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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
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RAIN
AT ELDORA AND KRUSEMAN AT VENTURA by Norm Bogan |
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Saturday was to be the opening show of the 2005 USAC National Sprint season at Eldora Speedway. Well, new owner Tony Stewart’s luck was much like what Earl Baltes had to contend with for decades. The weather gods rained on the Rossburg, Ohio oval, so Cory Kruseman dashed for the Indy airport, while putting in a call to Glenn Crossno’s Dad, telling him to get the hauler out and load the car for Ventura, we’re coming home. In the meantime, the weather was clear and
sunny at Ventura, California with a full schedule of racing on tap
for Seaside Park. There
would be Pony Stocks, Dwarf Cars, Three Quarter Midgets and the VRA
Pro Sprints. By noon,
trailers were lined from the pit gate back probably a quarter mile
waiting for the pit shack to open and the pit gate to be thrown open
for the Ventura version of the “Great American Land Rush”.
Suddenly, the Crossno hauler passed through the gate and
competitors exclaimed, “What’s this? Isn’t Cory in Eldora”?
Soon, Cory was at LAX and now the real race was on to get
through Los Angeles traffic in less than two hours.
Calmly, Crew Chief, Mike Nigh put the chassis setups in and
set tire pressures. Cory
arrived to attend the Driver’s Meeting and was relegated to the
rear of the field, eleventh in a ten-lap heat race. With a field of forty-two cars, Kruseman didn’t get any
hometown boy benefits. Starting at the rear of the fourth heat, Cory
advanced to finish third and make the transfer to the feature, where
he would be gridded seventh. Heat
race winners were Bill Welch, Greg Taylor, Bill Camarillo and Mike
Kirby. Ron Bach and Rob Kershaw collected wins in the two “B”
Mains, which each transferred three cars, to make this a record
field of twenty-two cars. While all of this was going on, many eyes were
on the T.Q. pits, where the #1 Greg Edenholm ride, wrenched by
Dennis and Marc Hart, had an anxious Rip Williams standing by.
Rip’s concern was his son, Cody, who was making his racing
debut, just as dad had done nearly three decades ago. The Pony Stocks and Dwarf Cars both put on some
very competitive heat races, followed by two exciting features with
side by side racing. Defending
Pony Stock Champ, Mike Frazier captured the 20-lap feature, as the
Pro Dwarf Car twenty-lap “A” Main went to Brian Saxton with Bill
Van Praag taking home the Senior Dwarf 20 lapper. Veteran T.Q. pilot Walt Johnson collected the
spoils in the evening’s 20-lap feature, as fans watched back in
the field, rooting for 13th starting Cody Williams to do
well. Williams advanced
to seventh after a stop to avoid a stalled car, put him to the rear.
Mom and Dad are proud and relieved to have this experience
behind them. As the night wound down to twenty-two cars in a
30-lap Sprint feature, Chris Wakim jumped into the lead from the
pole in a dice with Jimmy Crawford and biked in turn two, flipping
to end his evening. Crawford
assumed the lead with Kruseman pursuing around the top.
Greg Taylor was also advancing, following Cory then switching
from top to bottom and back trying to upset Kruseman’s run past
Crawford to take the lead, with Greg right on his tail.
As these two battled up front, Bill Welch fought back to the
lead pack and was threatening the front-runners.
In the meantime, Mike Kirby started one of his patented
charges, passing Welch and nipping at the heels of Taylor and
Kruseman. On the last
lap, Taylor ran low off turn four, as Cory was hard on the gas up
top. At the line, Cory
prevailed, with Taylor, Kirby and Welch in close pursuit.
Young Blake Miller came home fifth to regain the point lead. |
