May 10, 2008 --- There is always a rule when you go to Perris at
night, bring a jacket! The warm day time weather fooled many to
leave their jackets in the car on a night that the breezes sent them
scurrying for warm cover as the night unfolded. And on this night
the talented CRA field was overwhelmed by Danny “Showtime”
Sheridan. Danny made the Kittle Kar look like a blue blur as he
started 13th in the 23 car main event field and quickly worked his
way towards the front as he was the fastest car on the track. A red
flag bucket loading experience allowed crew chiefs to adjust before
the last few laps were run. Now with Danny following David Cardey
and the leader Garrett Hansen on the restart, Showtime lived
up to his nickname by putting a very slick “Showtime Slider” on
both cars in front of him and pulled away to a rousing win.
Wags pics Click here.
Doug Allen's good stuff click
here.
It was Danny’s 5th CRA win and second this season as he made up
for a 5th place heat race finish, that was helped with someone
else’s slider, with a runaway Semi win with him no doubt a little
hot under the collar. Perhaps that quick 12 laps on the track was
telling for the crew to make the Kittle Kar ready for the main, and
they sure did. Danny will be spending Mother’s day at Disneyland!!
Hardly!
DynOmite David Cardey put on a show of his own this week
as he chased down the early leader Hansen in spite of some unusual
hopping moves thru the 1st turn corner many times around oval laps.
Nevertheless, he still was third when Danny went by and so he took
his own move into second for a great finish. He looks like he is
about to spring for another win for himself, and soon.
Garrett Hansen looked like he had his second win of his
young career until Danny got by late in the race, but he was sharp
as he lead 19 laps after getting by early leader Alex Schutte
on lap 8. Driving his own car again this week, the Mark Priestley
led crew got the #7 car flying and he is showing off some heady
driving. The nice thing about youth is when they mature, hang on and
watch.
As always there were some neat stuff behind the scenes of this
race. Austin Williams is still running second fiddle to his brother
Cody and you can see he is “very anxious” to get in one of these
410’s of his own! He busied himself by catching a yard long garden
snake in the pits and showed it around early in the afternoon. He
plays football at Eldorado High School in Orange County and drives a
Focus midget when time permits.
The Ron Chaffin race team showed up with a new tall trailer this
week and inside was very nice with red the accent color on the
cabinets. The new truck will be along soon, but they sold the old
trailer to someone who owns an old Bromme car. Hmmm, the car should
be right at home in that trailer.
Hard luck this week jumped on many and started with Tony
Everhart who never got his car out racing. Henry Clarke
had one of those maddening moments when he crashed going down the
back stretch in the main event and got his # 41 KDK, Kruseman
Development Kar, hung up on the top cable of the catch fence on the
third turn wall. The bucket loader came in handy as they pulled it
off the cable and delivered it to the Kruseman pit. Cory Kruseman
had a rear-end break while he was trying to move up in the main, and
he was done early, but still leads Mike Spencer in the points
by 22. Mike finished 5th in the little red sucker.
Brian Venard returned to the dirt wars in the green # 12
this week and made the main, but it went downhill from there as he
lost power in the green machine and got hit from behind, The fuel
cell ruptured upon impact and spew fuel down the back stretch. He
was the first car out. The car owner, Don Blair, has been having
some health issues and is unable to get on his feet to go racing,
but hopefully time will heal him and get him back out there soon.
Tod Hunsaker had perhaps his best outing happening this
week as he was very racy in his heat and looked good early in the
main, until ………. the motor took a dump! Too bad Wagsbucks
isn’t still happening weekly because there were many possible hard
lucker’s this week. The Ralphie section at Perris is collecting
money for the first car that misses the main from the semi. Hmmmmm,
sounds familiar, doesn’t it? That was exactly the way the
Wagsbucks started some nearly 20 years ago. Good going Ralphie, they
need the help.
Josh Ford looked very racy this week and was pressing the
leader, when IT happened. His car got over the cushion and popped
straight at the first turn wall, where he whacked it, got upside
down and was done for the night after returning in the semi and
missing the transfer. I didn’t see it, but J J Ercsegot on
his head in his heat and the red # 84 car was done!
On the positive side, Tony Jones ran a strong 4th this
week just ahead of Seth Wilson who got his highest finish in
a while, a fifth place run. It must be the black car. The War Wagon
must be gone with the black wagon replacing it. Cody Williams
is starting to get some strong followings in the stands. This week
he was running fifth in his heat when he made one of his dad’s
moves, a low charge into turn one, and sliding up into the last
transfer to the main where he ran 15th. Eric Severson is
wringing out the Lee Leonard owned # 48. This car has been around a
while and was last driven by Bobby Michnowicz according to my
recollection. He ran fourth in his heat and 16th in the main event. Alex
Schutte flirted with the win for 7 laps before he gave it up
this week, looking strong running up front.
Next race is two weeks away at the PAS followed by Tulare the
next night. In the meantime, who knows where I’ll be, maybe home
reading a book.
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Danny Sheridan, 2. David Cardey, 3. Garrett
Hansen, 4. Tony Jones, 5. Seth Wilson, 6. Mike Spencer, 7. Blake
Miller, 8. Shane Golobic, 9. Alan Ballard, 10. Rodney Argo, 11.
Tyler Brown, 12. Alex Schutte, 13. Davey Pombo, 14. J Hicks, 15.
Cody Williams, 16. Eric Severson, 17. Luis Espinoza, 18. Jordan
Hermansader, 19. Royal Adderson, 20. Henry Clarke, 21. Cory
Kruseman, 22. Todd Hunsaker, 23. Brian Venard. NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-7 Schutte, Laps 8-26 Hansen, Laps
27-30 Sheridan.
NEW USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1-Kruseman-591; 2-Spencer-569;
3-Miller-522; 4-Hansen-496; 5-Sheridan-493; 6-Brown-393; 7-Levi
Jones-350; 8-Tony Jones-349; 9-Cardey-319; 10-Ford-308.
NEXT USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR RACE: May 24 – Perris (CA) Auto
Speedway
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