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| GREG TAYLOR RETAKES VENTURA
POINT LEAD WITH FEATURE WIN by Gary Jacob |
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Wingless 360 Sprint Cars, IMCA Modifieds, Pony Stocks and Dwarf Cars |
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Ventura, CA..April 29...Turning a third starting slot into a $1000 win in
the time shortened 20 lap feature for the VRA wingless 360 sprint cars, Greg
Taylor retook the season point lead Saturday night at Ventura Raceway. He came
out of the night with just a 75 point lead on Jimmy Crawford, who was a $500
third in the main event. Luis Espinoza earned $750 for his second place run.
Espinoza started 4th and Crawford 2nd. Troy Rutherford lost ground in the point
race with a spectacular flip at the start of the feature action. Heat winner
Randy McGraw won the 20 lap IMCA Modified main event from an outside front row
start. Santa Maria's David Addamo ran second in his JetMod to stand just 2
points back of early season point leader Jack Parker. Opening night winner
Parker was third this week from a 4th row start. The IMCA Modifieds had a solid
18 car turnout. After placing second behind Andrew Greiman in the heat action,
Joel Chavez won the 15 lap feature for the pony stocks. Greiman ran second and
holds a narrow 25 point lead over Jim Evans, third place finisher in the
feature. The season debut for the VRA dwarf cars and their three divisions saw
20 pros, 20 seniors and 16 juniors all in action. Brian Saxton rebounded from a
fierce flip at Bakersfield to score a clean sweep in the Pro action. He was the
2005 track champion and he won the 20 lap feature from sixth starting. Chuck
Lippert came all the way from 15th to finish second ahead of Chris Taylor and
former champion Jeff Shelton. John Lynch won the 15 lap feature for the senior
division from third starting. Fellow second row starter Tom Bellinger was second
and Bill VanPraag came from 13th to get third. The new Junior Dwarf Car class
had an impressive debut and Austin Figueroa won the 12 lap feature race ahead of
Tanner Kershaw and Tyler Jerman. The new Junior Midgets also debuted with
Christian Copley winning both the heat race and the 12 lap feature. Charlie
Butcher was second in the main event. With the senior sprint division idled, a few of them moved over to give the VRA wingless sprint cars a 35 car turnout. Four heat races transferred the top four finishers in each. Rutherford won the opening heat race over Crawford, John Nock and Tom Harper. Both Tom Hendricks and Angel Figueroa fell out early. Second year sprint car racer Wes Richardson won heat 2 over Mark Weitzman and Oren Prosser Jr. Chris Wakim lost a transfer when he stalled on the final lap. Espinoza won heat 3 from the pole ahead of Ronnie Case and Ross Millar. Bill Camarillo won heat 4 from the pole over G Taylor and Steve Conrad. A fifth place heat finish left Kevin Kierce in the B Main, but he raced to that win over Brandon Thomson, Victor Davis and Wakim. Sprint car rookie and double division racer Donald Houghton ran fifth and both he and Ron Tjaarda also advanced when both Case and B Thomson were unable to start the A Main. Weitzman, Crawford, G Taylor and Espinoza started in the front two rows for the scheduled 30 lap feature. Weitzman made a bobble in turn 1 with Taylor racing into the lead over Crawford. Rutherford bicycled off turn 3 and flew high in the air in a series of flips. He emerged unhurt, but joined Weitzman and Tjaarda on the sidelines. G Taylor now led Crawford, Espinoza and Richardson. Davis was knocked