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HOCKETT PULLS OFF LAKESIDE SHOCKER |
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KANSAS CITY, KS, AUGUST 23, 2003 - The Midwestern portion of the Non-Wing World Championship (NWWC) tour came to an end Saturday at Lakeside Speedway with one of the biggest upsets in NAPA Auto Parts / Auto Trader Magazines SCRA sprint car history. Local driver Jesse Hockett stayed near the front for most of the 40-lap feature race and when the first two cars tangled with less than three laps to go, he moved into the lead and was able to hold back the defending race winner to take the $10,000 first prize. Remarkably, Hockett's only other non-wing experience came last year during the two-day Lakeside event when he finished 14th and 22nd. "This is unbelievable. I think my biggest payday before this was $1,500 for starting a big 360 race," Hockett said. "It's a dream come true to even be out here running with these guys, let alone win. My crew chief (Daniel McMillin) and I are both 19 years old and we really didn't know what we were doing. We referred to our Jimmy Sills setup book and some nice people, including Ron Shuman, gave us some tips which really helped." Troy Rutherford, who won this race in 2001, started on the pole after winning his third JE Pistons Dash of the year. Rutherford took the lead on the opening lap only to have Friday's 20-lap preliminary main event winner Richard Griffin power his way into the top spot on the second lap. Griffin's lead would be almost as short-lived as Rutherford's after Bud Kaeding put his BK Racing / Loan City.com #29K Maxim to the front of the leader board on the fifth lap. The red flag flew for the first time one lap later after NWWC & SCRA Rookie of the Year point leader Josh Ford flipped between turns three and four. Ford was not hurt. The same could not be said for Boston Reid's car after the restart. Reid, who had survived an earlier brush with the wall after spinning along the backstraight on the initial start, was not as fortunate this time and made heavy contact with the turn one wall on the restart. Reid was okay and lucky to have not flipped the car which carried him to the Sander Engineering Fast Time Award earlier in the evening. The man on the move early was Cory Kruseman, who entered the night ranked second in NWWC points behind J.J. Yeley. Kruseman started eleventh and worked his way into the lead in just ten circuits. Kaeding regrouped and took back the lead just past the halfway point of the race, only to have Kruseman secure the first position on lap 30. Kaeding dropped to fourth behind a charging Griffin and the Tom Van Keirsblick / TSV Contracting #75X Maxim driven by Hockett. Kruseman was less than three laps away from his third NWWC win in six days, when Griffin drove under him entering turn one. The only two men who can lay claim to being both a NWWC & SCRA driving champion then made contact leaving Griffin spun to a stop in turn two. Kruseman motored away from the incident, only to be black-flagged by starter Lee Jaskowiak for having a damaged left-side nerf bar that protruded outside his left rear tire. Kruseman returned to finish 14th, one position ahead of Griffin. This gave the lead to the Missouri driver Hockett, whose car is based only about five miles from the speedway. "I put a little space between myself and them because they were battling pretty hard. I decided to cool off my tires for a couple laps and hope for something to happen," Hockett later said of his successful strategy that led to him inheriting the lead. "I knew I could hold off Bud if I just rode around the bottom and tried to get to the moisture down there. I did, and it paid off." Indeed it did. Much to the delight of the partisan crowd, Hockett became the 37th driver to take an SCRA checkered flag in main event competition. Hockett is also the 12th different SCRA main event winner in 26 races this season. Kaeding finished in the runner-up spot ahead of the Roberts Motorsports / Service Drywall #21R Stealth driven by Kevin Briscoe, who started 16th. Mike English started tenth and placed fourth giving the Sharon Jory / Tomarco Fasteners #6 Stinger it's best finish