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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
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THE COWBOY LASSOES HIS LAST WIN AT THE 1ST ANNUAL GLENN HOWARD MEMORIAL THIS WEEK. by Ken Wagner |
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THE YEAR ENDS AFTER THANKSGIVING FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 15 YEARS |
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November 29, 2008 --- Picture
this storybook ending that couldn’t have been scripted any better,
even if I had made it up myself: “ Tony Jones” rides off
into the sunset on his trusty silver steed, after lassoing his 35th
and final CRA win of his career. “The Cowboy” leaves with a tear
in his eye and a smile on his face, plus $11,000 in his hands. And
next we see the words THE END rolling across the screen. That’s
where it all ends, but it sure didn’t start there. Mrs
Wags pics Click
here
and Wags Click here. And Doug Allen Click here. This
Cowboy had already said the retirement party started tonight
as he arrived with hopes of closing the year out with a big win. He
started this night of a perfect ending to his 16 year career with
15th quick on the clocks. He was fourth in his heat and
miraculously, who wrote this unbelievable crap, started on the pole
of the main event. From there he ran away from the field after each
and every red flag stop, and ended up on the podium, after brushing
off the Demon Damion Gardner who fought to get in position to
challenge the winner the very last lap. Tony
Jones
leaves a lot of faithful friends, sponsors, fans and yes, even this
reporter in his wake as he announced his retirement last week to the
surprised, shocked and unbelieving news seekers who supported him.
When the good ones retire, it hurts the “racing family” for a
while, not that it isn’t his prerogative to do what he damn well
pleases, but still those shoes eventually get filled, hopefully. You
can’t manufacture the excitement that he, and those heroes before
him who set the bar so high, has given us. Revered names like his
dad Bubby Jones, Lealand McSpadden, Richard Griffin and many more
icons that showcased performances that will live in our minds
forever. Tony leaves us with some of those magic moments to savor as
well. Tony
will be remembered for his old style driving, elbows up and gas
pedal to the floor, that was often unmatched by his peers. He was a
winner whose career went up and down over the years, but never did
he lose focus on his goal of driving the wheels off his ride. He did
it to the very end, culminating with a victory over a stout field
one more time, and he made that last fence climbing experience tough
to watch. You can’t replace the real heroes, you just hope a new
one comes along to fill the huge gap. Tony went out with six wins
this season. This year the team didn’t travel far from the CRA
home track at Perris. Tony retires at age 38, still with his skills
at the top of his abilities. Good luck to the man who has won every
special race with CRA including the Oval Nationals, the Kindoll
Classic, the 4th of July race, the Sokola Classic and now the 1st
annual Glenn Howard Memorial. Good luck my friend, but not goodbye. I
remember plenty about Tony over the years that stand out in my mind.
Like the first time I met him when he crashed Larry Henry’s car at
El Centro and then received the Wagsbucks. Or one night at Perris
when he destroyed the red # 48 and stood in his pits afterward
swearing he was all right, but he wasn’t. Maybe the crash last
year that hurt the car real bad, but he returned that night to run
7th or something. Winning the Oval Nationals on a last lap pass that
ruined the night for the driver he passed who had dominated to that
point. Winning his 2007 CRA championship was fun to watch as it
unfolded for him and his stellar team. I remember the warm
handshakes when he gave himself and the feeling he was my friend for
the moment. My memories of Tony’s career will pale compared to
what he will cherish of this life he leaves. The last thing I’ll
remember about Tony is a portrait of his wife Tammy, son Grady and
himself walking off in the sunset with a smile and a tear looking
back at what has been one of the most amazing rides into history.
That’s The Cowboy, it says it all. Tony
Jones wasn’t the only story of the night, just the biggest. It is
my first recollection of a race after thanksgiving since a certain
El Centro Wagsdash weekend of 1994 when the Wagtimers couldn’t
find a pumpkin pie for our celebration. When Steve Howard’s father
Glenn passed away last year, there was serious mourning in the
racing fraternity for what was taken from us. Glenn, the ever tunnel
visioned person who always kept his eye on the racing world he led,
did so much for so many that it was a tragedy for our sport when he
left us last October with unfinished business. He left too soon with
our hopes of the club we once had and now Steve has to go it alone.
