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JULY 26, 2005...Damion Gardner used a wicked slider
to get past the Kruser, Cory Kruseman, and
win the 30 lap Valvoline USAC/CRA event at Perris Auto Speedway this week. The
Demon ended the “night of sliders” on lap 19 and went on to win his seventh
race of the season after setting his 13th fast time in 17 events. He
drove the Temecula Valley Pipe & Supply, Arizona Race Mart, Eagle, Shaver
hard all night and proved you can live and die by the slide job.
In victory circle, he explained about his winning pass that
elicited boo’s from the crowd, “I knew one of us would have to roll out (of
the throttle) and I didn’t after I felt I was past him, and nether did he.”
When Gardner expected Kruseman to have backed off, and he couldn’t see him, he
went to the top and squeezed him into the wall. On a slick track like tonight
with a lot of rubber down, the only way to pass was with a slide job.
Tony Jones won the Snap-on Tools Trophy Dash and then ran a
strong second but lost a cylinder late in the race and couldn’t challenge the
winner like he wanted to with a lap 28 restart. The most amazing driver of the
night was third place finisher Mike Kirby. On the start of the Main Event, he
was involved in an 11 car scramble that had him riding on top of the cage of
another car before hitting the ground and trashing his front end. Not only did
his crew rebuild the battered car, but he was able to run the last part of the
race without brakes.
Tom Stansberry took his Ron Bach owned, Mopar powered # 48
from his 21st starting spot in the back row up to fourth on a great
ride and received the hard charger award for the week.
VALVOLINE USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: June 25,
2005 Perris, California Perris Auto Speedway
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Damion Gardner, 50, Chaffin-17.276; 2. Charles Davis,
Jr., 8A, Smiley-17.473; 3. Rip Williams, 3, Jory-17.495; 4. Tony Jones, 87,
Vermeer/Ferreria-17.507; 5. Mike Spencer, 44, Engstrom-17.564; 6. Rickie Gaunt,
2A, Smiley-17.593; 7. Steve Ostling, 5, Keller-17.670; 8. Cory Kruseman, 38,
Crossno-17.672; 9. Alan Ballard, 97, Ballard-17.679; 10. Bobby Cody, 41
Cody-17.800; 11. Danny Ebberts, 77, Acosta-17.806; 12. Mike Kirby, 4,
Alexander-17.808; 13. David Cardey, 59, Giardina-17.969; 14. Seth Wilson, 17,
Racing Optics-18.065; 15. Jordan Hermansader, 92, Sertich-18.067; 16. R.J.
Johnson, 15AZ, Martin-18.128; 17. Jason York, 25N, York-18.131; 18. Jimmy
Crawford, 17C, Crawford-18.154; 19. Bobby Graham, 14, Lancaster-18.198; 20.
Jimmy Thornell, 25, Thornell-18.232; 21. Tom Stansberry, 48, Bach-18.245; 22.
Ryan Devitt, 35, Blenkarn-18.270; 23. Nadine Keller, 16, Keller-18.440; 24.
Ronnie Case, 8, Case-18.686; 25. Randy Waitman, 64, Waitman-18.783; 26. Joshua
Williams, 34, Williams-18.822; 27. Shawn Kautz, 29, Kautz-19.002; 28. Richard
Rose, 8N, Ziegler-19.174; 29. Brandon Thomson, 24, Thomson-19.192; 30. Jim
Giardina, 58, Giardina-19.454; 31. Matt Stewart, 85, Stewart-20.110; 32. Jim
Thomson, 91, Thomson-20.305; 33. Josh Ford, 73, Ford-NT.
DASH: (3 laps) 1. Jones, 2. R.Williams, 3. Davis, 4. Gardner. :54.24
FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Cardey, 2. Gardner, 3. Stansberry, 4. York, 5.
Spencer, 6. Ballard, 7. Waitman, 8. B.Thomson. NT
SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Cody, 2. Crawford, 3. Gaunt, 4. Davis, 5.
Wilson, 6. J.Williams, 7. Devitt, 8. Giardina. 3:06.11
THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Ebberts, 2. Ostling, 3. Graham, 4. Kautz, 5.
Keller, 6. Hermansader, 7. R.Williams, 8. Stewart. NT
FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Kruseman, 2. Kirby, 3. Jones, 4. Johnson, 5.
Case, 6. Thornell, 7. Rose. 3:06.35
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. R.Williams, 2. Balalrd, 3. Spencer, 4. Wilson, 5.
Hermansader, 6. Thornell, 7. Case, 8. J.Williams, 9. Keller, 10. Giardina, 11.
Waitman, 12. Stewart, 13. Devitt, 14. Rose, 15. Ford, 16. B.Thomson, 17.
J.Thomson.
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Damion Gardner, 2. Tony Jones, 3. Mike Kirby, 4.
Tom Stansberry, 5. Danny Ebberts, 6. Mike Spencer, 7. Jason York, 8. Rip
Williams, 9. Alan Ballard, 10. Bobby Graham, 11. Charles Davis, Jr., 12. Shawn
Kautz, 13. Jimmy Thornell, 14. David Cardey, 15. Cory Kruseman, 16. Rickie
Gaunt, 17. Jimmy Crawford, 18. Bobby Cody, 19. Steve Ostling, 20. Seth Wilson,
21. Jordan Hermansader, 22. R.J. Johnson. NT
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**R.Williams flipped during the third heat. Waitman flipped during the semi.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-5 Cody, Laps 6-18 Kruseman, Laps 19-30 Gardner.
NEW USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-R.Williams-992; 2-Gardner-913;
3-Kruseman-844; 4-Kirby-842; 5-Davis-828; 6-Gaunt-662; 7-Jones-513;
8-Ballard-502; 9-Spencer-479; 10-Wilson-476.
NEXT USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR RACE: July 2 Perris (CA) Auto Speedway
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