PERRIS, CA, OCTOBER 4, 2003 - It had been over 14 months since Tony Jones slid
into victory lane at the Perris Auto Speedway. Happily for Jones, all that
changed Saturday after a dramatic last corner pass gave him his 15th career NAPA
Auto Parts / Auto Trader Magazines SCRA main event win.
During the months between his victories, Jones had still been a force on the
SCRA trail. In fact, since finishing second in series points last year,
Jones had posted numerous top-five finishes, including a runner-up finish two
weeks ago at Perris.
"It's been a long time, and oh man it feels good to be up here," a
jubilant Jones said standing on top of the Perris podium. "We've had
some problems here and there and we really struggled with the car that we had at
the first of the year. We've got a new car now, and we started playing
with it a little bit, and now we're good. Some of the big money races are
coming up here and I'm glad we've got a good car for the last part of the
season. I just have to dedicate this win to all the guys on my crew that
have worked so hard and to my son Kyle."
Driving the Johnny Vermeer / Ferreira Dairy #2, Jones came from eighth to fourth
in the six-lap JE Pistons Passing Masters Dash and earned a second row starting
spot for the 30-lap feature race. Rip Williams gave car owner Sharon Jory
her seventh Dash win of the year, which put the Tamarco Fasteners #3 Stinger on
the pole.
Williams easily beat the Mark Preistley / Roy Miller Freightlines #7 Kunz
driven by Troy Rutherford to the green flag at the start. Last week's
winner Charles Davis, Jr. ran third at the end of the opening lap with Jones and
SCRA point leader Richard Griffin closely behind.
Running the cushion like he normally does, Jones passed Rutherford for second
place five laps into the race. Setting a torrid pace, Williams reached
lapped traffic in just 12 laps. At the time, Williams enjoyed an extremely
comfortable lead over Jones as he ran the bottom.
With only ten laps to go, Williams had built his lead to nearly a full
straightaway advantage and was seemingly on his way to an easy victory.
However, things quickly changed when Williams was faced with a pair of
pole-hugging slower cars in front of him. Desperately trying to get past
the pack of low-groove lappers, Williams tried the high line a couple of times,
only to learn that his car wasn't that good on the cushion.
Jones' car, on the other hand, was good on the cushion allowing him to move to
within striking distance of Williams four laps from the finish. Just when
it looked like Jones might be in perfect position to end his main event drought,
the only yellow flag of the race waved on lap 29 for fifth place Damion Gardner,
who spun to a stop in turn four.
"Rip had a good car and it's tough to catch him," Jones recalled.
"I had my elbows up the whole time and he got caught in lapped traffic
towards the end of the race. We were catching him before that yellow flag
and I knew we had something for him. Rip is always fast here and I think
he might have gotten away from us if there had been a little more moisture on
the bottom."
As Jones cited, there wasn't that much moisture left on the bottom leaving
Williams with a major decision since his car appeared to not be as fast running
the high line. Electing to restart the race on the bottom, Williams pulled
away from Jones slightly coming down to accept the green flag. Quickly
building momentum on the cushion, Jones got a good run off of the turn two
cushion and was once again in position to challenge for the lead. Williams
clipped the infield berm entering turn four coming down for the white flag
giving Jones the opportunity he was looking for.
The duo was less than a car-length apart when they reached starter Lee
Jaskowiak's white flag and headed into turn one. Jones momentarily held
the lead along the backstraight only to have Williams inch ahead before they
reached turn three. Flying off the turn four cushion, Jones slipped a half
car-length ahead of Williams just before crossing the finish line.
"I was just basically holding on," Jones said of the race's final lap.
"I think I drove harder into the corners on that last lap than I did the
whole race. I was really hoping that Rip would bobble or something to give
me a little bit of an advantage. Rip gave me plenty of room coming down
for the checkered flag, and that right there, is a gentlemen. There's a
lot of guys that would have driven up on me and chopped my nose off, but he gave
me some room and I'll hand it to him for that."
Rutherford came home in third ahead of the Ron Chaffin owned, Arizona Race Mart
#50 Jon Boy driven by Griffin. Bobby Graham started 16th and gave the
Carol Crossno / ITI Performance #38 Twister it's second straight fifth place
fifth. Graham was also named KSE Products Hard Charger. SCRA Rookie
of the Year point leader Josh Ford was the first car out for Sander Engineering
time trials and went on to post the evenings fastest lap (16.995).
