-Rodarte, McLaughlin, Frank, Morley, Greiman, Dave Lidren, Blackman Jr, Moise, Jammy Earnest, Goddard, Davis, Bronson.
Senior Sprints
Heat 1-Wiley Miller, Mike Cook, Sam Vail, Tim Moon, Bob Alderman.
Heat 2-Bruce Douglas, John Woodward, Dave Marini, Oren Prosser Sr, Grady Winkler. Heat 3-Ron Butler, Ron Bach, Curtis Richards, Danny Miller, Jim Porter.
Main-Bach, W Miller, Woodward, Porter, Moon, Alderman, Vail, Marini, Brian Kittle, Keith Iaia, Dale Harwood, Sammy Iaconis, Cook, Winkler, Tom Harper, Prosser, Jeff Culver, Butler, D Miller, Douglas, C Richards.
Unwinged 360 Sprints
Heat 1-Shawn Kautz, Tom Stansberry, Jeremy Ellertson, Rob Kershaw, Jimmy Crawford.
Heat 2-Mike Broome, Kevin Kierce, Blake Miller, Mike Knopf, Chris Wakim.
Heat 3-Garrett Hansen, Danny Ebberts, Steve Conrad, Ronnie Case, Ryan Devitt.
Heat 4-Luis Espinoza, Clark Templeman III, Mike Whitcomb, Danny Sheridan, Greg Taylor.
1st B Main-Crawford, Bill Welch, Devitt, Larry Lloyd, Oren Prosser Jr, Ron Wade, Hobie Conway, Dennis Rodriguez, David Sinsley.
2nd B Main-Mike Kirby, Josh Ford, Taylor, Wakim, Steve Chuhaloff, John Nock, Bill Camarillo, Joe Henderson, Victor Davis.
A Main-Hansen, Sheridan, Espinoza, Kirby, Kierce, Broome, Ebberts, Case, Stansberry, Conrad, Ford, Kershaw, Templeman, Crawford, Welch, B Miller, Ellertson, Knopf, Whitcomb, Kautz. |
