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| CONRAD WINS FIRST FEATURE AT
FOGGY VENTURA by Gary Jacob |
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Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars and VRA Modifieds |
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Ventura, CA -October 13, 2001--For only the second
time in Ventura Raceway's long history, fog affected Saturday night's
action as Steven Conrad raced to his first VRA unwinged 360 sprint car
feature win of the 2001 season. The fog rolled in for the unwinged 360
sprint car feature and the first half of the 30 lapper left turns 3
and 4 not visible from the grandstands. Conrad pulled into 9th in
track points with his first $1,000 win, but he had posted 7 top fives
prior to this in 2001. Chris Wakim was a $750 second and Greg Taylor
pocketed $500 for third. Bob Moody won the Senior Unwinged Sprint car
16 lap feature for the fifth time in ten races, but still stands
second in points behind Jim Porter, who finished 4th behind dwarf car
veteran Ron Bach and Brian King. Rookie Mark Gallimore, a graduate of
the pony stocks, won his first 20 lap VRA Modified main event and
stands fifth in points. He had 4 top fives prior to his win. Second
ranked Rick Rodarte, also a rookie, ran second with point leader
George Kreider IV third.
TheVRA unwinged sprint cars had a 28 car turnout and they were divided into four qualifying heat races. Tony Dighera beat second ranked Richard McCormick in heat 1. Wakim beat Jimmy Crawford and point leader Gary Howard in heat 2 with Conrad winning heat 3 over Taylor. Jeff Heaton beat Clark Templeman III in heat 4. All four heat winners started on the pole. Conrad is ranked lower in the track points as he ran a few Bandit sprint car races in Hanford earlier in the season. The final four slots in the 30 lap A Main came from the B Main where John Wright won over Josh Ford, Steve Stasa and Larry Lloyd. In the 30 lapper, Templeman raced into the lead and paced nearly 1/2 of the race before flipping behind the fog cloud. McCormick gained the lead and the race restarted with the fog lifting slightly. A few laps later, McCormick got sideways to give the top spot to Conrad. Wakim provided some pressure for Conrad in the closing rounds, but settled for second. There were numerous incidents and spins in the 30 lapper that involved Mike Davis, Bill Welch, Steve Chuhaloff, Dighera, point leader Howard. Crawford returned to his own car after borrowing rides for several races and had a flat running in fifth place. Taylor finished third ahead of Heaton, Ford, Wright, Brett Butler, Rob Kershaw, Welch and Stasa. Howard's point lead is 3225 over McCormick with Taylor another 780 points back. Crawford is fourth ahead of Wakim. With his win, Conrad was awarded a spot in next week's Wags Dash and Ford also earned a starting slot for improving the most spots in the feature, coming from 18th to place fifth. There were 15 entries in the Senior Sprints. Moody beat Bach in heat 1 and King beat newcomer Richard Terry in heat 2. In the second heat, Dayle Henry was leading when he stalled coming off turn 4. He was hit in the rear by point leader Porter and legendary late model racer Oren Prosser Sr. Prosser flipped several times into the infield. Moody came from 2nd in his heat win while King started 4th. Moody started on the pole for the feature and won ahead of third starter Bach, second starter King, 13th starter Porter and 12th starter Henry. Ron Butler was sixth over Dale Harwood and Mike Cook. Porter's point lead is 660 over Moody. Harwood has moved into third, 45 points ahead of Henry with Bach holds down fifth. The VRA Modifieds had a 12 car turnout. Point leader Kreider won the first heat over Rodarte and Marty Desbrow. Gallimore's perfect night included a win in heat two over Joe Henderson and Marty McLaughlin. Gallimore was trailed in his feature win by Rodarte, Kreider, McLaughlin, Daniel Shrubb, David Lidren and Mike Schwellinger. Kreider's point lead is 235 over Rodarte with Henderson falling 35 points back of Rodarte with his 10th place run. McLaughlin is fourth, 105 ahead of Gallimore. Both Desbrow and Chris Tramel were feature scratches. Summary VRA Modified Heat 1-George Kreider IV, Rick Rodarte, Marty Desbrow, David Lidren, Daniel Shrubb. Heat 2-Mark Gallimore, Joe Henderson, Marty McLaughlin, Mike Schwellinger, Bryan Rungaitis. Main-Gallimore, Rodarte, Kreider, McLaughlin, Shrubb, Lidren, Schwellinger, Ray Martinez, Rungaitis, Henderson. Senior Unwinged 360 Sprint Car Heat 1-Bob Moody, Ron Bach, Ron Butler, Preiss Movius, Jack Erickson. Heat 2-Brian King, Richard Terry, Sparky Edmonston, Dale Harwood, Tim Moon. Main-Moody, Bach, King, Jim Porter, Henry, Butler, Harwood, Mike Cook, Sam Vail, John Richards, Moon, Edmonston, Movius, Terry, Oren Prosser Sr. Unwinged 360 Sprint Car Heat 1-Tony Dighera, Richard McCormick, Ronnie Case, Rob Kershaw, Steve Stasa. Heat 2-Chris Wakim, Jimmy Crawford, Gary Howard, Steve Chuhaloff, John Wright. Heat 3-Steven Conrad, Greg Taylor, Mike Davis, Brett Butler, Russell DeBlauw. Heat 4-Jeff Heaton, Clark Templeman III, Kenny Brown, Bill Welch, Josh Ford. B Main-Wright, Ford, Stasa, Larry Lloyd, Jim Thomson, Kevin Briggs, DeBlauw, Sean Buckley, Luis Espinoza, John Woodward. A Main-Conrad, Wakim, Taylor, Heaton, Ford, Wright, Butler, Kershaw, Welch, Stasa, Crawford, Case, Howard, Brown, McCormick, Dighera, Davis, Templeman, Lloyd, Chuhaloff. |
