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Ventura, CA.....Sept 21......Working
his way from sixth starting, Ronnie Case took the lead from outside front row
starter Jeff Heaton with just 8 laps to run and won the 30 lap VRA Unwinged 360
sprint car feature Saturday night at Ventura Raceway. It was Case's second VRA
win of 2002, but first at Ventura as he won one of the two August races that the
club raced on the much larger Perris Auto Speedway. Heaton has never won a
feature in his career, but he led 22 laps and settled for a $750 second behind
the $1,000 winner.
8th starter Chris Wakim ran third and Greg Taylor battled back from being spun
on lap 14 to finish fourth. Making his winning pass as he raced off turn 4 for
the final time, Southern California late model legend Oren Prosser Sr won his
second 16 lap Senior Sprint main event. Prosser came from 8th starting to edge
pole starter Rick Lewis. Ron Bach also came from the 4th row to finish 3rd.
Steve Greenland won his fourth IMCA Modified 20 lap feature for 2002 and 27th of
his career on the small 1/4 mile clay oval. Mike Furlong ran second and heads
into the Sept 28 point finale for the class just 7 points back of defending
champion Randy McGraw. McGraw finished third. The post race tech shuffled the
standings for the pony stocks as 16 year old Morgan Cole from Oakview was
disqualified from his first ever feature win. That gave the victory to 6 time
winner James Brown. Track title contender John Duque was disqualified from third
and Andrew Greiman was the third car disqualified. The shuffled standings put
Adam McPhail second over Jack Fullerton.
The 28 VRA unwinged 360
sprints were divided into four heat races. Wakim beat Jeff Wilson in heat 1 with
Case edging out track point leader Jimmy Crawford in heat 2. Sixteen year old
Allan Ballard flipped in heat 1 and his night was over. Steve Conrad took heat 3
over Heaton. Tony Dighera won heat 4 over Luis Espinoza and that race ended
early when Chris Tramel took a wild ride off the end of the track with a stuck
throttle. Both Wakim and Digerha came from fifth starting in their heat wins.
Tramel was able to make repairs and return for the B Main where he ran third
from 8th starting behind pole starter Oren Prosser Jr and front row starter
Darren Simas to transfer into the 20 car A Main. Larry Lloyd gained the final
transfer slot from the B Main. In the A Main, Heaton was impressive as he paced
22 laps from the outside front row. Taylor was spun on lap 14 by a tap from
another car and he blasted back to contention from the rear of the pack. Case
chased down Heaton and used a a couple patented slide jobs to post the win.
Heaton hung on for second and Wakim ran third ahead of 11th starter Taylor.
Crawford maintained his solid point lead with a fifth as Conrad, Wilson and
Santa Maria's Mike Knopf made up the top 8. Case is sixth in points as Crawford
leads Taylor by 985 points. Josh Ford is third, just 285 ahead of Wakim and 555
ahead of Dighera.
The 15 Senior Sprints were split into
a pair of heat races. Bach won the first from the pole with fellow front row
starter Ron Butler second. Prosser Sr came from third to win heat 2 ahead of
third row starter Jim Porter. Lewis paced most of the 16 lap feature with Butler
challenging. Prosser's last turn pass netted him the feature win over Lewis with
Bach third ahead of John Woodward, Tim Moon, John Richards, Porter and Sammy
Iaconis. Wiley Miller ran 12th and holds a 1210 point lead on Porter. Butler is
855 behind Porter and 250 ahead of Bach.
The 12 car IMCA Modified field
included Western Region title hopeful Mark Allison from Las Vegas. Bill Hiney
beat Greenland in heat 1 with Allison fourth behind Furlong. Daman Redman won
heat 2 over Ed Shelton and point leader McGraw. Greenland drove to the feature
win with Furlong second over McGraw, Mark Fullerton, Hiney, Jeff Graham and Joe
Porche. Allison finished 11th. Rookies Graham and Porche are dueling for third
in points with Graham 8 ahead. Greenland is fifth in points. The 17 pony stocks
were split into a pair of heat races. Jim Jewett beat Brown in heat 1 and Julie
Masters came out on top of John Mikkelsen in heat 2. The disqualification of
feature winner Cole left Brown in the winner's circle for a sixth time. McPhail
ran second ahead of Jack Fullerton, Mike Frazier, point leader Cliff Ashlock,
Jewett and Bruce Blackman Jr. The disqualification of Duque opened up the point
race as Ashlock leads Frazer by 125 points. Brown is now just 45 points behind
Duque, who immediately put his car up for sale.
Summary
Pony Stocks
Heat 1-Jim Jewett, James Brown,
Bruce Blackman Jr, Adam McPhail, David Peterson.
Heat 2-Julie Masters, John Mikkelsen, Jack Fullerton, Cliff Ashlock, Joel
Chavez. Main-Brown, McPhail, Fullerton, Mike Frazier, Ashlock, Jewett, Blackman,
Masters, Chavez, Peterson, Mikkelsen, Lindsy Klingberg, Tracy Scaffire, Candice
Raney.
IMCA Modifieds
Heat 1-Bill Hiney, Steve Greenland,
Mike Furlong, Mark Allison, Mark Fullerton.
Heat 2-Daman Redman, Ed Shelton, Randy McGraw, Joe Porche, Jeff Graham.
Main-Greenland, Furlong, McGraw, Fullerton, Hiney, Graham, Porche, Shelton, Lyle
Slater, Brett Lynsky, Allison, Redman.
Senior Sprints
Heat 1-Ron Bach, Ron Butler, Curtis
Richards, John Woodward, Sammy Iaconis.
Heat 2-Oren Prosser Sr, Jim Porter, Wiley Miller, Rick Lewis, Mike Cook.
Main-Prosser, Lewis, Bach, Woodward, Tim Moon, John Richards, Porter, Iaconis,
Butler, Bruce Douglas, Cook, Miller, C Richards, Mark Chuhaloff, Dayle Henry.
Unwinged 360 Sprints
Heat 1-Chris Wakim, Jeff Wilson,
Trevor Brilman, Steve Gresham, Steve Chuhaloff.
Heat 2-Ronnie Case, Jimmy Crawford, Josh Ford, Mike Knopf, Darren Simas.
Heat 3-Steve Conrad, Jeff Heaton, Greg Taylor, Russell DeBlauw, Oren Prosser
Jr.
Heat 4-Tony Dighera, Luis Espinoza, Mike Davis, Bill Camarillo, Larry
Lloyd.
B Main-Prosser Jr, Simas, Chris Tramel, Lloyd, A J Reyer, Nate Robinson, Kyle
Hancock, Jeremy Ellertson.
A Main-Case, Heaton, Wakim, Taylor, Crawford, Conrad, Wilson, Knopf, Dighera,
Ford, Davis, Tramel, DeBlauw, Gresham, Brilman, Lloyd, Prosser Jr, Simas,
Camarillo, Espinoza.
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