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WILLIAMS WINS USAC/CRA CHAMPIONSHIP AS SCRA CHAMPION RICKIE GAUNT
WINS KINDOLL CLASSIC by Ken Wagner |
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WAGTIMES INTERRUPTED AUCTION FINALLY RAISES ANOTHER $1500 FOR RACERS |
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Super Rickie Gaunt won the 9th Annual Kindoll Classic at
Perris Auto Speedway on the last night of the Valvoline USAC/CRA
season series. Driving the Smiley Crane Service, Dave Zoriki
Motorsports car, Rickie battled with Cory Kruseman from lap
13 on as they swapped the lead back and forth many times, even
though officially it was only once. Rickie he pulled away in the end
for his first USAC/CRA win of the year. In the winners circle Rickie
said” I had an angel in my car tonight as my mother –in-law
passed away this week”. Rickie’s car was like a rocket all night
as he pulled away to big leads before Cory finally got him in his
sights and they had their battle.
Mrs Wags pics are ready. Click here. As soon as Rip Williams took the green in the main event, he officially became the first USAC/CRA champion, and later ended up sixth in the John Jory Corp., AMA Plastics, Ricks Truck Works, # 3 in the 50 lap race. It was his first championship after 28 years of racing sprint cars. He is still stuck on 99 wins in CRA, SCRA and USAC/CRA and is looking forward to hitting 100 wins next season and overtaking Dean Thompson’s 103 all time victory total. The question most ask is now that he has a championship is he retiring. NO WAY! He was as animated as I have ever seen him after the race. One note here, he got out of his car during the mandated fuel stop, after they ironed the track back in, and ran to the men’s room. I haven’t seen him ever run anywhere. It was a night of firsts for the Ripper, but he is the champion now and the team can all relax! Damion Gardner finished the season the way he started it, on the gas as he rode a giant wheelstand past The Kruser for second place in the Temecula Valley Pipe & Supply, Arizona Race Mart, Ber-Ron Inc., # 50. Using a lot of patience, for him, he reeled in the leaders late in the race, after a wild battle with Tony Jones and powered forward. He didn’t catch the Ripper in the points, but took second with the promise to do better next year and was happy with his night. He was most impressed with his low near record 16.077 qualifying time. Tony Jones didn’t win a race this year as he struggled mightily with a variety of problems and didn’t live up to his potential, but it wasn’t his driving. He won the Wags Big Dawg Dash at Ventura and then followed that up with a win in the Rusty Espinoza Trophy Dash this week. Two dashes don’t make a season, but the way the “Cowboy” drove in the Main Event bears witness to next year and he vows to be back strong. He ran as high as 3rd and finally settled for 4th in the end. He was the fastest car on the track, with the exception of Super Rickie’s rocket, thru the middle part of the race. He personifies that old Brooklyn Dodgers cry of “wait till next year”! Mike Spencer wasn’t having a very good night in the yellow # 44 after finishing 8th in his heat and 9th in the Semi. It got a lot better in the main event as he took the provisional last starting spot (23rd) and marched thru the pack to finish 5th for the hard charger award of the night. Mike is very close to winning and I am surprised he didn’t win this year. Rick Williams came down from No Cal to run wingless again and was pretty impressive leading the main for three laps, but somehow he got attacked by the wall and still was able to continue on to get 17th. Another traveling driver from up North, Kevin Urton was really fast this week, but got little out of it. Kevin missed the transfer to the main by one spot as he put the black # 51 around the track with zest. He has not had much luck this season, but maybe the winter break will get him focused to be a player next year as he has improved a ton the last half of the year. Jason York again had no luck coming from far away as he finished out of the transfer in the Semi and was one of the first rigs out of the pits during the rain delay. Jason is a nice guy who can drive and could do better if he had more races down south. He got a win at Perris, so he is ready to have more success next year. Jordan Hermansader had tough luck this week. Not only has the talented driver been a little unlucky from week to week driving the Alexander’s team car to the visiting Cory Kruseman model, he knew going in this season that Cory would get preference when he came to town, so many races he sat