|
Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
|
A
BALMY SPRING NIGHT AT KINGS 4.12.08 by Norm Bogan |
|
|
|
Today was to be the first All-Star race of the
2008 season for the traditional 360 sprinters.
An alliance several years back, established a four-track
circuit for the VRA 360 cars emanating from the southern California
Gold Coast to match wits against the Bandit 360 sprint cars
originating from the lush southern Central Valley and the scenic
Central Coast. The Grand Slam Series as it is known, carries a
separate championship points system, as well as an elevated purse
structure, allowing a season within a season for these dedicated
racers. This challenge
series begins at Kings Speedway in Hanford, just as the climate is
changing from pleasant spring temperatures to the furnace-line
mercury readings of summer. Expected
highs during the day were predicted to be in the nineties with
Fahrenheit levels in the sixties for this evening’s feature time. Each year, there has been intense competition
among the racers from each genre. Pride doesn’t allow these racers to offer any less than
their best efforts. It
adds to bragging rights, when you can overcome the top performers of
the opposition. After tonight’s competition on the banked
three-eighths clay surface, the combatants will attend a rematch in
about six week to two-month intervals.
Moving next to Bakersfield Speedway’s third-mile oval at
Oildale in the southern San Joaquin Valley and also the favorite of
the Central Coast fans, Santa Maria Speedway’s racy third-mile.
This year’s challenge will culminate at the nearly
quarter-mile bullring of Ventura Raceway, right at the shores of the
Pacific Ocean. Each year, racers have entered the series with
high hopes of achieving and a curiosity of who will the other group
spring on them. For
many of the entrants, they have never raced at one of more of the
tracks, so they have a big “unknown”.
These participants tend to have a home track and limited
travel, so this series adds adventure to the life of many journeymen
teams. The series organizers had to be elated with the
thirty-six-car field. Facing
time constraints and trying to save the track surface for exciting
racing, they opted to have a pill draw to determine the ten-lap heat
race lineups. From
there on lineups would be determined by accumulated points.
Heat race victors were Justyne Hamblin, Peter Murphy,
Johnathon Henry and Steve Conrad.
The top four from each heat transferred to the 30-lap
feature. The balance of
the field was divided into two twelve lap Semi Mains with the top
four transferring into the A-Main.
Richard Vander Weerd and Kevin Kierce captured the two Semis. Rusty Carlile got over a wheel in the second
heat and did about seven endos down the backstretch.
In the third heat, Danny Faria running hot and high into turn
three, biked and got some airtime. Both drivers emerged from their cars okay, but suffered
extensive damage to the racecars and were done for the night. The feature lined up with Jeff Gardner and John
Iturriria up front followed by Greg Taylor and Steve Conrad, Wes
Gutierrez and Johnathon Henry, Justyne Hamblin and Peter Murphy,
with sixteen more hopefuls trailing. Gardner jumped into the lead at the green, with
Taylor chasing him for several laps, before a bobble let Greg assume
the lead. In the
meantime, Murphy closed up behind the defending Grand Slam Champ as
they demonstrated some very clean dicing until lap 12, when Peter
gained the advantage, although still challenged by Taylor throughout
the balance of the race. At
the checkers, Murphy was atop the podium with Taylor in second and a
surprising Johnathon Henry in third.
This was Henry’s first visit to Kings Speedway and only the
second outing for his new Ellis racer.
Justyne Hamblin posted fourth and Kevin Kierce advanced from
his eighteenth starting position to complete the top five. Wes Gutierrez was impressive with some very
quick charges down the straights, but looked unstable and loose in
the corners. He was
sent to the pits after two stops and finished eighteenth.
Keep an eye out for this driver as he develops a better setup
for his steed, as he definitely moves forward.
Another young driver to watch is the son of
Kevin Kierce, Justin. In
his first season racing sprinters, he looked quite stable on the
track and was able to advance through the night to score a fifteenth
place finish. I expect
to see Justin improve with more seat time in these cars. Brandon Thomson won the Rising Star Award for
the 2006 VRA season and has been an impressive driver, but has
suffered numerous mechanical failures that have kept him from
Victory Circle. Tonight
he collected third in his heat and eighth in the feature, placing
him seventh in Grand Slam points.
I first met Kevin Barnes about two or three
years ago at Kings in the late season Western Open where he had a
tremendous crash on the first night destroying his car.
That night they took the pieces home, drug out another
chassis and showed up the next night with a newly built racecar.
Kevin continues to be an inspired driver and now with a
little more seasoning and improved equipment, he runs well
throughout the night and is currently eighth in Grand Slam points. The promoter and staff at Kings has taken a lot
of heat about track conditions over the past year, but today with
warm temperatures, the track was pretty racy and offered both high
and low grooves. Hopefully,
they have their clay recipe figured out and we can expect some very
competitive racing on a well-prepared track throughout the year. For those that have seen the cost of racetrack
food escalate over the past few years, Kings had a special tonight,
a giant soda and large slice of pizza for $5.
Take your cup back and get a refill for $1.
Kudos to the track staff for treating the fans well and with
a good crowd this evening, experiencing some outstanding racing and
reasonable food prices, should find many returning for future
events. |
