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See You At The Races!!! |
| Rip Williams Keeps Winning
At Perris by Ed Hollowell |
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PERRIS, CA-RIS- It was a special night at Perris Auto Speedway
for Rip Williams as he won his 104^th sprint car main event and was
able to dedicate it to the memory of the late CRA president Glen
Howard who passed away last week. The one caution was the result of an accident between Rickie
Gaunt and Garrett Hansen where Hansen slid up the track exiting the
second turn and hit the front of Gaunt. Gaunt lost steering control
and came to a stop against the inside of the back straight wall
after collecting Michael Spencer. Spencer was able to continue and
passed more cars than Damion Gardner was back at Perris after spending the balance of the season in Indiana driving in the NSAC National Sprint Car Series. It was not worth his trouble as he flipped in his heat, the only flip of the night. Damion started the B main in a back up car but had to drop out after the second lap. Seth Wilson was another 'hard luck' driver who lost his cars engine on the second of his qualifying laps. Series point leader Tony Jones failed to advance through his heat race after qualifying second. That put Jones in the B main which he won for the first time this year. He started tenth and finished the feature in eighth. The heat races were run with only one major incident with Gardener flipping. Rodney Argo won that heat while Brian Venard, Chris Wakim and David Cardey won the other three heats. Twenty Nine cars participated in the qualifying with Cory Kruseman fastest with 18.821 seconds. The USAC/CRA series goes to Ventura, California next Saturday and they return to Perris on Sunday with a special program as a part of the county fair on Sunday night where $8 will get you admission to both the fair and the race. QUOTES- RIP WILLIAMS: “We've been behind on the car so we've been picking at it all year. We gave up a lot of space. Mike English came along and said we aught to do this and this and usually I do everything but I just turned him loose and he had her set up tonight and, I tell ya what, it couldn't have been any better.” “Whenever I started racing sprint cars, 1978, nobody had won 100 yet and my Dad told me that if ya wanted to be somebody ya gotta to win a hundred. He died about ten years ago and I just keep plugging away and we're going to try to capture some stuff. It's great driving for Jack and Sharon Jory and AMA Plastics. All the people who help the car. Big Rich, Little Rich and Larry and AC and everything. My kid was up in Victorville and he ran second in the main event and I missed that. A great night I dedicate to Glen Howard and all his family. They did a lot for racing and did a lot for me. He used to give me a ride when he was mad at his two boys, which was quite often. I've always had a good time with Glen and Steve and Gary and all the rest of them and Pat. I'm just really happy to be here and this is for everybody over forty!” R. J. JOHNSON: “A couple times there I got to the outside of him and I kind'a got in over my head I think a little bit there and kept screwing up but Rip did a good job. He did what he had to do to win the race. Just wish it was a thirty one lapper instead of a thirty. I maybe thought I could do something there but I'll take it. I'm real happy. It's a good podium finish for us.” JOSH FORD: “I don't know if the car just drove me or I drove or
if I just drove the car but I'm pretty tired. Rip just handed it to
us and showed us how it's supposed to be done.” “I made a wrong
decision trying to pass Nadine (Gardner) and it's always hard to
tell where to go around her. She went where I went and I didn't
think she was. She didn't do |
