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| Press Release |
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GARDNER & WILLIAMS GRAB SCRA WINS |
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PERRIS, CA, MARCH 29, 2003 - Like most sports, racing often times boils
down to a series of takeaways and giveaways. An observation that was
proven numerous times during the course of the two 30-lap NAPA / Auto Trader
Magazines Sprint Car Racing Association (SCRA) main events held Saturday at the
Perris Auto Speedway, where Damion Gardner and Rip Williams each grabbed their
first wins of the season. Twenty-eight days ago, Mike English won the JE Pistons Dash to earn the pole for the main event just before a rain shower hit the PAS. Even though the sky was now clear, heavy winds pounded the track throughout the day, making weather a factor once again. The opening lap saw, perhaps, the first example of the elements coming into play, when Adam Mitchell skated over the turn two cushion and spun off the banking directly into the path of Tony Jones, who subsequently flipped wildly along the backstraight. Jones was briefly shaken, but fortunately only his championship hopes were hurt. Jones did, however, receive the Hedman Hedders Hard Luck Award. Driving the Mark Priestley / Roy Miller Freightliners No. 7 Kunz, Troy Rutherford jumped into the lead from the outside of the front row on the restart. Four-time SCRA Champion Richard Griffin had an incredible opening lap, moving his Ron Chaffin / Arizona Race Mart No. 50 Jon Boy from sixth starting spot to second. One lap later, Griffin executed a perfect turn three slide-job to take the lead away from Rutherford. Once out front, Griffin controlled the pace, and had just reached lapped traffic for the first time on lap 12, when one of the slower cars slapped the turn three wall just as the car directly in front of him spun to a stop. Griffin avoided a mishap with the slower cars, but the same could not be said after the restart. Possibly feeling some pressure from Rutherford's run to the green flag, Griffin blasted his way into the first turn only to find himself behind the wheel of a 1300-pound bucking bronco. Bouncing his way through the turn, Griffin masterfully regained control of his sprinter, but not before he had given away the first five positions, including the top spot to Rutherford. Rutherford reached lapped traffic on lap 22 with the Harlan Willis / TCR Performance No. 45 driven by Gardner breathing down his neck. Gardner appeared to be slightly faster, but Rutherford kept reaching slower cars at places on the racetrack where it was easier to overtake them. All of Rutherford's flawless work through lapped traffic proved to be academic after the yellow flag waved for Rodney Argo, who lost a motor two laps from the finish. In just his fifth main event start with the Willis Team, Gardner took the lead from Rutherford entering turn one on the restart. Rutherford bicycled one lap later entering the same turn. Even though he did a superb job avoiding a flip, Rutherford inadvertently donated second and third place money to the Fischer Motorsports /Stress Relief Engineering Team driven by Steve Ostling and to English's Sharon Jory / Tomarco Fastners Team. Rickie Gaunt was credited with fifth. "We were just riding around trying to make the least amount of mistakes we could, and hoping that he would make more mistakes than we were making," Gardner said after winning the 350th main event in SCRA history. "I tried a few things that didn't really work. I reeled him back in, but I still had to get by him. It's hard to say if I would have gotten by him without the restart, but we got a little bit of a run on that restart and was able to slide up in front of him." Some three hours later, English also held the pole for the