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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
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RIP CLOSES IN ON DEAN THOMPSON’S ALL TIME WINS
by Norm Bogan |
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Rip Williams has persevered for twenty-eight
years of sprint car racing with his primary focus on winning races. As his feature win totals drew him closer to the legendary
Dean Thompson, Rip finally grasped the brass ring of a season’s
driving championship in 2004. Earlier
this year, Williams crossed the century mark and has gone in pursuit
of the 103 wins collected by Deano.
After this weekend, the score is two to tie and three to take
the lead. Rickie Gaunt led the thirty-nine-car field in
qualifying with a lap at 16.512.
Seth Wilson collected the trophy dash with Mike Spencer,
Rickie Gaunt and Damion Gardner in pursuit.
Randy Waitman won the “C” Main over Nadine Keller, Todd
Hunsaker and Matt Stewart, with these drivers tagging the back of
the pack in the four heat races.
Greg Bragg, Adam Mitchell, R.J. Johnson and Cory Kruseman
drove to heat race victories. In
the third heat, Jack DeArmond Jr. went for a nasty flip, doing major
damage to his racecar, but crawling out of the wreckage unhurt. The “B” Main had a field that would have
been a good “A” Main grid.
Danny Sheridan bested Mike Spencer, Tony Jones, Josh Ford,
Bill Rose, who brought his own car from Indiana for an Oval
Nationals tune-up, followed by Bobby Cody in the Moose Mobile.
Several others missing the transfer were Davey Pombo, Steve
Ostling, Alan Ballard, J. Hicks and sixty-year-old veteran, Wally
Pankratz at the wheel of Rip’s backup car. Now the stage was set for the thirty-lap
“A” Main. Early on
was the war of the point race with Damion and Rip getting together,
Rip was able to proceed, but the Demon needed to replace his right
rear tire. Starting at
the rear, he still had plenty of time to move forward.
Soon Hermansader bounced through turn two and tipped over,
leaving the action on the hook.
Greg Bragg and Adam Mitchell tangled with both retiring from
action. As Damion made
his charge, he clipped the Bragg car and lost his left rear tire.
This would be his second stop, putting him at the trailer
early with a big setback in the point chase. Cory Kruseman had moved to the front and
appeared to be getting away, but several yellows closed up the field
and soon Rip was chasing Kruser hard, even touching Cory and turning
him sideways in turn four, but Williams did the sporting thing and
backed off to let Cory collect his steed and then raced him into
turn one. Soon, Rip
drove past Kruseman, showing the way to Charles Davis Jr. and Rickie
Gaunt, who both tried to duplicate the Williams pass.
Davis made it, but Super Rickie was now dicing with Danny
Sheridan and Mike Spencer. As the race came down to the last few laps,
Gaunt suddenly slowed on the backstretch with a blown engine.
As they came to the checkers, Sheridan’s engine let go, but
he managed to collect a fourth place finish after a strong run this
evening. Rip scored
#101, Davis grabbed second, Cory held on for third. Mike Spencer took fifth, followed by Josh Ford, Jerry Coons
Jr. at the wheel of the Alexander #4, Bobby Cody, Tony Jones and the
amazing Ryan Devitt collecting a top ten finish in his first
USAC/CRA Main Event. This was a hard fought, but cleanly run
feature. Rip and Cory
raced for many laps with Williams right on the tail tank of
Kruseman. The fans were
given a great show by two of the best racers in the country! Williams wants to win every feature he enters
and would like to pick up three more victories before season’s
end. This would make
him the leading feature winner of all time in West Coast Traditional
Sprint Cars. Watch for
Rip to be a strong competitor for the balance of the year.
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