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RIP WILLIAMS 50th BIRTHDAY WITH FREE CAKE SATURDAY AT PERRIS AUTO SPEEDWAY!
by Scott Daloisio

(APRIL 25, 2006, PERRIS, CA) Perris Auto Speedway will host veteran driver Rip Williams’ 50^th Birthday Bash when Temecula Valley Pipe & Supply presents the USAC/CRA Sprint Cars this Saturday night, April 29th. All adult fans wearing a Rip Williams shirt or jacket when they purchase their ticket at the ticket booth will receive $4.00 off the admission price.

In addition to the ticket discount, there will be free birthday cake for everyone at intermission and the crowd will serenade the Yorba Linda, California racer with a rendition of Happy Birthday.

If you think this sounds like it is going to be a warm, fuzzy kind of night, YOU BETTER THINK AGAIN! Don’t expect Damion Gardner to show up with wearing a paper party hat with a gift-wrapped fishing rod to present to Williams! That isn’t going to happen! Likewise with Cory Kruseman. He is not going to show up with a pair of expensive slippers for his longtime rival. Danny Sheridan is not going to bring a collector coffee mug and give Rip a warm hug when he presents it to him. What about Rickie Gaunt you ask? Well, he kind of’ marches to a different tune all together! He may very well show up at Williams’ house during the week and tear out the driveway while Williams is at work. It is his way of saying Happy Birthday.

Don’t get us wrong! These drivers will be bringing gifts for the “Birthday Boy’s” bash. However, those gifts will consist of daring high-speed slide jobs and nerf bar pounding shoves if the need be. In other words, except for the admission discounts mentioned above and the birthday cake, Saturday will feature the same clay pounding, sideways action fans know and expect at Perris Auto Speedway on Saturday nights.

Williams, who actually celebrates his 50^th birthday on May 5^th, picked up his 102^nd lifetime win when The PAS opened the season on February 4^th. He comes into this Saturday’s race ranked ninth in USAC/CRA points, but he is only 16 points out of fifth. In the last two races at The PAS, Williams, the 1978 CRA Rookie of the Year, has finished fourth both times.

The series has not seen action the past two weeks, but the hottest driver and the driver to beat is Concord’s Gardner. He has won three out of the last four races and all three wins have come at different tracks (Perris, Manzanita and USA Race Park in Tucson, Arizona). Despite his recent prowess, Gardner, the defending USAC/CRA Champion, trails archrival Kruseman (Ventura, CA) by 26 points in the standings. At the last race at The PAS on April 1^st, Kruseman, after a controversial bump with Gardner, finished second to 2004 SCRA champion Gaunt (Torrance, CA) in the 30-lap main event.

Saturday’s ferocious display of dirt track dare will consist of qualifying, four ten lap heat races, a B main and if necessary a C main before the intermission birthday festivities. After the cake and kind birthday salutations are put away, the gloves will come off and 22 brave drivers will get down and dirty for a 30-lap dirt track fight under the bright PAS lights. Can it get any better than that?

Perris Auto Speedway is located on the freeway close Lake Perris Fairgrounds approximately one hour east of Los Angeles and one hour North of San Diego. To get to the track, take the 215 freeway, exit on the Ramona Expressway and go two miles east to the fairgrounds.

Saturday’s race on the only half-mile clay oval in Riverside County will be preceded by Friday’s drag racing action on the Diamond Valley Honda Street Legal Drag Strip. The drag strip is also located on the Lake Perris Fairgrounds. Anyone with a valid driver’s license, registration and helmet is eligible to race at the drag strip. Gates at the drag strip open at 5:00 PM with racing at 6:00 PM.

Anyone wishing more information can contact Perris Auto Speedway at (951) 940-0134.

racesatthepas@aol.com is the only authorized Internet address to issue official media news released from The Perris Auto Speedway or Oval Entertainment

USAC CRA POINT STANDINGS

1. Cory Kruseman – Ventura, CA - 467

2. Damion Gardner – Concord, CA - 441

3. Mike Spencer – Temecula, CA - 336

4. Danny Sheridan – Santa Maria, CA - 314

5. Tony Jones – Norco, CA - 285

6. Rickie Gaunt – Torrance, CA - 284

7. Charles Davis Jr. – Buckeye, AZ - 270

8. David Cardey – Riverside, CA - 270

9. Rip Williams – Yorba Linda, CA - 269

10. Josh Ford – Camarillo, CA - 244

11. Mike Kirby – Torrance, CA - 240