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| DEFENDING CHAMPION HOWARD
POINT LEADER FOLLOWING THIRD STRAIGHT WIN by Gary Jacob |
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Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars, IMCA Modifieds, Street Stocks and Pony Stocks |
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Ventura, CA -April 28, 2001--Defending track champion
Gary Howard was rewarded with the early season point lead after
winning his third straight 30 lap VRA Unwinged 360 Sprint Car feature
Saturday night at Ventura Raceway. Jeff Heaton and John Wright chased
the $1,000 winner to the checkered flag and Howard emerged with a 355
point margin over incoming point leader Richard McCormick, who was a
feature crash victim after winning a B Main. Heaton won $750 and
Wright $500. Howard had started 5th, Heaton 10th and Wright 7th. Chris
Tonoli won his first IMCA Modified 20 lap feature of 2001 and climbed
into third in points, just 7 back of defending track champion Mike
Furlong. Ventura's own Bradley Prows not only wheeled his Yellow Cab
Company special to his first ever feature win, but gained the point
lead when Greg Raap could only manage a 12th. Prows emerged with just
a 15 point lead over feature runnerup Wayne Heurung. Second ranked
Pony Stock racer James Brown won their 20 lap main, but gained little
ground on point leader Bryan Rungaitis as B Rungaitis ran 2nd and
holds a 95 point lead on the basis of three straight top 3 finishes.
The incredible car counts for the unwinged 360's continues as 36 were in action. They were split into four qualifying heats. Greg Taylor beat Wright in heat 1, Ronnie Case beat teammate Jimmy Crawford in heat 2, Jimmy May and Bill Welch were 1-2 in heat 3 and Howard started his perfect night with a heat 4 win over Steven Conrad. Rather than run a single 20 car B Main, the track elected to stage two 10 car B Mains with just the top 2 finishers in each advancing. McCormick won the first over Mike Davis and Jim Gresham. Kings Speedway Bandit ace Gene Manhire joined the Ventura action for the first time and just missed a transfer out of his heat with a fifth. He made it into the lineup for the 30 lapper by placing second behind Russell DeBlauw in the second B Main with dwarf car veteran Ron Bach just missing in third. Jeremy Ellertson had a scary series of flips in the second B Main, taking out a section of the backstretch fencing. Track observers called the 30 lap A Main the best race of the season at the track as a blanket could have been laid over leader Crawford, Taylor and Howard over the first 20 laps. Crawford has a new Stealth sprint car and he managed to hang onto a narrow lead before he missed the cushion and got sideways. He collected Taylor and Case with Taylor ending up on his head. An earlier incident had sidelined McCormick. Howard was saved by the fact that he was making an inside bid for the lead when the incident happened and he led the rest of the 30 lapper to win over Heaton, Wright, Conrad, Chris Wakim, Rob Kershaw, Tony Dighera and Bill Welch. The misfortunes of both McCormick and Taylor allowed Howard to become the new point leader. McCormick is still second, but just 220 points in front of Wakim. Taylor is fourth, 95 behind Wakim and just 15 ahead of Case. The IMCA Modifieds had a 17 car turnout including surprise Las Vegas visitor Dan Fitzgerald. A top runner in the regional standings every season, Fitzgerald ran second in the first heat behind feature winner Tonoli. Point leader Furlong and Randy McGraw won the other two heat races. Tonoli won the main event in front of three former champions, McGraw, Donald Houghton