unconscious when he hit the front wall and his car careened all the way across the infield into the back fence. Davis suffered a shoulder injury. A few more laps were completed before time stopped the event on lap 20 with G Taylor the winner ahead of Espinoza, Crawford, Richardson, Conrad, Harper, Prosser Jr, Nock, 17th starter Kierce and Camarillo. Conrad is third in points, 250 behind Crawford and 300 ahead of Espinoza. Rutherford fell to fifth and Richardson holds down sixth. The IMCA Modifieds were divided into two heat races. McGraw turned his front row start into a win in heat 1 over fifth starter Gary Curtis and D Houghton. Bakersfield's Chett Reeves visited and ran fourth. Randy Miller won from the pole in heat 2 with fifth starter Brett Lynsky in second. Santa Maria's Chad Weber made his division debut by racing from 9th to third. In his quest for state points, Bill Waltman raced in Watsonville on Friday night and dropped out early in his heat here. Miller and McGraw had the front row assignments for the 20 lap feature because of their bad luck in the opener. McGraw raced to the win with sixth starter Addamo getting second. Parker came from 8th to run third as D Houghton placed fourth ahead of Brad Prows and 18th starting Waltman. Also finishing lead lap were pony stock graduate David Peterson, Lynsky and Rick Rodarte. Steve Smith, James Stowe and Weber were all eliminated in a lap 6 incident. Waltman is third in track points, five behind Parker. Fifteen pony stocks were divided into two heat races. Greiman beat Chavez and Jack Hoyt in heat 1. Evans won heat 2 over Tom Fish and Randal Dougan. Paul Johnson had the pole for the feature with Hoyt alongside. Fish and Chavez shared row 2 ahead of Evans and Greiman. Hoyt led until he lost a wheel on lap 7. Chavez was out front the rest of the way as Greiman settled for second in the 15 lapper. Evans ran third over Adam McPhail, Dougan, Steve Klingberg, Johnson, Fish and Ryan Changus. Jeff Houghton and Jerrod Twomey also finished lead lap. The Pro Dwarfs saw Thomas Velasquez break in practice to end his night. Saxton won heat 1 from fourth as C Taylor ran second ahead of Carl Behmer. Rob Anderson won heat 2 from sixth, but ended up scratching from the 20 lap feature. Shelton was second in heat 2 over Curt Cook. Cook and Behmer held down the front row for the 18 car, 20 lap feature but Behmer's night in a first lap incident. The top 9 finished on the lead lap as Saxton won from 8th and Chuck Lippert made the big charge from 15th to get second. C Taylor and Shelton started in the second row and ran 3rd and 4th. Cole Milton was fifth ahead of Chad Kincaid, Ben Sheen, James Johnson and Tom Sera. The Senior Dwarfs split 20 cars into a pair of heat races. Ed Niedzwiecki won heat 1 from third as pole starter Bellinger ran second ahead of Dave Revard. A flip victim at the Mohave Valley AZ nationals the previous weekend, Jon Prechtl won heat 2 from sixth ahead of Lynch and Ben Hoskins. Hoskins and Jerry Doolittle were both feature scratches. Gary Conditt had the pole for the 15 lap feature with Revard alongside. Conditt dominated the first half of the race until a turn 3 bobble. Lynch and Bellinger started in the second row and they finished 1-2 with 7th row starters VanPraag and Glen Monk finishing 3-4. After dropping out early in her heat race, Linda Taylor charged from 16th to get fifth and fellow 8th row starter George Sack Jr was sixth. Prechtl was the final lead lap finisher in 7th. The next six cars all finished one lap down. Running on a small track, the junior dwarf action is limited