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GARDNER DOMINATES THE THUNDERBOWL |
| TULARE, CA, JULY 10, 2004 - Damion Gardner scored a
dominate 40-lap victory Saturday night at the Thunderbowl Raceway to earn his 12th career NAPA Auto Parts / Auto Trader Magazines SCRA sprint car main event win. Gardner's powerful run ended Rickie Gaunt's record setting SCRA win streak at five. Surprisingly, Gaunt, who leads the SCRA point standings, was a no-show for the evening as his team prepared to race in the Midwest in the upcoming weeks. Still, the evening belonged to Gardner who also won the Arizona Race Mart Fast Time Award before giving Ron Chaffin his 60th SCRA win as a car owner. "It's hard to run 40 good ones here, and everyone is going to make some mistakes. It comes down to whoever wants to charge the hardest, and that's how I like it," Gardner later said. "Also, this track is always changing. That's what makes this place so tricky, and so much fun for the fans. The track really changes during a 40-lap race, which really concerned me since I've led some races here early this year and didn't go on to win the race, even though I led the most laps. Tonight, we finally put one in the bag." Speaking of finally putting one in the bag, longtime SCRA competitor Mark Nation scored his first JE Pistons Dash win and the pole for the feature race. Nation, a four-time Santa Maria Speedway Champion, led the field into the first turn only to have the Hal Engstrom / Murrieta Development #44 TCR driven by Mike Spencer blast around the outside of him exiting turn two. After starting fourth, Gardner nipped Nation at the line to complete the opening lap, as Jimmy Crawford and Tony Jones followed closely behind. Crawford spun entering turn four on the following lap, collecting Allan Ballard, Verne Sweeney and Aaron Chaney as the yellow flag waved. Jones had a problem on the restart and fell to 12th after nearly backing Johnny Vermeer's / Ferreira Dairy #2 into the turn one wall. Jonathan Logan had problems of his own and brought out another caution flag when he stopped on the racing surface on the fourth lap. Eighth-place Casey Shuman saw his night end on the subsequent restart, after he bicycled and slammed into the turn one fence. Still looking for that elusive first SCRA win, Spencer helplessly had his car push wide coming down for the green flag on the next restart. Rarely one to miss an opportunity, Gardner pounced on Spencer's miscue and put his Temecula Valley Pipe & Supply #50 into the lead. Spencer had managed to stay relatively close to Gardner as the duo reach lapped traffic on the tenth circuit. Even though Gardner felt he was having trouble putting cars a lap down, the bottom line was that he was able to build a comfortable lead over Spencer. "The lappers were really tough tonight," Gardner expressed in a frustrated tone. "I hate to complain, but there seemed to be way more guys that didn't show me any love tonight. They didn't seem to want to leave me any room and they want to race the leaders all the time, which makes you do things that you don't want to do to get by. But hey, whatever they want to do is fine, we'll just do whatever we have to do to get by." Gardner and Spencer's closest call to actually not getting by came on the 12th lap when Colby Solomon spun to a stop directly in front of them in turn one forcing both men to take evasive action. Sean Jackson, who had just been lapped, was not as lucky as Gardner and Spencer and slid hard into Solomon's parked car. Gardner reached lapped traffic again just before the midway point of the race. Spencer looked like he might get close enough to challenge, only to have Gardner build his lead up to a full straightaway margin by the time the final yellow flag of the race flew on lap 32 