PERRIS, CA, Oct. 28 - Tony Jones and Richard Griffin each
left the Perris Auto Speedway Saturday night with something to be proud of.
Jones for winning his third Sprint Car Racing Association (SCRA) main event of
the year and Griffin for clinching his third consecutive SCRA driving title.
Last night, Jones struggled with the setup on his new Avenger chassis. Starting
on the pole Friday, Jones was fortunate to finish eighth and gather the final
direct transfer into Saturday's A-Main. But the finale proved to be a tale
of two very different performances for Jones. Starting fourth, Jones showed
power when he needed to and finesse when he had to and gave the Avenger chassis
it's first ever SCRA win.
"I knew this Avenger chassis would come around. It was a little tough
getting it balanced properly, but we got it right tonight with a little hard
work," Jones said. "I talked to my dad (Bubby Jones) a couple of
times during the night and he's the master when it comes to setting these cars
up and over the years he's given me the knowledge I need to dial this car
in."
Adding to his single season record, Griffin won his tenth JE Pistons Dash of the
year to put the Ron Chaffin / Arizona Race Mart No. 50 Jon Boy on the pole for
the 30 lap feature. With his car owner Chaffin having already locked up an
amazing sixth straight SCRA owners title, Griffin accepted the green flag and
officially won his portion of the championship.
Although Griffin had the title in hand, Troy Rutherford, in the Jack Gardner,
Jr. / Beach Manufacturing No. 6 Sled, took control of the race leading the field
into the first turn. At the end of lap one, Rutherford was followed by
Griffin, Jones, Mike Kirby and the Sharon Jory / Vista Paint No. 3 Stinger
driven by Rip Williams.
Two nights of racing with nearly 100 cars taking to the track left it's mark on
the normally tacky Perris Auto Speedway and made the cushion the preferred line
come main event time. Griffin kept pace with Rutherford
in the early stages of the race and even took a shot at the lead using the low
line on a couple of occasions.
Rutherford approached lapped traffic for the first time on lap 14 with the next
six cars all running nose-to-tail behind him on the cushion. Even before this
juncture of the race, Rutherford's car appeared to be getting looser.
After the race, it was learned that he developed a bleeder valve problem on his
right rear tire.
One lap later, Griffin tried a classic low-to-high turn three slide job on
Rutherford but came up a little short and had to back-off. Jones may have
surprised Griffin on lap 17 when he moved the Gene Cowherd / GC Aero No. 48
ahead of the "Gasman" using the same turn three slider Griffin tried
on Rutherford. Two circuits later, Griffin tried to return the turn three
slide job favor, but Jones crossed-over beautifully in turn four and took back
the runner-up spot. The only yellow flag of the race came out before the
end of that same circuit for Lance Gremett who came to a stop with a flat tire.
Nothing changed among the leaders on the restart. But less than seven laps
from the finish Jones took advantage of Rutherford's handling woes and pulled
off another turn three slide job. Rutherford pinched his car back down to
the bottom of turn four hoping to regain the lead but couldn't find the
traction.
"You could see Rutherford was getting loose towards the end of the race.
I just had to capitalize on it," Jones said in victory lane. "I
was setting him up because I knew I was coming off of turn two better than him.
Turn three was really slick in the middle and that's what you need to throw a
good slide job. You don't get too many opportunities
out here with these guys and we took a few chances tonight and they all paid
off."
Despite the bleeder valve problem, Rutherford withstood Griffin's challenges and
hung on to the runner-up spot. Kirby finished fourth in the Brad &
Nancy Geurin / Statewide Towing No. 5 Stinger with Williams
###
RACE #39 - PERRIS AUTO SPEEDWAY
PERRIS, CA
Date of Race: 10/28/00
SCRA
DASH
1. Richard Griffin. 2. Troy Rutherford. 3. Jay Drake, 4. Tony Jones, 5. Mike
Kirby. 6. Rip Williams. 7. Rodney Argo. 8. Lance Gremett.
C FEATURE
1. Sid Carlson. 2. Rick Hinrichsen. 3. Steve Venard. 4. Jack DeArmond, Jr,. 5.
Dan Tedrick. 6. Frank Hanrahan. 7. Tony Everhart. 8. Arle Prins. 9. A.J. Burgin.
B FEATURE #1
1. Rickie Gaunt 2. Steve Ostling 3. Troy Cline 4. Jeremy
Sherman 5. Casey Shuman 6. Danny Sheridan 7. Tom Downing
8. George Gervais 9. Charles Davis, Jr. 10. Rick Becker 11.
Cal Smith 12. Jordan Hermansader 13. Tom Stansberry 14. Steve
Venard. 15. Sid Carlson 16. Dan Tedrick 17. Jarrett Chaney 18.
Brain Venard 19. Alex Grigoreas. 20. Michael Smith 21. Larry Brown
B FEATURE #2
1. Cory Kruseman 2. Adam Mitchell 3. Greg DeCaires 4. Ronnie
Clark 5. Kevin Doty 6. Bill Rose 7. Mike Boat 8. Bobby Marcum
9. Mike English 10. Jimmy May 11. J Hicks 12. Marc Hart
13. Verne Sweeney
14. Jark DeArmond, Jr. 15. Bob Ellis 16. Chris Rahe 17. Rick
Hinrichsen 18. Greg Taylor 19. Bobby Graham 20. John Scott
A FEATURE
1. Tony Jones. 2. Troy Rutherford. 3. Richard Griffin. 4. Mike Kirby. 5. Rip
Williams. 6. Jay Drake. 7. Cory Kruseman. 8. Rickie Gaunt. 9. Steve Ostling. 10.
Jeremy Sherman. 11. Troy Cline. 12. Rodney Argo. 13. Greg
DeCaires. 14. Adam Mitchell. 15. Kevin Doty, 16. Danny Sheridan, 17. Bill
Rose. 18. Ronnie Clark. 19. Casey Shuman. 20. Mike Boat. 21. Tom Downing.
22. Lance Gremett.
Laps Led: Rutherford 1-23, Jones 24-30
