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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| BOBBY GRAHAM WINS FINAL IMCA
SPRINT CAR MAIN AT VENTURA by Gary Jacob |
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IMCA Sprint Cars, Street Stocks and Pony Stocks |
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Ventura, CA -October 9, 1999-- On the night that
track promoter Jim Naylor announced that the unwinged 360 sprint cars
would move from IMCA sanction to Ventura Racing Association sanction
in year 2000, former legend car ace Bobby Graham raced to victory in
their 30 lap main Saturday at Ventura Raceway. Tom Stephens won his
fourth consecutive street stock 20 lap main. Luis Espinoza was the
pony stock feature winner. The California Lightning Sprints made their
final 1999 appearance at Ventura and Greg Bragg edged out Phil
Goodwine for the fifth win for the Visalia ace.
The 26 IMCA Sprint Cars were split into three heat races. Graham won the first, Chris Wakim edged out Ronnie Case in the second and Kenny White took heat three. Bill Welch was the B Main winner. Graham shared the front row with Wakim for the 30 lap main and Graham raced into the lead over Wakim. White used the bottom to take second from Wakim before the first of many yellows fell as track conditions were an unusual dry and dusty on a warm night. Jimmy Crawford had spun in turn 3 and that left USAC TQ midget racer Troy Barkley with nowhere to go. Barkley was done and Crawford returned after losing laps in the pits. Welch ground to a stop on the front stretch with Mike Frith-Smith hooked to his rear bumper. When the race resumed, Gary Howard ended up facing the wrong way in turn 1 and eventually Case, John Wright and Terry Harman were also involved. Case was the only driver unable to restart. The next caution was even bigger as Rob Kershaw got sideways in turn 1 and triggered a six car tangle that included Dan Tedrick, Wright, Brett Butler, Clark Templeman III and Howard. The two caution rule ended the night for both Wright and Howard. The green was only out briefly before Jim Gresham spun for another caution. When finally some laps were scored, Graham and White checked out on the field with Wakim, Jeff Heaton and Greg Taylor dueling for third. With everyone else running the top, Heaton was working the bottom. After several laps of dueling Wakim side by side, Heaton raced into third. Wakim tried to follow him on the bottom, but switched back to the top and regained third. Taylor then drove by Heaton for fourth, but he spun for a lap 8 yellow flag. The field then ripped off 22 straight green flag laps to end the race. With Graham and White running away from the field and driving the same line, it was a follow the leader show. White briefly pulled alongside as they worked lapped traffic, but Graham again pulled ahead as they cleared the slower cars. Graham won by ten car lengths over White with Wakim third ahead of Templeman. Stephens won his fourth straight street stock main after he and Ernie Malone won the heat races. Espinoza won the pony stock main after Dave Revard, Espinoza, Ray Martinez and track champion Mark Fullerton won heat races. Fullerton is moving into the IMCA modifieds in year 2000. With support from both Northern and Southern California, the Lightning Sprints had a huge 31 car field. Goodwine and Bragg were the fastest qualifiers. Hal Engstrom, Keith Racer, Scott Newton and Randy Waitman won heat races. Several top runners were forced into the B Main that was won by Dallen McKenney ahead of Russ Bryant and Brent Sexton. The promoters elected to add a 21st car to the feature, but the inversion pill came up zero. That put Goodwine and Bragg on the front row and they dueled race long for the win. Bragg made his winning pass on lap 15. Goodwine ran second ahead of Jesse Dean, 17th starter McKenney, Scott Newton and Justin Curti, who clinched the Northern Stars championship with his finish. |
