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| LATE PASS NETS TAYLOR FIRST 2005 WIN by Gary Jacob |
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Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars, USAC Midgets and Dwarf Cars |
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Ventura, CA....June 11....One of the leading all time feature winners in the history of the division, Greg Taylor from Ojai used a lap 29 pass around Steve Conrad to post his first win since August of 2004 in Saturday night's VRA Unwinged 360 Sprint Car 30 lap feature at Ventura Raceway. Taylor had destroyed a car at the track three weeks ago and his $1000 win elevated him to sixth in the season points. He had to come from 13th starting after a fourth place heat finish. Conrad had started in the sixth row and settled for a $750 second. The final transfer from the B Main, Kevin Kierce started last in the 20 car grid but battled his way forward to finish a $500 third. The combination of point leader Chris Wakim in 15th and point runnerup Blake Miller in 5th left B Miller just 75 points behind in their championship duel. Kierce also made up a lot of ground to stand just 350 out of the lead. The USAC Western States Midgets were in town and Chico's Ryan Kaplan took the lead from Garrett Hansen on lap 2 and won that 30 lapper after timing in 4th quick. Kaplan was an outlaw kart star in Northern California before he moved up to the Ford Focus Midget action. The win elevated Kaplan to second in points and fourth ranked Jerome Rodela ran second ahead of Hansen and fast timer Wally Pankratz. The midget feature went the 30 lap distance with just a single yellow flag. Chris Taylor came from third to win the 20 l.ap VRA Pro Dwarf Car feature for the first time. Marc Lippert and Chuck Lippert finished 2nd and 3rd. Ross Miller joined the Senior Dwarf Car action and won their 20 lap feature from sixth starting as he drove around point leaders Mike Sweeney and Ed Niedzwiecki. Point leader Sweeney ran third and Niedzwiecki was second. The VRA unwinged sprint cars always get the largest car counts when the senior racers are merged into the show and 33 cars appeared this weekend. The four heat races transferred four cars each into the 30 lapper. Luis Espinoza won heat 1 over point leader Wakim and Tom Hendricks. B Miller beat Rob Kershaw and rookie Wes Richardson in heat 2. Oren Prosser Jr won heat 3 ahead of usual senior racer Bruce Douglas and Tom Schneider. Rookie Derek Buckley continued his impressive recent runs by capturing heat 4 ahead of Victor Davis and Shawn Kautz. The final four starters came from a 16 car B Main. Angel Figueroa was a B Main scratch and Richard McCormick won the B Main ahead of Steve Chulahoff, Mark Weitzman and Kierce. Just missing the move forward were Tony Dighera and Tom Harper. The front of the A Main grid found Espinoza and Wakim on the front row ahead of Buckley and B Miller. After last week's all green 30 lapper, this week the caution fell 7 times in just the first 6 rounds as the field was dramatically shuffled. Espinoza and Prosser Jr were among the early leaders. Conrad was out front with five laps to run, Taylor made his winning move on lap 29. Conrad salvaged second and 20th starter Kierce ran third ahead of 10th starter Hendricks and B Miller. Joe Henderson ran sixth ahead of Prosser Jr, Richardson, Douglas and Ron Wade. Espinoza has a solid hold on fourth ahead of Hendricks, Taylor and Kershaw. The midgets had a unique situation as the BCRA Midgets were racing just up the road at Santa Maria Speedway. Sixteen cars appeared in Ventura and Pankratz posted quick time with his 12.636 lap. Rodela ran a 12.789 and Steve Paden had a 12.902. Kaplan was the final 12 second qualifier at 12.930. Dallen McKenney ranked fifth ahead of G Hansen, Brian Gard and Stephen Graves. Paden beat Matt Mitchell and McKenney in heat 1 and it was point leader Robby Flock capturing heat 2 over Kaplan and Rodela. Chris Rahe flipped in the heat action, but returned to race in the 30 lapper. It only took Kaplan a single lap to take the lead from Hansen. He led the final 29 laps for the win. Rodela ran second ahead of Hansen, Pankratz, Paden, Flock, Graves, Gard, Tyler Brown and Scott Pierovich. Flock is 31 points ahead of Kaplan, 36 in front of Paden and 37 ahead of Rodela. The USAC teams move up Highway 101 to Santa Maria for a June 18th race. There were 11 Pro Dwarf Cars and John Lynch won heat 1 ahead of C Taylor and Diana Marshall. Thomas Velasquez captured heat 2 from the outside front row ahead of M Lippert and C Lippert. Division dominator Brian Saxton fell out of heat 1. The feature 20 lapper had six cars finish on the lead lap as C Taylor won from third. Sixth starter M Lippert was second and 8th starter C Lippert ran third. Saxton had to start 10th and he finished fourth. Lynch and Velasquez rounded out the lead lap cars with Dean Couch and Marshall one lap down. The Senior Dwarfs fielded 12 cars and Niedzwiecki continued his strong recent efforts by winning heat 1 from the outside front row over Jerry Doolittle and usual sprint car racer Ron Bach. Sweeney came from 4th to win heat 2 ahead of Millar and James Soltis. Soltis was a feature scratch and Mike Bailey was out on lap 1. Millar won from sixth as fourth starter Niedzwiecki ran second ahead of fifth starting Sweeney. Doolittle was fourth ahead of Glen Monk and Jon Prechtl, the final lead lap finisher. Summary Senior Dwarf Car Pro Dwarf Car Unwinged 360 Sprint Car USAC Midget |
