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Los Angeles, CA. - You know the three-day 2006
11th annual Budweiser Oval Nationals November 2-4 featuring USAC
sprint cars at Perris Auto Speedway was going to be special two days
before it began. On Tuesday, October 31 at a 5:30 to 9:00 p.m
practice session for USAC National and CRA Regional sprint car teams
32 sprint cars took part. Practice laps proved valuable for
first-time competitors at The PAS. They included Daron Clayton, a
22-year old Sikeston, MO driver and protégé of former USAC and CRA
sprint car driver Bubby Jones, the 2006 Oval Nationals Grand
Marshall. Clayton ran the
fastest lap of the practice night unofficially at 16.9. Jesse Mack,
a 6'6" driver from Visalia, was another newcomer who took
advantage of the practice night. He installed a metal roll-cage
extension to the top of his No. 71m sprinter roll-cage for
additional safety because he is so tall.
USAC Ford Focus Midget and Western Midget driver Garrett Hansen, 21,
made his
Oval National debut in his dad's Hansen Welding No. 70, the ex-Jim
Kirby owned, Dave Ellis-built No. 96. Mike Kirby raced the car about
four times in 2006 and had one victory in it. Garrett, who lives in
Manhattan Beach, is a Mechanical Engineering junior at Cal State
University, Long Beach. Garrett had only three starts in a 410 cu.
in. sprint car before competing in the talent-laden Oval Nationals.
His dad Gary also has a new Eagle chassis not yet assembled. Hansen
made the Thursday A main and stopped by the second turn wall because
of a broken steering box. It was not Lee Steering. Gary said he took
the Lee Steering from his unfinished Eagle and used it the next two
nights in his Ellis
chassis. Garrett looked like a sprint car veteran. Tyler Brown, a
21-year old Norco, CA sprint car rookie, had two USAC Western Midget
Series feature victories in 2005 and finished third in final points
in the competitive series. During 2006 he had two more USAC Western
Midget main event victories on dirt tracks (at Bakersfield and
Ventura). He had a brand new Bullet chassis for his debut at the
Oval Nationals for his third outing in a 410 sprinter.
Bret Mellenberndt, from Sioux Falls, S.D, made his PAS debut
Tuesday, Oct. 31and ran all three nights of the Oval Nationals. The
28-year old son of long-time sprint car driver Bill Mellenberndt, of
Sioux Falls, drove his second 2006 Maxim of the season. He had
17 first place stickers on the tail of his No. 97m after a busy
season of non-wing racing in upper Midwest states. He also raced
winged sprints. Other drivers taking their first laps at PAS
Tuesday included Robert Ballou, from Rocklin, CA, Brady Bacon, 16,
from Broken Arrow, OK, Zak Hawthorne, from Los Angeles, Chris Cooley
(in a Cory Kruseman Race School Bullet), Ross Millar, a Kiwi from
New Zealand, and Brady Short, from Bedford,
IN. USAC/CRA car owner point leader Glenn Crossno hot-lapped his own
No. 38
Bullet because his regular driver Cory Kruseman was home in Ventura
taking his young daughter "trick or treating" for
Halloween. It was the first time Crossno has driven his sprint car
in five or six years. The former SCRA driver looked racy. Glenn
recently sold the medical plastic products manufacturing firm he
founded years ago for many millions, an offer he could not refuse.
Glenn soon will be starting a race-car chassis and equipment firm in
Rancho Cucamonga near his home.
The October 31 PAS practice also had two drivers flip without
injury. Todd Hunsaker, the first USAC Ford Focus Midget champion in
2002, "caught a wet spot wrong" and flipped his No. 6x
(the ex-No. 75 Wiley Miller Stinger) several times between the third
and fourth turns. He and his crew began removing and replacing the
front axle and suspension parts in the pits. Todd raced the car
Thursday-Saturday. Matt Stewart, 19, rolled his car in turn one at
8:25 p.m. His dad Dennis raced his own No. 84 CRA sprint car at
Ascot during the 1980s. When Matt wanted to race in 2004 they bought
the No. 85 car of Lance Gremmit, the November 2003 Jack Kindoll
Classic winner at PAS who then quit racing. Stewart
bought Gremmit's No. 85 and kept the same number because Jack Keene
had No. 84. Stewart purchased Bill Rose's 2006 winged sprint
car recently.
