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See You At The Races!!! |
| POINT LEADER GARY HOWARD
WINS HIS FIFTH by Gary Jacob |
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Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars, IMCA Modifieds, VRA Modifieds and Pony Stocks |
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Ventura, CA -June 16, 2001--Breaking a two race
winless streak, defending champion and current point leader Gary
Howard made it five wins in 2001 by capturing the 30 lap VRA Unwinged
360 Sprint Car feature Saturday night at Ventura Raceway. His $1,000
win came from the 6th starting spot and Tony Dighera moved forward
from 4th starting for a $750 second. Steven Conrad returned to his
former home track in the car that he is driving at Hanford and Santa
Maria this season and his third place run was worth $500. The IMCA
Modifieds had a solid 21 car turnout and Randy McGraw cut Mike
Furlong's point lead to just 7 points by winning his second main event
of the season. Chris Tonoli continued his recent hot streak with a
second ahead of John Aitken. Furlong finished 8th. A graduate of the
street stocks, Rick Rodarte is running for rookie the year honors in
the VRA Modifieds in 2001 and he moved into third in track points by
posting his first feature win. Point leader George Kreider IV was
second ahead of Marty Desbrow. The Pony Stock count dropped to 24 cars
and third ranked point racer Mike Frazier posted his first feature win
with Jody Davis second ahead of Tom Burroughs. Frazier is just 10
points behind Burroughs in their duel for second in points as point
leader Bryan Rungaitis has built a solid 255 point advantage.
There were 34 unwinged 360 sprint cars in the four qualifying heats. Greg Taylor won heat 1 over Kenny Brown. Jimmy Crawford took heat 2 with Dighera in second and Howard was chased to his heat 3 win by second year sprint car racer Luis Espinoza. Conrad won heat 4 and advanced the most spots to top the transfer point listing. Ronnie Case was second in the race. The inversion for the main event came up an 8 and that placed Conrad outside row 4. They took four cars out of each heat and added four more from the B Main. Clark Templeman III won the B Main over Jeff Heaton, John Wright and former champion Kevin Kierce, who was running a backup car for Taylor. Case and Espinoza ran at the front for most of the 30 lapper, but got shuffled back in the late action that was slowed by frequent caution flags. Taylor had started 13th in the A Main and climbed as high as fifth before finishing sixth. Howard blasted forward from his sixth starting spot to win for the fifth time in ten races. Dighera was second over Conrad with Crawford gaining a fourth ahead of Wakim, Taylor, Richard McCormick, Espinoza, Kierce and Templeman. With 1,000 points avaiable each night, Howard's point advantage is now 855 over Taylor. McCormick is almost 600 points behind Taylor. Crawford is 4th in points. The IMCA Modifieds were split into three heat races. Steve Greenland beat Furlong in heat 1, rookie Mark Fullerton won heat 2 over Tonoli and Ed Shelton was victorious in heat 3 over McGraw. Visitors included Hanford ace Jimmy Reeves and Bakersfield star Buck Cox. The track elected to start all 21 cars in the 20 lap feature. McGraw won ahead of Tonoli, John Aitken, Bill Waltman and Reeves, who came from the rear after a last place heat run. Cox was 7th behind Steve Smith and ahead of Furlong, Jack Parker and Scott Olsen. Furlong saw his point lead cut to 7 points by McGraw. Aitken is third, 20 points behind McGraw and 6 ahead of Donald Houghton, who limped to a 19th place finish. The 13 VRA Modifieds were split into a pair of heat races. Desbrow won heat 1 over Joe Henderson and Mike Schwellinger. Mark Gallimore won heat 2 with Marty McLaughlin second. Rodarte was third in that heat, but raced to his first feature win in his new division. Kreider was second ahead of Desbrow, Gallimore, McLaughlin, Daniel Shrubb and Henderson. Kreider increased his point lead to 100 points over Henderson and Rodarte is just 30 points back of Henderson. With the 24 pony stocks, the track elected to run a three heat format. They still advanced just 4 cars out of each heat and then took 8 from a 12 car B Main. Heat winners were Jake Ford, Shane Rungaitis and Frazier. S Rungaitis beat point leader B Rungaitis in his heat. Dave Little won the B Main over Steve Bulpitt and Jody Davis. In the A Main, it was Frazier winning ahead of Davis, Tom Burroughs, Jeff Graham, Andy Frank, B Rungaitis, Ford, Bulpitt and Dave Revard. Summary Pony Stock Heat 1-Jake Ford, Wade Zimmerman, Julie Masters, Tom Burroughs, Dave Little. Heat 2-Shane Rungaitis, Bryan Rungaitis, Dave Revard, Dan Clarke, Phillip Stevenson. Heat 3-Mike Frazier, Jack Fullerton, Jeff Graham, Andy Frank, Steve Bulpitt. B Main-Little, Bulpitt, Jody Davis, David Peterson, Bruce Blackman Jr, Dennis O'Brien, Mike Logan, Charlie Rose, Laurie Richardson, Cliff Ashlock. A Main-Frazier, Davis, Burroughs, Graham, Frank, B Rungaitis, Ford, Bulpitt, Revard, Peterson, Blackman, Little, Logan, Fullerton, O'Brien, Ross, S Rungaitis, Clarke, Zimmerman, Masters. VRA Modified Heat 1-Marty Desbrow, Joe Henderson, Mike Schwellinger, David Lidren, Ray Martinez. Heat 2-Mark Gallimore, Marty McLaughlin, Rick Rodarte, George Kreider IV, Mark Harber. Main-Rodarte, Kreider, Desbrow, Gallimore, McLaughlin, Daniel Shrubb, Henderson, Schwellinger, Harber, Chris Tramel, Lidren, Martinez. IMCA Modified Heat 1-Steve Greenland, Mike Furlong, Donald Houghton, Scott Olsen, Wes Richardson. Heat 2-Mark Fullerton, Chris Tonoli, Rich Wolfe, Kathy Pierson, Bill Waltman. Heat 3-Ed Shelton, Randy McGraw, John Aitken, Steve Smith, Buck Cox. Main-McGraw, Tonoli, Aitken, Waltman, Jimmy Reeves, Smith, Cox, Furlong, Jack Parker, Olsen, Fullerton, Pierson, Wolfe, Bill Hiney, Richardson, Greenland, Shelton, Brett Lynsky, Houghton, Daman Redman, Ed Cutler. Unwinged 360 Sprint Car Heat 1-Greg Taylor, Kenny Brown, Mark Weitzman, Richard McCormick, Jeff Heaton. Heat 2-Jimmy Crawford, Tony Dighera, Josh Ford, Rob Kershaw, Jim Gresham. Heat 3-Gary Howard, Luis Espinoza, Mike Davis, Jim Thomson, Clark Templeman III. Heat 4-Steven Conrad, Ronnie Case, Chris Wakim, Bill Welch, John Wright. B Main-Templeman, Heaton, Wright, Kevin Kierce, Russell DeBlauw, Bob Moody, Gresham, Steve Chuhaloff, Steve Hess, Dick Steven. A Main-Howard, Dighera, Conrad, Crawford, Wakim, Taylor, McCormick, Espinoza, Kierce, Templeman, Heaton, Welch, Case, Ford, Weitzman, Davis, Thomson, Kershaw, Brown, Wright. |
