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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
ONE TO TIE AND TWO TO LEAD
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Rip Williams made one more notch in his belt as
he pursues the all-time West Coast Traditional Sprint Car victory
total held by the late Dean Thompson.
Williams now trails Thompson by one victory to tie the record
of 103 wins and hopes to continue on to set the new standard. Ripper enters his 29th season of
sprint car racing and feels just as competitive as he did in his
rookie year of 1978. Of
course, Williams has weathered a number of storms throughout the
years, persevering with marginal cars and limited budgets, but now
he enjoys the fruits of his years of competition.
Setting in one of the best rides available with the USAC/CRA
sprinters, Rip no longer worries about that shoestring he raced on
for so many seasons. With more and more youngsters coming on the
scene, already sporting championships on their resumes, this veteran
campaigner still has the fire in his belly to show them he is not
ready to settle down for Saturday night cribbage games.
Rip will turn the big 5-0 on “Cinco De Mayo” (May 5th). Saturday, he gave a class of the strongest sprint car racers
from around the country a driving lesson on how to run a day race on
the Perris oval. The field of forty-one cars was not filled with
patsies. On hand were
the USAC National Sprint Car Champion, Levi Jones and long time
Indiana racer, Dave Darland. Jesse
Hockett, two-time winner of the Pedal Car at Kansas’ Lakeside
Speedway was in the field, along with regular competition, Cory
Kruseman, who tasted victory at Tampa last week, the exciting Damion
Gardner plus Danny Sheridan, Tony Jones, Mike Spencer, Mike Kirby,
Josh Ford and a stellar field of outstanding racers. Bobby Cody and Levi Jones sat up front for the
feature, with Ripper and rookie candidate, Blake Miller breathing
fire on their tail tanks. Kruser
and Demon sat in the fourth row, while Sheridan and Hockett started
in the 8th and 9th rows.
Cody jumped into the early lead and after two laps, Rip
decided it was time to go to the front, where he felt comfortable
and refused to share with others for the rest of the show. Darland was the first car out after an early
altercation dealt him a broken Jacobs' ladder.
Hockett caught up in the same tangle, had to restart at the
back of the field. Within
a few laps, Damion and Cory advanced to the front of the pack, with
the Demon nipping at Williams heels and Cory seemed to be patiently
waiting for one or both to error and it would be Kruseman in the
lead. Suddenly in the
last ten laps or so, the orange 2az car was on a terror, passing one
or two cars each lap, appearing to have plenty of forward bite.
He passed all the heroes, Sheridan, Spencer, Kirby and
eventually Cory to take his spot in third. Jesse then ran up beside Damion on a couple of occasions, but
could not make the pass. At
the checkers, it was Rip Williams for Victory #102, followed by
Damion Gardner, Jesse Hockett, Cory Kruseman and Mike Spencer. With unseasonable warm temperatures, near
eighty in the mid-afternoon, most of the drivers were pretty wrung
out by race’s end. Rip
jumped into an early lead and held off challenges.
Damion used his usual driving style, making many moves to
overtake the Ripper, while Jesse Hockett made an impressive charge
from the rear. Cory
Kruseman was back in his top five finishing position, taking the
point lead after the year’s second outing.
Mike Spencer picked up where he left off last season with
another top five spot. While a day race is not the preferred offering for most hard-core fans, this show drew a representative crowd treated to some outstanding racing. |
