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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| A JUNE NIGHT AT BARONA by Norm Bogan |
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SCRA returned to Barona on June 26th and drew a car count of 31 sprinters. Most of the regular competitors were on hand, plus a couple of occasional visitors. The defending SCRA Owner’s champion, Ron Chaffin brought the #50 car with Damion Gardner at the controls for their first test at this venue. Joining them was the Harlan Willis #45 car, driven by Steve Ostling and Dwayne Marcum was at the wheel of the Ruth #25 sprinter. Damion Gardner established a new track record
in qualifying at 13.468. Seth
Wilson was second, Rickie Gaunt third and Mike English got fourth in
the Sertich #92 Moose Mobile. Kevin
Urton was confident after a third place finish on his last visit
here. During
qualifying, he appeared extremely quick, but biked the car going
into turn three, made hard contact with the wall and flipped,
destroying the front end of the racecar. Heat races winners were Charles Davis, Verne
Sweeney, Mike Whitcomb and Mike English.
The Smiley boys, Gaunt and Davis parlayed front row positions
in the Passing Masters Dash to garner the front row of the feature.
Seth Wilson looked to be the man to beat in the Semi, but
suffered a setback and A. J. Reyer went for the brass ring, as
Wilson ended up fourth. Mike
Spencer got into the turn two wall during hot laps, made repairs to
qualify and ran in the fourth heat, where he dropped out and
scratched from the Semi. The feature lined up with Rickie and Charlie on
the front row, followed by J. Hicks, and Mike English, Steve Ostling
and Damion Gardner, Ronnie Clark and Casey Shuman.
Davis jumped into the early lead with Gaunt in close pursuit
and Mike English right behind them. Soon Damion was joining the fray as Gaunt assumed the lead.
Gardner got around Davis, followed by English and suddenly
there was Ballard nipping at their heels.
Gardner challenged Gaunt and then dropped by a couple of car
lengths, but keeping an advantage over Davis.
In the waning laps, Ballard moved to the top and drove around
both English and Davis to take third.
He was gaining quickly on Damion, when a caution came out.
Ballard may have gotten around the Demon in another couple of
laps, but it was not to be. At
the checkers, Gaunt claimed his fifth victory of the year and padded
his point lead. Damion
held on for second, while Alan made his first podium appearance.
Davis secured fourth, with English in fifth, then Ostling,
Hicks, Shuman, Mark Nation and Marcum. Alan Ballard was good all night with veteran
racer, Bobby Michnowicz setting up the car for him and doing a lot
of coaching. I think it
really worked, as Alan looked very aggressive and confident and his
dad, Ernie seemed relieved as the car performed well and grateful
for Bobby’s help. Alan
had a fourth on his last outing and now the third.
Only two more spots to claim that first SCRA victory. J. Hicks, also was racy tonight as he was sixth
quick, ran third in the Dash and finished seventh in the feature.
Car owner Dave Miller has worked out the bugs in the car now
and the “Flying Canuck” is becoming more comfortable at the
controls. The Chaffin/Bromme car driven by Damion Gardner
has long been known as the “Little Red Sucker”, but a surprise
to all the fans was a #50 car with all black from top cage forward
with a red tail tank. I
think it looks more like a “Black Widow”.
Damion claims there is some “Gardner Green” within the
red and black paint scheme.
As the racers accumulate more laps on this
racing surface, they are refining their racing lines and it shows
with the quicker qualifying times.
Nearly all the drivers talk positively about the track and
enjoy running this venue. As
the word gets back to other racers, hopefully, some of them will
want to give it a shot. The
crowd in the grandstands looked pretty full and fans are encouraged
to bring along a friend to experience the excitement of racing at
Barona.
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