Steve quietly collected over $38,000 to add to the purse for this
great event in memory of his father, all for the racers. Kind of
sounds like a Wagsbucks thing, but it’s not. He was on a mission
to make a special night for the racers to honor his father. With
Glenn smiling over the scene on Saturday night, the money was spread
around. There was lap money for the top 3 positions in the feature.
Tony led all 30 laps and got a bonus of nearly $6,000 to go with the
winner’s $5000 share, of which $2500 was added by Steve’s
efforts. There was extra money for heat winners and more as the
racers had one of their best paydays for a “regular” race in
history. Congratulations to Steve, a job well done and I hope every
racer gave him thanks personally. Damion
Gardner
continues to earn kudos for his always improving driving. He has
added something to our scene from the moment he appeared a few years
ago with a silver and green racer without a wing for the first time.
After he ran in one particular SCRA trophy dash against the likes of
Cory Kruseman and Richard Griffin, and where he passed
them both more than once to win, Cory had a great line when
interviewed afterwards. Cory just said “he can’t do that for 30
laps, can he?” Priceless, but that is the way the Demon has been,
lightning in a driver’s suit. After winning the CRA championship 3
years ago he headed to Indiana where the tracks are like slick
black, and the youngsters run amok on them. He hasn’t taken over
there, yet, but is ready to make the Demon charge next year. Coming
home to California has been good for Damion as he won the last two
regular Perris races by outdriving the field each time. This race
was no different for him except he couldn’t catch up to the Cowboy
to mount a serious threat in the 30 lap year ending classic. He won
the traditional three lap trophy dash, ran third in his heat before
starting 8th on the main event grid. He had his hands full with his
Pace sponsored Beast car, but still managed to roll by everyone to
get into 2nd place. He was the only big name traveler who showed up
for the cash, (there were 7 others and Shane Cottle did the
best in 10th) and performed well this night, as he looks forward to
next season back in Indiana. The
Ripper Rip Williams had a lot on his mind this night, yet he
was able to start 2nd on the grid in the main and come home third
with a strong run in his new Maxim chassied car. He had his two sons
running this week, but the more experienced Cadillac Cody
finished ahead of his brother Awesome Austin in their heat
and transferred on to the main where he was a creditable 13th.
Austin ran 5th in his heat and 13th in the semi in his debut with
CRA. Does this mean we will see three of the black Jory cars next
year? Anyway, dad did very well and they all have a short winter to
ponder next season. Austin graduates in the spring, so here we go
and I don’t hear anything about retirement from the senior member
of this racing trio. Note here, Austin was fifth at
Victorville on Sunday. Ronnie Gardner was 6th as the two
rookie must have done well. Tyler
Brown
led the Gardner clan this week with a 4th place spot after battling
30 laps of people trying to pass him. Teammate Blake Miller ran 6th
as he protected his 2nd place overall finish in CRA this year by 10
points over a hopeful Danny Sheridan. “Showtime”
didn’t have any luck in this one after passing Ripper for second,
but going back because of a yellow, and then getting speared by
another car which broke some ladder or something, but he managed to
limp home in 5th place with a solid year under his belt. The
race could have had some more excitement after the suspense to see
if Tony could hold onto the win with so many restarts. Way too many
red and yellow flags sucked some of the air out of this one, but
what could be better, we were still racing. Glenn would have been
proud. Man
if I had all the Wagsbucks in the world this week, it wouldn’t
have been enough. It all started with a helicopter spin by one of
Glenn Crossno’s cars as “Casey Shuman did not get on his
head, but made several fast spins in his qualifying attempt and