for Brad Evett, who tangled with Nation in turn one. With four lapped cars between himself and Spencer, Gardner was able to complete the balance of the race without challenge. "We've been trying a few different things and went back to a car that was more like my number 20 car," Gardner said standing next to what looked like a new Eagle chassis. "We've been trying a lot of different stuff and Bruce (Bromme, Jr.) has done a great job trying to make me comfortable in the car." Danny Sheridan, who started 13th, drove the Warren Dorathy / Gowens Engines #21A Stinger to a third place finish and earned the KSE Products Hard Charger Award. Jason York made a rare non-winged appearance and was able to drive his Associated Builders #25N to a fourth place finish. Ronnie Clark had another solid performance driving his parent's (Ron & Tanya Clark) Ellis chassis to his second top-five finish of the season. Jones finished sixth and was the last car on the lead lap. Despite his setback early in the race, Jones had been as high as fourth until his car began smoking heavily during the final laps of the race. Rookie point leader Mike Martin finished tenth and was the highest finishing 360 powered sprinter. SCRA RACE #7 - THUNDERBOWL RACEWAY, TULARE, CA Date of Race: 7/10/04 ARIZONA RACE MART TIME TRIALS 1. Damion Gardner, Chaffin 50, 15.825, 2. Tony Jones, Vermeer 2, 16.024, 3. Alan Ballard, Ballard 97, 16.131, 4. Jason York, York 25N, 16.205, 5. Verne Sweeney, Sweeney/Zoriki, 16.225, 6. Mike Spencer, Enstrom 44, 16.231, 7. Casey Shuman, Sweeney/Zoriki 6, 16.265, 8. Jimmy Crawford, Crawford 13, 16.368, 9. Mark Nation, Nation 3N, 16.428, 10. Ronnie Clark, Clark 33, 16.463, 11. Arron Chaney, Chaney 69, 16.494, 12. Seth Wilson, Racing Optics 17, 16.526, 13. Danny Sheridan, Dorathy 21A, 16.636, 14. Dwayne Marcum, Ruth 25, 16.672, 15. Mel Murphy, Murphy 62, 16.846, 16. Jonathan Logan, Evett 32, 17.025, 17. Brad Evett, Evett 45X, 17.106, 18. Mike Martin, Martin 57, 17.242, 19. Colby Solomon, Solomon 90S, 17.497, 20. Sean Jackson, Jackson 9X, 17.646, 20. David Hair, Hair 44X, No Time. SHAVER ENGINES HEAT 1 (10 laps) 1. Sheridan, 2. Clark, 3. Gardner, 4. Logan, 5. York, 6. Shuman, 7. Solomon- 2:45.73 STINGER CHASSIS HEAT 2 (10 laps) 1. Chaney, 2. Jones, 3. Evett, 4. Marcum, 5. Crawford, 6. Sweeney, 7. Jackson- 2:46.86 SPIN TECH MUFFLERS / OVAL TRACK RACING HEAT 3 (10 laps) 1. Martin, 2. Murphy, 3. Nation, 4. Spencer, 5. Wilson, 6. Ballard.- 2:53.20 JE PISTONS DASH (6 laps) 1.Nation, 2. Spencer, 3. Crawford, 4. Gardner, 5. Clark, 6. Jones, 7. York, 8. Chaney - 1:40.34 A FEATURE (40 Laps) 1. Gardner, 2. Spencer, 3. Sheridan, 4. York, 5. Clark, 6. Jones, 7. Marcum, 8. Wilson, 9. Crawford, 10. Martin, 11. Ballard, 12. Murphy, 13. Evett, 14. Nation, 15. Jackson, 16. Solomon, 17. Shuman, 18. Logan, 19. Chaney, 20. Sweeney - No Time. Laps Led: Spencer 1-4, Gardner 5-40 SCRA DRIVER DIVISION: SCRA Point Standings as of: 07/10/04 CAR NAME HOMETOWN STARTS POINTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 2A Rickie Gaunt Torrance CA 6 523 2. 8A Charles Davis, Jr Buckeye AZ 6 470 3. 97 Alan Ballard Bakersfield CA 7 429 4. 50 Damion Gardner Concord CA 4 379 5. 33 Ronnie Clark Tucson AZ 7 352 6. 17 Seth Wilson San Clemente CA 7 349 7. 44 Mike Spencer Temecula CA 5 322 8. 98 Verne Sweeney Lomita CA 7 311 9. 3N Mark Nation Los Olivos CA 7 307 10. 57M Mike Martin (R) Yuma AZ 7 301 11. 6 Casey Shuman Corona CA 7 291 12. 51 Kevin Urton Elk Grove CA 4 187 13. 21A Danny Sheridan Santa Maria CA 4 184 14. 62 Mel Murphy Riverside CA 5 165 15. 25 Dwayne Marcum Fresno CA 3 150 16. 45 Steve Ostling Corona CA 2 145 17. 92 Mike English Norwalk CA 3 143 18. 84 Aaron Altaffer (R) Tulare CA 3 125 19. 17X Josh Pelkey Peoria AZ 3 118 20. 6X Brandon Springstead (R) Mission Viejo CA 3 107 |