second main event of the evening. Outside front row starter Adam Mitchell beat English to the first turn and went on to lead his first career main event laps. Levi Jones started the race in fourth with Rip Williams to his inside. With eighth place starter Griffin following him through every pass, Jones passed English for second place on the second circuit. Two laps later, the duo of Jones and Griffin used the bottom of turn four to move ahead of Mitchell. Having already passed his teammate English, Williams slipped his Stinger Chassis ahead of Griffin on the eighth lap. Williams took his first shot at the lead on lap 12, but all he got for his effort was a slight tire rub with Jones. Like the 26-year veteran he is, Williams kept the pressure on Jones from the time he reached lap traffic. Showing the promise of a young star in the making, Jones never put his Carol Crossno / ITI Performance No. 38 Twister off the racing line at any point during the race. The red flag flew on lap 25 after Bobby Cody tangled with rookie Alan Ballard and flipped. Cody was not hurt. Jones' quest for his first SCRA win took a dramatic turn on the restart after he suddenly slowed coming down to accept the green flag. Blaming himself for handing the first position to Williams and the second position to Gardner, Jones later said that he "locked the engine up" on the restart. Uncharacteristically generous as well, Williams missed his mark in turn three on lap 29 allowing Gardner to slip ahead of him before they passed beneath the white flag. Carrying too much speed into turn one, Gardner lost his chance for his second win of the night, after the slid too far sideways and over the bottom groove in turn one. As Williams drove past him for his 59th career SCRA win, Gardner somehow managed to avoid spinning to a stop and would finish in sixth behind Griffin, Jones, Rutherford and English. "We were anticipating that the track would take rubber, so we set the car up to run through rubber. We fell back at first because the car was pretty loose," Williams said. "Levi pretty much had the thing won, it was just unfortunate for him that he left the door open for me." Rookie Josh Ford won the KSE Products Hard Charger Award with his 17th to 10th place drive in the first main event. Rutherford's 13th to fourth in the second race won him the Hard Charger Award for that race and preserved his streak of being the only driver to finish in the top-five in every SCRA race this season. SCRA RACE #5 - PERRIS AUTO SPEEDWAY, PERRIS, CA Date of Race: 03/29/03 SANDER ENGINEERING TIME TRIALS 1. Richard Griffin, Silver City NM, Chaffin 50, 16.702 2. Damion Gardner, Concord CA, Willis 45 , 16,912 3. Rip Williams, Yorba Linda CA, Jory 3 , 16.922 4. Steve Ostling, Corona CA, Fischer Mtrspts 29, 16.993 5. Adam Mitchell, Escondido CA, Mitchell 99 , 16.999 6. Mike English, Norwalk CA, Jory 6, 17.042 7. Rodney Argo, El Segundo CA, Argo 19, 17.121 8. Verne Sweeney, Lomita CA, Sweeney 98 , 17.137 9. Rickie Gaunt, Torrance CA, Alexander 4, 17.183 10. Seth Wilson, (R) San Clemente CA, Racing Optics 17 , 17.248 11. Bryan Stanfill, (R) Bakersfield CA, Lancaster 14, 17.259 12. Levi Jones, Olney IL, Crossno 38, 17.263 13. Marc Hart, Ventura CA, Hart 15, 17.266 14. Tracy Hines, Greenfield IN, Morales 27, 17.363 15. Lance Gremett, San Marcos CA, Gremett 85, 17.367 16. Troy Rutherford, Ojai CA, Priestley 7, 17.375 17. Brian Venard, Irvine CA, Venard. 