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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
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THIRTY
GRAND TO WIN by Norm Bogan |
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Thirty-eight cars presented themselves at the pit gate, each claiming to be the rightful recipient of the largest non-wing sprint car purse ever. Most of the big guns from the traditional sprint car world were in attendance. The list read like the top-twenty five in the country. Kruseman, Yeley, Griffin, Hines, Elliott, Kaeding, Rutherford, Kirby, two Jones, Tony & Levi, Reid, Gaines, Davis, Scott, Gaunt, Williams, English, Graham, Gardner, Pletch, Cody, Argo and Marvel represented the California and Indiana contingents, while several of the local Iowa racers joined in and two from the World of Outlaws, Jac Haudenschild from Ohio and Travis Rilat from Texas threw their helmets into the racing surface. J.J Yeley established the standard in qualifying and the heat races went well except for one incident, when Haudenschild decided to pass everyone on the outside and ended up taking himself out of show, along with Cody and Kruseman. Damion Gardner captured the Dash, which placed him on the pole for the feature. The semi found a number of the heroes scratching to make the feature. Tony Jones gathered in the win followed by Kruseman in his repaired ride. Gardner started the feature from the pole and quickly grabbed the lead in pursuit of the thirty big ones. He lead twenty-seven laps, surviving several restarts before a Troy Rutherford flip caused a red allowing all to prime their cars for a three lap sprint. Damion was able to hold off Kasey Kahne and Yeley, but suddenly here came the “Winged Texan”, Travis Rilat, who had started sixteenth. He dove low to the infield passing J.J., Kasey and finally Gardner to claim the brass ring. While Damion was disappointed to finish second, he still picked up his biggest racing paycheck, which will help this small team to continue following the SCRA circuit. The crowd got to experience the dashing antics of Damion Gardner, who gained their respect with his driving techniques, displayed to SCRA fans all year. Now the secret is out and Damion has many new fans. Promoter Terry McCarl was thrilled with the sell out crowd and hopes that his second annual show will draw even better, as he increases the purse for the whole field of cars. |
