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Los Angeles, CA. - Round one of 22
USAC/CRA 410 cu. in. sprint car races at Perris Auto Speedway during
2006 occurred Saturday afternoon, February 4. Yes, a day-race at the
home of outstanding Saturday night non-wing sprint car-racing for
the past ten years. The 11th season at The PAS attracted an
impressive 41-car field for time trials from 12:30 to 1:05 p.m on a
76-degree day with blue sky and a good crowd in the main grandstand.
What followed was the best dirt-track sprint car day racing in
recent memory. It was reminiscent of the afternoon sprint car races
decades ago at a pair of half-mile dirt
tracks-Ascot Park and the Imperial County Fairgrounds in El Centro.
There was passing galore February 4 at The PAS
during a six-lap C main, four 10-lap heats, 12-lap B, and the 30-lap
A. These were not follow the leader races. Regular track preparer
Ray Scheetz has been off work all of 2006 because of illness that
requires rest. So promoter Don Kazarian prepared the track for the
PAS afternoon opener and deserves kudos for his efforts in bringing
in a racy track surface. The fastest qualifying time of 16.970 went
to Damion Gardner, the 37th of 40 qualifiers.
With 17 of 23 A-main starters running at the
finish, 16 drivers were on the lead lap. Third finisher Jesse
"the Rocket" Hockett, from Warsaw, MO, started sixteenth.
He was involved in a fourth lap four-car tangle in the fourth turn.
Hockett restarted 21st and charged forward in the orange No. 2az
Massey car to second place on lap 25. Gardner retook second place on
lap 26 and closed in on winner Rip Williams during the final five
laps. Damion was a foot or so short of victory, with Hockett on his
tail in third position. Hockett received "hard charger of the
race." Cory Kruseman was a few lengths back in fourth. Mike
Spencer passed Mike Kirby for fifth place on the final lap. That is
RACING, day or night. As expected, there was some dust in the turns
later in the day, but the track watering and prep work before the B
and A-mains made racing better.
Drivers came from six states-34 CA, three AZ and
one each from IL, IN, MO and N.M. There were three flips during the
day. Jeremy Ellerston rolled in H-3 and Azusa police officer Nadine
Keller did likewise in H-4. Tom Stansberry rolled his 75t in the
B-main. One of the rollover incidents was so minor it did not
require a red flag. All three flippers continued racing after their
tumbles.
ROOKIES: USAC/CRA rookies were: Ludwig Solberg
IV, Robert Ellis, Blake Miller, 19, and Garrett Hansen, 20, a USAC
Ford Focus and Western Midget Series veteran. Hansen was fresh from
the Tulsa, OK Chili Bowl where he placed third in a preliminary
night feature and made Saturday's A main with 260+ drivers in
competition. Hansen was making his 410 cu. in. sprint car debut in
Don Argo's No. 19 Ford. Regular driver Rodney Argo had a bad back.
Garrett turned in 19th fastest qualifying time of 40. He finished
fifth in his heat and earned the final A-main berth by passing two
cars and moving from eighth to sixth on lap 10 of the 12-lap B-main.
He edged veteran Jimmy Crawford. Garrett also ran all 30-laps in the
A without error and finished 16th for a solid 410 debut.
Blake Miller is a VRA 360 cu. in. sprint grad who
won three of five VRA circuit mains. He logged the best rookie
qualifying lap-12th fastest in Nadine Keller's "Black Widow
Racing" No. 5-and then had an adventuresome day. Blake started
sixth and made a nice low turn four to finish line move on lap seven
to take fourth position, the last ticket from heat four to the
A-main. Two laps later Blake almost spun low in turn four and lost
fourth spot back to J. Hicks. Then Blake executed a final lap slide
job pass of Hicks through the third and fourth turns without contact
and finished fourth. It was a pass worthy of a
veteran of 410 sprint combat. Blake started fourth in the A-main and
was running sixth on lap five when he looped 360 degrees and
continued without contact, losing four positions in the process.
Blake was 16th on lap 15, ahead of four drivers. During the final
ten laps, newcomers Miller and Hansen dueled for a top 15 finish.
Hansen passed Miller on lap 21 and Miller recaptured 15th for good
on lap 27.
