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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
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RIP AND RICKIE ARE WINNERS AT PERRIS |
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On a cool autumn afternoon, forty-two cars staged for the season ending Jack Kindoll Classic at Perris Auto Speedway. There was a lot at stake as three teams were still in the hunt for the inaugural USAC/CRA championship. All eyes were on Rip Williams, who is completing his twenty-seventh year at this level of racing. Rip has always focused on winning races, having accumulated 99 victories during his career and in doing so, has claimed Owner’s title twice for his teams, but has never been able to collect the brass ring for himself. Challenging Rip this year was Damion Gardner, who took over for retiring five-time driving champ, Richard Griffin, with a team that also put Lealand McSpadden on the champion’s pedestal. Gardner trailed Williams by fifty points, with a possible 74 points available. Mike Kirby had a mathematical possibility, if both Gardner and Williams encountered bad luck and missed the show. In addition to the championship, all the racers
were here in pursuit of an elevated purse with various performance
incentives for the season finale.
A number of drivers had journeyed west from Midwest to pad
their off-season budget. Dave
Darland drove the Cheney #42, Jon Stanbrough played the keyboard in
the Wilkerson #11, Billy Rose saddled up in Becker’s #67, John
Scott brought his own #83 back to the coast, newly crowned USAC
National Champ, Jay Drake steered the Priestley #7, while Levi Jones
was at the controls of the Willis #45.
Of course, Cory Kruseman, third in the national points came
home to his part time ride in the Alexander #4.
Several racers made the trek from the northern half of the
state for one more opportunity at a big payday.
Among this group were Rick Williams, Kevin Urton, Jason York
and Brad Sweet. Several
drivers who split time between the USAC/CRA wars and SCRA
competition were also on hand. The super Smiley team of Rickie Gaunt and Charles Davis Jr.,
along with Seth Wilson and Alan Ballard joined all the USAC/CRA
series regulars, making for a stellar field. An example of how the fans rally round the racers, came forth after the Oval Nationals. Brad Sweet has been a winner in winged sprinters for a couple of years, but this year decided to try his ability without the wing, when he first entered the family 360 sprinter in a SCRA show at Tulare. He put on a credible performance and returned several more times to race during the season. Late in the year, they sold their 360 engine and invested in a 410 power plant in preparation for the Oval Nationals. Qualifying for the Saturday night feature, the diminutive driver from the Gold Country impressed enough fans, that they wanted to see him once more and raised enough money among them to fund his thousand-mile round trip. This 110-pound, eighteen year old, is journeying to Australia for two months of racing after this show and hopes to compete regularly in the non-winged genre in 2005. Damion Gardner set the fast time at 16.077, with Rip Williams a close second. Ironically, the heat races were on a very fast, narrow track and neither the Demon nor the Ripper could make the transfer to the feature from the heats. The heat race winners were Kruseman, Scott, Darland and English. Transfers from Semi were notable with names like Gardner, Rip Williams, Tony Jones, Rickie Gaunt, Steve Ostling and Charles Davis Jr. Outstanding young racer, Mike Spencer missed the transfer from his heat and the Semi, so he exercised his provisional entry, starting in 23rd position for the fifty-lap feature. The feature got off to a rough start as Bobby Cody made contact with another car and did a series of endos down the front straight. The car appeared to be damaged pretty badly, but the resilient Cody climbed out and joked with infield announcer, Chris Holt that his eyes had always been crossed. Mike Kirby quickly jumped in front and was running away in his last ride in the Crossno sprinter, when suddenly, on lap 13, with Kirby all by himself, the car appeared to hook the cushion in turn four and flip. Later we learned that an eye on a front shock broke and the car dug in, flipping up to the wall. As the track was being cleared, fans suddenly felt precipitation and soon the track surface was too slick to race on at speed. With the rain expected to be a quick squall, the cars continued to idle around the oval and help keep the track in racing condition. As the rain let up and the track surface became better, officials called for a red flag to let teams add fuel and adjust tire pressures. On the restart, Rickie Gaunt assumed the lead as the track seemed to get wider and a number of cars began making charges through the field with a lot of side-by-side racing. Cory Kruseman advanced from 18th to second and was closing on Gaunt, as Damion exercised his car high and low, pulling wheelies off the corners. At the finish, Super Rickie added another victory to his successful season, as the Demon nipped the Kruser at the line. Tony Jones, earlier had won the Rusty Espinosa Dash and came home in fourth followed by Mike Spencer, Rip Williams, Troy Rutherford, Levi Jones and Steve Ostling. To illustrate the competitiveness of the track and the field, Gaunt won from 12th starting position, followed by Gardner from ninth, Kruseman from 18th, T. Jones from 11th, Spencer from 23rd, Williams from tenth, Rose from 2nd, L. Jones from 15th and Ostling from 13th. In the Championship run, Rip Williams kept the
lead close enough that he only had to take the green for the feature
to claim the title. The
Ripper will be forty-nine in May and if he continues into his
twenty-eighth sprint season, will he shoot for Dean Thomson’s
record of 103 victories, needing five more wins to overtake?
Will Rip decide to hang it up after finally claiming that
elusive title? If you
took a consensus, many of his competitors will tell you he should
and give them a shot, because he continues to be one of the most
dedicated and competitive drivers around.
I predict that Rip will return because Williams is still a
racer. Another event of the evening demonstrated how fans would step up to help those in the racing family. There is a nineteen-year old employee of the PAS, who transports many of the disabled fans from the parking lot to the grandstands in a golf cart. He has been one of those people that race fans enjoy seeing each week, because of his positive attitude. This young man lost his mother, aunt, and five-year old brother, while his thirteen-year old twin sisters are both in critical condition from a tragic traffic accident on Wednesday. Drivers passed through the stands at intermission collecting donations to help this devastated family deal with their tragedy. Just another example of how caring fans will come to the aid of the less fortunate. Kudos to Rip Williams, Rickie Gaunt and most of all to the race fans in the stands. |