SCRA RACE #32 - PERRIS AUTO SPEEEDWAY, PERRIS, CA
Date of Race: 10/04/03
SANDER ENGINEERING TIME TRIALS
1. Josh Ford, (R) Camarillo CA, Willis/Ford 54, 16.995 2. Richard Griffin,
Silver City NM, Chaffin 50, 17.050 3. Rickie Gaunt, Torrance CA, Smiley 2A
, 17.268 4. Charles Davis, Jr, Buckeye AZ, Davis 94, 17.383 5. Adam
Mitchell, Escondido CA, Mitchell 99, 17.391 6. Steve Ostling, Corona CA,
Fischer Mtrspts 29, 17.408 7. Rip Williams, Yorba Linda CA, Jory 3, 17.432
8. Mike English, Norwalk CA, Alexander 4, 17.442 9. Mike Kirby, Torrance
CA, Shoemaker 0, 17.566 10. Troy Rutherford, Ojai CA, Priestley 7, 17.588
11. Damion Gardner, Concord CA, Willis 45, 17.595 12. Tony Jones, Orange
CA, Vermeer 2, 17.600 13. Brian Venard, Irvine CA.,Venard. 47,
17.608 14. Marc Hart, Ventura CA, Hart 15, 17.610 15. Jordan
Hermansader, Long Beach CA, Ferro 91, 17.612 16. Bobby Graham, Riverside
CA, Crossno 38, 17.679 17. Bobby Cody, Costa Mesa CA, Cody Racing 41,
17.722 18. Trevor Brilman, (R) Las Vegas NV, Element Mtrspts 10,
17.730 19. Randy Waitman, Ramona CA, Waitman Y69, 17.738 20. Seth
Wilson, (R) San Clemente CA, Racing Optics 17, 17,744 21. Duane Marcum,
Fresno CA, Ruth 25, 17.747 22. Verne Sweeney, Lomita CA, Sweeney 98, 17.797
23. Jason York, Chico CA, York 25N, 17.831 24. Steve Venard, Silverado CA,
Glover 49, 17.914 25. Alex Harris, (R) Simi Valley CA, Burton 31, 17.990
26. Ronnie Case, Camarillo CA, Reynolds 8X, 18.010 27. Greg Bragg,
(R) Visalia CA,
Pratt 12, 18.037 28. Mark Heidenreich, Upland CA, Heidenreich 22, 18.046
29. Ron
DiDonato, Riverside CA, DiDonato 57, 18.059 30. Dan Hillberg, Whittier CA,
Hillberg 82, 18.115 31. Jesse Denome, San Diego CA, Denome 6J, 18.194
32. Alan Ballard, (R) Bakersfield CA, Becker 67 , 18.610 33. Alex Pruett,
(R) Carefree AZ, Pruett 56AZ, 18.807
SO-CAL PERFORMANCE HEAT1
1. Brian Venard, 2. Bobby Cody, 3. Josh Ford, 4. Duane Marcum, 5. Mike Kirby, 6.
Ron DiDonato, 7, Adam Mitchell, 8, Alex Pruett,
SHAVER ENGINES HEAT 2
1. Verne Sweeney, 2. Steve Ostling, 3. Richard Griffin, 4. Troy Rutherford, 5.
Marc Hart, 6. Ronnie Case, 7. Trevor Brilman, 8. Dan Hillberg,
SPIN TECH MUFFLER HEAT 3
1. Rip Williams, 2. Damion Gardner, 3, Jordan Hermansader, 4. Jason York, 5.
Rickie Gaunt, 6. Randy Waitman, 7. Greg Bragg, 8. Jesse Denome,
STINGER CHASSIS HEAT 4
1. Seth Wilson, 2. Bobby Graham, 3. Tony Jones, 4, Charles Davis, Jr, 5. Mike
English, 6, Alan Ballard, 7. Steve Venard, 8. Mark Heidenreich,
JE PISTONS DASH
1. Rip Williams, 2. Troy Rutherford. 3. Charles Davis, Jr. 4. Tony Jones, 5.
Steve Ostling. 6. Richard Griffin. 7. Josh Ford, 8. Damion Gardner,
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS B FEATURE
1. Rickie Gaunt. 2, Mike English. 3. Mike Kirby. 4. 4arc Hart. 5. Ron DiDonato.
6. Adam Mitchell. 7. Ronnie Case, 8. Trevor Brilman. 9. Greg Bragg, 10,
Steve Venard, 11. Jesse Denome. 12. Dan Hillberg, 13. Alex Pruett. 14. Randy
Waitiman. 15. Alan Ballard.
A FEATURE (30 Laps)
1. Tony Jones, 2. Rip Williams. 3. Troy Rutherford. 4. Richard Griffin, 5. Bobby
Graham. 6. Steve Ostling. 7. Mike English. 8. Charles Davis, Jr. 9. Rickie
Gaunt. 10. Marc Hart, 11. Damion Gardner. 12. Seth Wilson. 13.
Jordan Hermansader. 14. Josh Ford. 15. Brian Venard. 16. Ron
DiDonato. 17, Verne Sweeney. 18. Duane Marcus. 19. Jason York, 20, Adam
Mitchell. 21. Bobby Cody. 22. Mike Kirby.
Laps Led: Williams 1-29, Jones 30
SCRA Point Standings as of: 10/04/03
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CAR NAME
HOMETOWN
STARTS POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. 50 Richard Griffin
Silver City NM 31
1948
2. 7 Troy Rutherford
Ojai CA
31 1817
3. 45 Damion Gardner
Concord CA
31 1783
4. 3 Rip Williams
Yorba Linda CA 32
1641
5. 44 Mike Spencer
Temecula CA 30 1193
6. 29 Steve Ostling
Corona CA
22 1151
7. 2A Rickie Gaunt
Torrance CA 21 1040
8. 2 Tony Jones
Orange CA
24 987
9. 54 Josh Ford
(R) Camarillo CA 32 952
10. 4 Mike English
Norwalk CA
26 950
11. 4 Cory Kruseman
Ventura CA
17 868
12. 99 Adam Mitchell
Escondido CA
26 823
13. 38 Levi Jones
Olney IL
18 807
14. 67 Alan Ballard
(R) Bakersfield CA 32 749
15. 94 Charles Davis, Jr
Buckeye AZ 16 620
16. 17 Seth Wilson
(R) San Clemente CA 32 616
17. 98 Verne Sweeney
Lomita CA
21 575
18. 75 J.J. Yeley
Phoenix AZ
9 552
19. 47 Brian Venard
Irvine CA
17 515
20. 18 Jimmy Crawford
(R) Ventura CA 27
503
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