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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
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CURSE
OF THE BOBO FUENTES CIRCUS
by Norm Bogan |
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You know how some nights at the racetrack just
don’t seem to go too smoothly?
Often the full moon it is blamed or as the Red Sox claimed,
it was the “Curse of the Bambino”.
Well, the only bright spot in the sky was the Musco lights,
except beyond turn 2, there was a tent adorned with light strings.
After extensive research, the dreaded Bobo Fuentes Circus
appeared to be a likely culprit causing the eerie happenings at the
adjacent Ventura Raceway. As long time fans to Seaside Park know, Jim
Naylor maintains his own fleet of vehicles to service the needs of
the Raceway. Seldom
does this equipment miss a beat on race night.
However, on April 30, the water truck broke down twice and
then the virus began to spread to competitors.
Many lost their orientation of this compact oval and
performed a number of spinouts, while several decided to flip, but
wanted to be spectacular by additionally tearing down billboards,
creating delays in the tight program schedule, as maintenance crews
struggled to nail the big pieces back up above the K-rail. Despite the weird happenings this evening, the
fans enjoyed another outstanding show featuring 28 VRA Pro Sprints,
plus 22 VRA Senior Sprints, 18 USAC Ford Focus Midgets and 9 VRA
Modifieds. With the limited field of VRA Mods, they ran an
early single heat and then came back for the opening feature. Ric Bronson prevailed tonight-leading wire-to-wire, besting
Marty McLaughlin, Dave Lidren, Tom Morley and Tom Stephens Jr.
Although the car count has been down recently, these racers
put on an exciting show for their fans, adding to the variety and
quality of the VRA agenda. The Focus Midgets ran three heats with Cal Smith, Chase Barber and Jake Vail copping the wins. Missing tonight was point leader, Bobby Michnowicz, who suffered a damaging flip last week and hadn’t completed repairs. Starting on the front of tonight’s feature was the victor from last week, Alex Harris from nearby Simi Valley, flanked by the lady driver from Fresno, Audra Sasselli. Harris jumped out to an early lead and looked to be going for the double, when suddenly, he turned left into the infield, done for the evening. Audra welcomed the opportunity, while those behind fought to keep a girl from upstaging them. Sasselli was up to the challenge as she led VRA regular, Rob Kershaw and longtime Midget veteran, Jet Davison to the checkers. Audra appears to be a very savvy racer, able to hold off her pursuers, as she now leads the regional points for both dirt and pavement. Probably one of the more popular classes at
Ventura is the Senior Sprints.
Since you must be at least forty-five to compete, you might
think these guys would know better, but they all seem to be looking
for a chance to show those young whippersnappers in the “Pros”,
what racing is all about. The
defending Champ, Wiley Miller, Bob Alderman and Ron Bach captured
the three heat races. Now, lets divert to Ron Bach who showed up at
the track with his fleet of racecars and a tuxedo, just after
breakfast. Seems he had
an early commitment to get married to longtime girlfriend, Laura
Hawley in the Ventura grandstands at 11 A.M., before he could go
racing this evening. Ron,
a successful contractor in Ventura started with VRA Dwarf Cars and
usually showed up at the track with a transporter toting four or
five cars. After
several years, Bach stepped up to Sprint Cars, claiming the VRA
Senior Sprint Championship in 2003.
Bach is a serious racer and has given many
“wanna-bee’s” the chance to realize a dream of racing first a
Dwarf and later a Sprint. Laura,
you snagged a real class guy, may you both enjoy years of happiness. Getting back to the racing, Bob Alderman sat on
the pole, with the aforementioned Mr. Bach alongside and the Miller
brothers, Wiley and Danny on their tail-tanks.
Well the improving Alderman showed he had paid attention to
how to stay out front, leading all the way.
It wasn’t easy as Bach held second and Wiley was third,
while John Richards on the cusp of his seventy-fourth birthday,
showed that an old guy could keep up with the younger old guys.
Alderman related after the races that a little over a year
ago he didn’t even know where Seaside Park was, but tonight
notched a maiden victory. Many
fellow competitors were happy for Bob, displaying the camaraderie
that exists in this division. And now for those youngsters in the Pro
division, capturing the four heats were 2-time champ, Tom
Stansberry, Chris Wakim, Blake Miller and Wes Richardson in one of
Ron Bach’s cars. Clark
Templeman came back from a ricochet exit off the track in the third
heat to gather the laurels in the Semi, followed by a couple of the
young drivers, Brandon Thomson and John Nock, who has made all but
one feature so far this year. Local
dentist, Mark Weitzman completed the transfers to the feature. Twenty cars staged for the evening’s finale.
It was a barnburner and the fans were treated to some great
dices with most of the cars running the top of the track and diving
low into the corners to slide another competitor.
As the checkers fell, Chris Wakim was the leader, followed by
Tom Stansberry, Luis Espinoza, Greg Taylor and Blake Miller, who
will retain the point lead. Taylor
by the way, was premiering a new TCR racer, purchased from Glenn
Crossno and campaigned by Mike Kirby last year on the USAC/CRA
circuit. As the evening ended, fans passed through the pits to visit with their favorite teams before heading for home, while others retired to the Bach Wedding Reception. Hopefully, by the next race, the Bobo Fuentes Circus will be in another location and racing operations at Ventura Raceway will return to normal. See you “Along the Way”. |
