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Ventura, CA., Aug. 3 - Bobby Michnowicz started
fifth in a 24-car field,
took the lead on lap 10 and won a 20-lap USAC Ford Focus Midget Dirt
Track
Series feature Thursday night. The setting was the banked,
fifth-mile clay
Ventura Raceway, a scenic seashore track where turf meets the surf.
It was the
second night of racing at the annual 12-day Ventura County Fair and
the races
attracted a standing room only crowd of 4,500 fairgoers according to
a report in
the Ventura County Star.
Michnowicz, a 42-year old veteran of sprint car
and midget racing, earned
$500 for his fourth victory of the season in USAC FF Dirt Series
race ten of
the 14-race season. It was his second triumph at Ventura; he also
has two
victories at Bakersfield Speedway aboard his Michnowicz-Zoriki
Racing TCR chassis.
Michnowicz entered the evening in second place in point standings,
three-points behind the leader. He emerged as the new point leader
by three points
(596-593) over former leader Keith Janca, 32. Pole starter Chris
Veach, 20, led the
first nine laps in a Stealth and finished second, ten-yards back at
the
checkered flag from Ventura starter Bill Stevenson. Janca finished
third.
Quintin Crye, an 18-year old rookie, finished
fourth with Brett Engstrom
fifth. Nick Carlson, Rob Kershaw, Jenna Frazier, Brian Camarillo and
Aaron
Shankerman rounded out the top ten finishers. J. R. Williams, 71,
nipped Cody
Williams, 17-year old son of USAC/CRA sprint car champion Rip
Williams, on the
final lap for 11th place. Twelve of 24 starters finished. Ricky
Kirkbride and
James Fryslie flipped simultaneously in turn four on the second lap,
causing the
first of two red flag incidents. Seventh running Gordy Edwards, Jr
flipped in
the second turn on lap eight after Brennan Newberry spun in front of
him and
he ran over a wheel. No injuries resulted. Engstrom, Michnowicz and
Janca won
the eight-lap heat races. Time trials were not conducted.
The Ventura Racing Association new Junior Ford
Focus Midget series for
drivers 13 through 15 had a seven-car field for round eight of the
inaugural
season. Horsepower is reduced in the FF engines for the teens. Point
leader Robby
Josett, a 15-year old driver from Agua Dulce, became the first
repeat winner
in his 2006 John Godfrey-built Spike chassis. He started third and
led the
final 13 laps of a 15-lap feature. Early leader Cody Kershaw,
16-year old son of
driver Rob Kershaw, started his Bullet from pole position and
finished ten
yards in back of Josett.
Third generation driver Justin Kierce came from
fifth to earn third
position. Johnathon Henry, 15, was fourth in a Bullet. Dakota
Kershaw, 14-year old
brother of the runner-up took fifth in a Stealth. Brent Owens,
13-year old son
of USAC FF Midget driver Bobby Owens, was sixth in a Stealth. Ricky
Wright,
14-year old son of outlaw sprint car owner Rick Wright, won the last
Junior FF
feature. He spun his Bullet chassis twice and finished a
straight-away back in
the six-minute event. Josett increased his point lead to 200 over
Henry, who
won the seven-lap heat race over Josett, Wright, C. Kershaw, Kierce,
D.
Kershaw and Owens. Josett has 7,930 points to 7,730 for Henry.
Kierce is third with
7,380, D. Kershaw (4,420) and Wright (3,550) complete the top five
after eight
races that have seen nearly every driver win at least once.
IMCA Modifieds from the Western Region (which has
a $525 engine claim
rule) turned out 27-cars strong. Modifieds ran four heat races of
seven-laps each
that transferred the first three finishers to the main event. A
12-lap
semi-main for cars finishing fourth through seventh transferred the
first eight
finishers to the 20-car, 20-lap feature that paid the top three
finishers $700,
$500 and $400. Damon Redman, Brad Pounds (the Ventura Fair IMCA
feature winner
last year), David Addamo and Gary Curtis won the heats and Don
Houghton led the
back half of the semi-main and defeated Rick Rodarte. Eric Evans led
the
final 11 laps of the feature and won by half a straight-away.
Redman, the leader
of the first nine laps, had an engine pop at the starting line,
causing him to
stop in the first turn on lap 10. Pounds, Steve Smith, Bill Waltman
and
Houghton finished second through fifth respectively. Sixteen drivers
finished the
23-minute race slowed by five cautions for spins.
The final event of the 6:00 to 9:16 p.m varied
racing program was a
12-car demolition derby. Sean McKinney, in a 1978 Oldsmobile station
wagon in which
he won the Wednesday demo derby at the fair, tied with Kody Harper,
in a
Chevy Impala. Their two cars became locked together and couldn't
move at
14-minutes and 46-seconds of bashing as they tried to eliminate each
other. They added
the $800 and $400 first and second-place payoffs and divided the top
two
pay-outs in half. Harper finished second in the fair's opening night
mayhem demo
derby. Scott Dudley finished third and lasted 11 minutes and 56
seconds.
Fair attendees were admitted free of charge to
the grandstands for the
motorized action. The standing room only crowd caused fair
officials to put up
yellow tape for persons to witness the demo derby while standing in
the main
walkway behind the tape and in front of the main grandstand. As soon
as the
demo derby concluded racing promoter/announcer Jim Naylor was on a
grader working
the track dirt to facilitate turning the site into a concert arena
for 7:30
p.m concerts by the Charlie Daniels Band on Friday and by the Big
Bad Voodoo
Daddy Band on Saturday.
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