of the Midwest swing. Levi Jones remained ranked fourth in NWWC points after he piloted the Carol Crossno / ITI Performance #38 Twister to a fifth place finish. Kansas driver Chris Morgan made a late-race surge and finished sixth. Morgan started 23rd and was given the KSE Products Hard Charger. Ford won the Simpson Products B-Main event and was named the Hedman Hedders Hard Luck recipient after his tumble in the finale. ### SCRA SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: August 23, 2003 - Kansas City, Kansas - Lakeside Speedway SANDER ENGINEERING QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Boston Reid, 2B, Benic / Davis-17.052, 2. Jesse Hockett, 75X, Van Keirsblick-17.082, 3. Bud Kaeding, 29k, BK Racing-17.167, 4. J.J. Yeley, 75, Stanton-17.392, 5. Levi Jones, 38, Crossno-17.405, 6 Mike English, 6, Jory-17.446, 7. Cory Kruseman, 21, Stewart-17.473, 8. Alan Ballard, 97, Ballard-17.511, 9. Mat Neely, 17N, Reinoehl-17.648; 10. Bryan Stanfill, 21X, Roberts-17.743, 11. Rip Williams, 3, Jory-17.843, 12. Kevin Briscoe, 21R, Roberts-17.883, 13. Ryan Anderson, 71X, Anderson-17.936, 14. Mike Spencer, 44, Engstrom-18.000, 15. Seth Wilson, 17, Racing Optics-18.206; 16. Josh Ford, 54, Willis/Ford-18.271, 17. Mel Murphy, 62, Murphy-18.508, 18. Jimmy Crawford, 18, Crawford-18.527, 19. Tony Everhart, 55, Everhart-18.940, 20. Tim Newman, 18V, Newman-19.067, 21. Chris Morgan, 7C, Morgan, 19.197, 22. Mike Boyer, 12, Boyer-20.081. . *Already qualified for Dash & A-Main: Richard Griffin, Chaffin #50, Damion Gardner, Willis #45, Troy Rutherford, Priestley #7, Wayne Johnson, 12X, Viehauer. SO-CAL PERFORMANCE FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Kruseman, 2. Reid, 3. Yeley, 4. Anderson, 5. Stanfill, 6. Boyer, 7. Ford, 8. Everhart, 2:56.80. SHAVER ENGINES SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Spencer, 2. Wiiliams, 3. Jones, 4. Hockett, 5. Ballard, 6. Murphy, 7. Newman, NT. SPIN TECH MUFFLERS / STINGER CHASSIS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Kaeding, 2. Briscoe, 3. Crawford, 4. Neely, 5. English, 6. Wilson, 7. Morgan, 3:00.10. JE PISTONS DASH: (6 laps) - 1. Rutherford, 2. Griffin, 3. Kaeding, 4. Johnson, 5. Gardner, 6. Reid, 7. Yeley, 8. Hockett, 1:46.88. SIMPSON B-FEATURE: (12 laps) 1.Ford, 2. Morgan, 3. Wilson, 4. Newman, 5. Boyer, 6. Murphy, 7. Everhart. 3:53.34. FEATURE: (40 laps) 1.Hockett, 2. Kaeding, 3. Briscoe, 4. English, 5. Jones, 6. Morgan, 7. Williams, 8. Gardner, 9. Johnson, 10. Rutherford, 11. Spencer, 12. Ballard, 13. Yeley, 14. Kruseman, 15. Griffin, 16. Crawford, 17. Boyer, 18. Newman, 19. Neely, 20. Wilson, 21. Anderson, 22. Stanfill, 23. Reid, 24. Ford. NT ------------------ LAPS LED: Rutherford 1, Griffin 2-4, Kaeding 5-9, Kruseman 10-19, Kaeding 20-29, Kruseman 30-37, Hockett 38-40 NEXT SCRA SPRINT CAR EVENT: August 30 - Venura, CA - Ventura Raceway NWWC Points 1 J.J. Yeley 453 2 Cory Kruseman 416 3 Bud Kaeding 392 4 Levi Jones 376 5 Troy Rutherford 341 6 Damion Gardner 337 7 Richard Griffin 321 8 Rip Williams 246 9 Mike English 230 10 Mike Spencer 221 11 Boston Reid 198 12 Josh Ford 181 13 Alan Ballard 129 14 Jimmy Crawford 122 15 Bob Ream, Jr. 62 16 Charles Davis, Jr. 62 17 Jac Haudenschild 58 18 Seth Wilson 52 19 Mel Murphy 35 20 Adam Mitchell 14 SCRA Driver Point Standings as of: 08/23/03 CAR NAME HOMETOWN STARTS POINTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - 1. 50 Richard Griffin Silver City NM 26 1553 2. 7 Troy Rutherford Ojai CA 26 1504 3. 45 Damion Gardner Concord CA 26 1466 4. 3 Rip Williams Yorba Linda CA 26 1271 5. 44 Mike Spencer Temecula CA 25 977 6. 29 Steve Ostling Corona CA 17 859 7. 6 Mike English Norwalk CA 24 838 B. 4 Rickie Gaunt Torrance CA 16 803 9. 38 Levi Jones Olney IL 17 750 10. 21 Cory Kruseman Ventura CA 15 709 11. 54 Josh Ford (R) Camarillo CA 26 704 12. 2 Tony Jones Garden Grove CA 18 644 13. 14 Adam Mitchell Escondido CA 21 636 14. 97 Alan Ballard (R) Bakersfield CA 26 575 15. 75 J.J. Yeley Phoenix AZ 9 552 16. 18 Jimmy Crawford (R) Ventura CA 26 464 17. 21X Bryan Stanfill (R) Bakersfield CA 23 462 18. 98 Verne Sweeney Lomita CA 16 431 19. 17 Seth Wilson (R) San Clemente CA 26 400 20. 85 Lance Gremett San Marcos CA 15 385 |