Before qualifying I spoke to Miller at the pit
board. I asked him about the lap 14, first turn crash on January 21
at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix. Blake said as he passed the
starter "my ignition box blew and I tried to get up to the
first turn cushion." Race leader Josh Wise, in Tony Stewart's
No. 20, tried to pass Miller's slowing No. 5 and flipped wildly.
"Josh went high and never contacted my car. I saw him flip at
least four or five times past me." Happily, former Riverside
resident Josh flew home to Indianapolis Monday and
attended the January 28 USAC National Championship Awards Banquet in
Indianapolis
to collect his 2005 awards. They included Silver Crown
rookie-of-the-year and USAC National Midget champion.
PAS Notebook: Phoenix drivers making debuts at
PAS were Tom Ogle and Ben
Gregg. Both raced at Manzy January 21. Eight of the top ten drivers
in points following Phoenix raced at Perris February 4. Rip Williams
got his 102nd main event victory before he turns 50 on May 5. He
only needs one victory to tie the late Dean Thompson's 103. Rip
would like to get a record 104 before he retires, whenever that
might be. Kruseman's sprint car driving school will begin its second
year at PAS Sunday afternoon March 26, a day after USAC/CRA sprint
cars compete at The PAS.
Exciting Passes: Greg Taylor made the pass of the
day in the C main. After starting fourth he slipped to sixth place
by lap four of the six-lap race that transferred only the first four
finishers to the back of the four heat races. Greg was fifth
starting the last lap in a five-car pack in positions two-six. Greg
went to the high side in all four turns and shot from fifth to
second at the finish. On the backstretch cars were three-wide for
second position,
with Greg on the outside. C main winner Josh Williams, Rip's cousin,
started ninth in heat one and finished fourth of five finishers.
That enabled him to bypass the B-main and transfer directly to the
A-main. See it does happen at times and makes the current USAC/CRA
format solid.
On lap 9 Hockett made a nice pass on the
backstretch to defeat Rip Williams in the 10-lap second heat. On lap
one of the A-main, pole starter and second place Bobby Cody bicycled
on his two right side tires in turn two and continued, losing about
ten positions. Dave Darland, pictured on the PAS program cover on
two wheels in his regular No. 11 USAC ride, said he flies from Indy
to LAX to race at The PAS. Good guy Dave was the first retiree from
the A-main with a broken jacob's ladder after the four car crash in
turn four. Darland drove one of the two Dwight Cheney No. 42
sprinters. Dave said he had the
Bullet/Mopar and 2005 USAC National Sprint champ Levi Jones had the
No. 42x TCR/Mopar. Levi praised Mopar, the engine he had in his main
event winning No. 21 Tony Stewart Maxim/Mopar at Manzanita January
21. Tony Jones, aboard Mark Alexander's No. 4, started the A-main
sixth and shot by Gardner to second position on lap
11 in a tight, three-way duel. Tony's RF wheel tapped leader Rip
Williams LR wheel and Tony spun out to the second turn wall as Rip
and Damion continued one-two. Tony restarted at the back (21st) and
finished 11th.
Chris Holt interviewed the top three finishers.
Hockett (P.3) said, "I had to go to the back after the lap four
wreck. I wanted to get to the top ten. I thought I was about 11th
when I was sixth. I started running out of fuel at the end."
Gardner (P. 2) stated, "I ran on top, there was nowhere else to
go. He (leader Williams) was running smooth. He showed me something,
a little too late. It is what it is. I look forward to coming back
here." Williams (P. 1) said, "I had the car set up kind of
loose. I thought it would be tacky. I found a spot in the middle
where I thought I could get by them early. That was important. I
held on for the last couple of feet. I've done this for 28 years.
There is nothing easy about it. I'm made of the right stuff to stick
around."
This year on February 4 at PAS the first race
began at 1:34 p.m. The A-main received the checkered flag at 4:26,
one-hour before sunset. The ambient temperature was still 68 degrees
at 5:15. USAC/CRA sprints will return to PAS Saturday, February 18
(a night race) for the second of 22 at PAS and round three of 38
this season. I wouldn't mind seeing another day race in February
when temperatures at night can dip into the low 40s. What better way
to spend a beautiful day in Southern California than to watch
exciting sprint car racing, talk to friends and get a tan? For a
look at 32 of the USAC/CRA sprint cars that raced February 4 at The
PAS go to www.scrafan.com.
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