|
Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| MEGA
DOUBLE HEADER GOES AWASH by Norm Bogan |
|
|
|
Perris Auto Speedway went into their fourth weekend with a big program coup. They opened with the emerging VRA 360 sprints, then followed the next week with the SCRA 410 sprint season opener. Each presented some excellent racing and after a week of the World of Outlaws, the local fans would be treated to a combined VRA/SCRA show. For the hearty fans, which were in doubt earlier in the week if this show would come about due to stormy weather, the time was now and the competitors had arrived. The PAS staff had gone through Herculean efforts to prepare the track and pit areas to accommodate the racers. At the back gate, thirty-seven SCRA cars signed in along with thirty-four VRA cars, forming a stellar field for the night’s competition. Each class ran four heat races alternating SCRA first, followed by VRA. All of the heats were very competitive, with some excellent dicing in the fields. It appeared that tonight would be all it was hyped to be. Heat race winners for SCRA were Rip Williams, Richard Griffin, Steve Ostling and Damion Gardner. The VRA heats were won by Steve Ostling, doing double duty tonight, Ronnie Case, Steve DeMott and Will Perkins. The SCRA ran their Passing Masters Dash with Mike English capturing the win over Rutherford, Ostling, Sweeney, Gardner, Griffin, Gaunt and Argo. This established the line up of the first four rows of tonight’s “A” Main. Next came the VRA “B” Main with the first six finishers transferring into the Feature. Mike Davis raced to victory followed by Jesse Denome, Jake Ford, Ron Bach, David Sinsley and Kyle Hancock. The SCRA “B” Main followed with what seemed to be a destruction derby. With several restarts due to ongoing flips, there were seven cars missing before the first lap was completed. Lost were Bobby Cody who destroyed his car, Mel Murphy with damaged bolt on pieces, Jimmy Crawford and Charles Davis Jr., got together and did a double flip into the turn one wall. Davis destroyed his second car in two races and took a trip to the hospital for a checkup. Pole sitter, Cal Smith never completed the parade lap as something broke in his front end and was hooked off the track. Once underway, seventeen year-old rookie candidate Alan Ballard gathered in his first SCRA “B” Main victory, followed by Dan Hillberg, Seth Wilson, Tony Smiley, Alex Pruett and A.J. Reyer. Just a note of interest here; rookie candidate Wilson is the grandson of Indy 500 vet, Dempsey Wilson, while Pruett is a sixteen year-old rookie hopeful from Arizona and Reyer is also in the rookie race coming up from San Diego. Finally, the fields were set for tonight’s features and the VRA cars queued up first. As they pushed off, wet spots appeared on the jackets of the spectators, but it was a fine mist and the racers were ready to give it a try. A tangle and flip on the opening lap brought the field to a stop to clear the damaged racer. The earlier mist grew to bigger drops and as they attempted to push off the field once again, many of the racecars made noticeable fishtails and the red fell this time for the rest of the night. The features have been rescheduled as added events at later races this season. The fans had witnessed racing as expected in the earlier events of the evening and were waiting in anticipation when the skies opened up and washed out the long awaited twin features. I think the doubleheader schedule was a winner in the eyes of the fans. We got to see over seventy cars perform tonight, with some great individual accomplishments. I would certainly love to see this format again and hopefully, Mother Nature will be more cooperative. Perris Auto Speedway is continuing to groom their programs to give the fans top entertainment for the admission fees. |
