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| GREG TAYLOR ADDS FOURTH WIN
AT VENTURA by Gary Jacob |
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Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars, IMCA Modifieds and Pony Stocks |
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Ventura, CA -July 14, 2001--Leading every lap from
the pole, Greg Taylor had to fend off a fierce challenge from fellow
front row starter Tony Dighera to post the $1,000 win in the VRA
Unwinged 360 sprint car feature Saturday night at Ventura Raceway. It
was Taylor's fourth win of the season as he solidified his hold on
second in points. Everyone was running fast in the top groove at the
start of the race, but that groove was eventually burned off and
everyone went searching for a new line. Dighera pocketed $750 for his
second place run with point leader Gary Howard protecting his big
point margin with his $500 third place run. Howard started 3rd and
fellow second row starter Jimmy May ran fourth. Bob Moody won for the
third time in the 2001 season in the new Senior Sprint division as
chief challenges Dayle Henry and Jim Porter got collected in tangles.
Sparky Edmonston ran second. It was a big night for former IMCA
Modified track champion Randy McGraw as he not only won his third
feature race of the season, but emerged with the point lead when
defending champion and incoming point leader Mike Furlong was
disqualified from his feature finish for not reporting to the tech
area. Daman Redman ran second over Rich Wolfe with fourth place John
Aitken now second in points, 22 behind McGraw. Jack Fullerton got his
first win in the Pony Stock feature with third ranked Tom Burroughs
second ahead of Jeff Graham. Point leader Bryan Rungaitis was fifth.
The VRA unwinged sprint cars had a 33 car turnout. All four qualifying heats were won from outside front row starts as Jimmy Crawford won the first heat over Dighera. Jeff Heaton took heat 2 with Casey Shuman second in the team car to Howard. May was driving for Denny McVey and he won heat 3 over Luis Espinoza. Howard won heat 4 over 4th starting Taylor. Four cars transfer from each heat into the 30 lap A Main and they are joined by four transfers from the B Main. Jim Thomson won the B Main from the pole with Josh Ford second over Russell DeBlauw and Rob Kershaw. Third ranked point racer Richard McCormick flipped spectacularly in his heat and then came from the rear of the 12 car grid to place fifth in the B Main. He was added to the A feature when Bill Welch scratched. Taylor led all 30 laps from the pole although he did get passed by Dighera late in the race only to have a caution flag nullify that move. Dighera settled for second with Howard a solid third over May. Ronnie Case moved into the Taylor backup car and he climbed from 9th starting to 5th in the A Main before giving up that spot late to Shuman. Chris Wakim charged from 12th starting to fifth in teh feature before getting pushed into the backstretch fence. With 1050 points available each night, Howard now holds a 1535 point lead over Taylor. McCormick ran 12th and is 500 points back of Taylor. Crawford is fourth in points with Dighera having climbed up to fifth. There were 16 cars in action in the Senior Sprint racing. Moody won the first heat over Porter and Dale Harwood. Henry took heat 2 with John Jewett second over Edmonston. Both Moody and Henry won from the favored outside front row start. The incidents limited Porter to a 7th place feature finish and Henry placed 12th as Moody won for the third time over Edmonston, Harwood, Jack Erickson and John Richards. Moody won from the pole with Edmonston