PHOENIX, AZ, MAY 10, 2003 - Four-time Sprint Car Racing Association
(SCRA)
Champion Richard Griffin started on the pole Saturday and survived a late race
challenge from Rickie Gaunt to win his second NAPA Auto Parts / Auto Trader
Magazines main event of the season at Keith Hall's Manzanita Speedway.
Even though he contends he's not all that concerned with the point standings
this early in the year, Griffin's drive padded his current point lead, while
marking the 17th time that he has guided the Ron Chaffin / Arizona Race Mart #50
Jon Boy to victory at Manzy.
"We're focused mainly on feature wins right now and we had a great race car
for the main event. When you consider that we were shutout here last year,
for us to pick up wins on both weekends we've been here is pretty good,"
Griffin said after the 30-lap run. "It's tough to win out here,
there's a number of guys out here that can win on a given night, we were just
fortunate enough to get to start up front."
Outside front row starter, Rip Williams, put the Sharon Jory / Tomarco Fasteners
#3 Stinger into the lead on the initial start, but the race was quickly stopped
after a wild five car tangle on the front straight resulted in flips by Tony
Jones, Bobby Cody and Alan Ballard. Rookie drivers Jimmy Crawford and Seth
Wilson were also involved. Fortunately, there were no injuries, in fact,
Ballard and Wilson were able to make the call for the restart.
Learning from the prior start, Griffin forced Williams up the race track a
little more on the start and took the lead coming down to accept the green flag.
Sander Engineering Fast Qualifier Bob Ream, Jr. moved his BRAT Racing / B&R
Automotive #8 Buckley into second place in turn two and went on to
complete the opening lap ahead of Williams, Gaunt, Mike English and Troy
Rutherford. Running the cushion to perfection, Griffin had easily extended
his lead over Ream, when the red flag waved on lap seven for Jeff Branaman, who
just had his SCRA debut spoiled by a flip in turn four. Branaman was
not hurt.
Griffin quickly pulled away from the field once racing resumed, only to have his
lead negated again on lap 12 after Jeremy Sherman spun to a stop near the turn
two wall. With Griffin once again comfortably out front, Gaunt discovered
that his Alexander Trucking #4 Stinger worked well on the cushion in turns one
and two, and was really good on the bottom in turns three and four. At the
midway point of the race, Gaunt used his newly found line to pass Ream for
second place.
Four circuits later, Griffin would see another comfortable lead get erased after
Adam Mitchell hooked the infield berm entering turn one and spun. The
restart provided, perhaps, the most dramatic moment of the race after Gaunt's
pressure caused Griffin to skate over the thin turn-four cushion coming down for
the green flag. Gaunt momentarily held the lead until Griffin bravely
squeezed his Bruce Bromme, Jr. prepared car between Gaunt and the wall.
"He really had me at about the flagstand, but I had a little run on him
and there was just enough room for me to get my nose in there. Rickie knew
that I was there and didn't pinch me off into the wall. It was a close
call, but as crazy as Rickie is, he's a pretty good guy."
But, Gaunt wasn't done yet. Using his low line on the eastern end of the
track, Gaunt took the lead back exiting turn four before the end of the lap. Realizing
that Gaunt had found the place to be, Griffin moved down to the bottom of turn
three on lap 23 and instantly put himself within striking distance of the
leader.
Working lap 25, Griffin got a better run out of turn two and appeared to give
Gaunt a slight tap in the rear nerf bar before beating him to the bottom of turn
three. Pushed out of his preferred line, Gaunt had no choice but to
relinquish the lead back to Griffin. Once out front, Griffin's 46th career
SCRA win was never in question.
"We thought the bottom might be the place to be, but we were committed to
the top until Rickie got by us, then we moved down to the bottom and we were a
little better than he was," Griffin recalled. "I was really
surprised how good our car was working on the bottom of (turns) three and four,
and once I got back ahead of Rickie I was pretty confident that he was going to
have a hard time getting by me."
Williams had fallen out of the top-five early in the race, but worked his way
back up to earn a second place finish after a nice pass on Gaunt through lapped
traffic on lap 29. Rutherford tangled with the lapped car driven by Wilson
coming down for the checkered flag, but still managed to slide and bounce the
Mark Priestley / Roy Miller Freightliners No. 7 Kunz across the finish line for
his sixth consecutive fourth place finish. Ream edged Steve Ostling for
fifth, while dodging the Rutherford and Wilson incident. Rookie of the
year contender Josh Ford won the KSE Hard Charger Award with his 22nd to 12th
place run.
