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| RACING SCENE Column – USAC 3-STATES WESTERN SWING (Part III of III) By Tim Kennedy |
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Perris, CA. - Stop three of the three state Western Swing was a one-night stand Saturday, February 28 at the well-groomed half-mile clay Perris Auto Speedway(PAS). Called the Sokola Shootout for the late male members of the family, the event attracted a near capacity grandstand crowd and a crowded pit area as well. USAC's Rob Klepper again did some PA microphone duty along with regular PAS announcer Scott Daloisio. The PAS purse was $32,300 for the doubleheader featuring both USAC Mopar National and Western Midgets and USAC National and Lucas Oil CRA Regional Sprint cars. There were quality fields in both series—41 midgets raced for $13,300 and 50 sprint cars competed for $19,000. The PAS pits were so full of midgets and sprint cars February 28 that 21 race cars had to pit in the pit area parking lot beyond the second turn. Drivers who raced at PAS for the first time in their career were: (MIDGETS)--Ricky Ehrgott, Jerrod Ponder, Caleb and Dakoda Armstrong, Zach Daum, Buddy Lowther, Shane Hmiel and Brad Loyet ... (SPRINTS)--Aaron Altaffer, and Shane Hmiel. Matt Streeter did not qualify his No. 14JR midget because it dropped a valve during hot lapping. HOT HEATS: Four ten car Midget 8-lap heat races were outstanding with first eight cars in each race starting inverted based on their qualifying time. With the top four finishers in each heat advancing directly to the A-main the race winners started 7th, 8th, 6th and 5th. That's a lot of passing in just eight laps. The fastest qualifier in each heat finished 2nd, 1st, 10th (DNF) and 5th. I was able to predict correctly only eight of the 16 main event transfers from the four heats. One of the memorable midget heat race achievements was by 17-year old Shane Golobic (in the “best appearing car” at the 2009 Tulsa Chili Bowl—the candy apple red & gold No. 88w Weldon Offill Country Builder Construction Spike/Esslinger). He started second and held off past USAC National Midget Champion Bobby East during the final lap for the final A-main transfer from the first heat. Golobic, from Fremont near San Jose, said he is not racing for points this year. He has elected to pick and choose midget and sprint car races this year. Offill has owned candy apple red & gold No. 88 County Builder Construction sprint cars for decades. USAC Ford Focus Midget graduate Dennis Howell fought off Josh Wise for fourth place from lap 3-8. Then Wise made a slide job pass on the final lap in the third turn and cleared Howell. However, Wise got sideways and stalled at the fourth turn cushion as full midget newcomer Howell cut to the inside and earned the final feature berth available in heat two. In heat three Norco resident Joey Fabozzi, 19, started first, led the first three laps and finished third. Joey said he uses No. 84 on his Spike/Fontana because his favorite driver is NASCAR three-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and he reversed Jimmie's No. 48 for his midget car number. Midget heat four provided a sensational pass by PAS rookie Zach Daum, 17, from Pocahontas, IL. He started l7th and was still 5th on the final lap. Then he made a sensational 5th to 3rd place double pass of 4th place Garrett Hansen and 3rd place Alex Schutte to claim a feature berth. He used the outside cushion in the first two turns and on the backstretch. Then he stayed on the outside through turns three and four to seemingly fly past the two drivers ahead of him. The appreciative crowd watched his daring move and cheered his best passes of the night to that point. SPRINT HEATS: The ten-car, ten-lap sprint car heat races also inverted the first eight cars based on qualifying times. The fastest qualifiers in each heat only had 5th, 5th, 7th and 3rd (Blake Miller) because the heats were so full of fast drivers. As an example, the first heat contained in order: G. Hansen, Jesse Hockett, Shane Hmiel, Chad Boat, Damion Gardner, Tracy Hines, Kevin Swindell and fastest qualifier Jerry Coons, Jr. The back row had C-main winners Seth Wilson and 2008 CRA champion Mike Spencer, who started their nine-car C-mains from pole position and led all the way. The first C-main had Rip Williams racing against his oldest son Cody, 19. Rip placed second and Cody 7th. The second C-main had Rip's second son Austin, 18, and he finished