Los Angeles, CA. -- The 18th Perris Auto Speedway 410 sprint car Independence Day race was a major success Thursday, July 4. The event was SCRA-sanctioned from 1996-2003; it was a USAC-CRA point race since 2004. This year 28 USAC-CRA sprints competed. They were joined by 11 senior (for drivers age 45+) sprint cars of 360 ci, seven of the “Young Guns” new division for drivers under age 21, plus 17 winged CLS (mini) sprints with motorcycle engines. Cory Kruseman brought out two of his cars (21k and 89k) and three drivers came from Arizona with their Arizona rides (Nos. 02, 12 and 51).

Absentee drivers Bud Kaeding and Ryan Bernal were racing in Santa Maria. Visalia's VanderWeerd twins were racing in Indiana prior to competing in the July 12-21 eight nights of Indiana Sprint Week that they ran for the first time last year. Chuck Tyler debuted his brand new No. 72 Maxim for driver Greg Alexander. Matt Mitchell was in his own No. 37, a 2013 A.R.T chassis. Troy Rutherford drove the No. 27 Shawn Kurtz 2008 Ellis chassis that is a former No. 73 Josh Ford car. Shawn, a former sprint car driver, had his 15-year old daughter (a VRA mini dwarf car racer) and friend Richard McCormick, a VRA 360 sprint car driver, in his pit. A blown engine in the

CROWD: Perris residents with proof of a Perris address were admitted to PAS free again this year to see the sprint car racing and fireworks show sponsored by the City of Perris. That fact swelled the grandstand crowd to a season-high of 5,000 or so. Hopefully some of the newcomers will become racing fans at the track. An amazing 11-year old sang “God Bless America”; as usual Bobbi Burke sang the National Anthem (her 17th year at the PAS). Two propeller airplanes flew over the track, trailing white smoke. Aerial bombs/fireworks went off beyond turn two at the words “bombs bursting in air”. The Perris mayor was the honorary starter and spoke to the crowd.

Patriotic songs by country singers prior to and during the later fireworks show were preceded by a recorded reading of the beauties of America by the late actor John Wayne. With some people present having to go to work Friday morning and with many young children in the audience, PAS management wisely elected to stage the 15-minute July 4 aerial pyrotechnics show “Pride of America” by the Souza firm at 9:05pm. About 80% of the large crowd remained for the main events that followed the fireworks. Only the Young Guns 12-lap main preceded the fireworks. CLS, USAC-CRA and Senior Sprint features followed the pyrotechnics. About 50% of the original crowd remained when the final feature concluded.

Prior to the fireworks show, PAS President Don Kazarian presented a $10,000 check to the American Cancer Society Relay for Life in memory of two friends who succumbed from the disease. Also, USAC-CRA drivers went through the grandstands with their helmets and spectators put their cash donations into the helmets to increase the donated amount to fight cancer. My greenbacks went into Matt Mitchell's colorful helmet. I came from the pits after hot laps. With so large a crowd I sat in section D, only six rows up from the main walkway. That closeup view of sprint cars racing at top speed into the first turn was awe inspiring. One has to admire the skill level of our sprint car drivers.

USAC-CRA sprints qualified from 5:50-6:13. Mike Spencer, the 20th driver to qualify, set the fastest time of 16.341. That fell far short of the 15.833 TR set by Nic Faas at the 2013 season opener. It was 102 degrees at he track at 3:40 pm so no one expected a NTR;. It was a shirt-sleeve evening and still 75 degrees when the final race ended at 10:35 pm. Point leader Damion Gardner, the 14th qualifier, ran 16.594 and then a fast time of 16.447 on his second timed lap. Five-time series champion Spencer tied Gardner's fast time of 16.447 on his first lap, then he broke the tie on his second lap with a 16.341 lap for fast time honors. Spencer and his Ron Chaffin No. 50 Maxim/Shaver won the first URA main event at San Bernardino's Orange Show Stadium on April 27. The team did not race at OSS on June 1 and 29. Why? Chaffin is committed to USAC-CRA events event though URA pays feature winners $2,550 and USAC-CRA pays them $2,500. Bruce Bromme, Jr., the Chaffin crew chief and a past NSCHofF inductee, was not present at PAS July 4 because of health reasons. He should be back for the next races on August 9-10 at Watsonville and Santa Maria.

