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| Press Release |
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GREG ALEXANDER TAKES 2009 OPENER |
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MARCH 14, 2009 --- Ventura Raceway opened its 2009 racing schedule with a night of exciting racing that saw drivers take to the new and improved raceway track in impressive performances that will set the tone for the new season. VRA Sprints, Sport Compacts, IMCA Modifieds, USAC Junior Ford Focus and Lightning Sprints all opened their season with full fields of drivers ready to go for the top spots in 2009. In VRA Sprint action, 42 cars signed into the pits necessitating a five heat race, two semi main format. Heat race wins went to Steve Conrad, Rick Hendrix, Brent Camarillo, Josh Ford and Troy Rutherford. Each heat transferred three cars directly to the 30 lap feature. To fill the 22 car starting field two semi mains were held with John Nock taking semi one and Dennis Rodriguez taking semi two. The 30 lap feature started with Steve Conrad on the pole. Troy Rutherford and Josh Ford quickly moved out front and battles side by side with slide jobs being done in almost every turn until on lap ten when Ford made a bad move and took Rutherford and himself out in turn two. Rutherford was livid and jumped out of his car and proceeded to Ford’s car where a incident occurred. Both cars were removed from the track and the race resumed. From that point in the race was fast and furious with Greg Alexander and Kevin Kierce battling for the win. When all was said and done, Alexander repeated his win from last March 15’s race. Kierce was second with Greg Taylor in third, Steve Conrad fourth and John Nock fifth. The drivers who finished up front all made great advances from their starting spots, Alexander came from 9th, Kierce came from 11th, Taylor came from 15th and Nock came from 16th. In IMCA Modified racing, Danny Lauer led the 20 cars starting the feature to the first win of the season. He was followed to the line by Robby Sawyer, Ron Wiley, 2008 track champion Damon Redman and Austin Rodarte. Heat race wins went to Sawyer, Lauer and Wiley. The racing in this open wheeled stock car class was excellent all night leading those in attendance to expect to see more of this great racing when the modifieds return on March 28th. VRA Sport Compacts started a new era with two classes racing. The series has been divided into front wheel and rear wheel classes for the first time. In front wheel competition, the heat race win went to Joel Chavez Jr and the feature went to James Brown, followed by Randal Dougan, Joel Chavez Jr, Roger Sutton and John Butcher. In rear wheel racing the win in their heat went to Trevor Fitzgibbon and the feature went to first time winner Brent Underwood with Cody Greiman, Brad Long, Corey McKinney and Brandon Reta following him across the finish line. . The USAC Junior Ford Focus Midgets also opened their season on Saturday night with heat race wins going to Andrew Murray and Kyle Edwards. The feature went to Ethan Quinn after on track winner Andrew Murray’s car failed post race inspection. Following him in the finishing order were Taylor Ferns, Maverick Gaunt, Alex Jacobson and Kyle Edwards. The final group racing Saturday night were the California Lightning Sprints. These winged warriors in midget sized racers put on a great show. They will return later in the season for another night at Ventura. Saturday night saw a good crowd in attendance for opening night. Next week we return to action with VRA Sprints, Senior Sprints, Dwarf Cars, Sport Compacts and our Junior Midget and Mini Dwarf Car kid classes. from venturaraceway.com |