47, 17.378 18. Cory Kruseman, Ventura CA, Witherill 61, 17.431 19. Dan Hillberg, Whittier CA, Hillberg 82, 17.515 20. Tony Jones, Garden Grove CA, Vermeer 2, 17.538 21. Mike Spencer, Temecula CA, Engstrom 44, 17.594 22. Mel Murphy, Riverside CA, Murphy 62, 17.689 23. Trevor Brilman, (R) Las Vegas NV, Element Mtrspts 10, 17.733 24. Alan Ballard, (R) Bakersfield CA, Ballard 97, 17.780 25. Jimmy Crawford, (R) Ventura CA, Ruth 25, 17.783 26. Ronnie Clark, Tucson AZ, Clark 33, 17.803 27. Josh Ford, (R) Camarillo CA, Willis/Ford 54, 17.823 28. Cal Smith, Montclair CA, Pratt 39, 18.159 29. Alex Pruett, (R) Carefree AZ, Pruett 56AZ, 18.370 30. Kevin Urton, Elk Grove CA, Urton 51, 18.513 31. A.J. Reyer, (R) San Diego CA, Burton 31, 18.520 32. Jimmy Voitel, Covina CA, Pratt 12, 18.528 33. Bobby Cody, Costa Mesa CA, Cody Racing 41, 18.536 34. Tom Wilhelm, (R) Temecula CA, Girgich 64, 18.592 35. Bob Ferro, Sherman Oaks CA, Ferro 91, 19.308 36. Mark Heidenreich, Upland CA, Heidenreich 22 , 19.348 37. Bill Goforth, Apple Valley CA, Goforth 56, 19.368 38. Jack DeArmond, Jr., Corona CA, DeArmond, Jr. 24, No Time A FEATURE (Postponed 30-lap Main Event from 3/1/03) 1. Damion Gardner. 2, Steve Ostling. 3. Mike English. 4. Troy Rutherford, 5, Rickie Gaunt, 6. Richard Griffin. 7. Rip Williams. 8. Levi Jones. 9. Mike Spencer. 10. Josh Ford. 11. Lance Gremett. 12, Verne Sweeney. 13. Seth Wilson. 14. Alan Ballard. 15. A.J. Reyer. 16. Rodney Argo. 17. Trevor Brilman. 18. Cory Kruseman, 19. Alex Pruett. 20. Adam Mitchell. 21. Dan Hillberg, 22. Tony Jones. Laps Led: Rutherford 1, Griffin 2-11, Rutherford 12-27, Gardner 28-30 SO-CAL PERFORMANCE HEAT 1 1. Mike Spencer, 2. Richard Griffin, 3. Brian Venard, 4. Adam Mitchell, 5. Rickie Gaunt, 6. Marc Hart, 7. Bobby Cody, 8. Jimmy Crawford, 9. Alex Pruett, SHAVER ENGINES HEAT 2 1. Cory Kruseman, 2. Damion Gardner, 3. Tracy Hines, 4. Mike English, 5. Ronnie Clark, 6. Mel Murphy, 7. Kevin Urton, 8. Tom Wilhelm, 9. Seth Wilson, SPIN TECH MUFFLER HEAT 3 1. Rip Williams, 2. Bryan Stanfill, 3. A.J. Reyer, 4. Dan Hillberg, 5. Bob Ferro, 6. Lance Gremett, 7. Josh Ford, STINGER CHASSIS HEAT 4 1. Levi Jones, 2. Troy Rutherford, 3. Steve Ostling, 4. Alan Ballard, 5. Jimmy Voitel, 6. Bill Goforth, 7. Verne Sweeney, 8. Cal Smith, 9. Mark Heidenreich, JE PISTONS DASH 1. Mike English, 2. Adam Mitchell. 3. Rip Williams. 4. Levi Jones, 5. Bryan Stanfill. 6. Steve Ostling. 7. Damion Gardner. 8. Richard Griffin, SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS B FEATURE 1. Rickie Gaunt. 2. Lance Gremett. 3. Jimmy Crawford. 4. Seth Wilson, S. Josh Ford. 6. Bobby Cody. 7. Cal Smith. 8. Kevin Urton. 9. Verne Sweeney. 10. Mark Heidenreich. 11. Bob Ferro. 12, Tom Wilhelm. 13, Marc Hart. 14. Trevor Brilman. 15. Ronnie Clark. 16. Mel Murphy. 17, Alex Pruett. 18, Jimmy Voltel. 19. Bill Goforth. A FEATURE (30-Laps) 1. Rip Williams. 2. Richard Griffin. 3. Levi Jones. 4. Troy Rutherford. 5. Mike English. 6. Damion Gardner. 7. Steve Ostling, 8. Cory Kruseman. 9. Bryan Stanfill. 10. Rickic Gaunt. 11. Mike Spencer. 12, Seth Wilson. 13. Jimmy Crawford. 14. Josh Ford. 15. Brian Venard. 16. Tracy Hines. 17. Bobby Cody. 18. Alan Ballard. 19. A.J. Reyer, 20. Lance Gremett, 21. Dan Hillberg, 22. Adam Mitchell. Laps Led: Mitchell 1-3, L. Jones 4-24, Williams 25-28, Gardner 29, Williams 30 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CAR NAME HOMETOWN STARTS POINTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 7 Troy Rutherford Ojai CA 5 316 2. 50 Richard Griffin Silver City NM 5 308 3. 45 Damion Gardner Concord CA 5 247 4. 3 Rip Williams Yorba Linda CA 5 243 5. 6 Mike English Norwalk CA 5 239 6. 4 Rickie Gaunt Torrance CA 5 201 7. 38 Levi Jones Olney IL 5 201 8. 44 Mike Spencer Temecula CA 5 196 9. 29 Steve Ostling Corona CA 5 193 10. 2 Tony Jones Garden Grove CA 5 171 11. 61 Cory Kruseman Ventura CA 5 160 12. 99 Adam Mitchell Escondido CA 5 136 13. 14AZ Jerry Coons, Jr Tucson AZ 3 135 14. 85 Lance Gremett San Marcos CA 5 127 15. 27 Tracy Hines Greenfield IN 3 121 16. 98 Verne Sweeney Lomita CA 5 118 17. 21 Jeremy Sherman Phoenix AZ 2 117 18. 94 Charles Davis, Jr Buckeye AZ 4 107 19. 2A J.J. Yeley Phoenix AZ 2 99 20. 8 Bob Ream Jr Glendale AZ 2 93 |