USAC-CRA inverted six cars for the ten-lap heat races. Winners D. Cardey (from 5th), D. Gardner (from 6th), R. Gardner (from 3rd) and Faas (from 6th) proved the track was racy by passing many cars. Winning times in order were: 2:54.75, NT (yellow), 2:58.49 and 2:53.98. The No. 1a Maxim driven by Ryan Devitt to P. 4 in the 12-lap B-main had a brief fire near the engine after his cool-off lap. Firemen quickly extinguished it. He remarkably was able to start 22nd in the 30-lap A-main and finished a lap down in 19th position.

A-MAIN: The 30-lap 410 ci sprint main was another classic with Cardey leading the first 16 laps in the Sertich No. 92 Victory chassis. He said he lost his brakes and then the lead, but he persevered to finish third. Faas started third and took second on lap 7. Spencer, who won the PAS July 4 races in 2011-12, came from sixth starting to third by lap 7. Faas took the lead on the inside entering turn three on lap 17. Spencer took P. 2 from Cardey a lap later and the battle was on between the two sprint car stars. As the leading duo lapped cars up to P. 9 Rip Williams (on lap 30) the outcome was in doubt to the 10:08 pm checkered flag. The all-green light race took only 9:05.20. Nineteen of 22 starters finished. Finland's Marcus Niemela, 20th to 10th, was the hard charger. Jay Waugh, from Australia, was another foreigner in the 22 car field.

Faas scored his eighth career USAC-CRA victory (all at PAS) and second of 2013. He thanked his entire Alexander crew. “That traffic was brutal. The track was good and racy. Sorry I got into Cory (at turn two). The entire race was hairy, especially in lapped traffic on the backstretch.” ... Runner-up Spencer stated, “The ledge was up in the turns, but you have to get into it, it's the fast way around. Our crew chief wasn't here tonight. Phone calls kept him updated. We had a good car. It was a good job by Faas and those guys. I got up even with him one time (in turn two). We have to keep going at the next race and in August here.” ... P. 3 Cardey said, “I probably shouldn't be up here now. I probably was holding them up behind me--lost our brakes. It's a shame, we started up front too. I knew they were coming. You have to set these cars up for the turns with the brakes. It was an awesome crowd and fireworks. Thanks to everyone for coming out.” Then the recording “Dirt Track Cowboy” played over the PA system.

CLS 20: The California Lightning Sprint (CLS) winged cars ran another all-green-light main event from 9:38 to 9:44. The 16 car race had three leaders and took only 6:07.95. Winner Bobby Michnowicz started tenth in his No. 21k. He took command on lap 19 under the waving white flag via a high side pass from the fourth turn to the S/F line. Stuart Hielscher, Jr. led laps 2-18 and placed second, five yards back. Newlywed point leader Steve Limon, from seventh grid spot, raced to third place, a straightaway behind Hielscher's No. 9. After climbing from his car, Michnowicz, 49, said, “I have to catch my breath. I'm worn out. I'm too old for this. My car came in at the end. Losing a race at the end is bad, and I've done that a lot in the past.” ... Runner-up Hielscher stated, “It's a bummer. Second place sucks, but I'm still out here having fun.” Chris Holt asked him what he thought about the ragged start. He replied, “That was 20 laps ago. I don't even remember.” ... P. 3 Limon said, “I got a new stock engine and it is up in horsepower. The old engine had two years on it and I had to race in third gear instead of second.”

SENIOR SPRINTS: Rick Hendrix, 59, is the PAS 360 ci senior sprints point leader. His wife is his hard-working crew member. The veteran of Ascot Park CRA sprint car racing started his Maxim ninth in the 20-lap feature. He quickly chased down seventh starter Bruce Douglass, the leader of laps 3-20. Hendrix was 20-yards off the lead on lap 16 and five yards in back of inside-running Douglass at the white flag. Coming off turn four with the checkered flag waving, Hendrix made a quick cut to the left and almost caught winner Douglass. The past USAC Western Midget and USAC 360 Western Sprint champion needed only one more lap to notch another victory. The final checkered flag flew at 10:35.

The top three seniors spoke to the remaining spectators. Winner Douglass exclaimed, “Thank God. It's over. It's a lot of fun running with Rick Hendrix.” ... Asked if he though he had won, Hendrix said, “No, not really. We were side by side across start/finish. Once I got by all that traffic it was pretty good.” He thanked the crowd. ... Third place Bob Alderman stated, “Thanks so much. I'm happy to come in third. I love this race track. This is serious stuff for us seniors. We've all run at Ventura for eight years. We'll be back August 17.” Fourth through 11th finishers were: Ed Schwarz, Victor Davis, Dale Gamer, Tobey Sampson, Tony Lima, Jim Giardina, plus DNFs-Steve Brown and Mike Collins.

