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| CASE WIRE TO WIRE FOR FIRST
WIN by Gary Jacob |
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Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars, Street Stocks, I-4 Modifieds and Pony Stocks |
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Ventura, CA -November 4, 2000--Leading all the way
from the front row, Ronnie Case won his first 30 lap VRA unwinged 360
sprint car feature of the 2000 season Saturday night at Ventura
Raceway. His win was worth $1,000 and runnerup Gary Howard wrapped up
the track championship with his $750 run. Jimmy May was $500 third and
fifth place Jeff Heaton leaped all the way to 2nd in track points as
Chris Wakim was a B Main flip victim and Greg Taylor flipped in the
main event. Craig Germanetti stayed on track for a second straight
track championship by winning the 20 lap street stock main event for
his 4th victory. George Kreider IV won his third 20 lap I-4 Modified
main event and increased his point lead to a solid 285 points over
Marty Desbrow, who was last in the 9 car field. Bryan Rungaitis won
the 20 lap pony stock main event after Jeff Graham was disqualified in
post race tech when his battery could not generate the necessary 13.6
volts. Rungaitis not only gained the feature win, but also emerged as
the point leader with a 10 point margin over Mark Gallimore, who
finished fifth. Ray Martinez ran 12th and fell 60 points back of
Rungaitis.
The unwinged 360 sprint car count was a track record 37 cars and they were divided into four heat races with just the top 4 in each advancing into the 30 lapper. Heaton won an attrition filled first heat over John Wright and dwarf car ace Ron Bach, who was making his sprint car debut. Case won the second heat over Jimmy May and Richard McCormick. Howard took heat 3 with Jim Thomson second over Tony Dighera. Taylor took heat 4 over Mike Knopf. Rather than run a single huge B Main, they elected to run two smaller B Mains and transfer the top two out of each. John Woodward won the first B Main over Steve Hess and Rob Kershaw. Clark Templeman III won the second B Main over Kenny Brown and Jessie Denome. Wakim started the night second in points, but ran over a wheel in the first B Main and flipped on the frontstretch to end his night. In the 30 lap unwinged sprint car feature, Case charged into the lead over fellow front row starter Heaton. Howard charged into third. Taylor started fourth and ran there early. Taylor used an outside groove run to take third from Howard and then dropped to the bottom to take second from Heaton. By this time, 10 laps had been run and Case had a full straight lead over Taylor. Able to work both the top and bottom grooves faster than anyone, Taylor began to reel in Case. On lap 15, Taylor tried to dart between two slower cars on the backstretch, but he clipped the rear end of another car in turn 3 and flipped for a red flag. He was unhurt, but his 20th place finish cost him second in points. Case had a couple lapped cars between himself and Howard for the restart. It took Howard a couple laps to break free of the traffic and reel in Case. On lap 21, Howard was able to drop to the bottom groove in turn 1 and pull alongside Case. Case seemed inspired by the sight of Howard and he pulled away to the win with Howard finishing second ahead of a surprising May, McCormick and Heaton, who faded late. Brett Butler was 6th over Dighera, Wright and Bill Welch. With 220 points available on a single night, Howard's point lead is 495 over Heaton. Heaton is only 5 points ahead of Taylor and 20 ahead of Wakim. Case stands sixth in