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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
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A MIDWESTERN AFTERNOON AT THE PAS
by Norm Bogan |
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Leaving the nearby Farmer Boys Burger House around 1 P.M., the car thermometer read 106 degrees under sunny skies with distant thunderheads going several thousand feet into the atmosphere. While I expected hot temperatures in this quasi-desert environment of Perris, CA, and the increased humidity made it seem more like Miami weather. As the early arrivals staged in the pits and
began to unload, the flags began to stand out and the skies
darkened, something often seen in South Dakota, but not in sunny
California. E-Z ups erected to shield the crews from the direct sunlight
and oppressive temperatures soon became parachutes and crews
suddenly ignored their cars to retrieve the sunshades.
As the wind ebbed, moisture started to dot the landscape and
the heat made a dramatic drop of about thirty degrees.
The rain only lasted for a short time, but the cooler
thermometer numbers continued, making for a very pleasant viewing of
this evening’s racing. One of the hottest commodities on the West
Coast has been Damion Gardner, who has accumulated ten victories
this season. He has
dominated qualifying in the USAC/CRA series this year and made
tonight’s 16.918 clocking his sixteenth quick time of the season.
The Demon is challenging the veteran Rip Williams for the
championship. Williams
however, is drawing from his twenty-seven years of experience to
maintain consistent finishes in defense of his series championship. Thirty-three cars were on site for tonight’s action. Mike Spencer claimed the dash from the pole position, becoming more comfortable since reverting back to his four-bar car, after wrestling early in the season with a coil over, sway bar chassis. This good-looking racer appears to be getting stronger and should be a force to be reckoned with for the balance of the year. The Demon collected the first heat, moving smoothly through the field to take the lead. Rickie Gaunt, Cory Kruseman and David Cardey claimed the other heats. During the fourth heat, a dice developed between Bobby Cody and the impressive rookie, R.J. Johnson. Johnson dove low and then high to pass Cody, where they got together, flipping violently along the back straightaway. While the Semi was lining up, car #15x pushed off, as R.J. Johnson dropped off his wrecked #15 racer and staged his backup car, brought along for a trip back to the Midwest. This kid was limping away from a destroyed racecar just a few minutes earlier and now he was strapped back in and going racing. Keep an eye on R.J. who comes to this series with a strong pedigree. His Dad, Rickey holds many season championships at Manzanita in Midgets, Sprints and Modifieds. R.J. followed in the footsteps of two pretty impressive racers, J.J. Yeley and Jeremy Sherman. Like them, he started in Quarter-Midgets at South Mountain Speedway and then moved into the Arizona Midgets at the age of fourteen. He won the series championship in his rookie year and repeated the following year. At sixteen, he moved into the very competitive ASCA 360 Sprints, winning several features against some very strong racers. After two years, R.J. stepped up to challenge the elite of the UASC/CRA series, while completing high school. Johnson has missed a few shows during the season and progressed to several top-five finishes. He is a scrappy racer and one fine young man. Jordan Hermansader, Charles Davis Jr., Seth Wilson, Rodney Argo, J. Hicks and Steve Ostling aboard the Willis #45 for it’s first outing this season, made the transfer to the feature. R.J. Johnson came from the back to finish eighth, missing the feature by two spots, but gaining a lot of respect from both the fans and fellow competitors. Bobby Graham and Mike Kirby made up the first row of the feature and Mike exploded into the lead at the green flag. Kirby maintained the lead as Kruseman, Williams, Gaunt, Spencer and Gardner all mixed it up trying to get an advantage and come forward to overtake Kirby. Williams appeared to have a very strong car and near the midpoint got around Mike and extending out to a comfortable lead. There was a lot of positioning among the followers looking to challenge Rip. Soon, Cory and Damion had moved in behind Williams and then Gardner grabbed second and was poking a nose under Rip. Coming through turns three and four, Damion spun into the infield, did a complete 360 and kept going, but not before a quick yellow. Since the Demon caused the yellow, he was sent to the rear for the restart. At the restart, Williams’ car appeared to stumble and Kruseman jumped past for the lead. As Cory moved away, several others also motored around as Rip pulled into the infield. For the last few laps, Cory held the lead as Spencer stretched his legs in pursuit of the Kruser. Kirby was back in third, followed by David Cardey, Troy Rutherford, Charles Davis Jr., Hermansader and Ostling. Kruseman collected the win with Spencer and Kirby joining him on the podium. Fourteen of the twenty-two starters completed the thirty-lap feature. Damion salvaged a tenth place out of an unfortunate night. Rip appeared to have win number 101, had his engine survived a few more laps. Several teams will travel to Iowa to race the $30,000 to win show at Oskaloosa on Wednesday. The Chaffin #50 with Damion, the Willis #45 and Ostling, possibly the Crossno #38 with Kruseman aboard and R.J. Johnson in his #15, especially now that next Saturday is an open date for the USAC/CRA racers. The afternoon storm brought in a cooler evening for the fans in the stands. The Hawaiian Shaved Ice booth was outdistancing the Hot Chocolate concession and between all of the eating alternatives, some great racing took place. See you “Along the Way”. |