second to earn the tenth position in heat two, next to his dad Rip. In the second heat Rip finished sixth and Austin eighth. Interestingly, three CRA rookie of the year candidates all raced in the second C-main. A. Williams (No. 2 Jory) placed second, 16-year old Mathew Shadarowich (No. 8z) was sixth, and 20-year old Ronnie Gardner (No. 39) placed eighth. The four per heat sprint car heat race transfers to the A were tough to pick correctly. My pre-race picks to transfer to the A, based on starting positions, correctly identified 11 of the 16 transfer drivers. The 12-lap B main sent the first six finishers to the feature. That race looked like an A-main lineup. Coons, Nic Faas, Rickie Gaunt, K. Swindell, Jordan Hermansader, Tyler Brown, D. Gardner, R. J. Johnson, Jon Stanbrough, G. Hansen, M. Spencer, Josh Ford, R. and A. Williams were just some of the drivers vying for the six transfer slots. Faas, in a new Maxim body that replaced his Las Vegas flip car, and Swindell missed transfers after they started second and fourth. The cars of Spencer and 6th place Swindell made contact leaving turn four with the checkered flag waving. Swindell's No. 10K Tom Rolfe Maxim spun 360 degrees in mid-track halfway between turn four and the finish line without contact with other cars or the walls. Swindell drove across the finish line 7th, right behind Spencer, who raced from the C to the B to the A-main. Swindell was not happy about losing the final A-main spot, especially so close to the finish. All 21 starters finished and only one driver was lapped during the 3:44.90-timed race. MIDGET MAIN: The Midgets 30-lap A-main was simply one of the best races ever held at The PAS, which opened in 1996. Darren Hagen led the first nine laps of the B-main from the pole, but he dropped out on lap 10. He and the Don Fike No. 3 (ex-RFMS # 32) had to use one of four provisional berths in the race and started 23rd in the 26-car field. USAC 2008 National Sprint and Silver Crown champion J. Coons had to use the second National Series provisional and started 25th. Remarkably, the two Western Midget Series provisionals went to female drivers Shannon McQueen (24th) and Randi Pankratz (26th). The Midget feature had three race leaders—NNS vet/second starter Bryan Clauson (L 1-19), sixth starter Tracy Hines (L 20-28) and sensational D. Hagen (L 29-30). Riverside native Hagen's progress through the talented and fast field should be noted. He was 17th on L 4, 11th on L 10, 8th on L 14, 6th at L 21, 4th on L 23 and 2nd on L 24 when he went from the high side to inside at turn three and passed two cars (Clauson's No. 39 and Cole Whitt's No. 1). Whitt was driving his Tulsa Chili Bowl No. 1 Keith Kunz midget, not his Phoenix and Las Vegas Kunz car. Hagen arrived in second place, some 20-yards in back of leader Hines. Motivated Hagen, moving quickly, was 15-yards back on L 25, 10-yards back at L 27 and 5-yards back on L 28. Then Hagen thrilled fans on L 29 by making a perfect slide job pass under Hines without making contact as they entered the third turn. He was a few feet ahead of the surprised Hines as they started the final lap. Hagen pulled away and won the 30-lap thriller by 10-yards (0.307) over Hines. Hagen's last lap was a 19.7 compared to Hines' 19.878 on L 30. Rounding out the top ten were third place Whitt (-1.315), Brad Sweet, Clauson, Hansen, Brad Kuhn, Levi Jones, Bobby East and 25th starter Coons. Pole starter/PAS rookie Daum, 17, ran in the top ten (9th) for ten laps. He settled for 15th, as 19 of the 26 starters finished with 18 drivers still on the lead lap. The sizzling race elicited rave reviews on racing websites and in racing publications. SPRINT MAIN: The Sprint 30-lap feature started 24 cars with two CRA provisionals for G. Hansen and R. Williams. USAC National Sprint drivers dominated the top ten and finished second through tenth. However, “Super” Rickie Gaunt, 40, upheld the home court advantage for local CRA teams. Personable Rickie, from Torrance, started 5th and led L 6-30 after Oklahoman Dustin Morgan led the first five laps. Rickie, driving for the Gardner Racing team as he did last year, passed him with a second turn slide job. Rickie won by 0.540 for his first USAC National Sprint victory. He did it in the black & silver No. 16 Sled chassis that has been raced primarily by Nadine Gardner in the past. “I did it in the girl's car. It's the fastest car I've driven,” Rickie told the crowd. The winner said his two