to 8 cars at a time. The 16 car turnout was split into three heat races. Matt Orozco beat Chase Lippert in heat 1 after starting on the pole. Riley Helland won from third in heat 2 over Austin Figueroa and Tanner Kershaw. Jerman won heat 3 from fourth over Juan Acevedo. The top 8 from the heats ran the 12 lap A main and the other 8 raced in a 12 lap B Main. Austin Figueroa won the A main from fifth over 8th starter T Kershaw and third starting Jerman. Chase Lippert ran fourth over Orozco and Joey Freshour. Devin McCree lapped everyone but Tommy Velasquez III in the B Main as Ricky Lewis ran third over Cris Noe and Emma Alderman. All five Junior Midgets finished on the lead lap in both the 7 lap heat and the 12 lap feature. Copley won from second in the heat race over Chris Olson and Butcher. Copley started on the pole in the feature and won ahead of Butcher, Olson, Ramon Rivas and Michaela Stanton. Summary Junior Midget Heat-Christian Copley, Chris Olson, Charlie Butcher, Michaela Stanton, Ramon Rivas. Main-Copley, Butcher, Olson, Rivas, Stanton. Junior Dwarf Car Heat 1-Matt Orozco, Chase Lippert, Joey Freshour, Eddie Vasquez, Kayle Brazel. Heat 2-Riley Helland, Austin Figueroa, Tanner Kershaw, Devin McCree, Emma Alderman. Heat 3-Tyler Jerman, Juan Acevedo, Tommy Velasquez III, Cris Noe, Elysse Blade. B Main-McCree, Velasquez III, Ricky Lewis, Noe, Alderman, Brazel, Vasquez. A Main-Austin Figueroa, T Kershaw, Jerman, Chase Lippert, Orozco, Freshour, Acevedo, Helland. Senior Dwarf Car Heat 1-Ed Niedzwiecki, Tom Bellinger, Dave Revard, Gary Conditt, John Haag. Heat 2-Jon Prechtl, John Lynch, Ben Hoskins, Wes Harris, Jerre Hinton. Main-Lynch, Bellinger, Bill VanPraag, Glen Monk, Linda Taylor, George Sack Jr, Prechtl, Hinton, Niedzwiecki, Harris, Revard, Mike Bailey, Conditt, Steve Addison, Cindy Addison, James Soltis, Haag, Jim Stutzman. Pro Dwarf Car Heat 1-Brian Saxton, Chris Taylor, Carl Behmer, Cole Milton, Delaney Bakke. Heat 2-Rob Anderson, Jeff Shelton, Curt Cook, Chad Kincaid, Tom Sera. Main-Saxton, Chuck Lippert, Taylor, Shelton, Milton, Kincaid, Ben Sheen, James Johnson, Sera, Michael Allawos, Lars Wolfe, Diana Marshall, Jason Jordan, Cook Bakke, Michael Sweeney Jr, Jeff Fillingame, Behmer, Pony Stock Heat 1-Andrew Greiman, Joel Chavez, Jack Hoyt, Paul Johnson, Adam McPhail. Heat 2-Jim Evans, Tom Fish, Randal Dougan, Steve Klingberg, Jeff Houghton. Main-Chavez, Greiman, Evans, McPhail, Dougan, Klingberg, Johnson, Fish, Ryan Changus, Houghton, Jerrod Twomey, Tyler Brochett, Terry Nunley, Mark Woellert, Hoyt. IMCA Modified Heat 1-Randy McGraw, Gary Curtis, Donald Houghton, Chett Reeves, David Addamo. Heat 2-Randy Miller, Brett Lynsky, Chad Weber, Jack Parker, Brad Prows. Main-McGraw, Addamo, Parker, D Houghton, Prows, Bill Waltman, David Peterson, Lynsky, Rick Rodarte, Steve Bulpit, Joe Weaver, Curtis, Reeves, Randy Gens, Miller, Steve Smith, James Stowe, Weber. Wingless 360 Sprint Car Heat 1-Troy Rutherford, Jimmy Crawford, John Nock,
Tom Harper, Brandon Thompson. Heat 2-Wes Richardson, Mark Weitzman, Oren Prosser
Jr, Mark Chuhaloff, Victor Davis, Donald Houghton. Heat 3-Luis Espinoza, Ronnie
Case, Ross Millar, Derek Buckley, Joe Henderson. Heat 4-Bill Camarillo, Greg
Taylor, Steve Conrad, Rob Kershaw, Kevin Kierce. B Main-Kierce, B Thomson,
Davis, Chris Wakim, D Houghton, Ron Tjaarda, Hobie Conway, Tom Schneider, Tim
Moon, Heidi Tresler. A Main-Taylor, Espinoza, Crawford, Richardson, Conrad,
Harper, Prosser Jr, Nock, Kierce, Camarillo, Buckley, Kershaw, Wakim, D
Houghton, Chuhaloff, Millar, Davis, Rutherford, Weitzman, Tjaarda. |