PAS NOTES-Thursday-Saturday: Other PAS first-time sprint car
competitors during the Oval Nationals were: Dustin Morgan, 17, from
Owasso, OK, Critter Malone, from Speedway, IN, Scotty Weir, 21, from
Marion, IN and A. J. Anderson, from Stateline, IN, in the CRA No. 66
usually raced by J. Hicks. Jayme Barnes, who won his first USAC/CRA
main event at Skagit Speedway, Alger, WA, on July 29, 2006, made his
CRA debut at PAS. It wasn't pleasant. His violent fifth heat race
flip in turn three on November 2 ended his racing for the week.
Opening night (Nov. 2) had 75 cars in the pits for 74 drivers. The
No. 71 Keith Kunz car was a back-up for Darren Hagen or Brady Bacon.
It wasn't needed. Interestingly, Cary Faas raced for the first time
in more than a year and his 2000 Maxim used a six-year old engine.
He made Friday's A main and finished 13th. On Saturday, Cary
finished fourth in the 20-lap C main and transferred to 20th slot in
the 24-cars, 20-lap B main. The top 12 finishers in the B advanced
to the 24-cars plus three provisional starters A main. Cary was
running tenth with seven laps remaining when his engine emitted
heavy smoke entering turn three and dropped out. No, the six-year
old engine did not blow. The cause was a broken oil line according
to Cary.
The 74 drivers in the Oval National reside in 11different states. As
expected, Calif. led with 47 drivers. Indiana had 12 drivers,
Arizona had five, Missouri and Oklahoma two each, and Ill., Mich.,
Neb., S.D, Texas and Washington supplied one driver each. Engines as
expected were nearly all Chevy-based from various builders, but
there was a Ford and several competitive Mopars. Nicknames included
"The Modern Day Cowboy" for Clayton and
"Captain" for Dustin Morgan. USAC pit official Evelyn
Pratt, 87, served as "trophy girl" following the
Thursday and Friday A mains. The $5.00 color cover 2006 Oval
Nationals PAS race program had 2005 Oval Nationals winner Dave
Darland and his No.11 Jeff Walker Chalk/Chevy on the cover. Opening
night (Nov. 2) had so many race-cars and haulers in the pits that
four teams had to pit all night beyond turn two near the pit pass
booth. They were late comers Jeremy Campbell (Mich.), Travis Rilat
(Texas), Critter Malone (Ind.) and Faas (Calif.). On Friday only
Rilat and Faas pitted outside the track. Campbell and Malone moved
their haulers to vacated spaces in the infield after several damaged
cars departed and did not return.
Opening night set an unwanted USAC record-the most flips (12) in one
USAC event. The old record of 11flips was set in the Thanksgiving
Night Midget Grand Prix in 1990 at the final race ever run at Ascot
Park in Gardena. A mid-1990s USAC sprint car event at Eldora
Speedway in Rossburg, OH tied the dubious flip record. The 12
flippers at PAS November 2 in order were: Danny Faria, Jr (hot
laps), Robert Ballou, Chad Boespflug, Dustin Morgan and Josh Ford
(qualifying), Faria again (C-main), Shain Matthews (heat 5-lap 1),
Clayton (H-5, lap 3, turn 3) and Barnes (H-5, lap 3 turn 3 on
restart), Tony Jones (A-lap 2), Hagen (A-lap 13) and Josh Wise
(A-lap 14). That's 11 drivers, 12 flips. Hagan, not Damion Gardner,
was the lap 13 flipper. Hagan's No. 67 climbed over the slowing No.
50 of Gardner, who remained upright. Most of the cars had bolt-on
damage
and returned. Ford flipped on his first qualifying lap when he
entered the first turn and had no brakes. He slid up the track into
the wall and flipped. Wise had just passed Bud Kaeding for third
place on the outside from turn four to the starting line. He
bicycled in turn one and executed two quick endos to the embankment
and back to the track upright. His car was a write-off according to
Tony Stewart Racing crew chief Bobby Barth. They had two spares
ready to go. Barnes' No. 9x and Jones' No. 4 were write-offs as
well.
