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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| POINT LEADER HOWARD CHARGES
FROM 9TH FOR THIRD $1,000 WIN by Gary Jacob |
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Unwinged 360 Sprints, IMCA Modifieds and I-4 Modifieds |
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Ventura, CA -July 8, 2000--After only managing a
third place finish in his heat, VRA unwinged 360 sprint car point
leader Gary Howard to battle his way forward from 9th starting, but he
managed to drive to victory in their 30 lap main event Saturday night
at Ventura Raceway by passing Jeff Heaton on the final lap. With the
$1,000 win, Howard joined Randy Moody as a three time winner in 2000
and increased his track point lead to 185 points over Chris Wakim, who
was a $500 third behind Heaton, who won $750 for his second place run.
For the second straight week, the IMCA Modifieds had a surprise winner
as 7th ranked Stephen Mitchell won his first 20 lap feature since
moving up from the street stocks a couple seasons back. The win for
Mitchell was worth $275 and point leader Mike Furlongs 12th place run
tightened up the standings. Furlong now is just 2 points ahead of Rich
Wolfe, who was fifth. Rookie Daman Redmon followed up his win of July
1 with a 2nd place run tonight. The I-4 Modifieds returned to action
and Black racer Marty McLaughlin came from 7th starting to post his
second 20 lap feature win of 2000. The division has a new point leader
as former leader Joe Henderson ran 13th and fell 10 points back of
George Kreider IV, who was fourth.
The VRA sprint cars were right at the 30 car mark again including California Lightning Sprint ace Chris Rahe in his sprint car debut. They were divided into four heats with the top four in each advancing to the rich 30 lapper. The four heat winners sit in the front two rows for the main event. Ronnie Case beat Jim Gresham and Clark Templeman III in heat 1. Cases teammate, Jimmy Crawford won heat 2 ahead of Wakim and Howard. Jeff Heaton won heat 3 with returning racer Richard McCormick in second. Young Greg Taylor took heat 4 with Dale Harwood second. The track elected to just take 2 transfers out of the 11 car B Main. Veteran Brett Butler and rookie Luis Espinoza, a graduate of the pony stocks, were those two transfers. Case and Crawford shared the front row for the 30 lap A Main Heaton started 3rd, Wakim 6th and Howard 9th. Heaton appeared to be headed for a career first win when his mount slowed late in the race and Howard made his winning pass on that final round. Heaton hung on for second ahead of Wakim and front row starters Crawford and Case. McCormick was 15th ahead of Richard Renken, John Wright and Harwood. Wakim moved past Taylor into second in points as Taylor had to be towed from the track and settled for a 15th in the A Main. Taylor is now 30 points behind Wakim and Heaton has climbed into fourth, 270 behind the point leader. With all the other area IMCA Modified tracks in action, there were no unusual visitors in the 15 car modified lineup. Redmon won the first heat ahead of Furlong and defending track champion Donald Houghton, who is slowly climbing back into track title contention. Mitchell won heat 2 in front of John Aitken and Jim Barttelt. In the 20 lap main, Mitchell gained his first modified win, Redmon followed up last weeks win with a 2nd and former Victorville champion Barttelt got the best finish of his three consecutive appearances with a third. Houghton was fourth ahead of Wolfe, Steve Smith, California State Point leader Bill Saltzman, Aitken and Ed Shelton. Houghton is now third, just 14 points back of Furlong and a single point ahead of Aitken. Smith and Saltzman are still alive in the track title fight as they stand 20 and 22 points back respectively. In the I-4 Modifieds, it was McLaughlin and Kreider IV the heat winners with a 14 car turnout. McLaughlin lined up 7th for their 20 lap main and he won with Tommy Fowler second ahead of David Knight, Kreider, Dan Coburn, Dino Delao and Steve Chuhaloff. With Joe Hendersons 13th place run, Kreider has moved 10 points ahead as the new point leader. Henderson is still second and holds a 45 point margin over Chuhaloff. David Knight is 160 out of the point lead in third. Summary I-4 Modified Heat 1-Marty McLaughlin, Steve Chuhaloff, Mark Joe, Dinon Delao, Joshua Nice. Heat 2-George Kreider IV, Tommy Fowler, David Knight, Doug Cason, Chris Tramel. Main-McLaughlin, Fowler, Knight, Kreider, Dan Coburn, Delao, Chuhaloff, Cason, Brad Whitaker, Nice, Joe, Tramel, Joe Henderson, David Rhodes. IMCA Modified Heat 1-Daman Redmon, Mike Furlong, Donald Houghton, Kathy Pierson, Bill Saltzman. Heat 2-Stephen Mitchell, John Aitken, Jim Barttelt, Steve Smith, Rich Wolfe. Main-Mitchell, Redmon, Barttelt, Houghton, Wolfe, Smith, Saltzman, Aitken, Ed Shelton, Pierson, Hobie Conway, Furlong, Chris Tonoli, Randy Gens, Bill Waltman. Unwinged 360 Sprint Car Heat 1-Ronnie Case, Jim Gresham, Clark Templeman III, John Wright, Brett Butler. Heat 2-Jimmy Crawford, Chris Wakim, Gary Howard, Bill Welch, John Woodward. Heat 3-Jeff Heaton, Richard McCormick, Rob Kershaw, Tony Dighera, Randy Moody. Heat 4-Greg Taylor, Dale Harwood, Mike Davis, Richard Renken, Luis Espinoza. B Main-Butler, Espinoza, Jim Porter, Kenny Brown, Dayle Henry, Jessie Denome, Jeremy Ellertson, Woodward, Sparky Edmonston, Chris Rahe. A Main-Howard, Heaton, Wakim, Crawford, Case, McCormick, Renken, Wright, Harwood, Butler, Welch, Espinoza, Dighera, Gresham, Taylor, Kershaw, Davis, Templeman. |