and Furlong. Rich Wolfe was fifth over Daman Redman, Fitzgerald, Gary Curtis and rookie Mark Fullerton. Houghton is second in points, five behind Furlong and just 2 ahead of Tonoli. Heat winners in the 15 car street stock field were defending champion Craig Germanetti and Will Smith. Prows ran third behind Germanetti and Stephen Suchowirsky in his heat. Early season dominator Raap was fourth in his heat. In the main event, Prows won ahead of Heurung, Germanetti, Paul Moore, Ernie Malone, Smith, Steve Bulpitt and Suchowirsky. The point standings tightened with Prows now 15 ahead of Heurung, 25 ahead of Moore and 50 ahead of both Raap and Bulpitt. Suchowirsky is just 5 behind the tied duo and even 7th place Germanetti is only 75 points out of the point lead. The Pony Stocks had a 30 car turnout and the four heat races went to Wade Zimmerman, Shane Rungaitis, Brown and Dave Revard. The final four A Main slots went to transfers from a 13 car B Main where Dave Little beat Bruce Blackman Jr. Brown capped his perfect night with a feature win in front of B Rungaitis, Chris Tramel, Tom Burroughs, B Main winner Little, Jeff Graham, female ace Julie Masters and Blackman. B Rungaitis and Brown have pulled away from the pack in the point race with Cliff Ashlock 180 points out of the lead in third. Ashlock is just 15 points ahead of Graham and 30 ahead of Revard. This week's race was a makeup of one of the rainouts that opened the 2001 season. Summary Pony Stock Heat 1-Wade Zimmerman, Cliff Ashlock, Jon Everhart, Adam McPhail, Dan Clark. Heat 2-Shane Rungaitis, Mike Frazier, Bryan Rungaitis, Mark Gallimore, Julie Masters. Heat 3-James Brown, Tom Burroughs, Jeff Graham, Chris Tramel, Joanna Reyes-Brown. Heat 4-Dave Revard, Jack Fullerton, Jody Davis, Jake Ford, Dave Little. B Main-Little, Bruce Blackman Jr, Clark, Masters, Joel Chavez, Phillip Stevenson, John Mikkelsen, John Huffman, Reyes-Brown, Laurie Richardson. A Main-Brown, B Rungaitis, Tramel, Burroughs, Little, Graham, Masters, Blackman, Revard, Everhart, Ashlock, Clark, S Rungaitis, Zimmerman, Gallimore, Ford, Frazier, Davis, McPhail, Fullerton. Street Stock Heat 1-Craig Germanetti, Stephen Suchowirsky, Bradley Prows, John Romero, Steve Bulpitt. Heat 2-Will Smith, Ernie Malone, Erick Karlsen, Greg Raap, Paul Moore. Main-Prows, Wayne Heurung, Germanetti, Moore, Malone, Smith, Bulpitt, Suchowirsky, Romero, Paul Jankovskis, Karlsen, Raap, John Hard, Harvey Jones, Michael Lee. IMCA Modified Heat 1-Chris Tonoli, Dan Fitzgerald, Ed Cutler, Bill Hiney, Ed Shelton. Heat 2-Randy McGraw, Steve Greenland, Steve Smith, Rich Wolfe, William Kruft. Heat 3-Mike Furlong, Gary Curtis, Daman Redman, John Aitken, Mark Fullerton. Main-Tonoli, McGraw, Donald Houghton, Furlong, Wolfe, Redman, Fitzgerald, Curtis, Fullerton, Aitken, Smith, Kruft, Brett Lynsky, Cutler, Hiney, Greenland, Shelton. Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars Heat 1-Greg Taylor, John Wright, Chris Wakim, Tony Dighera, Jim Gresham. Heat 2-Ronnie Case, Jimmy Crawford, Luis Espinoza, Jim Thomson, Russell DeBlauw. Heat 3-Jimmy May, Bill Welch, Clark Templeman III, Jim Porter, Richard McCormick. Heat 4-Gary Howard, Steven Conrad, Jeff Heaton, Rob Kershaw, Gene Manhire. 1st B Main-McCormick, Mike Davis, Gresham, Kenny Brown, Josh Ford, Gene Godepski, Ron Butler, Bob Graham, Dick Steven, Steve Chuhaloff. 2nd B Main-DeBlauw, Manhire, Ron Bach, Jerry Welton, Joe Winston, Tim Moon, Steve Hess, Jeremy Ellertson, Oren Prosser Jr, Bob Moody. A Main-Howard, Heaton, Wright, Conrad, Wakim, Kershaw, Dighera, Welch, Case, Porter, Espinoza, Crawford, DeBlauw, Thomson, Manhire, Taylor, McCormick, Davis, Templeman, May. |
