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| SECOND STRAIGHT WIN NETS
POINT LEAD FOR TEMPLEMAN by Gary Jacob |
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VRA Sprint Cars, Street Stocks and I-4 Modifieds |
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Ventura, CA -April 8, 2000--Taking full advantage of
his pole starting position, Clark Templeman III won his second
consecutive 30 lap VRA sprint car feature Saturday night at Ventura
Raceway and took over the series point lead in the process. Templeman
led all 30 laps and collected $1,000 for the win with Greg Taylor a
$750 second as Tom Stansberry won $500 for his third place finish. The
street stocks raced for the third time in 2000 and had their third
different winner as defending track champion Craig Germanetti won for
the first time with Randy Miller second ahead of previous week winner
Tom Stephens. I-4 Modified point leader Marty Desbrow won their 20 lap
main to join point runnerup Todd Keeter as a year 2000 feature winner
in the class.
It was the 4th 2000 event for the unwinged 360 sprints and 31 of the 34 cars that have appeared were on hand for this week's action. As usual, the big field was divided into four heat races with the top 4 finishers in each advancing into their 30 lap A Main. They are then joined by just the top two finishers in a huge B Main lineup. Heat winners this week were Templeman, Stansberry, Taylor and Randy Moody. Stansberry was the only one of the four to not come from the pole and he won from outside front row, but that was enough to make him the highest point earner and line up 4th behind the other three at the front of the 30 lap grid. Templeman and Taylor shared the front row and Templeman raced into the lead over the 17 year old Taylor as they raced in the extreme outside groove on the 1/4 mile clay oval. Third place Moody occasionally tried the bottom in an attempt to move forward, but he only succeeded in giving up third to Stansberry on lap 4. As the two leaders moved into slower traffic on lap 8, they both moved to the bottom to make their passes, but Taylor elected to stay there when Templeman again charged up top. Taylor was able to keep pace and they raced side-by-side until the first caution on lap 13 for a stalled Mike Davis. On the restart, John Wright slapped the front wall, but continued without a caution. Again, their side by side duel continued until Ronnie Case spun in turn 1 after being pinched off by Gary Howard. Under the caution, top runner Moody pulled off just before the race resumed. In the final 15 laps, the bottom groove didn't work as well for Taylor and he was content to follow Templeman until the final few rounds when he made a fruitless charge on the bottom groove in his attempt to win. Stansberry was a distant third ahead of Steven Conrad with Will Perkins using a contact pass on Jimmy Crawford to finish fifth. Crawford ran sixth ahead of Chris Wakim, B Main winner Bob Graham, Gary Howard and Jeff Heaton. Templeman's point lead is just 25 points over Wakim who is just 15 ahead of Howard. Stansberry and Taylor are tied for 4th, 70 behind the leader and just five points ahead of Conrad. Graham won the B Main from 14th starting ahead of Denny McVey, Bill Welch and rookie Russell DeBlauw. Rob Kershaw missed seeing a caution flag and ran over a wheel on Welch. He flipped end for end, but escaped injury as he climbed from his heavily damaged mount. M Davis became the first of the large crop of rookies to qualify for an A Main with his 4th place heat run. This week, they split the rookies into two races for their special night opening action. A student at Cory Kruseman's school, Chris Fischer drove one of the school cars to a win in the first race and M Davis won the second. The 18 street stocks were split into three heats and the wins went to Stephens, Greg Raap and Will Smith. All 18 cars were gridded for their 20 lap main and Germanetti came from 3rd starting to win ahead of 4th starter Miller, 8th starter Stephens and point leader John Uccellini. Tracey Pallais spun during the race to trigger a multi-car tangle and Michael Lee slammed into the wall. Ernie Malone finished fifth ahead of Wayne Heurung, Stephen Suchowirsky and Steve Bulpitt. Uccellini has built a 65 point lead over Heurung with Miller 100 behind the leader in third. Germanetti has climbed into 4th after a slow start. The I-4 Modifieds had a 12 car field and heat winners were point leaders Desbrow and Keeter. Desbrow came from 6th starting and took the lead on lap 4 to win their 20 lapper. Joe Henderson started 9th and finished 2nd with Mark Joe third in his year 2000 debut. After breaking early on the division's opening night, Marty McLaughlin ran second in his heat and started on the pole of the 20 lapper where he finished fourth ahead of Keeter and Bill Camarillo. Desbrow's point lead is 45 over Keeter and 70 ahead of Henderson. Summary I-4 Modified Heat 1-Marty Desbrow, George Kreider IV, Tommy Fowler, Joe Henderson, Bill Camarillo. Heat 2-Todd Keeter, Marty McLaughlin, Steve Chuhaloff, David Knight, Mark Joe. Main-Desbrow, Henderson, Joe, McLaughlin, Keeter, Camarillo, Chuck Stein, Brad Whitaker, Fowler, Kreider, Chuhaloff, Knight. Street Stock Heat 1-Will Smith, Randy Miller, Stephen Suchowirsky, John Uccellini, Frank Woodward. Heat 2-Greg Raap, Craig Germanetti, Ken Haley, Steve Bulpitt, Dan Murphy. Heat 3-Tom Stephens, Mike Riccardi, Ernie Malone, Tracey Pallais, Michael Lee. Main-Germanetti, Miller, Stephens, Uccellini, Malone, Wayne Heurung, Suchowirsky, Bulpitt, Raap, Haley, John Romero, Pallais, Murphy, Smith, Lee, Joe Porche, Riccardi, Woodward. VRA Sprint Car Heat 1-Clark Templeman III, Chris Wakim, Jimmy Crawford, Gary Howard, Brett Butler. Heat 2-Tom Stansberry, Steven Conrad, Ronnie Case, Jeff Heaton, Rob Kershaw. Heat 3-Greg Taylor, Will Perkins, Wiley Miller, Dale Harwood, Bill Welch. Heat 4-Randy Moody, Jim Gresham, John Wright, Mike Davis, Richard Renken. B Main-Bob Graham, Denny McVey, Welch, Russell DeBlauw, John Woodward, Jim Porter, Kenny Brown, Butler, Luis Espinoza, Chris Fischer. A Main-Templeman, Taylor, Stansberry, Conrad, Perkins, Crawford, Wakim, Graham, Howard, Heaton, Case, McVey, Gresham, Miller, Harwood, Wright, Moody, Davis. |
