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| HESPERIA'S PERKINS WINS
VENTURA SPRINT FEATURE by Gary Jacob |
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Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars, Street Stocks and Pony Stocks |
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Ventura, CA -April 29, 2000--Will Perkins makes the
tow from the high desert community of Hesperia to race weekly in the
unwinged 360 sprint cars at Ventura Raceway and he was rewarded with a
$1,000 win in the 30 lap main event Saturday night as he outdueled new
point leader Gary Howard for the win. He came from sixth starting and
his mount is sponsored by Diesel Doctor and J J Chrome Shop. Howard
finished second and emerged with a five point lead over Chris Wakim as
former point leader Clark Templeman III sat out on his wedding day.
Howard earned $750 and Steven Conrad $500 for third. Tom Stephens won
the 20 lap street stock main event from 4th starting in his Bob Herron
sponsored mount and Wayne Heurung's 2nd place run cut John Uccellini's
point lead to just 45 points as Uccellini ran third. The pony stock
field again beat the 30 car mark and veteran double division racer
Frank Woodward posted his first win as he came from 8th to beat front
row starter Ray Martinez in the 20 lapper.
The unwinged 360 sprint car count again beat the 30 car mark and they were divided into four qualifying heats with the top four finishers in each advancing into the 30 lap A Main. Heat winners were Bob Graham, Steven Conrad, Jimmy Crawford and Bill Welch. Dayle Henry flipped in the heat action. As usual, the night started with a pair of special events for the numerous division rookies. Luis Espinosa won the first and Jessie Denome rented the Cory Kruseman Driving School car and won the second. Defending track champion Kevin Kierce has moved his racing onto the pavement with the USAC sprints in 2000, but he made a return to Ventura and appeared to have missed the A Main with his third place finish behind Denny McVey and rookie Espinosa in the B Main, but Espinosa allowed Kierce to take the final A Main slot. Denome's rental proved an expensive proposition when he got into turn 1 too hard, rode the wall and then flipped without injury. As the heat winners who came from the deepest in the pack, Welch and Conrad shared the front row for the 18 car A Main. Welch jumped out front of Conrad and Crawford. Crawford passed Conrad in the first 5 laps to take over second. Perkins was quickly moving forward from 6th starting and he passed Conrad for third. Welch was flying in the upper groove as he built a 10 car length lead. The four car duel for second between Crawford, Perkins, Conrad and Howard allowed them all to close on Welch. Running the extreme bottom groove, Howard moved into fourth as Perkins used a slide job to take second from Crawford. Perkins used another slide job in turn 3 to take the lead from Welch in turn 3. Howard continued his surge forward and raced into second. The lead duel was a classic battle between the rim riding Perkins and the bottom groove effort of Howard. The tight duel for third saw Crawford make contact with a lapped car and stall on lap 22, collecting Tom Stansberry. Jim Gresham spun in turn 4 to quickly force another caution. On lap 27, John Wright jumped the cushion in turn 1, smacked the wall and flipped. That forced the only red flag of the feature, but Wright was able to walk away. When the green returned with three short rounds remaining, Perkins again charged into the top groove, but Howard's move into the middle groove allowed Conrad to dive underneath and make it a three way duel. On the final lap, Perkins elected to use the middle groove forcing Howard lower and pinching off Conrad. Perkins and Howard came out of the final corner even, but Perkins' higher line and it's greater momentum allowed him to take the checkered flag by less than a foot. Conrad was third just a car length back and Wakim ran fourth ahead of Welch. Greg Taylor, Ronnie Case, McVey, Kierce and Tony Dighera rounded out the top ten. In the incredibly tight point race, Howard's point lead is five over Wakim, 15 ahead of Conrad and 35 ahead of Taylor as Perkins moved into a tie for fifth with Crawford. The street stocks had a 17 car field and heat winners were Stephen Suchowirsky, Randy Miller and Heurung. Stephens had run third in his heat, but battled from 4th starting to win the main with 6th starter Heurung second ahead of 7th starter Uccellini. Defending track champion Craig Germanetti ran fourth ahead of Will Smith, Suchowirsky, Mike Riccardi, Tracey Pallais and John Romero. Pony Stock feature winner Woodward was 10th in the street stock main. Uccellini holds a 45 point lead over Heurung with Germanetti 125 out of the lead in third, just 5 points ahead of Stephens. With the large field of pony stocks, it takes a top four heat run to make their 20 lap A Main and heat winners were Darren Gunnell, Martinez, Jack Fullerton and John Burroughs. The final four slots are determined in the B Main and female ace Julie Masters won that race ahead of Daniel Shrubb and Tim Frazier. Woodward came from the 4th row for his pony stock feature win ahead of front row starter Martinez, 7th starter Gunnell, Mark Gillimore, 18th starter Shrubb, Gary Yeates, Fullerton and Cliff Ashlock. Ashlock emerged with a 15 point lead over Yeates as former point leader Bryan Weaver could only manage a 16th and fell 50 points out of the point lead. Summary Pony Stock Heat 1-Darren Gunnell, Wes Richardson, Jon Everhart, Mike Frazier, Tim Frazier. Heat 2-Ray Martinez, Frank Woodward, Gary Yeates, Tom Burroughs, Julie Masters. Heat 3-Jack Fullerton, Cliff Ashlock, Chris Tramel, Mark Gillimore, Bruce Blackman. Heat 4-John Burroughs, Bryan Rungaitis, Scott Bulpitt, Bryan Weaver, Daniel Shrubb. B Main-Masters, Shrubb, T Frazier, Paul Jankovskis, Wade Zimmerman, Dave Revard, Rick Rodarte, Blackman, Eric Chambers, Danny Tramel. A Main-Woodward, Martinez, D Gunnell, Gillimore, Shrubb, Yeates, Fullerton, Ashlock, Bulpitt, Rungaitis, M Frazier, T Burroughs, T Frazier, Jankovskis, J Burroughs. Street Stock Heat 1-Stephen Suchowirsky, Craig Germanetti, John Uccellini, Tracey Pallais, John Romero. Heat 2-Randy Miller, Steve Bulpitt, Mike Riccardi, Ernie Malone, Walter VanWingerden. Heat 3-Wayne Heurung, Ken Haley, Tom Stephens, Frank Woodward, Greg Raap. Main-Stephens, Heurung, Uccellini, Germanetti, Will Smith, Suchowirsky, Riccardi, Pallais, Romero, Woodward, Lee, Malone, Raap, Haley, Miller, Bulpitt, VanWingerden. Unwinged 360 Sprint Car Heat 1-Bob Graham, Greg Taylor, Brett Butler, Tony Dighera, Jessie Denome. Heat 2-Steven Conrad, Ronnie Case, Jeff Heaton, Randy Moody, Denny McVey. Heat 3-Jimmy Crawford, Will Perkins, Chris Wakim, John Wright, Kevin Kierce. Heat 4-Bill Welch, Gary Howard, Tom Stansberry, Jim Gresham, Luis Espinosa. B Main-McVey, Espinosa, Kierce, Jim Porter, Russ DeBlauw, Kenny Brown, Mike Davis, Jeremy Ellerton, Sparky Edmonston, John Woodward. A Main-Perkins, Howard, Conrad, Wakim, Welch, Taylor, Case, McVey, Kierce, Dighera, Heaton, Crawford, Gresham, Butler, Stansberry, Graham, Wright, Moody. |
