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ALL
STAR CAST AT 2004 OVAL NATIONALS
by Norm Bogan |
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This was the first Oval Nationals that I did not watch from start to finish, so I looked at it through the eyes of others as they related the events of the day, the trials and tribulations for many and the ultimate jubilation at the end of each night. Since I have journeyed to a number of venues during the year, I had withdrawn enough from my vacation stockroom that any further withdrawal would have come back “Insufficient Funds”. For those of you unaware of southern California traffic, let me relate. My home is approximately ninety miles from Perris Auto Speedway. That is a little longer than going from Indianapolis to Terre Haute. This journey at four P.M. on Thursday would probably take about 2 to 2 1/2 hours. On Friday, add at least another hour, so realistically I would arrive about the time the teams were loading up to go home, shaken and bedraggled, unable to communicate and in no way prepared to make the return trip afterward. This is the price we pay to live in the “Land of Sunshine”! Now, in the past two weeks, Perris has experienced rainfall somewhere near ten inches, which is almost the normal annual total. Does the term, Quagmire, ring a bell? Biggest event of the year and the pits look more like a “Hog Wallow”. On Thursday morning, the infield pits were still under water and purr of pumps, siphoning off the moisture was deafening. The first pit strategy was to find a pit. PAS officials worked with the Fair Board to employ a large paved parking lot to serve at the temporary pits for Thursday’s show with racecars being shuttled some distance through a labyrinth of passable roads to the track, which was in pretty good shape, considering. Logistically, this was a nightmare, since you couldn’t just get on the microphone and call up the next group for hot laps, qualifying or races. The track developed some rutty conditions as the evening went along, giving several of the competitors extra thrills, exposing their belly pans to the crowd. Mike Kirby was the class of the field and brought home the Crossno #38 car in front. Trailing was Josh Ford, Cory Kruseman, Tony Elliott and Tracy Hines, followed by Rip Williams, Jon Stanbrough, Damion Gardner, Brad Sweet and Troy Cline. With a day of warmer, sunny weather, the track staff was able to make the infield pits available for the racers and also spend more time on grooming the racing surface on Friday. Eyewitnesses claimed the track was in excellent shape and the competition keen with better behaving sprint cars. Rip Williams came home in front to claim his 99th career sprint car victory in his twenty-eighth year of racing these fire-breathing beasts. Williams related that his Dad had told him as a rookie that you become a hero after one hundred victories. Reports are that Rip was somewhat misty-eyed on the podium contemplating crossing the threshold to hero status. Saturday, I finally arrived at the track around noon, impressed with the field of both drivers and cars. By far, this was the most stellar group of talent ever at the Oval Nationals. USAC had made this both a National point race and also a CRA point race, so all the front-runners were on hand, many bringing their regular rides from the Midwest for competition. There were members of the Perris Alumni Association; Cory Kruseman, Jay Drake, Troy Cline, Josh Ford, John Scott and Levi Jones, who came west for part of the past two seasons to race at the PAS. Frequent visitors from Indiana were Dave Darland, Tony Elliott, Tracy Hines, Bill Rose, Bud Kaeding and Jon Stanbrough, all having turned laps on the PAS oval. Back for a second year was young Mat Neely and newcomers were Dickie Gaines, Jesse Hockett, Tom Hessert and Marc Jessup. Coming down from northern California were teenage sensation-Brad Sweet, Aussie transplant-Peter Murphy and PAS feature winner earlier this year, Jason York. Add to this the usual cast of players on hand at Perris on a regular basis and you have a fine field of competitors. Fifty-eight cars checked in on Thursday, with fifty-five on Friday. The Saturday program consisted of a twenty-lap “C” Main with the top eight transferring to the rear of the “B” feature. Some of those failing to move on were Jason York, John Scott and Jesse Hockett. The twenty-lap “B” would transfer twelve to the Oval National feature. Several who missed this year’s finale would be former Oval Nationals champions-Tony Jones and Rickie Gaunt, Gary Howard, Mat Neely, Peter Murphy, Bill Rose, CRA Rookie of the Year-Ronnie Case, Bobby Cody, Rick Ziehl, Jeremy Sherman and Alan Ballard. Now, the stage was set for the Ninth Oval Nationals. Bud Kaeding and Mike Kirby were on the front row, followed by Josh Ford and Rip Williams, then Damion Gardner and Cory Kruseman, with Jon Stanbrough and Tracy Hines in the fourth row. No softies in this field! Mike Kirby assumed the point immediately and led for the first thirty-eight laps, until Damion Gardner caught him and performed a slide job to assume the front spot. When Mike performed the obligatory rear bumper tap, the cars got hooked up and spun up against the turn one wall. After getting the cars untangled and back on their way, Kirby spun on the back straight and stopped. A radius rod had broken and his night was through. On the next restart, going into turn one, the lapped car of Troy Rutherford pulled low to let the front-runners by, but Tracy Hines chose to dive below Troy. The result was Hines doing a couple of tumbles and ending up atop the turn one wall. Collected in this melee were Dave Darland and Rip Williams. Dickie Gaines spotting the clutter on the track ahead of him slowed and Damion Gardner launched over him, doing several endos. When the carnage cleared, Bud Kaeding secured
the point for the next two laps, before Josh Ford wanted a turn for
four laps in an intense dice with Cory Kruseman, letting Cory have a
lap in front, then taking it back for three more.
During this time the lead probably changed hands twenty times
as one would jump off the corner ahead only to have the other slide
under at the next corner. The
final lap was a dice with these two coming side by side to the line
and Kruseman prevailing by about half a car length.
In the meantime, Levi Jones eased past Bud Kaeding to claim
third. The final five
laps will define the excitement of what in my estimation was the
most competitive Oval Nationals ever. Perris Auto Speedway put forth a Herculean effort to get this show underway after the prolonged heavy rains. Friday and Saturday nights, most felt the track was excellent and with the strong field of racers, the fans were treated to some of the best traditional sprint car competition. Making this event both a USAC National point show and also a big end of the season event for a tight USAC/CRA point race, definitely added prestige. The Oval Nationals has established itself as a genuine “can’t miss” event for years to come. |