Thursday qualifying ran from 5:25 to 6:39 p.m. Drivers took two
qualifying laps and 20 of them set their fastest time on lap 1,
while 50 drivers were faster on their second timed lap. Wise, the
20th qualifier, set fastest time of the week at 16.385 on his second
lap. His first lap of 16.400 was the second fastest lap overall and
it was his throw-away lap. The Thursday temperature at PAS was 78 at
3:30 and 57 at 10:30 p.m. The Nov. 2 preliminary 25-lap A main
started at 9:27 and ended at 10:17 p.m. It had three red flags and
five yellows. Friday qualifying ran from 5:05 to 6:00 p.m with 70
cars present. Cars that did not return were the Barnes 9x, Troy
Rutherford 11r, Faria 87 and Danny
Ebberts 77. Fastest qualifier Mike Spencer came out 16th and ran a
16.717 and his
quick time of 16.596 on his second timed lap. Some 17 drivers ran
quicker on their first lap and 53 were faster on their second timed
lap. The Friday temperature was 72 at 4:45 and 57 at 10:25 p.m.
Friday's A main started at 9:10 and concluded at 9:40 p.m after one
red and one yellow flag. Friday had four flip victims: Kevin
Kierce (C-main), Matthews (H-3) and his second flip in two nights
ended his weekend racing, plus Danny Sheridan and Seth Wilson in a
double flip (A-main lap 2 leaving turn four).
Congratulations to Dave Darland for his second consecutive 40-lap
Saturday A main $30,000 victory in Jeff Walker's No. 11. Kudos go to
Mike Spencer for his strong Thursday preliminary feature victory in
Hal Engstrom's No. 44 Maxim, his fast time Friday and his
lead-swapping duel with Darland in Saturday's 40-lap A main. Levi
Jones dropped Mike to third at the end. Rip Williams, 50, turned in
the best heat race victory I've ever seen at PAS that opened in
1996. He sub-drove the Jory No. 3m qualified 12th fastest Friday by
his rookie sprint car/midget veteran teammate Matt Mitchell. Rip's
own Jory No. 3 engine went south and he qualified only 46th best, so
the 2004 USAC/CRA sprint car champion and top ten 2006 series driver
took over his back-up 3m ride from the team's
junior driver. Rip had to move from sixth to eighth (last) starting
position in the 10-lap second heat race because of the driver
change. The field of eight had five of the eight prior Oval
Nationals winners. They accounted for seven of the ten prior Oval
Nationals championships…Bud Kaeding (2), Kruseman (2), Tony Jones
(1), Rickie Gaunt (1) and Rip (1). The lineup order was Shane Cottle,
Kaeding, Gaunt, Kruseman, Jerry Coons, T. Jones, Johnny Rodriguez
and Williams. Rip came from eighth to sixth in one lap, was fifth (L
2), and in three-abreast racing with Kruseman and Gaunt at turn four
was third (L 5), second by Kaeding (L 7) and first by Cottle (L 9)
via an outside pass in the third turn.
Steve Ostling was to drive Warren Dorothy's No. 21 but the engine
wasn't ready. The veteran driver is leaving the driver ranks for
officialdom. Steve will become USAC/CRA pit steward in 2007 to
relieve Chris Morgan of some of his track-side duties. Josh Ford
lost the lead in Friday's fifth heat race on the final lap because
his throttle was sticking. Friday's 12-lap B main event had 22
starters and remarkably all 22 drivers finished the all-green flag
race on the lead lap in a 3:33.83-timed race. Driver J. J. Ercse
handed out flyers in the pits for his annual Fred Ercse Memorial
Classic slick kart race for charity.
Entry fee is $25 per person and all proceeds will be donated to the
American Heart Assn in memory of J. J's late father who died after a
heart attack. The date is Tuesday, November 21 at Go Kart World,
21830 Recreation Rd, in Carson, just off the 405 freeway. Sign-ups
start at 6:30 and racing begins at 7:30 p.m. The format includes
heat races, last chance races and a 50-lap main event for those who
transfer. As a past participant I can attest that it is a fun way to
donate to charity.
Car News: The Troy Rutherford 11r sprinter is an older Bullet
chassis that was a No. 73 Josh Ford car. Troy used a 410 engine at
PAS and a 360 at Ventura. Kevin Kierce bought the No. 11k Troy Cline
TCR that has been idle two or three years. Kevin kept the same paint
scheme. Royal Adderson's No. 40 is the ex-Venard Racing No. 47 and
the rookie kept the same yellow and red attractive paint scheme.