out as only one car was operating with a working motor. It happened again this week when Cory finished out the season with the Alexander’s, so Jordan went shopping for a ride. Buzz Shoemaker put him in his # 0 car and was rewarded when Jordan started on the 2nd row. Unfortunately, during the rain delay fuel stop, someone “touched” the car inappropriately (the rule was fuel, tear offs and air pressure ONLY)) and he was put to the back with John Scott who suffered the same ruling. Jordan salvaged 16th as he tried to impress the Alexander’s, who haven’t decided on what they are doing next season, or any other potential car owners. John Scott came west from his new home in Brownsburg, Indiana for the big races at the end of the season. He stayed around for this one, but the 12th place finish probably won’t make the ride home any better. He noted to me he is so glad to be living back there and doesn’t see how Californians can stay here. Right back at ya John, although Indiana is great for two short periods of time, spring and fall, but I can take the traffic far better than the humidity and icy periods, but I do relate as I know the lifestyle back there isn’t so frantic. Travelers from the Midwest came west for the weather and another chance to race, but if they stayed for the snow after the races, I bet they were ready to go home. Jay Drake came to drive the Mark Priestly # 7 this week and he had his problems getting use to the car, but came in tenth for a good finish. Levi Jones drove the strong Harlan Willis # 45 to eighth, Bill Rose missed the main in the Rick Becker’s # 67 car, Jon Stanbrough dropped out early in the main to finish 20th, and Dave Darland was 11th in the Dwight Chaney brand new # 42. I talked to him before the race and told him he was a glutton for punishment because coming to drive another different car must be tough to get the crew to get his driving style bolted on a car. That is why I was glad to see all the hot dogs bring their own equipment for the big races, they just do better. Dave had the brand new car doing well and another night might have put him in the front. Mike Kirby got into the wall on lap 13 while leading and ended his one year ride in the Glenn Crossno car. Something broke, but it was a sad ending to his year that had so much promise only to end with a DNF. He looked like he was pretty hooked up and going for another big win, but it was not to be in the red # 38 car this time. Next season he will drive for Larry Woodward in the Volcano Joe sponsored entry that will be a sister car of sorts to Joey Saldana’s WOO entry. The early reports about the new equipment are he will have the best of everything, so next season should be another great one for him and his crew. Soon after this red flag stop, rain interrupted action for almost an hour. The rain was light, but went on for a while and Don Kazarian never wavered telling the USAC officials “we will get this one in!” The track personnel did a fast job getting the track worked back in and ready to resume the 50 lap feature which almost made curfew with an 11:05 finish. One crash marred the race as Bobby Cody became a victim early in the race when he was fighting for 2nd and got his wheel moved over enough to send him sideways, then horrifically catapulting end over end down the front stretch. An unbelievable wild toad ride, but he crawled out smiling with a humorous comment during an interview while they cleaned up his trashed car from the track. “I got sideways and then closed my eyes, then felt a big bump, and felt another big bump, and wanted it to stop!” He was sore, but it really ruined what had promised to be a big night for the young driver. He was “the show” in the heats as he passed several cars as and was the only one of the top eight to transfer directly to the Main Event from his heat. My “long shot” Cody was chargin’ hard and doesn’t get the blame for this one as he drove fast, but within his abilities in this race. He is getting very exciting and some eyes open now when he hits the track. Rick Ziehl was an animal in the feature early as he battled for the top spot until something went away in the car. He was passed and re-passed several of the hot dogs up front until he slipped back to 13th at the end. The Wagtimes auction finally wrapped up with another $1500 added to the Wagsdash purse making the final total over $18,000 again. With the wrap-up of the final items up for bid, the extra money will go out as follows: $250 to Greg Bragg and $250 to the Pratt # 12 car, $500 to be drawn at the banquet for a car owner who supported the USAC/CRA club all year, plus $ 250 to the