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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
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DESERT OR THE SEA? by Norm Bogan |
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Well, the plan was to go to Perris on Saturday for the UASC/CRA sprint series, but after a Friday evening conversation with photographer Dave Wolf, I weighed my options. Perris is ninety miles away and temperatures were predicted to be near the century mark. The alternative, Ventura Raceway is fifty-five miles with temperatures predicted to be about thirty degrees cooler. Kind of a no-brainer, isn’t it? Perris presented the USAC/CRA racers, staging
28 cars with the same dance partner for the past three weeks, the
USAC Ford Focus Midgets, tonight with 20 entries.
Ventura featured the VRA Pro Sprints with 31 entries, teaming
up with the Western States Dwarf Cars, who were running their next
to last regional competition, which gridded 33 competitors for
tonight’s action. After much debate, I decided to do like the
old cowboy and give my steed it’s head to take me where it wanted
to go. Ultimately, I
went Exploring to the west, so I was able to witness the sun sinking
into the sea. Ventura presents some intense racing on this small bullring,
adding to the charisma of this facility. The Dwarf Cars ran four heats and then staged
the top twenty-five for the thirty- lap feature.
Many of tonight’s field came from northern California and
dominated the show. Howie
Ross captured the feature, followed by Jim Ewing and Zack Hurst.
One of the complaints of Sprint Car purists is the number of
spins and yellows, during Dwarf Car events.
Well folks, this show went thirty laps without a caution,
with some good dicing back in the field for position. The VRA Sprints also put on a great night of
racing on a well-prepared track.
Heat race winners were Rob Kershaw, Blake Miller, Larry Lloyd
and Kevin Kierce. Mike
Broome claimed the Semi over Bill Camarillo, Steve Conrad and Dennis
Rodriguez. For the feature, Rob Kershaw grabbed the early lead until Jimmy Crawford slipped by to take the point. All this time, Tom Stansberry was stalking the leaders, studying their moves and learning what line they were running on the track, then just proceeded to the front like he belonged there and held off a charging Blake Miller, who put on an impressive display running the bottom under the high flying Stansberry. Tom did a slingshot around the top off of turn four to outdistance Miller at the line, with Rob Kershaw close behind. Hard luck guy, Steve Conrad, suffered damage
in his heat, but came back to transfer from the Semi.
Starting nineteenth, Steve worked his way up to a fourth
place finish and in the post race interviews, claimed it was done
with many borrowed parts and a lot of labor from his fellow racers.
Jimmy May, who has been traveling throughout the Midwest as
Team Manager for young Alex Pruett, moonlighted tonight at the wheel
of the Hammer #55Jr car, coming from 15th to a fifth
place finish. This was the maiden voyage for Garrett Hansen
in a sprint car. Wheeling
the #15 car, normally driven by Steve Conrad.
Hansen was impressive for this first outing, finishing second
in the heat, while taking the high line around the track and looking
comfortable in the car. Starting
the feature in sixth, Garrett was in the mix with the leaders until
Crawford got sideways in front of him, causing Hansen to check up
and stall the engine. Going to the rear on the restart Garrett came back through
the field and was running fifth, when he leaned a little too hard on
the right rear and looped it. That
was two stops and Hansen was done, but he opened a few eyes, with
some outstanding driving. The VRA Pro Sprints move to Bakersfield Speedway next Saturday, while the VRA Senior Sprints will headline the hometown program. I was pleased with my choice of venue for the night, although at intermission, the cool ocean breezes drove me to the car for a jacket. |