YOUNG GUNS: The new this season PAS Young Guns Division had a season-high car count of seven. Trent Williams won the only heat. The YG 12-lap main started at 8:24 before the fireworks show. Logan Williams, Rip's youngest son at 19, led laps 2-12 and won by 15-yards in Jack Jory's No. 3x Stinger. The best battle of the race was the duel for second place between CLS graduate Alex Bissett, 18, from Hemet, and Chancellor Tiscareno, 16. They traded P. 2 three times from lap 7-10 when personable Alex (No. 1x Seth Wilson) made an outside pass exiting turn two and kept the spot to the end. It was his first full sprint car start on the PAS half-mile. It was only the second sprint car race for Alex, who debuted on June 1 at OSS in Wilson's older Maxim and raced into the URA feature. Alex made his URA midget racing debut at OSS June 29 in a 2005 Stealth/Ford Focus and again performed well.

Tiscareno had a Bill Perkins black No. 1 Victory chassis and entered the July 4 PAS race as the Young Guns point leader. The Menifee resident was a 2011 INEX Legends Car racer in the No. 1 sedan at the Irwindale Speedway third-mile paved oval. He also raced a URA sprint car last month on June 1 at the now clay semi-banked OSS quarter-mile. “I love racing on dirt, it's fun,” the promising teenager told me in the pits. Another Young Gun of note was known as Mikael Lovas in 2010 when he raced the No. 36 car on the Irwindale Speedway third-mile in the Bandolero Division, which uses Briggs & Stratton engines. The Menifee resident is now 15 and goes by Mikey Lovas these days. It seems like the future drivers in California sprint car racing on clay are in the pipeline. They are learning their lessons well together.

PIT NOTES: July 4 PAS winner Faas is a California State University-Fullerton recent graduate with a degree in finance. Congrats Nic, well done. ... Alexander Racing made it easier to tell their silver 4 (Faas) and 4A (D. Gardner) cars apart. They painted the 4A red on the tail and left the 4 number black on Nic's car. They earlier put green tape on the roll cage of the 4A. It still is not easy to differential the two cars when they race together in traffic. ... Damion said he plans to make practice runs in a Steve Watt Beast sprint car at El Mirage dry lake. His speed run for his upcoming straight-line world sprint car speed record at the famous salt flats in Bonneville, Utah will come later this summer. I asked Damion if he had a midget ride for the Labor Day weekend twin $10,000 to win USAC midget features at the revised Calistoga Fairgrounds clay half-mile. He replied, “I haven't been offered a midget ride.” He seemed to be interested. A midget car owner could call Damion and get a potential $10,000 race winner.

Ronnie Gardner made an infrequent USAC-CRA sprint car appearance July 4 in the No. 93 Gardner Racing 2006 Sled chassis. Former midget driver Frank Baldozier sponsorship made the re-appearance of the car possible. The former all dark blue/silver numerals car was repainted patriotically red, white and blue with white numerals on the all red tail. It looked spectacular on July 4. Ronnie has been concentrating this season on winning the USAC Western Midget Series championship in the No. 68 Stewart/Esslinger owned by Mitchell Johnson, the son of open-wheel veteran driver Walt Johnson, Jr. and grandson of Walt, Sr., a late USAC pit steward. Mitchell's grandmother is Pat Johnson, a long-time USAC registrar and scorer. Ronnie has won four of the nine USAC Western Midget features to date and leads the 2013 series point standings as of July 4 by 54 points over Jake Swanson.

The 2013 AMA Speedway Cycle Long Track National will be held on the PAS inside (quarter-mile) oval Saturday night, July 27. Eighteen of the best 500cc riders in the US will compete. They will be joined by the wild,1,000cc motorcycle/sidecar extreme racers on a longer track than they usually see in California. That is a must-see event. ... The next USAC-CRA sprint race at PAS (California Racers Hall of Fame Night) will be held Saturday, August 17. After that event, the only 2013 PAS sprint car races remaining will be September 14, October 5 (during the So Cal Fair) and the 18th annual Oval Nationals on October 31, November 1-2.