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| BLAKE MILLER AND BOB ALDERMAN ON TOP IN VENTURA by Gary Jacob |
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Wingless Sprint Cars, Ford Focus Midgets and VRA Modifieds |
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Ventura, CA….Oct 1.….Series point leader Blake Miller battled from fourth starting and out dueled outside front row starter Chris Wakim to capture the $1000 win in the 30 lap VRA wingless 360 sprint car action at Ventura Raceway on Saturday night. It was B Miller’s third win of 2005 and he is just a few points short of clinching the series championship. He actually shares his car with father Danny Miller, who races in the Senior Sprint car class. D Miller was a first lap crash victim tonight and the team had to scramble to repair the car for B Miller’s feature effort. Third ranked Wakim was a $750 second and point runnerup Kevin Kierce collected $500 for third. Pole starter Bob Alderman inherited the lead when point leader Wiley Miller spun while leading in the 20 lap Senior Sprint feature and he went on to post his third win of the season. Alderman is third in points, just 195 tallies ahead of Tim Moon. Moon finished third behind Bruce Douglas. W Miller was able to battle back to a sixth place finish that wrapped up the division title for him. Ron Bach finished fifth, but stands 1160 points back of W Miller with just one point race remaining on Oct 22. You can only earn 1050 points in a night in the Ventura sprint cars. The USAC Ford Focus Midgets closed their 2005 dirt season with a season high 22 car turnout. Bobby Michnowicz returned to action with wins in both his heat and the 20 lap feature. Alex Harris ran second, but fell 20 points short in his bid to overtake Morgan Hill’s Chase Barber for the championship. Barber finished fifth behind Robbie Whitchurch and Audra Sasselli. Sasselli ended up third in points and Whitchurch fourth. The VRA Modifieds returned to action after a couple month layoff to race their final point race. Dave Lidren won his third feature race of the season, but finished 110 points behind champion Tom Morley. Morley won four features during the season and finished third behind Austin Rodarte this night. Rodarte fell just five points short of overtaking rookie Jammy Earnest for fourth in points. The VRA wingless 360 sprint cars split 27 cars into four heat races. B Miller came from sixth to win the first heat over Oren Prosser Jr and Luis Espinoza. Greg Taylor won from fourth in heat 2 with Rob Kershaw second ahead of San Jose long tow Michael Trimble. Wakim out dueled fellow second row starter Kierce for the win in heat 3 and Steve Conrad won heat 4 from the pole over dwarf car graduate Angel Figueroa and Tom Hendricks. The B Main had ten starters chasing four transfers and Joe Henderson won from second with third starter Jeff Fiscus in second. Wes Richardson and John Nock also transferred. A four car inversion filled the front three rows of the 20 car feature grid with heavy hitters as Conrad and Wakim shared row 1 ahead of Taylor, B Miller, Kershaw and Kierce. In addition to her VRA modified racing, Earnest is an on track announcer for Ventura and she introduced the starting field for the main event. Wakim took a quick lead over Conrad, B Miller and Taylor. Taylor advanced to second, but broke just six laps into the race. Conrad is now pressuring Wakim for the lead and B Miller is fending off Kierce for third. Prosser spins in turn 3 on lap 9. Wakim maintains his half car advantage over Conrad with Kierce moving around B Miller into third. A bobble by Wakim on lap 15 forced Conrad to slow and Kierce drove by for second. Kershaw leaves the event on lap 15. Kierce provided a challenge for Wakim for several laps before giving second back to Conrad. Conrad spun in turn 2 on lap 22 and had to go to the rear for the restart. Wakim and Kierce continued their battle up high while B Miller is committed to a low line. The bottom groove effort gained B Miller second. John Nock spun for a yellow flag with Wakim leading B Miller, Kierce and Figueroa. With two laps to go, Wakim misses his mark in turn 3 and B Miller runs a perfect corner to edge into the lead. B Miller pulled off the narrow win over Wakim with Kierce settling for third. 15th starting Larry Lloyd ran fourth and and Figueroa got the best finish of his rookie sprint car season in fifth. Dennis Rodriguez, Henderson, Tom Hendricks, Conrad and Richardson completed the top ten. 15 cars finished on the lead lap. The Senior Sprints split 15 cars into a pair of heat races. W Miller won heat 1 from the pole with Bob Hedlund making his first start since his hard crash by racing to a second. Third starter Bach made an aggressive pass around pole starter Alderman to capture heat 2. Moon ran third. Alderman and Hedlund held down the front row for the 20 lap feature ahead of W Miller and Bach. When the feature started, Hedlund drifted up into Bach and D Miller. The race was over for Hedlund, D Miller and Jeff Culver and the Miller crew got busy fixing the car for B Miller. Bach had to restart in the back with a damaged mount. Alderman raced into the lead, but quickly gave way to W Miller. Douglas and Dave Marini dueled for third. Bach was struggling with his smoking car and nearly went a lap down to W Miller. Moon got around Marini for fourth. W Miller held a strong lead when he spun in turn 1. Now, Bach and W Miller were starting together in the back. Alderman stayed out front for the win ahead of Douglas and Moon. Jim Porter started 12th and ran fourth. Bach and W Miller inched their way forward to finish fifth and sixth and that wrapped up the championship for W Miller. The top ten were on the lead lap with Mark Chuhaloff in 7th ahead of Bill Leonard, Marini and Ross Millar. Bach is 830 points ahead of Alderman. The USAC Ford Focus Midgets split their 22 cars into three heat races. Michnowicz won heat 1 over J J Ercse and double division racer Rob Kershaw. Chris Veach beat brother Cameron Veach in heat 2 as Quentin Crye ran third. Harris won heat 3 over Brett Engstrom and Jake Vail. Engstrom led the first 14 laps of the 20 lap feature after having the pole in the six car inversion. Michnowicz came from sixth to paced the final 6 laps for the win. Harris ran second ahead of Whitchurch, Sasselli, champion Barber, Jet Davison, Cal Smith, Chris Veach, Nick Carlson, Vail, newcomer Jared Little, Tom Fish and Keith Janca. Chris Veach finished just one point behind Whitchurch in the final dirt track standings as they dueled for fourth. Janca ended up sixth with Davison and Smith tied for 7th. The pavement series continues on Oct 8 at Irwindale. There were 8 VRA Modifieds, but Tom Stephens Jr broke in practice. Rodarte won the heat race ahead of Tom Morley and Marty McLaughlin. In the 20 lap feature, Lidren came out on top after a 4th place heat run. Rodarte ran second ahead of Tom Morley, Earnest and M McLaughlin. Lance McLaughlin was out on lap 15 and Trenton Morley only ran 8 laps. M McLaughlin was third in points, 190 behind champion Tom Morley. Ventura is dark on Oct 8th, but returns to race the final three Saturdays in October. Summary VRA Modified Ford Focus Midget Senior Sprint VRA Unwinged 360 Sprint Car |
