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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| LAST LAP PASS NETS MOODY
$1,000 WIN by Gary Jacob |
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VRA Sprints, IMCA Modifieds, I-4 Modifieds and Pony Stocks |
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Ventura, CA -March 18, 2000--Using a last lap slide
job in turns 1 and 2, Randy Moody passed Gary Howard to win the 30 lap
VRA unwinged 360 sprint car feature at Ventura Raceway Saturday night.
Moody's win paid $1,000, Howard collected $750 for second and Will
Perkins was a $500 third. While Howard had to settle for a second
place finish, he did take over the track point lead as opening night
winner Tom Stansberry was a dropout. Taking the lead from Bill
Saltzman on lap 9, Rich Wolfe won the 20 lap IMCA Modified main with
defending champion Donald Houghton second for the second straight
week. Wolfe's win paid $300. Todd Keeter commanded the I-4 Modified
action, collecting a $100 win in the feature after running 2nd in his
heat race. Bryan Weaver outran Jon Everhart to win the Pony Stock main
event.
The sprint cars were split into four heats. Moody won the first heat after exchanging slide jobs and crossovers with runnerup Perkins. Howard won the second heat and Wiley Miller, who missed the season opener, outran Stansberry to win heat 3. Bobby Graham was the fourth heat winner. The night again opened with a special race for the track's large rookie sprint car field with Russell DeBlauw this week's winner. Clark Templeman III could only manage a fifth in his heat, but he won the B Main and Jimmy Crawford was the second transfer to join the 16 that advanced with top four finishes in their heat races. As the heat winner who passed the most cars, Miller was rewarded with the pole for their 30 lap A Main. Howard started outside front row and took the lead from Miller on the first start attempt, but Jim Thomson rolled onto his side in turn 1 to force a red flag. The second start attempt saw both Howard and Moody blasting around Miller on the outside for the 1-2 slots. On lap 2, Miller and Graham banged wheels and Graham fell back into the pack. While Howard and Moody pulled away, Jeff Heaton moved up to challenge Stansberry for third. On lap 9, the leaders were in lapped traffic when Graham caught the cushion in turn 1 and his car was launched into the turn 1 catch fence. Five main support posts, the cable, the chain link and many billboards tumbled down with the fence hooked into the Graham car. Graham escaped unhurt and it took a half-hour to get the track race ready again. When racing resumed, Howard led Moody, Heaton and Stansberry. At midrace, Stansberry pulled into the infield. Once, Moody trapped Howard behind a slower car and took the lead, but he himself got stuck in traffic before the lap could be completed and Howard retook the lead. After they took the white flag, Moody drove straight to the bottom of the track and passed Howard. Howard tried to go underneath Moody in turn 3, but got pinched off. Moody slid up to the middle of the track and Howard pulled alongside for the final drag race to the flag. Moody won in a photo finish with Howard second. Templeman came from his 17th starting spot to finish third as Heaton and Perkins rounded out the top five. Chris Wakim ran 7th behind Greg Taylor and moved into 2nd in points, 30 behind Howard and 15 ahead of Perkins. Stansberry slipped all the way back to 8th in points as the top ten finishers were rounded out by Steve Conrad, Brett Butler and Crawford. The IMCA Modifieds had an 18 car field and they were split into two heats. Wolfe and Houghton preceeded their 1-2 feature finish by winning the two heat races. Steve Smith and John Aitken were runnerup heat finishers. In the feature, Wolfe took the lead from Saltzman on lap 9 and won with Houghton and opening week winner Mike Furlong also getting around Saltzman to finish 2-3. Saltzman ran fourth ahead of Smith, Chris Tonoli, Kathy Pierson and Stephen Mitchell. The field included Colorado's Shane Schaben, who is working in the area. The I-4 Modifieds brought 10 cars and they were divided into two heats. Marty Desbrow and George Kreider IV were the heat winners. Marty McLaughlin was the only feature scratch and Keeter won the main after being second in his heat. Desbrow ran second ahead of Steve Chuhaloff, Joe Henderson, Tommy Fowler and Kreider. The Pony Stocks filled the pits with 31 cars and they ran a four heat format with Everhart, Gary Yeates, Cliff Ashlock and Chris Tramel winning the heat races. Mark Gillimore won the B Main over Keith Renne and Danny Tramel. In the 20 lap A Main, it was Weaver on top with Everhart second ahead of Yeates, Ashlock, Tom Burroughs, Scott Bulpitt, Wes Richardson and Dave Revard. T Burroughs was filling in for his son Brian, who couldn't make the event. Summary Pony Stock Heat 1-Jon Everhart, Bryan Weaver, Wes Richardson, Dave Revard, Scott Bulpitt. Heat 2-Gary Yeates, Tom Burroughs, Rick Rodarte, Keith Renne, Danny Tramel. Heat 3-Cliff Ashlock, Josh Ford, Bruce Blackman, Mark Gillimore, Paul Jankovskis. Heat 4-Chris Tramel, Jack Fullerton, Tom Fish, John Burroughs, Heidi Betz-Payne. B Main-Gillimore, Renne, D Tramel, Bulpitt, J Burroughs, Austin Macias, Matt Tramel, Julie Masters, Daniel Shrubb, Jankovskis. A Main-Weaver, Everhart, Yeates, Ashlock, T Burroughs, Bulpitt, Richardson, Revard, Renne, C Tramel, Gillimore, Rodarte, Blackman, D Tramel, Ford, Fish, Fullerton, Darren Gunnell, Frank Woodward, Ray Martinez. I-4 Modified Heat 1-Marty Desbrow, Todd Keeter, Steve Chuhaloff, Joe Henderson, Bill Camarillo. Heat 2-George Kreider IV, Tommy Fowler, David Knight, Marty McLaughlin, Chuck Stein. Main-Keeter, Desbrow, Chuhaloff, Henderson, Fowler, Kreider, Knight, Camarillo, Stein. IMCA Modified Heat 1-Rich Wolfe, Steve Smith, Mike Furlong, Bill Saltzman, Ed Shelton. Heat 2-Donald Houghton, John Aitken, Al Adam, Chris Tonoli, Hobie Conway. Main-Wolfe, Houghton, Furlong, Saltzman, Smith, Tonoli, Kathy Pierson, Stephen Mitchell, Shelton, Shane Schaben, Aitken, James Stowe, William Kruft, Damon Redmon, Conway, Adam, Dan Coburn, Randy Gens. VRA Sprint Car Heat 1-Randy Moody, Will Perkins, Chris Wakim, Steve Conrad, Clark Templeman III. Heat 2-Gary Howard, Greg Taylor, Dale Harwood, Ronnie Case, Jimmy Crawford. Heat 3-Wiley Miller, Tom Stansberry, Brett Butler, Denny McVey, Rob Kershaw. Heat 4-Bobby Graham, Jeff Heaton, Dan Tedrick, Jim Thomson, John Wright. Main-Moody, Howard, Templeman, Heaton, Perkins, Taylor, Wakim, Conrad, Butler, Crawford, Thomson, Case, Harwood, Miller, Tedrick, McVey, Stansberry, Graham. |