Ross Millar's No. 67m is a Bullet he bought from Cory Kruseman's
Racing School. Owner/driver Ryan Pace, a USAC FF Midget grad from
Arroyo Grande, CA, went to the Midwest to race midgets and sprints
in 2005-06. At PAS he was still wearing a neck brace four
months after his flip at Kokomo, IN this summer. He will be wearing
the device for one year to 8-1-07 because of his broken fifth
vertebrae. So he put two veterans in his two Maxim sprinters. Jon
Stanbrough, in his No. 44s, and Don Droud, Jr, in his No. 44d,
performed well at
PAS. Jason York was proud to have his brother, a US Navy Seal home
from a year
in Iraq, with him in the PAS pits. Dottie Kennedy, widow of
long-time CRA driver Walt Kennedy, now lives in Arizona, as does her
daughter Elizabeth, a former USAC W/S scorer. Dottie and son Mike
Kennedy, of Alta Loma, were in the pits at the Oval Nationals. Mike
and his wife bought the No. 0 Buzz Shoemaker 410-sprint car that
Mike will race as a USAC/CRA rookie in 2007.
Flips Saturday (Nov. 4): Scotty Weir (C-main), Andy Forsberg (B-L
1), J. York (B-L 2) and Johnny Rodriguez (B-last lap while in first
place), plus Rip Williams ((A-L 32 after his throttle stuck and he
hit the turn three wall). USAC incorrectly showed Jesse Hockett as a
flipper in the B, but it was York. Rodriguez was incensed at Danny
Sheridan whose slide job pass in turn one-two to gain the lead
preceded his flip onto the embankment. Rodriguez threw his helmet at
Sheridan's parked car. USAC officials kept the thrown helmet and
fined Rodriguez (less than the one grand that Damion Gardner
received for his Oct. 28 helmet toss at Ventura because Rodriguez
did not storm the officials in the tower). Eye problems, including
depth perception and night vision, surfaced for Rodriguez and forced
him to miss the Nov. 9-11 USAC Western World Championship at
Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix. Tracy Hines, a second Priestley No. 7
team driver, drove the only Priestley car in Phoenix.
Accumulated point totals from Thursday and Friday qualifying, heats
and mains showed Stanbrough with 284 on top over Spencer's 270. The
12 highest point drivers went directly to Saturday's A main. With a
six-driver inversion for the A-main, Darland's 222 points earned
pole position. Charles Davis. Jr was 12th best with 190 points for
the final direct transfer to the A. Danny Sheridan's 189 points was
13th best and earned him the pole for Saturday's B-main that
transferred the first 12 finishers to the back of the A feature. The
Oval Nationals format and fully inverted heats Thursday and Friday
supplied outstanding competition. As many people say about the
Knoxville Nationals, the first two
preliminary nights of heats and mains are must see nights. The
Saturday 15-lap D, 20-lap C, 20-lap B and 40-lap A mains totaled 95
laps and had 20-minutes between each main so transferees could
prepare for the next race. Transfers of eight, eight, and 12 from
each main made the lead and final transfer battles compelling to
watch. USAC provisional berths for two National Series and one CRA
Regional Series top point drivers who missed the 24 grid positions
were used. It made 27-car fields that were impressive and gave fans
extra drivers as rooting interests. Provisional starters were: (Thur.)-National
Jerry Coons and Mat Neely, CRA Blake Miller;.(Fri.)-National Levi
Jones and Brady Short and
Miller again; (Sat.)-National Coons and Weir, CRA Rip Williams.
Saturday temperature at PAS was 83 at 4:15 and 58 at 11:55 p.m. The
D main started at 6:53 and finished at 7:14 after four yellows. The
C started at 7:51 and finished at 8:09. The B commenced at 9:12 and
following four yellows and three red flags concluded at 10:06. The A
feature started at 10:35 and after two yellows and one red ended at
11:07 p.m. The Oval Nationals grandstand attendance despite
notorious freeway traffic in Southern California was about 40%
Thursday, 55-60% Friday, and 95%+ Saturday. About 900-1,000 persons
were in the pits each night. The USAC Oval Nationals 2006 event was
very successful on the track and at the gate. The 12th annual Oval
Nationals should keep everything the same. Fans departed PAS knowing
they had seen exciting sprint car racing by talented, skilled open
wheel drivers on an outstanding dirt track.
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