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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| CRAWFORD REBOUNDS FROM FLIP
FOR FIRST 2001 WIN by Gary Jacob |
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Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars, IMCA Modifieds, Street Stocks and VRA Modifieds |
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Ventura, CA -September 29, 2001--For the second
straight weekend, Jimmy Crawford borrowed Kenny Brown's unwinged
sprint car to race at Ventura Raceway and this week, the result was
much better as he led all 30 laps from his pole start to score the
$1,000 win in the VRA Sprint Car feature at Ventura Raceway Saturday
night. The previous week, Crawford had flipped the borrowed car. Chris
Wakim broke after racing in second for 25 laps and runaway point
leader Gary Howard was the $750 runnerup as Greg Taylor pocketed $500
for his third place run. Donald Houghton used a win in the season
finale for the IMCA Modifieds to secure second place in the final
points as Randy McGraw used his third place run behind Mike Furlong to
finish off his track championship. Houghton's 4th win tied Steve
Greenland as the winningest IMCA Modified driver at the track in 2001
as track champion McGraw won three times. The street stock track title
fight will continue into October and November. Rookie Chris Tramel won
the 20 lapper for his first win in the class and the double division
racer has his eyes set on the unwinged sprint cars for 2002. Craig
Germanetti's third place run was enough to boost him past 6th place
Greg Raap into the point lead with a ten point margin over Raap.
Street Stock graduate Rick Rodarte won his 2nd 20 lap VRA Modified
main event to move into second in points behind point leader George
Kreider IV, who is attempting to defend his track title.
The unwinged sprint cars had 28 cars in action this week. They transfer four cars from each of the four draw format heat races. Wakim beat Taylor in heat 1, Howard won heat 2 from the outside front row over Steve Chuhaloff, last week's feature winner Josh Ford won heat 3 over John Wright and Crawford won heat 4 from the pole. Gene Godepski won the B Main over Ronnie Case, Bill Welch and Russell DeBlauw. The top three had started 1-2-3. The track was in great shape for the 30 lapper and the inversion for the lineup came up a four that put Crawford on the pole. Crawford raced into the lead over Wakim, Taylor and Ford. Wakim broke a torsion arm on lap 26 and retired. Ford was still running 4th when he pulled off the track midway through the race. Howard finished 2nd ahead of 6th starter Taylor, 9th starter McCormick and 10th starter Clark Templeman III. With 1,050 points available each week, Howard holds a 2880 lead over McCormick. McCormick is 915 points ahead of Taylor and 1005 in front of race winner Crawford. Wakim stands fifth in the point race. IMCA doesn't allow points to be awarded between Oct 1 and Dec 31, so tonight's racing was their last of the 2001 season. They had an 18 car turnout and heat winners were Wes Richardson, Mark Fullerton and Ed Shelton. The 20 lap feature saw Rich Wolfe hard into the wall for a red flag. Houghton won the 20 lapper ahead of Mike Furlong, McGraw, rookie Fullerton, Kathy Pierson, Bill Waltman, Hiney, Richardson and Brett Lynsky. McGraw finished 21 points in front of Houghton, 33 in front of John Aitken. Furlong ended up 4th in points, just 8 ahead of the tied duo of Chris Tonoli and Greenland. There were 14 street stocks and Tramel won the first heat over Wayne Heurung. Paul Moore won heat 2 in front of Raap and John Hard. Tramel's first street stock feature win saw Moore second ahead of Germanetti, Heurung, Bradley Prows, Raap, Hard and Stephen Suchowirsky. With 220 points available each night, the incredible four track title duel sees Germanetti 10 points ahead of Raap, 50 ahead of Prows and 70 ahead of Heurung. The 14 VRA Modifieds were split into a pair of heat races and David Lidren won heat 1 over street stock feature winner Tramel and Mike Schwellinger. Kreider won the second heat with Mark Gallimore second. Rodarte had run third in that heat and he won the 20 lap feature ahead of Marty McLaughlin, Joe Henderson, Tramel, Lidren, Kreider and Doug Cason. Kreider holds a 175 point lead on Rodarte with Henderson just 15 points more back. McLaughlin is fourth in points. Summary VRA Modified Heat 1-David Lidren, Chris Tramel, Mike Schwellinger, Mark Joe, Joe Henderson. Heat 2-George Kreider IV, Mark Gallimore, Rick Rodarte, Daniel Shrubb, Tommy Fowler. Main-Rodarte, Marty McLaughlin, Henderson, Tramel, Lidren, Kreider, Doug Cason, Ray Martinez, Gallimore, Mark Joe, Shrubb, Fowler, Schwellinger, John Periale. Street Stock Heat 1-Chris Tramel, Wayne Heurung, Craig Germanetti, Steve Bulpitt, Tracey Pallais. Heat 2-Paul Moore, Greg Raap, John Hard, Erick Karlsen, Dan Vance. Main-Tramel, Moore, Germanetti, Heurung, Prows, Raap, Hard, Stephen Suchowirsky, Bulpitt, Vance, Pallais, Karlsen, Frank Woodward. IMCA Modified Heat 1-Wes Richardson, Mike Furlong, Kathy Pierson, Chris Tonoli, John Aitken. Heat 2-Mark Fullerton, Bill Waltman, Donald Houghton, Mike Scott, Bill Hiney. Heat 3-Ed Shelton, Randy McGraw, Steve Greenland, Rich Wolfe, Daman Redman. Main-Houghton, Furlong, McGraw, Fullerton, Pierson, Waltman, Hiney, Richardson, Brett Lynsky, Lyle Slater, Tonoli, Aiken, Greenland, Wolfe, Scott, Shelton, Redman, Randy Gens. Unwinged 360 Sprint Car Heat 1-Chris Wakim, Greg Taylor, Richard McCormick, Mark Weitzman, Gene Godepski. Heat 2-Gary Howard, Steve Chuhaloff, Clark Templeman III, Jim Thomson, Ronnie Case. Heat 3-Josh Ford, John Wright, Brett Butler, Tony Dighera, Bill Welch. Heat 4-Jimmy Crawford, Luis Espinoza, Ron Bach, Jeff Heaton, John Woodward. B Main-Godepski, Case, Welch, Russell DeBlauw, Rob Kershaw, Jim Gresham, Jeff Wilson, Woodward, Larry Lloyd, Tim Moon. A Main-Crawford, Howard, Taylor, McCormick, Templeman, Wright, Espinoza, Heaton, Godepski, Bach, Butler, DeBlauw, Welch, Thomson, Wakim, Chuhaloff, Case, Ford, Weitzman, Dighera. |
