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GARDNER WIRE-TO-WIRE IN PERRIS RUN |
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PERRIS, CA, APRIL 12, 2003 - Damion Gardner took the lead on the opening lap and
went on to lead all 30-laps of Saturday's NAPA Auto Parts / Auto Trader
Magazines Sprint Car Racing Association (SCRA) main event at the Perris Auto
Speedway. The win marked the third time in the last four feature races
that Gardner has driven the Harlan Willis / TCR Performance #45 to victory. "We were good enough to win, but we want to be better. We're always searching for perfection. We'll probably never find it, but we're going to keep working at it," Gardner said after his seventh career SCRA win. "Tonight, we had to keep our elbows up and be good in traffic because (Steve) Ostling showed us a nose early. Some of our wins this year have been pretty hard-fought, and if you can win the hard-fought race we'll get some of those easy ones too." After winning the JE Pistons Dash, Gardner started on the pole with Rip Williams to his outside. Gardner and Williams raced even into turn one at the start, before Gardner pulled ahead exiting turn two. Adam Mitchell moved ahead of Richard Griffin for third on the opening lap with Troy Rutherford occupying the fifth spot in the Mark Priestley / Roy Miller Freightliners #7 Kunz. As the evening's racing progressed, a batch of ruts developed entering turn one. Like most of the drivers running up front, Williams knew the fastest way through turn one was right through the middle of those ruts. Unfortunately for Williams, he hooked one of them on lap three and flipped. Williams was not hurt and received the Hedman Hedders Hard Luck Award. "I think the holes were giving everybody a hard time," Gardner later said. "We were doing the best we could getting through them. I don't know how everyone else was getting through 'em, but we tried a lot of different things and I guess it was good enough." Ostling started fifth, only to fall to seventh on the first lap. Quickly regrouping, Ostling passed Griffin on the restart to move the Fischer Motorsports / Stress Relief Engineering #29 Okie into third. The action was halted on lap six after Lance Gremett suffered a similar fate as Williams, and flipped in turn one. Gremett was not injured. Now up to second place, Ostling showed Gardner a wheel exiting turn four on lap eleven. Seeing Ostling seemed to light a fire under Gardner and he immediately responded by pulling away. Equally as determined in lapped traffic, Gardner reached his first back-marker on lap 16 and went on to further extend his lead. With the exception of Gardner dominating the top spot, the fans were treated to some tremendous racing throughout the rest of the field. That is, until lap 26 when Gardner slipped-up in turn four and nearly spun. Even though he bogged-down the motor, Gardner managed to get up to speed just in time to keep an opportunistic Ostling behind him. One lap later, Mike English brought out the final red flag on the night after he made contact with another car and flipped in turn four. English was not hurt. Making it look easy, Gardner got a great jump on the restart and completed the remaining three circuits without a challenge from Ostling. Griffin finished third in the Ron Chaffin / Arizona Race Mart #50 Jon Boy ahead of Rutherford, who has now finished fourth in five consecutive races. Driving the Electro Tech Powder Coating #99 Avenger, Mitchell scored his third career SCRA top-finish nipping Levi Jones at the line. Jones, who started 13th, won the KSE Products Hard Charger Award with his sixth place finish. SCRA RACE #7 - PERRIS AUTO SPEEDWAY, PERRIS, CA Date of Race: 04/12/03 SANDER ENGINEERING TIME TRIALS 1. Steve Ostling, Corona CA, Fischer Mtrspts 29, 16.904 2. Adam Mitchell, Escondido CA, Mitchell 99, 17.095 3. Troy Rutherford, Ojai CA, Priestley 7, 17.181 4. Richard Griffin, Silver City NM, Chaffin 50, 17.260 5. Damion Gardner, Concord CA, Willis 45, 17.276 6. Rip Williams, Yorba Linda CA, Jory 3, 17.388 7. Mike Spencer, Temecula CA, Engstrom 44, 17.405 8. Lance Gremett, San Marcos CA, Gremett 85, 17.409 9. Jimmy Crawford, (R) Ventura CA, Ruth 25, 17.411 10. Verne Sweeney, Lomita CA, Sweeney 98, 17.438 11. Tony Jones, Garden Grove CA, Vermeer 2, 17.440 12. Brian Venard, Irvine CA, Venard. 