sons, Mavrick, 14, and Chasen, 12, now race USAC Junior Ford Focus Midgets at Ventura “but they think they're super stars and won't work on or wash race cars.” Joyful Rickie stood on the winning car parked at the finish line for trophy ceremonies and said, “I'll pay for the sonuvabitch. Here's a word to the rest of the drivers her, kiss my ass. I won the sonuvabitch.” He waved to the happy crowd in the grandstand then celebrated with his team and later fans and well-wishers in the pits. Rounding out the top ten were Brad Sweet, Hines, Coons, Gardner, Hockett (from 19th), Whitt, Dave Darland, Stanbrough and Levi Jones. Chad (# 30) Boat, Josh (#37M) Wise, Hansen, R. Williams, and Greg Bragg completed the top 15. Eighteen of 24 starters finished with 17 on the lead lap. Runner-up and 7th starter Sweet (in Kasey Kahne's No. 9) trailed Gaunt by 15-yards during the final three laps. “I thought I had him there. I drove it in and made a mistake. He really wanted the win. It was a lot of fun. He raced us hard. We struggled last year in sprint cars so second is a good finish for us.” Sweet logged the fastest lap of the race at 18.695 on the final lap when Gaunt ran a lap of 18.792. Third place Hines said he had “a pretty good night with a pair of podium finishes” (2nd and 3rd). Former NASCAR driver Hmiel could not say he enjoyed his first PAS racing experience. He got into the turn four wall and rolled the No. 37 A. J. Felker midget at the start of the midget main. On L 2 of the sprint car main Hmiel caught the second turn wall and rolled Scott Benic's 2B Racing No. Z-1 sprinter, also without injury. MISCELLANEOUS: The $5.00 PAS printed program on February 28 had a color shot of Rip Williams on the cover. The 28 pages inside had six pages of color photos devoted to drivers. ... There was a moment of silence at PAS in memory of CRA publicist Robert Mayson's father and Legends of Ascot organizer Don Weaver's brother/former midget driver Bob Weaver. ... Jerome Rodela, of El Monte, raced his new Spike/Toyota at PAS. Rodela, the 2005-06 USAC Western Midget Champion, missed nearly all of last season because of back/vertebra injuries he received during his midget flip in the February 2008 Copper on Dirt, presented by Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix. ... PAS promoter Don Kazarian was present despite braking an ankle on stairs at home going for coffee. He announced that the Grand Marshall for the 14th annual PAS Sprint Car Oval Nationals (November 5, 6, 7) will be Chili Bowl co-promoter Emmett Hahn. ... Damion Gardner used a backup Jason Leffler No. 71 Eagle at PAS after he flipped his Manzy and LVMS No. 71 Eagle on the first lap of the LVMS A-main February 25. ... San Bernardino driver Chris Gansen (No. 04 ITI/Esslinger) is the younger brother of Donnie Gansen who races the No. 7G Bullet 360 sprint car at So Cal tracks including PAS and Ventura. ... The Tom Rolfe Racing 18-wheeler in the PAS pits had the World of Outlaws car on board that three-time WoO champion Sammy Swindell, 53, had raced to second place Thursday, February 26 at Las Vegas. There were three cars in the hauler. Sammy's son Kevin, now 20, said he might race in some 2009 WoO winged sprint car races whenever his USAC schedule permits. PAS FLIPS: Just as the USAC Western Swing races at Manzanita in Phoenix and at Las Vegas had numerous flips, so too did PAS racing find midgets and sprint cars getting upside down during the competitive action. Fortunately, all drivers emerged without serious injury. The PAS flippers were: MIDGETS (4 total): Bryan Clauson (heat 3); rookie Austin Smith (B-main); Hmiel and Ricky Ehrgott (A-main). ... SPRINTS (5 total): Henry Clarke (heat 2); Chris Windom and Jason (No. 64) York (heat 3); Hmiel and David (No. 4) Cardey (A-main). This closes my notebook on the 2009 USAC Western Swing for midgets and sprint cars. What made the series outstanding is the fact that races at all three tracks (in Arizona, Nevada and California) carried National and Western Series points. That led to full fields of midgets and sprint cars and excellent competition at every event. Drivers chasing points were compelled to compete if they hoped to win a 2009 USAC championship. Hopefully, this tour will begin every USAC season for years, with or without Manzanita Speedway, which is slated to close in mid-April. Other tracks in Arizona, New Mexico or California might serve as a replacement for Manzy if another promoter steps to the plate. |
