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Los Angeles, CA. - The 10th annual Budweiser Oval
Nationals racing at the half-mile, clay Perris Auto Speedway
November 3-5 was outstanding. Drivers and teams talent, plus
on-track competition were the best ever seen at the PAS. For the
second consecutive year the Oval Nationals awarded USAC National
Sprint Car points and USAC/CRA Regional points. Midwest teams
brought their own sprint cars instead of racing unfamiliar western
cars. Nine of the top ten in National points raced and ten of the
top ten USAC/CRA drivers competed. The PAS one-lap track record of
15.954 (set by Damion Gardner on 10/31/03) still stands after
Thursday's fast qualifier (Gardner) came close at 16.047. Friday's
quickest qualifier (Mat Neely) was slower predictably at 16.659.
There were 75 pre-entries submitted before the
October 22 deadline to avoid the higher post-deadline entry fee. Six
of the 75 pre-entries did not compete. One late entry-Rickey
Hood-raced. So the final car count was 69 total cars and all 69 cars
ran Thursday; 68 cars ran Friday. Two preliminary nights were most
entertaining. Fans who missed Thursday and Friday and only attended
Saturday's D, C, B and A mains missed the "main course"
preliminaries and only enjoyed the "desert" mains. Many
Knoxville National winged sprint fans prefer racing action of
preliminary nights (qualifying, heat races and mains) to the all
mains Saturday night. The Oval Nationals are the same. Drivers
competing in time trials, heats and preliminary mains create
spectacular non-wing racing. Traffic in Southern California is so
congested some people who work skip the preliminary nights. It is
their loss. Some of us estimated the grandstand crowd at 30%
Thursday night, 60% Friday and about 95-98% of capacity Saturday.
The pits were crowded all three nights. All competitors raced each
night. Attendees from the East included Bill Marvel, Tom Schmeh,
Dean Mills, Kevin Eckert, Allan (Hosehead's.com) Holland, and two
Area Auto Racing writers from New York.
The Oval Nationals total purse (per Wagtimes web
site) was $83,375, with $30,000 awarded to the winner of Saturday's
A-main. Second place paid $7,000, third $4,000, fourth $2,500 and
fifth $2,000. Tenth paid $1,000 and positions 15-27 paid $500 each.
The 25-lap preliminary A-mains Thursday and Friday paid the winners
$1,400 each and $900 to the runners-up. With all that money on the
line, flips were common-19 during the three nights. Thursday had six
flips-Jim Richardson, Cal Smith, Shawn Kautz, Ryan Pace, Jon
Stanbrough & Danny Sheridan. Five Friday flippers were Bill
Camarillo, Evan Suggs, Tony Jones, Danny Ebberts and Levi Jones.
Eight flip victims Saturday were Stanbrough and Ebberts for the
second time, Greg Bragg, David Cardey, R. J. Johnson, Jesse Hockett,
Bill Rose and Dickie Gaines.
The Oval Nationals point system awarded the top
ten qualifiers Thursday and Friday 10 points for the fastest
qualifier with a one-point drop-off to one point to the tenth
quickest qualifier. The D-main transferred the first four finishers
to the back of the C-main and paid fifth through 12th drivers
descending points from 12 to one. The C-main advanced the first four
to the back of the B-main and paid fifth through 24th drivers
descending points from 36 to 17 for 24th. Heat races awarded
winners 16 points with two point drop-offs to
10 points for fourth. The B-main gave the top four finishers 8-7-6-5
and the non-transferees from fifth back 60-41 to 24th place. The
A-mains awarded 125
points to the winners with three-point drop-offs to tenth (101) and
two point drop-offs from 11th (98) to 24th (70 points).
The top 12 drivers after points from Thursday and
Friday racing were totaled were guaranteed Saturday A-main berths,
with the highest point driver starting sixth-the fastest qualifier
position in USAC National series. The Ovals National high point
driver (Damion Gardner) received the Dean Thompson Trophy. The top
12 drivers (with points in parenthesis) were 1. Gardner (273), 2. C.
Kruseman ( 270), 3. D. Darland (269), 4. M. Neely (257), 5. R.