47, 17.457 13. Levi Jones, Olney IL, Crossno 38, 17.472 14. Cory Kruseman, Ventura CA, Witherill 61, 17.555 15. Mike English, Norwalk CA, Jory 6, 17.603 16. Marc Hart, Ventura CA, Hart 15, 17.618 17. Rodney Argo, El Segundo CA.,Argo 19, 17.622 18. Kevin Urton, Elk Grove CA, Urton 51, 17.642 19. Bryan Stanfill, (R) Bakersfield CA, Lancaster 14 , 17.772 20. Mark Heidenreich, Upland CA, Heidenreich 22, 17.785 21. Rickie Gaunt, Torrance CA, Alexander 4, 17.788 22. Seth Wilson, (R) San Clemente CA, Racing Optics 17, 17.795 23. Gary W. Howard, Fontana CA, Becker 67, 17.904 24. Steve Venard, Silverado CA, Glover 49, 17.925 25. Josh Ford, (R) Camarillo CA, Willis/Ford 54, 17.955 26. Bobby Cody, Costa Mesa CA, Cody Racing 41, 18.023 27. Mike Kirby, Torrance CA, Shoemaker 0, 18.045 28. Ron DiDonato, Mission Viejo CA, DiDonato 57, 18.080 29. Nicholas Lima, (R) Industry CA, Lima 30, 18.282 30. Keith Williamson, Pomona CA, Williamson 95, 18.353 31. Alan Ballard, (R) Bakersfield CA, Ballard 97, 18.500 32. Jimmy Voitel, Covina CA, Pratt 12, 18.511 33. Mel Murphy, Riverside CA, Murphy 62, 18.520 34. Cal Smith, Montclair CA, Pratt. 39 , 18.570 35. Bob Ferro, Sherman Oaks CA.,Ferro 91, 18.888 36. Tony Everhart, El Cajon CA, Everhart 55, 19.042 37. Trevor Brilman, (R) Las Vegas NV, Element Mtrspts.10, No Time 38. Alex Pruett, (R) Carefree AZ, Pruett 56AZ, No Time SO-CAL PERFORMANCE HEAT 1 1. Rickie Gaunt, 2. Rodney Argo, 3. Damion Gardner, 4. Steve Ostling, 5. Levi Jones, 6. Josh Ford, 7. Jimmy Crawford, 8. Cal Smith, 9. Nicholas Lima, SHAVER ENGINES HEAT 2 1. Rip Williams, 2. Cory Kruseman, 3. Adam Mitchell, 4. Bobby Cody, 5. Alan Ballard, 6. Verne Sweeney, 7. Seth Wilson, 8. Kevin Urton, 9. Bob Ferro, SPIN TECH MUFFLERS HEAT 3 1. Mike English, 2. Gary W. Howard, 3. Mike Spencer, 4. Troy Rutherford, 5. Tony Everhart, 6. Tony Jones, 7. Mike Kirby, 8. Jimmy Voitel, 9. Bryan Stanfill, STINGER CHASSIS HEAT 4 1. Richard Griffin, 2. Lance Gremett, 3. Marc Hart, 4. Brian Venard, 5. Ron DiDonato, 6. Steve Venard, 7. Mel Murphy, 8. Mark Heidenreich, JE PISTONS DASH 1. Damion Gardner. 2. Rip Williams. 3. Troy Rutherford. 4. Richard Griffin. 5. Steve Ostling. 6. Adam Mitchell. 7. Lance Gremett. 8. Mike Spencer. SIMPSON B FEATURE 1. Tony Jones. 2. Jimmy Crawford. 3. Levi Jones. 4. Verne Sweeney. 5. Mark Heidenreich. 6. Ron DiDonato. 7. Alan Ballard. 8. Cal Smith. 9. Mel Murphy. 10. Tony Everhart. 11. Bob Ferro. 12. Steve Venard. 13. Bryan Stanfill. 14. Josh Ford. 15. Seth Wilson. 16. Nicholas Lima. 17. Mike Kirby. 18. Jimmy Voitel. A FEATURE (30 Laps) 1. Damion Gardner. 2. Steve Ostling. 3. Richard Griffin, 4. Troy Rutherford. 5. Adam Mitchell. 6. Levi Jones. 7. Cory Kruseman. 8. Tony Jones. 9. Brian Venard. 10. Rodney Argo. 11. Mike Spencer. 12. Rickie Gaunt. 13. Jimmy Crawford. 14. Gary W. Howard. 15. Verne Sweeney. 16. Bobby Cody. 17. Marc Hart. 18. Mark Heidenreich. 19. Mike English. 20. Ron DiDonato. 21. Lance Gremett. 22. Rip Williams. Laps Led: Gardner 1-30 CAR NAME HOMETOWN STARTS POINTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 50 Richard Griffin Silver City NM 7 452 2. 7 Troy Rutherford Ojai CA 7 442 3. 45 Damion Gardner Concord CA 7 395 4. 3 Rip Williams Yorba Linda CA 7 323 5. 29 Steve Ostling Corona CA 7 320 6. 6 Mike English Norwalk CA 7 314 7. 4 Rickie Gaunt Torrance CA 7 290 8. 44 Mike Spencer Temecula CA 7 273 9. 38 Levi Jones Olney IL 6 249 10. 2 Tony Jones Garden Grove CA 6 215 11. 61 Cory Kruseman Ventura CA 6 211 12. 99 Adam Mitchell Escondido CA 6 201 13. 85 Lance Gremett San Marcos CA 7 179 14. 19 Rodney Argo El Segundo CA 5 158 15. 98 Verne Sweeney Lomita CA 7 148 16. 14AZ Jerry Coons, Jr Tucson AZ 3 135 17. 14 Bryan Stanfill (R) Bakersfield CA 7 132 18. 27 Tracy Hines Greenfield IN 3 121 19. 21 Jeremy Sherman Phoenix AZ 2 117 20. 25 Jimmy Crawford (R) Ventura CA 7 114 41 Bobby Cody Costa Mesa CA 7 114 |