Wagtimes Most Popular Driver and $250 to the Wagtimes Best Appearing Car for 2004. The latter two will be announced in January prior to the season opener. The winner of the Pocket Rocket donated by Mike Kirby was E Paulsen and the unfinished quilt winner was Julie Shiosaki. My thanks to all who helped us close out the year on a positive note and 2005 for the Wagtimes efforts will be concentrated solely on the 15th annual Wagsdash. A very sad thing happened this past week as tragedy struck one of the longtime PAS employee’s, Joe Zelesky. His family was in a serious car crash that took several lives. The PAS had a special helmet pass thru the stands to help the “low buck” family and the crowd was very giving. Joe is a very nice young man and there will be an announcement soon on where others can contribute to help the mourning family out. One more sad note here from Dave Ondo, the long time and now former scorer for CRA and USAC, on his Grandpa’s passing. The memorial services will be held this coming Saturday, 11/27 in La Habra, California, for CRA/CJA car owner Joe Ondo jr., Green Hills Baptist Church, at 11:00 AM. (Imperial Hwy at Beach Blvd.) For info call 562-943-7291 Interesting weather this week that was similar to the Wagsdash at Ventura. You remember the story of how it rained, and the race was delayed, and the parking lot was a muddy mess, and we woke in the morning after an all night rain parked in a lake. Well the rain delayed the race at the PAS, but we got it in OK and everyone got out of the pits just fine. Unfortunately, the rain started heavily as I was putting the 1 am update on the webpage. As usual, we stayed the night to rest up and then deal with the drive home in the morning. The rain was so hard, and all night long, it kept me awake worrying about the dirt parking lot we were snoozing on. I knew what happens back there as the first night of the Ovals it was impossible to drive on it until the road grader bladed it. Morning came and it was a brown soupy mess outside everywhere and still pouring as I looked for the tractor driver to pull us out. Finding none, we slowly maneuvered thru the messy terrain for our escape. How slow? I estimate it took about 10 minutes to move the 100 feet from our parking spot to the gate out the parking lot that had some traction to plod out to the asphalt exit. You couldn’t tell the right path for the water that covered the mud. We made it and the rain cleaned the evidence off the motor home and trailer, so all is well, but it is a tad cooler today than yesterday and the skiers are licking their chops for the Thanksgiving trips they will make next week. We saw a lot of snow on cars as we went home. Reports of from 6 to 10 inches of snow falling just a few miles form the track were heard, so the season ended just in time. Now here comes the long, well, short winter break until the last weekend in January and the Copper World Weekend race at Manzy to open the year. It won’t be long! The teams now have to finish the planning and execution stage of the next season right now. Driver and equipment changes will be heard as the winter wonderland moves thru the holidays. In the meantime, I am blessed with the help I have received from Dick Jordan, USAC information guru, as he has “schooled” me on how to write in the USAC format for my continued growth for next year. I get my next lesson from Dick at Turkey night so will be there to enjoy the festivities. There are a few others responsible for this opportunity, as my life morphs into another phase with retirement looming within the next few years, and I get to do something I enjoy now. As the USAC/CRA club gets stronger, and hopefully without the split atmosphere of this season, racing will continue to be hot in 2005. I am thankful because I do love sprint car racing! Until next week, Ta Ta. FEATURE: (50 laps) 1. Rickie Gaunt, 2. Damion Gardner, 3. Cory Kruseman, 4. Tony Jones, 5. Mike Spencer, 6. Rip Williams, 7. Troy Rutherford, 8. Levi Jones, 9. Steve Ostling, 10. Jay Drake, 11. Dave Darland, 12. John Scott, 13. Rick Ziehl, 14. Brad Sweet, 15. Mike English, 16. Jordan Hermansader, 17. Rick Williams, 18. Danny Sheridan, 19. Charles Davis Jr., 20. Jon Stanbrough, 21. Mike Kirby, 22. Alan Ballard, 23. Bobby Cody. NT FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-3 Rick Williams, Laps 4-13 Kirby, Laps 14-39 Gaunt, Lap 40 Kruseman, Laps 41-50 Gaunt. FINAL VALVOLINE USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-Rip Williams-1,717; 2-Gardner-1,681; 3-Kirby-1,586; 4-Rutherford-1,108; 5-Kruseman-942; 6-Spencer-929; 7-Bragg-910; 8-Ostling-892; 9-T.Jones-851; 10-Cody-829. |
