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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
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INDEPENDENCE DAY AT SEASIDE PARK
by Norm Bogan |
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At racetracks throughout the country, this is
one of the premier weekends of the year.
Some tracks have pyrotechnic displays planned as a bonus for
their loyal fans, but at Ventura Raceway the fireworks were on the
racetrack and no rockets were needed. We are now hard into the summer of racing and
at many venues it is hot and humid, but arriving at Ventura around
the noon hour, I found a marine layer hanging off the coast and in
the canyons up into the mountains.
With a stiff onshore breeze flowing into the pit area,
crewmen began donning sweatshirts in the late afternoon. On tap for tonight were the IMCA Modifieds, one
of the most raced and watched classes around the nation.
Seventeen cars were in the pits, with the cars gridded in
three heat races. Randy
McGraw, Jack Parker and Donald Houghton drove to heat race
victories. This was a
little strenuous for Parker, since he services the racers, operating
High Tech Performance. In
addition to tuning and adjusting his racecar, he also peddles parts,
equipment and driver accessories to his fellow competitors. Second on the agenda were Dwarf Cars with
eleven cars each for both the Pros and Seniors.
Jerry Doolittle and Jim Soltis copped the Senior heats, with
Brian Saxton and Chris Taylor victorious in the Pro heats. Now the headliners arrived on the scene,
twenty-three Pro class sprinters, plus an additional eighteen in the
Senior class. Jim
Porter, Tom Harper and Wiley Miller gathered in the three Senior
heats, as Greg Taylor, Blake Miller and Luis Espinoza prevailed in
the Pro heats. During the short intermission, one of the long time rituals of Ventura Raceway allows race fans to learn a little about track preparation. Promoter Jim Naylor saddles up in the grader and makes a few passes around the racing surface, knocking down any ridges and filling any holes while shaving off the crusty top surface to expose the tacky under soil. Next, Naylor arrives back on the scene, now in control of a water truck and lays down a coating of moisture. Then the tow trucks start a clockwise ballet, which appears much like a novice on black ice, but within a few passes you can hear the sticky clay adhering to the tire treads. It is now time to bring out the racecars with their wider tires to run in the surface to prime racing condition. Once the track surface is ready, it is time for
the features of the evening. The
IMCA Modifieds queued up and ran off some long green periods to
complete their “A” Main, with no serious altercations.
The heat winners were the strong players once again, with
Randy McGraw, besting Houghton and Parker for the top of the podium. Mike Sweeney extended his point lead by
capturing the Senior Main Event over Ed Niedzwiecki and Jim Soltis.
Current Pro Dwarf point man, Brian Saxton bagged his feature,
topping Brent Stevens and Chuck Lippert for this week’s bragging
rights. Both Dwarf
Mains went off without any serious problems, as the racers
maneuvered well on the track and avoided collisions. Sprint cars complete the bill of fare this
evening. The Seniors
ran off a twenty-lap program with few hitches as Bob Alderman led
from wire to wire. After
the show, Alderman told me that he had taken his racer to have the
chassis dimensions all checked out and that the car was handling
much better. Wiley
Miller nipped at Bob’s heels, but settled for second, collecting
the Miller family boasting rights as brother Danny came home third. Now it was time for the evening finale.
Every car able to answer the call was admitted into the
feature, dumping the Semi in the interest of time.
Rob Kershaw took the early lead with Kevin Kierce in close
pursuit. Greg Taylor,
Luis Espinoza and Chris Wakim went to the top of the track and
freight trained around the oval slowly gaining on the front-runners. Kershaw bobbled and fell to the rear, while Taylor threaded
through the lead cars to take the point.
Soon Wakim had caught Taylor and moved ahead, as Blake Miller
battled with Luis Espinoza wrestling on the infield berm, then
finding some good dirt down low to jump off the corners matching the
momentum of the top runners. As Wakim assumed the lead, Taylor slipped into
the infield and parked for the rest of the evening, but no sooner
had Greg parked than Chris tangled with a lapped car and bounced
sideways, breaking a shock mount and finishing his night.
Suddenly Kierce was leading, with Espinoza slipping past
Miller and Kershaw rejoining the fray as he advanced from the rear.
At the checkers, it was Kevin, Luis, Blake and Rob. Some recognition should go to the distaff set as there was Diana Marshall racing with the IMCA Modifieds, Cindy Addison ran with the Pro Dwarfs and Linda Taylor, a grandmother of six, who also races TQ Midgets, running with the Senior Dwarfs, while Hobie Conway, a member of the raceway safety staff as a licensed EMT and Kristine Lindahl, who started by photographing the action has now become a part of it. This was Kristine’s first VRA Pro Sprint feature and Hobie’s first top-ten feature finish. Congratulations to all the female racers as they represented their classes well. Who needs Danica Patrick? |
