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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| DOUBLE FEATURE WIN NIGHT FOR
KRUSEMAN by Gary Jacob |
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Wingless 360 Sprint Cars, USAC Midgets and Ford Focus Midgets |
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Ventura, CA..April 23..Ventura's own Cory Kruseman continued his mastery
over the ¼ mile clay speedway as he raced to two feature wins Saturday night at
Ventura Raceway. Kruseman made a last lap drive around Jimmy Crawford to score a
$1000 win in the VRA Wingless 360 Sprint Car 30 lapper. Crawford had led from
lap 15 and he settled for a $750 second with 18 year old point leader Blake
Miller finishing third. Miller won $500 and improved his point lead to 1040
points over Chris Wakim. Kruseman had started sixth and Crawford 7th. Kruseman
has won all three VRA races that he has started in 2005. The USAC Western States
Midgets were also on hand and Kruseman jumped into the Andy Bondio car. He timed
in third quick, won his heat race and then paced the final 13 laps to win the 30
lap feature. Kruseman started fourth, had the lead in just 3 laps, but lost the
top spot to Midwestern invader Brad Kuhn on lap 14. Kuhn led four laps in his
Arizona based ride before Kruseman retook command. Kruseman finished in front of
Kuhn, Garrett Hansen and Johnny Rodriguez. The USAC Ford Focus Midgets rounded
out the all open wheel night and outside front row starter Alex Harris of Simi
Valley won that 20 lap feature as he led the final 18 laps. Rookie Robbie
Whitchurch from Chico, an outlaw kart graduate, ran second ahead of 10th
starting Todd Carroll. With a few of the usual senior sprint racers joining in, the VRA wingless 360 sprint cars had a 38 car turnout. The four heat races advanced the top four finishers into the 30 lap A Main and Crawford won heat 1 ahead of Tom Hendricks and Ron Bach. Clark Templeman III outraced senior star Bruce Douglas and defending VRA champion Tom Stansberry in heat 2 and Kevin Kierce won heat 3 ahead of Shawn Kautz and John Nock. Kruseman was victorious in heat 4 over point leader Miller and usual 410 racer Seth Wilson. There were two B Mains so only the top 2 advanced from each. Steve Chulahoff won the first in front of female racer Nadine Keller as former TQ midget star Todd Hunsaker ran third ahead Larry Lloyd. Wakim won the second B Main ahead of Rob Kershaw and previous week feature winner Luis Espinoza. Joe Henderson was fourth ahead of Oren Prosser Jr. Greg Taylor tumbled in the point standings when he broke in his heat race and failed to start a B Main. Hendricks and Kautz shared the front row for the 30 lap feature ahead of Douglas and Miller. Kierce and Kruseman made up row 3 with Crawford and Templeman in row 4. Crawford battled from 7th to take the lead on lap 15. Kruseman was third in four laps and second with five laps to run. On the final lap, Kruseman drove around Crawford for the feature win. Miller ran third ahead of Kierce, 9th starter Stansberry, 15th starter Steve Conrad, 9th row starter Wakim, Hendricks, Wilson and Ronnie Case. Third ranked Kierce is 200 points back of Wakim and just 65 ahead of Kershaw. Bill Welch is ranked fifth as Taylor fell 1855 points out of the point lead with his tough night. A large influx of Arizona teams gave the USAC Western States Midgets a 30 car turnout. Coming off his 50th win the previous weekend at Bakersfield, Robby Flock turned quick time in the Sala car with a 12.275 clocking. Hansen ran a 12.574 and Kruseman was a distant third at 12.741. Mike Spencer made a rare midget appearance and timed in fourth at 12.743. Female ace Shannon McQueen was fifth with a 12.820 and Kuhn ranked sixth at 12.905. Rodriguez and Scott Pierovich also broke into the 12's. Top runner Jerome Rodela had his time disallowed and Bradley Galedrige broke in practice. The top four finishers advanced from each of the four heat races. Wingless sprint car star Damion Gardner jumped into a Pedregon car and won the opening heat race over Josh Lakatos and Tyler Brown. Former Lightning Sprint and Ford Focus Midget star Chris Rahe won heat 2 over veteran Wally Pankratz and Kuhn. Kruseman won heat 3 ahead of outlaw kart and Ford Focus Midget graduate Ryan Kaplan and Rodriguez. Arizona star Eric Wilkins won heat 4 ahead of Jimmy Christian and Pierovich. The B Main was checkered after just five laps and transferred five cars into the A Main. McQueen won ahead of Hansen, Steve Paden, female racer Amy Maris and Rodela. The usual USAC six car inversion put Kuhn and McQueen on the front row ahead of Spencer, Kruseman, Hansen and Flock. Kuhn led two laps, then it was Kruseman for 11, Kuhn for 4 and finally Kruseman for the final 13 rounds. Kruseman and Kuhn ran 1-2 ahead of Hansen, 7th starter Rodriguez, 12th starting Gardner, Lakatoas, McQueen, Pierovich, Wilkins and Flock. Going into a May 7th date at Hanford, Flock paces the Western States point standings with a 16 point lead over Paden. McQueen has climbed into third, 26 behind Paden and just a single tally ahead of Hansen. Pierovich is 8 more back in fifth, just 2 ahad of Rodriguez and 5 in front of Rodela. The absent Thomas Meseraull fell to 10th in points. Making the first of two straight Ventura appearances, the USAC Ford Focus Midgets appeared with 19 cars. Usual wingless sprint car racer Rob Kershaw made his first appearance with the group and won heat 1 over Harris and Jake Vail. Chris Veach won heat 2 ahead of 2004 Lightning Sprint champion Keith Janca and Bakersfield winner Bobby Michnowicz. An impressive Whitchurch won heat 3 ahead of Ventura's own Bill Camarillo and female star Audra Sasselli. Kershaw and Harris shared the front row for the 20 lapper. Kershaw led two laps, then it was Harris for the final 18 rounds. Whitchurch started third and outdueled 10th starter Carroll to finish second. Camarillo started fifth and finished fourth. Chris Veach was fifth ahead of Cal Smith, Sasselli, Jet Davison, Nevada's J R Williams, Kershaw and Robbie Hawks. Michnowicz was 14th and saw his dirt series point lead cut to just a single point by Whitchurch. Chris Veach is only 4 points behind the point leader and Sasselli stands fourth, 14 points out of the lead. The series returns to Ventura on April 30 when the VRA wingless 360 sprints, Senior Sprints and VRA Modifieds will also race. Summary Ford Focus Midget USAC Midget Wingless 360 Sprint Car |