SCRA RACE #9 - MANZANITA SPEEDWAY, PHOENIX, AZ
Date of Race: 5/10/03
SANDER ENGINEERING TIME TRIALS
1. Bob Ream, Jr., BRAT Racing 8, 19.031, 2. Damion Gardner, Willis 45, 19.084,
3. Troy Rutherford, Priestley 7, 19.223, 4. Rip Williams, Jory 3, 19.249, 5.
Richard Griffin, Chaffin 50, 19.412, 6. Rickie Gaunt, Alexander 4, 19.416, 7.
Adam Mitchell, Mitchell 99, 19.428, 8. Steve Ostling, Fischer Motorsports 29,
19.447, 9. Verne Sweeney, Sweeney 98, 19.469, 10. Tony Jones, Vermeer 2, 19.501,
11. Bobby Cody, Cody Racing 41, 19.504, 12. Mike English, Jory 6, 19.510, 13.
Mike Spencer, Engstrom 44, 19.531
14. Jeff Branaman, Black Hills Racing 16A, 19.590, 15. Brian Venard, Venard 47,
19.621, 16. Jeremy Sherman, Ellis 21, 19.645, 17. Tony Smiley, Smiley 2A,
19.731,
18. Bryan Stanfill, Lancaster 14, 19.809, 19. Alex Pruett, Pruett 56AZ, 19.826,
20. Charles Davis, Jr., Davis 94, 19.887, 21. Seth Wilson, Racing Optics 17,
19.974, 22. Jimmy Crawford, Ruth 25, 20.052, 23. Alan Ballard, Ballard 97,
20.215, 24. Paul Norbury, Carsten 91AZ, 20.274, 25. Cal Smith, Pratt 39, 20.284,
26. Josh Ford, Willis/Ford 54, 20.341, 27. A.J. Reyer, Burton 31, 20. 681, 28.
Nicholas Lima, Lima 30, 20.786, 29. Steve Cushman, Cushman 30AZ, 20.830, 30.
Mike Miller, Miller 13A, 21.750
SO-CAL PERFORMANCE HEAT 1
1. Williams, 2. Jones, 3. Sherman, 4. Ream, 5. Spencer, 6. Mitchell, 7. Pruett,
8. Crawford, 9. Lima, 10. Smith.
SHAVER ENGINES HEAT 2
1. Davis, 2. Griffin, 3. Ostling, 4. Smiley, 5. Branaman, 6. Ford, 7.
Ballard, 8. Cushman, 9. Cody, 10. Gardner
SPIN TECH MUFFLERS / STINGER CHASSIS HEAT 3
1. English, 2. Gaunt, 3. Rutherford, 4. Venard, 5. Wilson, 6. Sweeney, 7.
Miller, 8. Stanfill, 9. Norbury, 10. Reyer.
JE PISTONS DASH
1. Griffin, 2. Williams, 3. Gaunt, 4. Ream, 5. Rutherford, 6. English, 7.
Spencer, 8. Ostling.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS B FEATURE
1. Gardner, 2. Mitchell, 3. Sweeney, 4. Cody, 5. Ford, 6. Crawford, 7. Ballard,
8. Pruett, 9. Smith, 10. Cushman, 11. Lima, 12. Norbury.
A FEATURE (30 Laps)
1. Griffin, 2. Williams, 3. Gaunt, 4. Rutherford, 5. Ream, 6. Ostling, 7.
English, 8. Spencer, 9. Davis, 10. Sherman, 11. Venard, 12. Ford, 13. Mitchell,
14. Ballard, 15. Sweeney, 16. Pruett, 17. Wilson, 18. Gardner, 19. Branaman, 20.
Jones, 21. Cody, 22. Crawford
Laps Led: Griffin 1-18, Gaunt 19-24, Griffin 25-30
DIVISION: SCRA
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CAR NAME
HOMETOWN STARTS
POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. 50 Richard Griffin Silver City NM 8
521
2. 7 Troy Rutherford Ojai CA
8 509
3. 45 Damion Gardner Concord CA
8 426
4. 3 Rip Williams Yorba
Linda CA 8 397
5. 29 Steve Ostling Corona CA
8 373
6. 6 Mike English Norwalk
CA 8 366
7. 4 Rickie Gaunt
Torrance CA 8 353
8. 44 Mike Spencer Temecula CA
8 318
9. 38 Levi Jones
Olney IL 6 249
10. 2 Tony Jones
Garden Grove CA 7 237
11. 99 Adam Mitchell Escondido CA
7 232
12. 61 Cory Kruseman Ventura CA 6
211
13. 85 Lance Gremett San Marcos CA
7 179
14. 98 Verne Sweeney Lomita CA
8 174
15. 21 Jeremy Sherman Phoenix AZ 3
158
16. 19 Rodney Argo El Segundo CA 5
158
17. 8 Bob Ream Jr Glendale AZ 3 158
18. 94 Charles Davis, Jr Buckeye AZ 5
153
19. 47 Brian Venard Irvine CA
4 146
20. 54 Josh Ford (R) Camarillo CA
8 138
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