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VENTURA, CA, Sept. 4 - Mike Kirby, the
final CRA Sprint Car champion in 1993, made a strong bid to become
the first USAC-CRA 410 Sprint Car Series champion Saturday at the
tacky, fifth-mile clay Ventura Raceway. He started fifth and beat 19
other drivers and incoming, lowering fog off the Pacific Ocean in
round 19 of the new series.
Driving the Glenn Crossno ITI Performance, Sander
Engineering TCR/Downing, Kirby ran second from lap two-27. On lap 28
he made his winning outside pass in the first and second turns.
Race-long leader/pole starter Mike Spencer led the first 27
circuits, but a deflating left rear tire slowed his march towards
his first career sprint car feature victory. The 23-year old
student, who is only two classes shy of receiving his engineering
degree at Cal Pole Pomona University, said, "I had a little too
much stagger because of the tire going
flat and they took advantage of that."
Runner-up and USAC-CRA series point leader Rip
Williams, in his John Jory Corp. Stinger/Shaver, passed Spencer on
lap 29 and trailed Kirby by ten yards. Rodney Argo finished on
Spencer's back bumper. Damion Gardner took fifth position despite
his vicious four or five rapid barrel-rolls across the third and
fourth turns in the first heat race after contact from third place
Ronnie Case. "We replaced the broken front axle, radius rods
and even welded the frame," Gardner revealed. Sixteen of the 20
starters were still racing at the
checkered flag and 12 were on the lead lap.
Remarkably, two cars flipped during separate
first lap incidents and returned to race. Rick Ziehl had an easy
rollover in the second turn. On the restart, Troy Rutherford
launched his car over a wheel and executed for or five fast
barrel-rolls across turn two, landing upright near the backstretch
wall. After making repairs in the pits, Rutherford returned in the
car and all 20 cars restarted. He climbed to 15th by lap 13, but
then parked it in the infield.
Winner Kirby, 40, told the crowd, "He
(Spencer) did a good job and didn't make any mistakes. I took
advantage of a lapped car (to pass him). The track was tacky all
night. It's one of my favorite places to go. The points race is
pretty much a three-way battle now." Williams leads with 1,131
points as he attempts to win his initial sprint car championship in
a career he launched in 1978 with CRA. Gardner, a 30-year old from
Concord, CA, is second with 1,076 points and Kirby is third with
1,038. During post-race interviews of the top three finishers,
Williams told spectators, "I got behind lapped cars and did my
best and that's all you can do." Promoter/announcer Jim
Naylor told Williams, "You're 48 years old but you driver like
you're 28."
Gardner won the 12-lap semi-main that sent the
top four to the feature. A multi-car spin on the final lap resulted
in the race being cut to 11 laps with fog starting to roll into the
raceway and lower towards the track at 8:20 p.m. The semi-main also
had a flip that sidelined second place J. Hicks after his car and
that of third place Rutherford came together in turn one. Hicks
rolled one and a half times and landed overturned and was hit by the
car of Luis Espinoza. Neither driver was injured, but both cars were
eliminated.
With 33 sprint cars present, four ten lap heat
races went to Danny Sheridan, rookie David Cardey, Jordan
Hermansader and Ziehl. Bill Camarillo caught the second turn wall
and rolled his car during his second qualification lap. Rickie
Gaunt, the SCRA 410 Sprint Car point leader and third driver to
qualify, set fastest qualifying time of 11.970.
At the 6:00 p.m National Anthem, five fixed wing
aircraft performed a missing man fly-over of the track from south to
north. One airplane peeled off in salute to No. 51 VRA 360 Sprint
Senior circuit campaigner Jim Gresham, 55, who died August 25 on
Highway 126 near Fillmore, CA. His truck, towing two-sprint cars
home to the Ventura area from the NWWC Midwest racing tour, ran off
the road and hit a pole. Before the first race Saturday, two sprint
cars--driven by Steve Gresham, Jim's younger brother, and Jimmy
Crawford--drove slowly around the track carrying American and
checkered flags in tribute to the late Gresham.
USAC-CRA 410 Sprint Car action will return to
Perris Auto Speedway for the next two Saturdays. The USAC FF Midget
Series will make it another PAS doubleheader on September 11 and 18.
The Summary: (pickup agate)
Fast Time: Rickie Gaunt, Keller 5, 11.970.
Heat 1: Danny Sheridan, Gaunt, Jimmy Crawford,
Bruce St. James, Dennis Rodriguez, Chris Wakim, Damion Gardner,
Ronnie Case.
Heat 2: David Cardey, Gary W. Howard, Mike Kirby,
Mike English, J. Hicks, Nadine Keller, Brandon Lane, Brian Venard.
Heat 3: Jordan Hermansader, Rodney Argo, Greg
Bragg, Bobby Cody, Tony Jones, Seth Wilson, Troy Rutherford, Shawn
Torbert.
Heat 4: Rick Ziehl, Rip Williams, Mike Spencer,
Alan Ballard, Luis Espinoza, Danny Ebberts, Ron Bach, DNS-Dwayne
Marcum.
Semi: Gardner, Rutherford, Wilson, Jones, Venard,
Keller, Rodriguez, Case, Wakim, Bach, Hicks, Espinoza, Lane, Ebberts,
Torbert,-DNS-Marcum.
Main: Kirby, Williams, Spencer, Argo, Gardner,
Cody, Jones, Gaunt, Hermansader, English, Sheridan, Bragg, Ziehl,
Wilson, Cardey, Howard, Ballard, Rutherford, St. James, Case (*in
car qualified by Crawford).
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