caused some severe rebuild efforts for that team. The champion Mike
Spencer then got on his head hard and earned some free bolt-on
pieces from Steve Howards collection of adds to the purse. In the C
main Brein Kinney did a fantastic wheel stand coming around
turn three that went awry and he got bounced on his head. It
wasn’t done yet when the fourth heat started and Alan Ballard
put a slider on Chad Boat that looked like he made it, but
aybe not as Chad caught his wheel on the yellow and green car and
went sideways into a nasty looking flip against the wall. He was
fine, but anxious to go visit Alan. Not long after the restart Alan
was hard on the gas when a car in front of him pushed and slid up in
front of him enough that he launched himself up and over into his
own wall banging incident. Hard racing sometime does this and Alan
is a hard charger, he just didn’t get anything for his efforts
this week. Alan has been really doing well in Ray Stansberry’s car
this year. There
was much, much more to come as the feature began its stop and go
antics. First out was young Nic Faas who looks like he will
be running in Indiana next year. He got into the wall in turn four
and I don’t know if he got help or not, but it wasn’t bad as
crashes go. Then Wild man Rodney Argo who lived up to his
nickname in the fast Don Argo owned Ford powered car when he went
flying wild into the second turn wall in what looked real nasty. He
was OK and again, I don’t know if he got help here, but he seems
to find other cars like a heat seeking missile sometimes, and there
appeared to be contact with another not local black car. Next up to
the “on your head in the Glenn Howard Memorial Classic” was nice
guy Dave Darland. Dave can drive the wheels off these cars
and this time he got em’ in the air when he stopped. He was fine,
the Josh FordTeam car ….. was not. Henry Clarke and
another car had some screeching argument on the back stretch when he
went on his head. Tony Jones must have been getting impatient
by now as it was still early in the race. That was the end of the
high flyers, but a few more bumps and grinds until 30 laps finally
ended. Another
great year of racing interrupted by economy problems leads us to
this point, and what about next year? It’s full speed ahead for
some and let’s think about it for others as the schedule starts
coming together. Already we know the CRA season opens with the
Copper World event at Manzy on February 20/21, followed by a
Wednesday night visit to my area at the Las Vegas Speedway. Then the
Perris opener comes the following Saturday, but for the working man,
I’ll probably be quite alone in Vegas as people aren’t likely to
give up a week of vacation for this 4 races in 9 days over a near
1000 mile triangle, but fans are more likely to hit both weekends.
The Banquet is Jan 24th, I think, so smoke em’ if you got em’??????
Now
starts my B-ball winter as four high school tourneys in So Cal are
calling this week. I look forward to the Chili Bowl and a few B-ball
games back there too. Thanks to everyone who made my year the best.
Hope next year is even better. Happy holiday’s, that’s Merry
Xmas to the real people. I’ll do a little synopsis over the winter
and maybe even predict something. Ta Ta. 11/29/08
FEATURE: (30 laps - With Starting Positions) 1. Tony Jones (1st), 2.
Damion Gardner (8th), 3. Rip Williams (2nd), 4. Tyler Brown (5th),
5. Danny Sheridan (4th), 6. Blake Miller (9th), 7. Cory Kruseman
(11th), 8. Jordan Hermansader (12th), 9. Josh Ford (14th), 10. Shane
Cottle (18th), 11. Greg Bragg (22nd), 12. David Cardey (17th), 13.
Cody Williams (20th), 14. Mike Spencer (23rd), 15. Jesse Hockett
(7th), 16. R.J. Johnson (21st), 17. Alex Schutte (3rd), 18. Bill
Rose (19th), 19. Eric Severson (16th), 20. Dave Darland (13th), 21.
Henry Clarke (15th), 22. Casey Shuman (24th), 23. Rodney Argo (6th),
24. Nic Faas (10th). NT. FINAL
LUCAS OIL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1- Mike Spencer-1,597; 2-
Blake Miller-1,532; 3- Danny Sheridan-1,522; 4- Tony Jones-1,225; 5-
Tyler Brown-1,149; 6- David Cardey-1,066; 7- Garrett Hansen-1,039;
8- Cory Kruseman-995; 9- Josh Ford-882; 10- Nic Faas-676 |
