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40 LAP MAIN EVENT HIGHLIGHTS USAC/CRA SALUTE TO INDY AT PERRIS!
by Scott Daloisio

(MAY 23. 2006, PERRIS, CA) Just two weeks after one of the best main events in the 11-year history of Perris Auto Speedway, Temecula Valley Pipe & Supply will present the popular USAC/CRA Sprint Cars in the Annual Salute to Indy this Saturday, May 27^th. Like two weeks ago, this Saturday’s main event will be 40 laps. Spectator gates will open at 5:00 PM with racing at 7:00.

All but three of the former Memorial Day race weekend winners will be at The PAS to slug it out for the win on Saturday night. The missing three are J.J. Yeley, Richard “The Gasman” Griffin and Troy Rutherford. Yeley, who won the first ever Memorial Day weekend race at The PAS in 1996, is a rookie in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. Griffin retired after the 2003 season and Rutherford is a now a regular with the VRA (Ventura Racing Association) Sprint Cars.

The three other former winners will all be on hand on Saturday and each one of them has won the high profile race more than one time. Those three are archrivals Cory Kruseman (Ventura, CA), Damion Gardner (Concord, CA) and Mike Kirby (Torrance, CA). Last year’s winner Kruseman leads everyone with three wins in the Memorial Day race at The PAS. His other victories came in 2001 and 1997. Gardner, who leads Kruseman in this year’s championship chase by 39 points, won in 2003 and the first year the race was run under the USAC banner in 2004. Kirby won the race in 1998 and 2002.

When the series last appeared at the famous Riverside County clay oval two weeks ago, Kirby scored his first win since last August when he edged Rickie Gaunt (Torrance, CA) and Tony Jones (Norco, CA) in a wild 40 lapper that included two lead changes on the last lap. Kirby hurt the engine in his yellow L.A. Prep #96 in the victory and missed last Saturday’s USAC/CRA race at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix, Arizona. However, he was at The PAS to watch his sister, Carla Laney, win the main event in the Art’s Concrete Pumping Extreme Topless Late Models. Like her brother the week before, it was Laney’s first win of 2006.

Since April 1^st Gardner has scored 260 points in the three-year-old series. That is more than any driver in that period of time. That stellar effort has enabled him to claw his way from 26 points behind Kruseman in the standings to his current 39-point lead. The other top point scorers since April 1^st are Gaunt (230), Buckeye, Arizona’s Charles Davis Jr. (224), Norco, California’s Tony Jones (214) and Santa Maria, California’s “Showtime” Danny Sheridan (196).

Saturday’s 800 horsepower, slide job infused dirt rack feud will consist of qualifying, four ten lap heat races, a B main and if necessary a C main. The cars that transfer out of those preliminary races will then slug it out in another 40-lap fight to the finish main event in the annual Salute to Indy.

Perris Auto Speedway is located on the freeway close Lake Perris Fairgrounds approximately one hour east of Los Angeles and one hour North of San Diego. To get to the track, take the 215 freeway, exit on the Ramona Expressway and go two miles east to the fairgrounds.

This Friday’s drag race on the Diamond Valley Honda Street Legal Drag Strip has been canceled due to the BMX National that is taking place on the Lake Perris Fairgrounds. Drag racing will return on Friday night June 2^nd.

Anyone wishing more information can contact Perris Auto Speedway at (951) 940-0134.

racesatthepas@aol.com is the only authorized Internet address to issue official media news released from The Perris Auto Speedway or Oval Entertainment

SALUTE TO INDY WINNERS AT PERRIS AUTO SPEEDWAY

1996 J.J. Yeley

1997 Cory Kruseman

1998 Mike Kirby

1999 Troy Rutherford

2000 Richard Griffin

2001 Cory Kruseman

2002 Mike Kirby

2003 Damion Gardner

2004 Damion Gardner

2005 Corey Kruseman

USAC/CRA POINT STANDINGS