Williams (249), 6. Pole winner D. Hagen (244), 7. J. Coons, Jr
(243), 8.Bud Kaeding (242), 9. R. Gaunt (221), 10. L. Jones (219),
11. M. Spencer (208) and 12. S. Wilson (206). Bryan Clauson also had
206 points but had to start from the B-main pole. Clauson was one of
the top 12 drivers in the B-main who transferred to the A-main.
Three drivers--two National Series drivers (J. Stanbrough and T.
Hessert) and one USAC/CRA driver (J. Hermansader)--used provisional
slots to start at the back of the A-main.
The Nov. 10-12 Western World Championship at
Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix has a $65,125 total purse and awards
both USAC National and USAC/CRA Regional points. Saturday's A-main
awards $47,600, compared to $60,500 for A-main teams at Perris. The
A-main winner at Manzy receives $12,500 compared to $30,000 for PAS
A-main winner Dave Darland. Manzy's runner-up gets a $7,000 check
compared to $8,000 at Perris. However, Manzy pays third through
fifth place drivers more than Perris. Lower positions pay the same
at both tracks through eighth place and slightly more at Manzy for
ninth through 18th and the same $500 for 19th through 24th.
Preliminary night A-main winners at Manzy receive $1,500 each.
Points per finishing positions are not used at Manzy.
The 75 PAS entries showed 24 different chassis
builders, with the top representation by Stinger-10-cars, Maxim and
TCR-7 cars each, and Bullet-6 cars. Six entrants did not list a
chassis builder. The 75 entrants listed 21 engine builders with the
top engines represented by Chevy-9, RC Performance-6, Gaerte-5 and
Mopar-4. Three entrants did not list an engine and there were four
360 cu. in. engines going against the more powerful 410s. First-time
drivers at PAS were Shain Matthews, Davey Ray, Richard Brace and
Shane Cottle. Ryan Pace had only raced a Ford Focus midget at PAS.
Ludvig Solberg uses No. 13 on his car because his mom likes 13 and
it is her birth date. Sprint car owner/driver Nadine Keller, 37, is
an Azusa Police patrol officer. She was the subject of a 23 inch, 29
paragraph feature story in the Friday, Nov. 4 San Gabriel Valley
Tribune on sports page 3. Coverage even had a 4 X 5" photo of
Nadine taken by Norm Bogan.
Bryan Clauson, 16-year old former northern
Californian now racing the No. 67 Keith Kunz car out of Indiana, is
the latest Chip Ganassi developmental driver. I hear it takes
$300,000 to get a Kunz ride and all his support for a year.
Ex-Riverside resident Darren Hagen used the Kunz No. 71 Vital
Express ride to win his first USAC 410 main impressively Thursday at
Perris. Impressive Tyler Spath, 19, is the grandson of 1960s CRA
driving star Ned Spath, who died from a heart attack in Oregon
several years ago. Tyler is a mechanical engineering/business major
at Oregon State in Corvallis. Ryan Devitt, a 28-year old drinking
water delivery driver, is the grandson of the late sprint/midget
driver
Jim Devitt. His dad is Jim Devitt, Jr. and they bought the No. 42
Steve Koster sprint car when Koster bought a Ford Focus midget.
Ironically, the two newcomers with racing grandfathers both use No.
35, with Devitt 35R (for Ryan).
Saturday's 27-car, quality 50-lap A-main started
at 10:38 p.m and had seven yellow flags and one red flag on lap 12
before it concluded a6t 11:34 p.m. Eighteen of the 27 starters
finished, with 15 on the lead lap. The top three drivers came to the
podium for interviews with Chris Holt over the PA system. Runner-up
and USAC/CRA point leader D. Gardner said, "Darland was hard to
beat. He is one of the best. He was flawless and didn't make any
mistakes. I drove as hard as I could." Third place Rip Williams
stated, "My car was working on the bottom. For awhile there I
thought I had a chance. My car got faster near the end. I'm happy. I
was back at seventh place at one point." Winner Darland thanked
his crew and car owner Jeff Walker. "They gave me a great race
car. As
many cars as were here this weekend the track was in great shape. I
was not happy to see all the yellows. I hoped lapped cars would get
out of the way. Some did and some didn't. I had a great time."
The winners then sprayed champagne and celebrated their lucrative
victory into the evening.
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