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See You At The Races!!! |
| WAKIM WINS THIRD STRAIGHT by Gary Jacob |
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Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars, IMCA Modifieds and Pony Stocks |
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Ventura, CA -September 15, 2001--Briefly losing the
lead to Greg Taylor for one corner, Chris Wakim made it three straight
wins in the VRA Unwinged 360 Sprint Car 30 lap A Main Saturday night
at Ventura Raceway. He also won his heat race and his feature win paid
$1,000. Wakim started outside front row and 4th starter Taylor ended
up settling for a $750 second. Pole starter Richard McCormick was a
$500 third and point leader Gary Howard came from 9th starting to
place fourth. Dayle Henry also used an outside front row start to win
his first feature race in the Senior Division for the Unwinged 360
Sprint Cars. He had to fight off division aces Bob Moody and Jim
Porter for the victory. The IMCA Modifieds returned to action for the
first time in a month and Donald Houghton gained the 20 lap win over
Rich Wolfe and rookie Mark Fullerton. Randy McGraw finished fifth to
maintain his solid point lead. The pony stocks were racing for the
first time since the Fair race in early August with Mike Frazier and
Scott Bulpitt repeating their 1-2 heat race finish in the 20 lap
feature.
The 30 car turnout for the VRA Unwinged 360 Sprint Cars included USAC midget ace Wally Pankratz and Bandit sprint car racer Dallen McKenney, who shared fellow Bandit racer Greg Keegan's car as New Zealand transplant Keegan raced in the Senior Class. The four heat format advanced four cars each into the 30 lap A Main. McCormick won the first heat over Bill Welch, Taylor beat Tony Dighera in heat 2 and Wakim captured heat 3 with Steven Conrad second ahead of Howard. The fourth heat went to Jimmy Crawford with Sean Buckley in second. That left four spots available to transfers from the B Main and Clark Templeman III won that race over Brett Butler, Kenny Brown and Gene Godepski. The 30 lap feature had a four car inversion that put McCormick and Wakim on the front row as Crawford and Taylor shared row 2. McCormick won his heat from 2nd, Wakim from 3rd, Crawford from 5th and Taylor from 6th. Once in the 30 lapper, Taylor used heavy lapped traffic to nose ahead of Wakim for a single corner, but Wakim surged back in front for the remainder of the race. Taylor settled for second and Crawford lost a top four finish when his car quit in turn 4 on the final lap. McCormick ran third over Howard and 10th starting Josh Ford. Rounding out the top ten were Jeff Heaton, Dighera, Templeman, John Wright and Welch. Pankratz ran 17th in a second Rob Kershaw car. The Senior class for drivers 45 and over had 15 entries. Moody won the first heat over Porter and Brian King. Henry completed his perfect night by winning heat two over Dale Harwood and Ron Butler. Both winners came from 3rd. For their 18 lap feature, Moody and Henry shared the front row with Porter and Harwood in row 2. Henry was a rookie in the regular unwinged action in 2000 and he charged to his first feature win over Moody, Porter, Harwood and Bandit regular Greg Keegan from Clovis. Sparky Edmonston was sixth over Butler and dwarf car ace Ron Bach. With the point season over at their home Bakersfield track, co-champion Buck Cox, Troy Morris Jr and Mike Scott all elected to give the Ventura action a try in the IMCA Modifieds. This produced a 22 car turnout and the track officials elected to let all 22 start the 20 lap feature on the short 1/4 mile clay oval. Chris Tonoli beat Wes Richardson in heat 1, Ed Shelton beat Wolfe in heat 2 and Kathy Pierson continued his strong recent efforts with a win in heat 3 over Houghton and McGraw. Houghton's feature win leaves him 24 points back of McGraw as Wolfe ran second over Fullerton, Steve Greenland, McGraw, Don Wright, Mike Furlong and John Aitken. Aitken is 20 points back of McGraw. In his first modified race out of town, Scott led the visitors with a 9th as Cox ran 13th and Morris 22nd. The pony stocks returned from their long period of inactivity with 30 cars. Multi division racer Chris Tramel won the first heat over Jon Everhart and Cliff Ashlock. Wade Zimmerman beat Danny Tramel in heat 2 and Shane Rungaitis took heat 3 over Dave Revard. Frazier and Bulpitt were 1-2 in heat 4. Darren Gunnell beat Adam McPhail in the B Main with Tom Fish third. Frazier and Bulpitt then ran 1-2 in the 20 lap feature as Jody Davis beat Fish for third. Tom Burroughs was fifth over McPhail, Julie Masters, Zimmerman and C Tramel. Summary Pony Stock Heat 1-Chris Tramel, Jon Everhart, Cliff Ashlock, Jeff Graham, John Duque. Heat 2-Wade Zimmerman, Danny Tramel, Jack Fullerton, Tom Burroughs, Adam McPhail. Heat 3-Shane Rungaitis, Dave Revard, Steve Klingberg, Andy Frank, Tom Fish. Heat 4-Mike Frazier, Scott Bulpitt, Jody Davis, Julie Masters, Phillip Stevenson. B Main-Darren Gunnell, McPhail, Fish, Bruce Blackman Jr, Joel Chavez, Aaron Main, John Mikkelsen, Dennis O'Brien, Stevenson, Charlie Ross. A Main-Frazier, Bulpitt, Davis, Fish, Burroughs, McPhail, Masters, Zimmerman, C Tramel, Klingberg, Frank, Chavez, Everhart, Rungaitis, Graham, Revard, Ashlock, Gunnell, Blackman. IMCA Modified Heat 1-Chris Tonoli, Wes Richardson, John Aitken, Mike Scott, William Kruft. Heat 2-Ed Shelton, Rich Wolfe, Mike Furlong, Steve Greenland, Don Wright. Heat 3-Kathy Pierson, Donald Houghton, Randy McGraw, Mark Fullerton, Daman Redman. Main-Houghton, Wolfe, Fullerton, Greenland, McGraw, Don Wright, Furlong, Aitken, Scott, Tonoli, Hiney, Scott Olsen, Buck Cox, Redman, Brett Lynsky, Richardson, Bill Saltzman, Bill Waltman, Pierson, Kruft, Shelton, Troy Morris Jr. Senior Unwinged 360 Sprint Car Heat 1-Bob Moody, Jim Porter, Brian King, Sparky Edmonston, Ron Bach. Heat 2-Dayle Henry, Dale Harwood, Ron Butler, Greg Keegan, Tim Moon. Main-Henry, Moody, Porter, Harwood, Keegan, Edmonston, Butler, Bach, Mike Cook, Moon, Jack Erickson, John Richards, Preiss Movius, Sam Vail, King. Unwinged 360 Sprint Car Heat 1-Richard McCormick, Bill Welch, Josh Ford, Jeff Heaton, Brett Butler. Heat 2-Greg Taylor, Tony Dighera, Luis Espinoza, Casey Shuman, Kenny Brown. Heat 3-Chris Wakim, Steven Conrad, Gary Howard, Steve Chuhaloff, Gene Godepski. Heat 4-Jimmy Crawford, Sean Buckley, John Wright, Wally Pankratz, Larry Lloyd. B Main-Clark Templeman III, Butler, Brown, Godepski, Russell DeBlauw, Rob Kershaw, Dallen McKenney, Jake Ford, Steve Stasa. A Main-Wakim, Taylor, McCormick, Howard, Josh Ford, Heaton, Dighera, Templeman, Wright, Welch, Espinoza, Shuman, Butler, Brown, Crawford, Chuhaloff, Wally Pankratz, Conrad, Buckley, Godepski. |
