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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
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| SHUMAN INHERITS POLE, LEADS
EVERY LAP by Gary Jacob |
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Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars, IMCA Modifieds and VRA Modifieds |
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Ventura, CA -July 21, 2001--Scheduled to start third,
but inheriting the pole when rookie Josh Ford stalled before the green
flag, Casey Shuman led all 30 laps to win the VRA Unwinged 360 Sprint
Car feature Saturday night at Ventura Raceway. The new teammate to
point leader Gary Howard withstood some fierce challenges from Howard
himself to post the $1,000 win. Howard ran a $750 second and Richard
McCormick moved back into second place in points with his $500 third
place run. Greg Taylor broke in the feature while running fifth and
dropped to third in points. In the IMCA Modified 20 lapper, Steve
Greenland joined point leader Randy McGraw as a three feature winner.
Having had a zero point night the previous week when he was
disqualified for not going to tech, defending champion Mike Furlong
started his slow climb back to the top with a second ahead of Daman
Redman and Chris Tonoli. Joe Henderson won the 20 lap feature for the
VRA Modifieds and cut George Kreider IV's point lead to just 20
points. Street Stock graduate Rick Rodarte ran third and is just 75
points back of the point leader, who was 9th in the 10 car field.
With 34 cars on hand, the four unwinged sprint car heat races featured large grids. Howard won the first heat over Steven Conrad and McCormick. Second year sprint car racer Luis Espinoza won heat 2 over Ford and Chris Wakim. John Wright beat Mike Knopf and Rob Kershaw in heat 3 that saw one of the track's hottest drivers, Tony Dighera, flipping as he dueled for the lead. Shuman, the son of SCRA director Ronnie Shuman, won heat 4 over Taylor and Jeff Heaton. The top four from each heat advanced to the 30 lap A Main, where they were joined by four transfers from the B Main. Mark Weitzman won that B Main over John Woodward and Kenny Brown. Dighera made an attempt to advance through this race, but crashed running fifth to end his night. Ford and Conrad were scheduled for the front row for the 30 lapper, but Ford was pushed off the track before the green flag and Shuman pulled forward to the pole. Shuman led wire to wire to the win the 30 lapper with 6th starting Howard second. 10th starter McCormick ran third over Conrad, 7th starter Jeff Heaton and 14th starting Crawford. The next events for Ventura are the Wednesday and Thursday fair night shows on August 1-2, but the sprint cars are not a part of the fair schedule. They return when the track resumes it's Saturday night slot on August 18. Howard's point lead is now 2025 points over McCormick with Taylor another 245 points back. Only 1050 points are available each night. With Merced Speedway idled by their fair and their top drivers looking to get a start at Ventura prior to that August 2 fair date, Ramie Stone, Troy Stone and California State point leader Johnnie Baptista all towed into town. This gave the modifieds a 17 car field and Greenland's perfect night included a win in heat 1 over Wes Richardson and Daman Redman. Ed Shelton won the second heat over Bill Hiney and Furlong. In the 20 lap feature, the Merced cars ran 9-10-11 with T Stone in 9th over R Stone and Baptista. Fourth ranked Greenland won the feature over Furlong, Redman, Chris Tonoli, John Aitken, point leader McGraw, Bill Waltman and Wes Richardson. McGraw's point lead is 21 over Aitken and 34 over Furlong with Donald Houghton dropping 39 points back with his last place run. Greenland is fifth, 21 points back of Houghton. Daniel Shrubb missed the heat action for the VRA Modifieds, but he arrived in time to start their 10 car feature. Chris Tramel won heat 1 over Kreider and Mike Schwellinger. Mark Gallimore won heat 2 with Henderson second. Henderson then won the feature over Tramel, Rodarte, Ray Martinez, Shrubb, Tommy Fowler and Schwellinger. Summary VRA Modified Heat 1-Chris Tramel, George Kreider IV, Mike Schwellinger, Ray Martinez, Chuck Hamblin. Heat 2-Mark Gallimore, Joe Henderson, Rick Rodarte, Tommy Fowler. Main-Henderson, Tramel, Rodarte, Martinez, Daniel Shrubb, Fowler, Schwellinger, Hamblin, Kreider, Gallimore. IMCA Modified Heat 1-Steve Greenland, Wes Richardson, Daman Redman, Donald Houghton, Randy McGraw. Heat 2-Ed Shelton, Bill Hiney, Mike Furlong, Chris Tonoli, John Aitken. Main-Greenland, Furlong, Redman, Tonoli, Aitken, McGraw, Bill Waltman, Richardson, Troy Stone, Ramie Stone, Johnnie Baptista, Mark Fullerton, Scott Olsen, Brett Lynsky, Hiney, Shelton, Houghton. Unwinged 360 Sprint Car Heat 1-Gary Howard, Steven Conrad, Richard McCormick, Mike Davis, John Woodward. Heat 2-Luis Espinoza, Josh Ford, Chris Wakim, Steve Stasa, Mark Weitzman. Heat 3-John Wright, Mike Knopf, Rob Kershaw, Bob Moody, Steve Chuhaloff. Heat 4-Casey Shuman, Greg Taylor, Jeff Heaton, Jimmy Crawford, Jim Gresham. B Main-Weitzman, Woodward, Kenny Brown, Russell DeBlauw, Gresham, Chuhaloff, Gene Godepski, Sparky Edmonston, Oren Prosser Jr, Ryan Devitt. A Main-Shuman, Howard, McCormick, Conrad, Heaton, Crawford, Wakim, Brown, Wright, Weitzman, Knopf, Prosser, DeBlauw, Espinoza, Moody, Woodward, Stasa, Taylor, Davis, Ford. |
