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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
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OPEN WHEEL SATURDAY NIGHT AT SEASIDE PARK by Norm Bogan |
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Nearly unheard of these days, is a field of
eighty-seven open wheel cars at a racetrack.
Now, this was not a premier event or big money showdown, no
it was just Saturday night at Ventura Raceway.
On hand were 38 VRA Pro Sprints, 30 USAC Midgets and 19 USAC
Ford Focus Midgets. The Focus cars and VRA Sprints set their
lineups through a pill draw, as only the Midgets qualified and
Robbie Flock collected the quick time of 12.275 on the petite clay
oval. The Focus cars ran three heats and the victors
were Rob Kershaw, Chris Veach and Robbie Whitchurch.
USAC Midgets then clicked off four heats with the wins going
to Damion Gardner aboard the Cruz Pedregon #71, Chris Rahe in his
#31, Cory Kruseman in the Bondio #47 (sporting a regular left front
wheel) and Eric Wilkins over from Arizona in the #21AZ.
VRA Sprints also ran four heats and the spoils were
distributed to Jimmy Crawford, Clark Templeman III, Kevin Kierce and
Cory Kruseman. There was an interesting new entry in the
sprint car field tonight. The
car looked familiar, a black & red #75, just like Wiley Miller
ran last year. In fact,
it was Wiley’s old car. At
the controls was Todd Hunsaker, former TQ Champ, trying out
something on a larger scale. It
wasn’t a bad outing, finishing eighth in his heat race and came
back to finish third in the first Semi, just missing a transfer to
the feature. Look for
this veteran racer to adjust to his new ride and add to the
impressive entry list. Steve Chulahoff gathered in the first Semi win,
with Nadine Keller grabbing the runner up spot.
The second Semi found Chris Wakim claiming the victory over
Rob Kershaw, who just edged last week’s feature winner, Luis
Espinoza, putting Luis on the trailer early. Shannon McQueen, who held her ground against
challenges from Garrett Hansen and defending champ, Steve Paden,
captured the Midget Semi. Amy
Maris claimed the last transfer position.
Fifth finishing Jerome Rodela was an added starter for the
thirty-lap feature. The Focus feature saw several cars get
collected and last week’s feature winner, Bobby Michnowicz
performing a barrel roll in turn one after contact with Rob Kershaw.
Pole sitter, Kershaw led the first two laps and then he
yielded to Alex Harris, who held the point to the finish line.
Robbie Whitchurch advanced to second and Todd Carroll,
driving one of the Kruseman Driving School cars moved from tenth to
finish third. Regular
sprint car driver, Bill Camarillo held on for fourth with Chris
Veach completing the top five. Indiana’s Brad Kuhn grabbed the early lead in
the Midget feature. After
two laps, Cory Kruseman edged by and took the point, but was dogged
by Kuhn, who got around Cory to lead three more laps at mid-race.
Kruseman regained the lead and held it through the checkers.
Kuhn was a close second, followed by Hansen, defending
Western States Champ, Johnny Rodriguez and Damion Gardner. Tom Hendricks jumped into the lead from the
pole in the VRA Sprint Main. Shawn
Kautz gave the early chase, with Bruce Douglass joining the fray and
here came Kruseman. Who
was in the other red car? It’s
Jimmy “Neutron” Crawford and he is peddling hard to catch the
“Kruser”. With
Kruseman and Crawford circling against the wall, fourth starting
Blake Miller, who had initially dropped back was hooked up around
the berm and was gaining on the front runners.
Lap after lap, the Kruser and Neutron would maintain their
momentum in the top groove, while young Miller was rocketing off the
corner and down the straightaway.
At the finish, Cory prevailed, with Crawford close behind and
Miller still digging down low.
Kevin Kierce and Tom Stansberry completed the top five. What had begun as a shaky night with a number
of racetracks, calling their shows due to rain, found Ventura
dodging the bullet and the good crowd viewed some excellent racing.
By Ten P.M., fans were filing into the pits to visit with the
evening’s heroes or their special driver and team.
While Ventura regularly schedules Pony Stocks, Modifieds and
Dwarf Cars, tonight was a special treat for the open wheel purists
and the racers performed well to acknowledge the support of these
fans. Cory Kruseman
continues to enjoy success at his home track, when his schedule
allows him to drop in. Some
of his success can be savored as we see his school cars rented for
competition. |