coming from 6th and Harwood 5th. Preiss Movius ran sixth over Porter and Oren Prosser Sr. Porter is 600 points ahead of Harwood in the point battle as Moody is only 45 points back of Harwood. The 18 IMCA Modifieds were split into three heat races. Steve Greenland beat Aitken in heat 1, last week's feature winner Scott Olsen won heat 2 over rookie Mark Fullerton and William Kruft won heat 3 over Redman. In the feature, it was McGraw winning his third race of the season over Redman, Rich Wolfe, Aitken, Chris Tonoli, Fullerton, Wes Richardson and Bill Hiney. When Furlong was disqualified, he fell to 4th in points as McGraw is 22 points ahead of Aitken, 28 ahead of Donald Houghton and 38 ahead of Furlong. With 24 cars on hand for the pony stocks, the track elected to start everyone in the main event. Point leader B Rungaitis won heat 1 over Eric Chambers and J Fullerton. Julie Masters took heat 2 with Andy Frank second. Jake Ford beat Burroughs in heat 3 and Jon Everhart captured heat 4 with Shane Rungaitis second. J Fullerton's feature win was his first and third ranked Burroughs ran second over second ranked Jeff Graham. Andy Frank was fourth ahead of B Rungaitis, Dave Revard, David Peterson and Eric Chambers. With 220 points on the line each week, B Rungaitis now leads Graham by 320 points. Burroughs is 50 behind Graham. Only one event remains before the fair action as the VRA sprints, IMCA Modifieds, VRA Modifieds and CDCRA dwarf cars race on July 21. The fair events are on a Wednesday and Thursday as per usual with the street stocks, pony stocks and traveling figure 8 series on August 1. On August 2, the IMCA Modifieds, VRA Modifieds and CDCRA dwarf cars race. Both nights also include destruction derby action. Summary Pony Stock Heat 1-Bryan Rungaitis, Eric Chambers, Jack Fullerton, Scott Bulpitt, Bruce Blackman Jr. Heat 2-Julie Masters, Andy Frank, Dave Revard, Adam McPhail, Laurie Richardson. Heat 3-Jake Ford, Tom Burroughs, Mike Logan, Joel Chavez, Steve Klingberg. Heat 4-Jon Everhart, Shane Rungaitis, Phillip Stevenson, Jeff Graham, Aaron Main. A Main-Fullerton, Burroughs, Graham, Frank, B Rungaitis, Revard, David Peterson, Chambers, Everhart, Masters, Ashlock, Klingberg, Logan, Main, Ford, John Duque, Stevenson, Blackman, Chavez, Charlie Ross, McPhail, Richardson, Bulpitt, S Rungaitis. IMCA Modified Heat 1-Steve Greenland, John Aitken, Rich Wolfe, Kathy Pierson, Ed Shelton. Heat 2-Scott Olsen, Mark Fullerton, Randy McGraw, Bill Saltzman, Bill Hiney. Heat 3-William Kruft, Daman Redman, Mike Furlong, Donald Houghton, Chris Tonoli. Main-McGraw, Redman, Wolfe, Aitken, Tonoli, Fullerton, Wes Richardson, Hiney, Houghton, Saltzman, Brett Lynsky, James Stowe, Kruft, Pierson, Greenland, Olsen, Shelton. Senior Sprint Heat 1-Bob Moody, Jim Porter, Dale Harwood, Ron Bach, Sam Vale. Heat 2-Dayle Henry, John Jewett, Sparky Edmonston, Mike Cook, Oren Prosser Sr. Main-Moody, Edmonston, Harwood, Jack Erickson, John Richards, Preiss Movius, Porter, Prosser, Cook, Jewett, Vale, Henry, Bach, Jim Blenkam, Tim Moon. Unwinged 360 Sprint Car Heat 1-Jimmy Crawford, Tony Dighera, Ronnie Case, Jessie Denome, Jim Thomson. Heat 2-Jeff Heaton, Casey Shuman, Mark Weitzman, Brett Butler, Steve Stasa. Heat 3-Jimmy May, Luis Espinoza, John Wright, Kenny Brown, Steve Hess. Heat 4-Gary Howard, Greg Taylor, Chris Wakim, Bill Welch, Josh Ford. B Main-Thomson, Ford, Russell DeBlauw, Rob Kershaw, Richard McCormick, Sean Buckley, Stasa, Gresham, Ryan Devitt, John Woodward. A Main-Taylor, Dighera, Howard, May, Shuman, Case, Heaton, Wright, Espinoza, Crawford, Brown, McCormick, Weitzman, Kershaw, DeBlauw, Butler, Ford, Thomson, Wakim, Denome. |
