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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
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CHINESE FIREDRILL AT PERRIS
by Norm Bogan |
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Summertime brings the afternoon heat to Perris,
which borders on the edge of the southern Mojave Desert. It is not unusual to experience the thermometer in triple
digits at this time of year. As
the teams arrive at the speedway, there was the initial lineup at
the pit gate and then jockeying for the primo pit position.
Usually, the teams park and quickly off load the pit gear and
racecar, but on the warm afternoons, EZ ups get priority as they
provide shade for the crew prepping the cars for the evening of
racing. Many teams just let the racecar stay in the trailer and
search for a cool respite before the heat of battle. Eventually, thirty-three sprinters staged in
the pits and go through the afternoon ballet of wheel packing and
hot laps. As the warm
afternoon sun began to set in the West, final tweaking was
accomplished and the racecars took to the track in qualifications.
Surprise, surprise! Damion
Gardner claims quick time for the thirteenth time this season.
For those that don’t remember, Bruce Bromme Jr. is the
genius behind the Demon’s car.
Quick times are old hat, as the famed Bromme car set many
quick times at Ascot in years gone by with drivers like Dean
Thompson, Stan Atherton, Jerry Meyer and Billy Boat at the controls.
Recently retired “Gasman” Richard Griffin also tallied a
number of fast laps at places like Manzanita, Perris and other
venues during his tenure with the Chaffin/Bromme team.
Probably the most impressive demonstration was Griffin
establishing fast time at six of seven Indiana Sprint Week races in
1997. Missing only one
venue due to his return to the West Coast to race for the SCRA
championship points. When
Bruce Bromme prepares the car and saddles up an “on the gas”
driver, it often equals quick time. Tony Jones has struggled this year, with
numerous mechanical problems and altercations, hindering this
likable driver from attaining the success expected by others and
him. Qualifying in the
fourth quick time posted Tony on the pole of the Trophy Dash, which
he led flag to flag. Heat race winners were David Cardey, Bobby Cody, Danny Ebberts and Cory Kruseman. The third heat saw Nadine Keller lead the first nine laps, before encountering a problem in turn three and collecting Jordan Hermansader, knocking them both out of transfers. Earlier Rip Williams tagged the turn one wall and turned over. The Semi saw Rip Williams come back from his
flip to collect the victory. Alan
Ballard, Mike Spencer, Seth Wilson, Hermansader and Jimmy Thornell
also transferred to the “A” Main” after a series of slide job
exchanges with Ronnie Case. One
of the drivers who missed a transfer was Josh Williams, a cousin of
Rip and a sprint car rookie this year after several years racing
Lightning Sprints. While
Josh continues to adjust to the bigger, more powerful cars, he
appears smooth in his efforts.
Gaining experience and confidence, expect to see Josh making
the transfers from his heats. Now for the title story, as most people know,
the start of the race is the most dangerous with the cars
accelerating in close proximity to each other.
Tonight, was the prototype of all things dreaded about the
race start. As the
leaders came off turn four for the green, one car got crossed up and
it appeared that Orville Redenbacher was in control as cars bounded
over and under each other, twisting, turning and finally landing in
various crumpled piles from the flag stand to turn one. First let me state that Perris Auto Speedway
usually has a well-trained and maintained safety crew and equipment.
Also there are usually several capable tow trucks on site, so
that response to multi-car accidents can be handled in an expedient
manner. The Safety Crew quickly responded to this
massive pileup and determined that no drivers had been injured.
For some reason, there was a delay of removing the safety
crews from the crash site and clearing the track.
This prolonged the time of restart, which helped teams to
complete repairs to damaged racers, but some of the wounded warriors
took forever to be returned to the work area.
Thus, the “Chinese Fire Drill”. The racers of Steve Ostling, Seth Wilson,
Jordan Hermansader and R.J. Johnson were unable to restart the
feature. Several teams had to replace complete front ends assemblies,
wheels, bars and shocks, but were able to limp back. As the race played out, Damion Gardner claimed
his seventh feature of the year, followed by Tony Jones who ran well
all night. Mike Kirby
was nearly counted out at the starting line fiasco, but his team and
several of his competitors thrashed to get the car back out and he
raced it from the back to finish third.
It was a real salute to his pit crew and the others, who
jumped in to help out. Tom
Stansberry made an impressive run to collect fourth, his best
USAC/CRA finish, coming from twenty-first starting position.
Danny Ebberts came in fifth, followed by Mike Spencer and
Jason York. Rip
Williams was running fourth with about five laps to go, when he ran
out of fuel. Stopping on the track brought out the yellow, allowing him to
refuel and join the field at the back.
He was able to race back to an eighth place finish and
maintain his point lead. Next week will find the same cast of characters
at the PAS with the best annual fireworks show around, a fifty-lap
feature, followed by a patriotic revue and pyrotechnic display. |