points behind Jimmy Crawford. The 17 street stocks were split into three heats. Heat winners were Ernie Malone, Wayne Heurung and Dan Murphy. Germanetti ran second in his heat and won the 20 lap main to build his point lead to 240 points over John Uccellini, who was 12th. Steve Bulpitt was second in the main with former IMCA Modified ace Paul Moore filling in for Randy Miller and finishing 3rd ahead of Stephen Suchowirsky and Malone. Frank Woodward was sixth over Murphy and Heurung. The feature had 15 starters as both Chris Tramel and Erick Karlsen trailered before the main event. Kreider had a perfect night in the I-4 Modified action as he won his heat over Steve Chuhaloff. Marty McLaughlin won the second heat over Tommy Fowler. When Chris Tramel scratched, the A Main field was cut to 9 cars. Kreider won the 20 lapper over Joe Henderson, Fowler, Chuhaloff, Dan Coburn and Joshua Nice. While Kreider holds a solid lead, Desbrow leads Chuhaloff by 65 points and McLaughlin by 155 points. Rookie Henderson is fifth in points. The pony stocks had a recent low of 28 cars racing. Heat winners were Mike Frazier, Wes Richardson, B Rungaitis and Jeff Graham, but Graham was also stripped of his heat win when he lost his feature triumph. The heat win went to Ray Martinez. The 16 heat race transfers were joined by four transfers from the B Main where Rick Rodarte won over Cliff Ashlock, Jody Davis and Julie Masters. When Graham was disqualified in tech, B Rungaitis gained the feature win over Darren Gunnell, Bryan Weaver, Dave Little, Rodarte, Mark Gallimore, Ashlock, Scott Bulpitt and Masters. Summary Pony Stock Heat 1-Mike Frazier, William Kruft, Paul Jankovskis, Mark Gallimore, Cliff Ashlock. Heat 2-Wes Richardson, Bryan Weaver, Dave Little, Tom Fish, Rick Rodarte. Heat 3-Bryan Rungaitis, Scott Bulpitt, Darren Gunnell, Dave Revard, Jimmy Clegg. Heat 4-Ray Martinez, Frank Woodward, Matt Tramel, Tom Burroughs, Brad Long. B Main-Rodarte, Ashlock, Jody Davis, Julie Masters, Shane Rungaitis, Clegg, Garnet Baril, Long, Stuart Baird. A Main-B Rungaitis, Gunnell, Weaver, Little, Rodarte, Gallimore, Ashlock, Bulpitt, Masters, Woodward, Davis, Martinez, Burroughs, Fish, Jankovskis, Frazier, Kruft, Tramel, Richardson, Graham. I-4 Modified Heat 1-George Kreider IV, Steve Chuhaloff, Joe Henderson, Dan Coburn, Joshua Nice. Heat 2-Marty McLaughlin, Tommy Fowler, Rick Rodarte, Chris Tramel, Marty Desbrow. Main-Kreider, Henderson, Fowler, Chuhaloff, Coburn, Nice, McLaughlin, Rodarte, Desbrow. Street Stock Heat 1-Ernie Malone, Tracey Pallais, John Uccellini, Michael Lee, Greg Rapp. Heat 2-Wayne Heurung, Craig Germanetti, Stephen Suchowirsky, John Romero, Frank Woodward. Heat 3-Dan Murphy, Bradley Prows, Steve Bulpitt, Paul Moore, Joe Porche. Main-Germanetti, Bulpitt, Moore, Suchowirsky, Malone, Woodward, Murphy, Heurung, Prows, Mike Riccardi, Romero, Uccellini, Pallais, Lee, Porche. Unwinged 360 Sprint Car Heat 1-Jeff Heaton, John Wright, Ron Bach, Jimmy Crawford, Steve Hess. Heat 2-Ronnie Case, Jimmy May, Richard McCormick, Bill Welch, Clark Templeman III. Heat 3-Gary Howard, Jim Thomson, Tony Dighera, Russell DeBlauw, John Woodward. Heat 4-Greg Taylor, Mike Knopf, Jim Porter, Brett Butler, Luis Espinoza. 1st B Main-Woodward, Hess, Rob Kershaw, Dale Harwood, Sparky Edmonston, Steve Chuhaloff, Dayle Henry, Chris Wakim. 2nd B Main-Templeman, Kenny Brown, Jessie Denome, Bill Camarillo, John Nickel, Mark Weitzman, Jeff Wilson, Jim Gresham, Espinoza. A Main-Case, Howard, May, McCormick, Heaton, Butler, Dighera, Wright, Welch, Knopf, Crawford, Thomson, Bach, Woodward, Templeman, Porter, Hess, Brown, DeBlauw, Taylor. |
