|
Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
|
Sprint Cars put on wild show at Raceway Son of legendary driver wins top prize By J.J. Calvacca - Special to www.scrafan.com |
|
|
|
VICTORVILLE - When Sprint Car promoters Cary Fass and Jack Gardner brought their Not being ones to disappoint, Fass and Gardner did indeed return Saturday night, this time enticing over 40 of the top western Sprint Car drivers and their machines to come and play on the Victorville clay. When it was all over, it remained for the son of a legendary Sprint driver to lead all the others across the finish line to capture the $5000 top prize in the 40-lap feature event that capped an exciting night of racing. Even the weather cooperated, with temperatures hovering around the 70-degree mark at race time. According to track officials, the "head count", counting both fans in the stands and those in the pits, totaled over 1100, making it one of the busiest nights at the track in recent memory. At the drivers' meeting, held prior to the start of activities on the track, Gardner acknowledged the fact that, due to participation in events like these, there has been a marked resurgence in the popularity of Sprint Car racing, and the fact that there is big money to be won in this division is one reason for the upturn in participation on the track and the increase in fans in the stands. At this event in particular, depending on where he or she started the race, a driver could potentially walk away with as much as $20,000 for their efforts. For example, if a feature race qualifier chose to start dead last and managed to work their way to the win, their first-place payout could balloon from the announced $5000 to a whopping $20,000 payday. It didn't happen on this night, but the mere thought of that kind of purse money can be enough to make a fierce contender out of a mere competitor. If these shows become a regular fixture here in Victorville it won't be long before fans will get to see that kind of driver reward. Logistics and coordination play an important role in staging an event of this size and Fass and Gardner assembled a top-notch crew who, for the better part, had the program rolling along like a well-choreographed ballet, especially during restarts following complete stops on the track. Race Director Joe Buckley kept things flowing down on the track, while Scorer/Timer Fred Sachs kept busy up in the booth, positioning cars for Starters Tony Otto and Don Wilcox up on the flag stand. Much credit should be given, too, to Track Announcer Robert Mason, who brings along his encyclopedic knowledge of the sport, and handled both the call of the action on the track and his driver interviews with equal skill. And who in the pits won't remember lovely Evelyn Pratt, whose 60-plus years in the sport has included participation in California Racing Association as well as USAC events. At the registration table, drivers and crewmembers, anxious for a pre-race hug and a kind word, consistently approached Pratt, who pleasantly obliged. As far as the racing went, the format for the Sprints starts with qualifying or time trials, when drivers run all-out by themselves for two laps and are timed from the booth, the object being to nail down the fastest qualifying time to assure good positioning in the heat races and the sub-mains and feature race that follow. The fastest time of the two laps is the time given to the driver and it just so happens that the eventual feature event winner, Tempe, Arizona's Casey Shuman, had the fastest qualifying time, a blistering 13.644-second turn around the track. Shuman, the son of legendary Hall-Of-Fame driver Ron Shuman, has been building his own reputation of late as the driver to beat anytime he is in a race. Nicknamed "Mighty Casey", the 29-year old was last season's Oval Nationals runner-up in Perris and the 2006 Larry Cannon Memorial Champion, among other honors. Others turning in quick qualifying times were Ventura's Cory "The Kruser" Kruseman, Huntington Beach's Nic Faas, Norco's "Smooth" Tyler Brown, Santa Maria's "Showtime" Danny Sheridan and Torrance's J. Hicks, better known as "The Flying Canuck". A total of four heat races were run, each containing a field of eight cars. The top four finishers won an automatic spot in the feature, or "A-Main", while the bottom four went to the "B-Main" There was even a "C-Main" race, the top two finishers there going on to the "B-Main". In the ensuing 12-lap "B-Main" race, Anaheim's Henry Clarke tangled with Phoenix's Shon Deskins, which, after a harrowing multiple flip, put Clarke into the wall. This caused one of a number of red-light full stops, followed by the spectacle of the push cars performing their ballet, pushing the cars to restart them. San Clemente's Seth Wilson, a regularly appearing driver here, captured the win in the "B-Main", followed by Hicks and Phoenix's R.J. Johnson. A total of six cars transferred to the feature. By the time that the 40-lap "A-Main" was set to get underway, the buzz was all about the aforementioned Casey Shuman and just whether he could pull off the big win. With a 10pm curfew looming on the clock, officials were anxious to get as many laps of the race in before time ran out. In the end, it was decided, following a few more caution light incidents that the race would end up with a green-white-checker finish. Shuman blasted out under the green flag with a mighty hole-shot, leaving him to just keep the car on the track to assure his win. It was "Hollywood" Danny Sheridan who followed the "Mighty Casey" across the line and local phenom Blake "The Bullet" Miller, driving the Jeff Gardner-owned, Downing-powered racer finishing in third place. "Smooth" Tyler Brown from Norco, piloting another Gardner-owned machine, and Garrett Hansen, from Manhattan Beach completed the top five in the feature. If the positive buzz that surrounded April's Sprint show was the reason they were back here again, the odds are pretty good that fans will be treated to at least one more Sprint spectacular before the 2008 season here comes to a close. As for the near future, following a two-week time out, racing will return to the High Desert clay on June 21st, with Mini Stocks, Sport Compacts and 4-cylinder Figure 8's rolling out, in addition to our local Sprint cars meeting in a contest for local points domination. |
