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| Race Report by Gary Thomas |
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Bagley Classic At Perris Auto Speedway |
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Perris, CA - August 20, 2005...The annual Bagley Classic at
Perris Auto Speedway turned out to be a terrific night of racing for
the Valvoline USAC/CRA Series. Due to the wonderful efforts of Anne
Wilkerson & others; $6,000 total was on the line for lap money
to be divided among the top 3 for each lap of the A-main.
The night got off to somewhat of an odd start as someone other than Damion Gardner set fast time. On this night, the 44 of Mike Spencer turned a 16.917 for quick time honors. Cory Kruseman, Troy Kline, Josh Ford & Troy Rutherford completed the top five in qualifying. The 3 lap Snap on Tools trophy dash featured Josh Ford & Troy Kline on the front row with Cory Kruseman & fast timer Mike Spencer in the back row. Kline got the jump into turn 1 but as they went into turn 3 Ford used a super slider to overtake him for the lead. Kruseman was also able to sneak under Kline in turn 4 to take second. Kruseman stayed close but had to settle for second as Ford took the win. Kline finished third & Kline rounded out the field. The first of four ten lap heat races had Randy Waitman & Gregg Bragg on the front row. Bragg got the jump into turn 1 & led the whole way with pressure from the Rip Williams & Danny Ebberts. The top four transfers were Bragg, Williams, Ebberts & Jordan Hermansader who was driving the car normally piloted by Steve Ostling. Fast timer Mike Spencer finished sixth forcing him to run the B-main. The second heat featured Jack Dearmond Jr. & Josh Williams on the front row. On the first attempt David Cardey took a hard flip in turns 1 & 2. Josh Williams led the first four circuits before nearly spinning out in turn four & dropping back to third. This handed the lead to Jason York who did an excellent job to hold off every move thrown at him by Damion Gardner. York eventually picked up the win followed by Gardner, Cory Kruseman & Josh Williams. The front row of the third heat was compromised by Mark Heidenreich & Nadine Keller. Right from the drop of the green flag the action was hot & heavy with the most breathtaking moment happening when cars went four wide into turn 1 on lap four. Tony Jones made a beautiful power move on the outside in turn four during lap seven to take the lead away from Heidenreich. Jones went on to win the heavily contested heat followed by Heidenreich, Rodney Argo & Danny Sheridan. The fourth & final heat had Davey Pombo & Dan Hilberg on the front row. Hillberg got the jump but Matt Stewart hit the wall in turn 4 & brought out the caution before a lap was completed. Right when the caution flag was thrown, Danny Faria Jr. got too high in turns 1 & 2 which sent him upside down to bring out the red flag. On the next start Pombo got the jump to lead the field into turn 1. On lap two Mike Kirby, Josh Ford & Hillberg went 3 wide for third with Ford getting the position. On lap 4 Ford make a nice slider in turn 3 to take second from Seth Wilson. The next lap Ford made the move around Pombo to take the lead. Ford pulled away to take the win followed by Pombo, Wilson & Hillberg. Fast qualifier Mike Spencer dominated the 12 lap B-main. Also transferring out were, Troy Cline, Mike Kirby, Troy Rutherford, Adam Mitchell & Danny Faria Jr. With the 8 inversion, Jason York & Danny Ebberts shared the front row for the 30 lap Bagley Classic. Row two was Danny Sheridan & Rip Williams, row three it was Tony Jones & Damion Gardner, & in the fourth row were Josh Ford & Cory Kruseman. On the initial start, Adam Mitchell & Mike Spencer tangled in turns 1 & 2 to bring out the caution. Danny Ebberts got the jump on the second start & built a decent sized lead when with one lap down Jason York stopped because of a broken shock. Cory Kruseman charged from eighth to third in just one lap. On the restart Kruseman executed a perfect slide job in turn 3 to take second from Rip Williams. Kruseman continued to make aggressive moves on lap 5 when he used another slider in turn 3 to take the lead from Ebberts. Kruseman proceeded to pull away after taking the lead. Danny Sheridan moved into the top three on lap 8 passing Rip Williams. Sheridan would make the move for second around Ebberts on lap 11. On lap 12 Williams made the pass of Ebberts to take third. On lap 14 things went sour for Ebberts as he brought out the caution with front end damage. Kruseman had two lap cars separating himself & Sheridan for the lap 14 restart. Damion Gardner passed Williams for third on the restart but the “Ripper” got back around him in turn 4. Josh Ford started to make his presence known on lap 15 when he passed Gardner for fourth. On lap 15 Adam Mitchell would stop to bring out the caution. For the lap 15 restart there would be no lap cars separating the top 5 who were Kruseman, Sheridan, R.Williams, Ford & Gardner. Gardner made a bold move in turn 1 on the restart to take back fourth from Ford, but he had so much steam that he got into R.Williams which in turn allowed Ford to go by both of them. Just when it appeared Ford was the fastest car on the track, things turned very bad for him as his car broke going into turns 3 & 4 on lap 17 sending him upside down & out of the event. On the lap 17 restart Gardner was able to get under R.Williams to take over third. Mike Spencer moved up to challenge Mike Kirby for fifth on lap 20 but the red flag flew for RJ Johnson who flipped in turns 1 & 2. During the restart, Mike Kirby was able to make a nice move up high to take fourth from R.Williams. On lap 22 R.Williams got out of shape & fell all the way back to ninth place. Seth Wilson brought out the final caution of the night on lap 25 to set up a five lap dash to decide the Bagley Classic. Sheridan stayed close to Kruseman over the final five laps but didn’t have enough top get by & Kruseman took the checkered flag to net another career victory. Sheridan was disappointed but still had a very solid run to finish second. Third through tenth were Damion Gardner, Mike Spencer, Mike Kirby, Troy Kline, Danny Faria Jr., Rodney Argo, Rip Williams & Greg Bragg. |
