|
Ventura, CA....Sept 7......Having
worked his way into the season point lead with the VRA unwinged 360 sprint cars
without the benefit of a feature win, Jimmy Crawford took advantage of a late
race restart to leap from 3rd into the lead Saturday night at Ventura Raceway
and he paced just the final two laps for his $1,000 win. Dwarf car graduate Tom
Stansberry settled for a $750 second and Gary W Howard was a $500 third.
Crawford's win combined with the last lap crash of nearest point rival Greg
Taylor gave Crawford a 1250 point lead with just 1050 points avaiable each
night. After second place heat run behind John Woodward, senior sprint point
leader Wiley Miller came from 3rd starting to post his sixth feature win of
2002. Legendary stock car racer Oren Prosser Sr had his second best finish of
the season with a second place run. David Peterson not only scored the first
feature win of his rookie season, but was chased to his historic win by the top
3 drivers in the track point listing. John Duque finished second ahead of point
leading Cliff Ashlock.
There were 32 VRA
unwinged 360 sprint cars on the premises and they were divided into the usual
four heat races, each transferring four drivers. Josh Ford came from third to
win heat 1 over David Sinsley. Fourth starter Stansberry won heat 2 with Ronnie
Case second. Tony Dighera won heat 3 from outside front row with Chris Wakim
second. Gary W Howard came from sixth to capture heat 4 as pole starting 16 year
old Allan Ballard from Bakersfield was second. Taylor could only manage a fifth
in his heat and he won the B Main with former Ventura Raceway sprint car
champion Kevin Kierce second over Chris Tramel and Santa Maria's Mike Knopf. The
inversion for the 30 lap feature came up a six and that put Case and Wakim on
the front row ahead of Dighera and Ford with Stansberry and Gary W Howard in row
3. In that 30 lapper, Wakim led the first 11 laps before he and second place
Dighera tangled. Stansberry led most of the remainder of the race, but was
giving heavy pressure from Gary W Howard. Howard nosed in front once, but
Stansberry retook the lead before that lap was completed. Oren Prosser Jr spun
for a yellow flag as the leaders were taking the white flag setting up a two lap
shootout for the win. On the green flag, leader Stansberry and runnerup Howard
took the high line and Stansberry bounced off the wall after jumping the berm.
This slowed up Howard and Crawford ran down low for the winning move. Stansberry
did run second ahead of Howard, Ballard, Case, Ford, Troy Rutherford and Steven
Conrad. Ford's good finish left him 1400 points back of Taylor and 1185 ahead of
Dighera.
The 18 Senior Sprints were divided
equally among three heat races. Fourth starter Sparky Edmonston won the first
heat with pole starter Tim Moon second. Mark Chuhaloff won heat 2 from the pole
with sixth starting Prosser Sr climbing to second. Outside front row starter
John Woodward won heat 3 with third starting Miller second over Ron Bach. Miller
used his outside front row starting spot to win the feature which was time
shortened after numerous tangles. Third starter Prosser ran second with 7th
starting Ron Butler placing third ahead of Woodward, Edmonston and point
runnerup Jim Porter. The top ten was rounded out by Rick Lewis, Curtis Richards,
John Richards and Bach. Miller's sixth win extended his point lead to 1465
points over Porter with Butler another 755 points back. Prosser Sr stands 8th in
the stands in his rookie sprint car season and he did post a single
feature win.
The pony stocks fielded
20 cars in their feature race following three heat race formats. Jim Jewett beat
Mike Frazier in heat 1 as James Brown outran Ashlock in heat 2. Tom Fish beat
Duque in heat 3. Peterson stands 7th in points in his rookie season and this was
his first feature win. Duque ran second ahead of point leader Ashlock and 2nd
ranked Frazier. Fish was fifth in front of Adam McPhail and Joel Chavez.
Ashlock's point lead is only 90 points over Frazier and 130 in front of Duque
with 220 points available each night.
Summary
Pony Stocks
Heat 1-Jim Jewett, Mike Frazier,
Jack Fullerton, David Peterson, Karen Klingberg.
Heat 2-James Brown, Cliff Ashlock, Andrew Greiman, Bruce Blackman Jr, Julie
Masters.
Heat 3-Tom Fish, John Duque, Joel Chavez, Randy Miller, Adam McPhail.
Main-Peterson, Duque, Ashlock, Frazier, Fish, McPhail, Chavez, Brown, Jewett,
Masters, Fullerton, Jon Mortensen, John Mikkelsen, Morgan Cole, Blackman, Tracy
Scaffire, K Klingberg, Greiman, Candice Raney, Miller.
Senior Sprints
Heat 1-Sparky Edmonston, Tim Moon,
Ron Butler, Jim Porter, Sammy Iaconis.
Heat 2-Mark Chuhaloff, Oren Prosser Sr, Mike Cook, John Richards, Dayle
Henry.
Heat 3-John Woodward, Wiley Miller, Ron Bach, Richard Terry, Rick Lewis.
Main-Miller, Prosser, Butler, Woodward, Edmonston, Porter, Lewis, Curtis
Richards, J Richards, Bach, Moon, Cook, Chuhaloff, Henry, Bruce Douglas, George
Tuttle Jr, Iaconis, Terry.
Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars
Heat 1-Josh Ford, David Sinsley,
Russell DeBlauw, Steven Conrad, Mike Knopf.
Heat 2-Tom Stansberry, Ronnie Case, Jeff Wilson, Oren Prosser Jr, Greg
Taylor.
Heat 3-Tony Dighera, Chris Wakim, Jimmy Crawford, Troy Rutherford, Steve
Chuhaloff. Heat 4-Gary W Howard, Allan Ballard, Luis Espinoza, Jeff Heaton,
Kevin Kierce.
B Main-Taylor, Kierce, Chris Tramel, Knopf, Rob Kershaw, Larry Lloyd, John
Geyer, Mike Davis, Bill Camarillo, Nate Robinson.
A Main-Crawford, Stansberry, Howard, Ballard, Case, Ford, Rutherford, Conrad,
Kierce, DeBlauw, Tramel, Wilson, Wakim, Taylor, Knopf, Heaton, Prosset, Dighera,
Espinoza, Sinsley.
|
