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FEBRUARY 27, 2005...On a night that the
tires became a major issue, Damion Gardner of Concord, California took the lead
from Cory Kruseman on lap 17 and ran away with his eleventh Valvoline USAC/CRA
victory of the year and took over the points lead from Rip Williams in the
process. Damion said in the winners circle“ It was tough in the beginning and
we took some chances going to the front. As soon as it laid rubber
down, it was beautiful!”
Josh Ford led the first seven laps until Kruseman went by
him and took a big lead until Damion quickly reeled him in. The lead pack was
running the high groove exclusively, but the Demon found a sweet spot just
barely below that where no one else could run and wheeled by with ease.
Driving the Temecula Valley Pipe & Supply, Arizona Race
Mart, Eagle, Shaver # 50, Damion had plenty of rubber left at the end, unlike
many of his pursuers. Most notably Rip Williams tires were “showing their
underwear” as he said later looking at two bald tires on his car, and was
lucky to even finish as he dropped back to seventh and slipped into second in
points only eight behind the new leader.
Josh Ford held on for third followed by Mike Kirby, Danny
Sheridan, who came from 20th starting spot, and Steve Oslting who
crashed on lap 33 and came back up to get sixth. The race pushed the curfew just
a tad, but it finished with a flourish and will send them to Ventura Raceway for
the 26th race in the series.
VALVOLINE USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS:
September 3, 2005 – Perris, California – Perris Auto Speedway
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Charles Davis Jr, 8A, Smiley-17.334; 2. Rickie Gaunt,
2A, Smiley-17.460; 3. Cory Kruseman, 38, Crossno-17.580; 4. Mike Spencer, 44,
Engstrom-17.639; 5. Ronnie Clark, 33X, Clark-17.662; 6. Tony Jones, 87,
Vermeer/Ferreira-17.675; 7. Alan Ballard, 97, Ballard-17.710; 8. Damion Gardner,
50, Chaffin-17.755; 9. Seth Wilson, 17, Racing Optics-17.770; 10. Dan Hillberg,
82, Hillberg-17.833; 11. Mike Kirby, 4, Alexander-17.852; 12. Josh Ford, 73,
Ford-17.865; 13. Bill Rose, 11, Wilkerson-17.867; 14. Danny Ebberts, 77,
Acosta-17.873; 15. Bobby Cody, 92, Sertich-17.895; 16. Jason York, 25N,
York-17.916; 17. Rip Williams, 3, Jory-17.947; 18. Davey Pombo, 3P,
Pombo-17.960; 19. Keith Williamson, 95, Williamson-17.977; 20. Tom Stansberry,
48, Bach-18.011; 21. R.J. Johnson, 15AZ, Martin-18.097; 22. Johnny Rodriguez, 7,
Priestley-18.120; 23. Greg Bragg, 33, Blair-18.203; 24. Adam Mitchell, 14,
Lancaster-18.357; 25. David Cardey, 59, Giardina-18.360; 26. Steve Ostling, 0,
Shoemaker-18.399; 27. Jack DeArmond Jr, 24, DeArmond-18.420; 28. Danny Sheridan,
18, Kittle-18.540; 29. Jordan Hermansader, 5, Keller-18.550; 30. Chris D'Arcy,
77C, D'Arcy-18.600; 31. Rick Becker, 67, Becker-18.779; 32. Ryan Devitt, 35R,
Blenkarn-18.956; 33. Robert Ellis, 43, Ellis-19.046; 34. Nadine Keller, 16,
Keller-19.062; 35. Mark Heidenreich, 22, Heidenreich-19.128; 36. Joshua
Williams, 34, Williams-19.177; 37. Matt Stewart, 85, Stewart-19.380; 38. Jim
Giardina, 58, Giardina-19.420; 39. Eric Severson, 36, Severson-19.495; 40. Dan
Tedrick, 88, Tedrick-20.026; 41. Jeremy Ellerston, 98. Ellerston-25.070; 42.
Jimmy Evans, 76, Evans-NT.
DASH: (3 laps) 1. Kruseman, 2. Spencer, 3. Davis, 4. Gaunt. :53.95
CONSOLATION RACE: (8 laps) 1. Keller, 2. J.Williams, 3. Heidenreich, 4.
Stewart, 5. Severson, 6. Tedrick, 7. Ellis, 8. Giardina. NT
FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. R.Williams, 2. Cardey, 3. Hermansader, 4. Davis,
5. Rose, 6. Johnson, 7. Clark, 8. Keller, 9. Wilson. 3:05.09
SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Pombo, 2. Ostling, 3. Jones, 4. Rodriguez, 5.
Ebberts, 6. Hillberg, 7. J.Williams, 8. D’Arcy, 9. Gaunt. NT
THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Kruseman, 2. Kirby, 3. Becker, 4. Bragg, 5.
Williamson, 6. Heidenreich, 7. Cody, 8. Ballard, 9. DeArmond. NT
FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Gardner, 2. Sheridan, 3. Spencer, 4. Ford, 5.
York, 6. Mitchell, 7. Stansberry, 8. Devitt, 9. Stewart. 3:16.77
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Gaunt, 2. Rose, 3. Cody, 4. Ballard, 5. Stansberry, 6.
Mitchell, 7. Williamson, 8. D’Arcy, 9. Johnson, 10. DeArmond, 11. Keller, 12.
York, 13. Hillberg, 14. Wilson, 15. Devitt, 16. Ebberts, 17. J.Williams, 18.
Stewart, 19. Clark, 20. Heidenreich. NT
FEATURE: (50 laps) 1. Damion Gardner, 2. Cory Kruseman, 3. Josh Ford, 4.
Mike Kirby, 5. Danny Sheridan, 6. Steve Ostling, 7. Rip Williams, 8. Rickie
Gaunt, 9. Bill Rose, 10. Johnny Rodriguez, 11. Seth Wilson, 12. Charles Davis Jr,
13. Alan Ballard, 14. Davey Pombo, 15. Bobby Cody, 16. Greg Bragg, 17. Jordan
Hermansader, 18. Tom Stansberry, 19. Mike Spencer, 20. Tony Jones, 21. Rick
Becker, 22 Adam Mitchell, 23. Keith Williamson. NT
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**Severson flipped during the consolation race. York and Clark flipped during
the semi. Becker flipped during the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-7 Ford, Laps 8-16 Kruseman, Laps 17-50 Gardner.
NEW USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR STANDINGS:
1-Gardner-1,397; 2-R.Williams-1,389; 3-Kirby-1,295; 4-Kruseman-1,256;
5-Davis-1,034; 6-Gaunt-957; 7-Spencer-870; 8-Ford-819; 9-Tony Jones-693;
10-Wilson-689.
NEXT USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR RACE: September 10 – Ventura (CA) Raceway
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