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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
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HOT LAPS WITH NORM BOGAN (9/23/02) |
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First Session-The famed
“Best little dirt track in America”, Ventura Raceway is under attack by the
Fair Board, who are considering the scuttling of this fine racing facility in
favor of an amphitheatre to hold concerts.
Adding many new requirements for the 2003 renewal, noise seems to be the
factor that the Board presents, but they also are asking for a much larger slice
of the pie and restricting activities, such as “tune and test” sessions on
some evenings. This is one of the
methods in which the track generates revenue, so while they want more money,
they are handcuffing the track’s ability to earn it.
The Board also wants to reduce the number of shows, which again inhibits
the track’s efforts to comply with their request. The Cory Kruseman Driving School operates at the raceway and
this operation may also be cut back. The hard working staff at the
track are some of the biggest fans in racing.
For the past twenty-five years they have invested much of the profits
back into the racetrack making it better and more attractive for the fans.
Over the past few years, the track has made inroads to be good neighbors
and have implemented some stringent muffler rules to fall below the state
mandated noise levels. The City of Ventura has
undergone a redevelopment program, converting many old storefronts and broken
down homes into luxury apartments and condos within a mile of the track.
These new residents have mounted the sword to rid the city of this pesky
nuisance. Session Two- One of the
bright stars with SCRA is the defending champion, Cory Kruseman, who will not
repeat his title this year, but has filled some missed SCRA opportunities with
forays into the Midwest. Cory ran
the Keith Kunz sprinter with the Buckeye Nationals USAC program earlier in the
year and returned to the Kunz car for the Indiana Sprint Week winning four of
the seven races. The highlight of
his year was to qualify and run the final IRL show at Texas.
Starting twenty-sixth, Kruseman had advanced to twelfth and then lost the
gearbox, finishing twenty-sixth. All
of us on the West Coast are proud of our native son. Session Three- Rip
Williams is the senior member of SCRA, with a quarter century of sprint racing
behind him. This year has been one
of real struggles as Rip has made a number of strong runs only to loose a tire
or some such malady keeping him from the winner’s tier of the podium. Well, Williams finally broke the jinx at Santa Maria this
past weekend, but it was not with ease, as he had to hold off the young charger,
Damion Gardner for nearly the whole event.
They raced and diced for over twenty laps of the feature without contact,
giving the fans an exciting finish.
Session Four- Veteran
driver Rodney Argo has struggled all year to put his Ford powered sprinter out
front. Numerous mechanical problems
have plagued the team and then Rodney suffered a back injury, which would
prevent him from racing for a period of time.
Rodney’s nephew, Jake has been working with USAC Midget racer Josh
Wise, so he was able to influence Josh to take a shot in the sprinter. After a Tuesday night practice session at Perris, Wise was
ready for the Saturday show. Qualifying
about ninth fast, Josh made the transfer into the Dash and ran the feature.
This past weekend at Santa Maria, with a little seat time, he set the
fast time, ran the Dash and finished a credible fifth in the feature on only his
second outing. Car Owner Don Argo was elated after the race.
This has been a year of young chargers coming in to challenge the cagey
veterans. First was Damion Gardner,
who now has three feature wins to his credit and just as we adjusted to Gardner,
along came Josh Wise. Keep tuned as
I predict good things coming for the Argo camp. Session Five- This coming
weekend, the SCRA makes the four hundred mile trek across the hot desert to
Manzanita. It will be a reunion of
sorts as we will catch up with Chargin’ Charles Davis, who had a devastating
NWWC tour with the loss of three engines and a chassis.
Davis returned to the Arizona 360 cars and scored multiple wins.
Bullet Bob Ream Jr. will be on hand.
Bob is a hard charger, but operates out of his own wallet, making it
difficult to travel regular with SCRA, even though he would love to.
When Ream is present, he is usually a quick one and very competitive.
Hopefully, we will have some relief from the 100 plus degree
temperatures, both in southern California and the Phoenix area. Hope to see you “Along the
Way”. |
