RACING SCENE Column – July 4, 2012 Perris Sprints
By noderel:
Los Angeles, CA. - The annual USAC-CRA 410 cu. in. sprint car Independence Day race on Wednesday, July 4 at Perris Auto Speedway was a rousing success on and off the track. Under a full moon, a 15-minute aerial fireworks show staged from the pit parking lot beyond turn two. It lured thousands of additional spectators to the now 17-year old PAS track in Riverside County. The triple-header racing card featured 410 sprinters with 360 cu. in. Senior Sprint Cars and winged California Lightning Sprints also in action on the half-mile clay oval.
Racing started at 6:25 pm, 35-minutes earlier than usual. All races up to the USAC-CRA 410 sprint feature were completed by 8:30 pm, so infield announcers Chris Holt and Ronnie Everhart had ample time to conduct informative interviews with drivers as the sky darkened for the 9:00-9:15 pm fireworks show, dubbed a “sky concert” by Pyro-Spectaculars, Inc. Country and patriotic music aired over the outstanding PAS sound system and accompanied the colorful fireworks show. It was one of the best 4th of July shows and crowds in years according to chief announcer Scott Daloisio.
The PAS grandstand was nearly 100% full from the bottom to top rows in the main grandstand. The first and fourth turn bleachers were jammed as well. The July 4 Riverside Press-Enterprise Local Section page 1 story included the PAS fireworks show in its story about 15 Inland Empire sites presenting July 4 fireworks shows. The story mentioned that Perris residents would be admitted free of charge by showing a driver's license or other form of photo identification or a utility bill with a Perris address. That brought many likely first-time visitors to the PAS track and many of them arrived after 8:00 pm. The fact they could remain in their seats after the fireworks show to see the USAC-CRA sprint car 30-lap main event was an added bonus for them. Adults brought children of all ages and perhaps many new racing fans were created by the PAS July 4 event. They were invited to return for the July 28 sprint event. The fact that many spectators departed after the fireworks show had more to do with Thursday, July 5 being a normal work day for many people who also had children with them.
CAR COUNTS: USAC-CRA had 28 cars qualify from 5:17-5:40 pm. Absent were the Vanderweerd twins from Visalia. They towed their No. 10 and 88 sprint cars to Indiana for a month of racing in the Midwest. Their schedule includes the seven race dates in nine days during the annual USAC Indiana Sprint Weeks. The scheduled Indiana tracks and race dates are: Gas City (7/13), Kokomo (7/14), Lawrenceburg (7/15), Terre Haute (7/18), Putnamville (7/19), Bloomington (7/20) and Haubstadt (7/21). Matt Mitchell (No. 37) also will tow to Indiana to race. The Alexander No. 4 Spike-Nic Faas and Chaffin No. 50 Maxim-Mike Spencer teams will not race this year in Indiana. ... The 55 cars in the PAS pits July 4 included nine 360 ci Senior Sprints and 18 CLS motorcycle-engine powered winged cars and those two groups hot lapped from 5:44-5:54 pm.
Spectators in the grandstands included ex-CRA Aussie driver Peter Nunn, 65. The personable Aussie said he recently returned to his home in Escondido from a six month visit to his native Australia. He wore a CRA tee-shirt with Bob Hogle (Morales Ofy) and Jimmy Oskie (J-Ram No. 91 Chevy) pictured on the front in their 1960s rides. Peter said he still has his Gary Stanton-built sprint car (No. 58 and then No. 33) in his garage at Escondido. Speaking of sprint car drivers from the Ascot era, Oskie and Steve Howard were seen roaming the infield and talking to friends in the pits July 4.
Four USAC-CRA sprint heat races produced victories for all three of the Jory racing team cars of National Sprint Car Hall of Fame inductee Rip Williams, 56, and his two sons—Cody, 23, and Austin, 21. That is tough to do. Two CLS heat races and a Senior Sprint heat followed the 410 heats. Brody Roa, 21, a first-time USAC-CRA feature winner (June 2 at Cocopah Speedway in Yuma, AZ) drove his now colorful light green & black No. 91 to the 12-lap B-main triumph. Rickie Gaunt started the No. 66 David Miller car from the pole and was second on lap 2 when he bounced off turn second turn crash-wall and dropped to P. 4. “Super Rickie” raced back to P. 2 by lap 6, but he slowed two laps later and retired with “a broken drive-line”. With 11 cars starting the B-main, two rookie drivers made their first A-feature by finishing fifth and sixth with only six drivers able to finish. Jon Kairot, of San Bernardino, and Patrick Clark, a Pro-2 truck Stadium Truck racer from Las Vegas, were the two rookies; Patrick was making his sprint car debut in Cory Kruseman's No. 71K. ... J. J. Ercse, 41, again made the A-main with the No. 36 John Springstead car, the only 360 ci Chevy racing in USAC-CRA ranks. ... Former CRA 410 sprint car feature winner Bobby Michnowicz won the CLS 20-lap main by leading all but the first lap. It was his second consecutive PAS victory in his Henchcraft car. The race ran from 7:57-8:11 with a red flag for a lap 11 flip by Damon Arnett.
SENIOR SPRINTS: Nine senior sprinters, age 45+, ran one 8-lap heat won by Victor Davis, of Simi Valley. He started sixth and took the lead from Bruce Douglass on lap 4. The top six finishers were inverted for the feature race with Davis' No. 13 again starting sixth in the scheduled 20-lap race, run from 8:20-8:27. A two car collision on lap 4 involved P. 3 Brian Williams, 52, and P. 5 B. Douglass, 61. They each won two of the prior four senior sprint features this season. Officials then cut the 20-lap race to 15 laps. Wiley Miller, 58, started second and led the first 11 laps over 2011 PAS Senior Sprint driving champion Bill Badger, who started fourth. Sixth starter Davis took second from Badger twice on lap 8 and closed quickly on leader Miller. On lap 12 Davis shot under Miller entering the third turn and took command of the race. Davis won by 40-yards in his own Maxim chassis, the ex-No. 10 Vanderweerd car. On lap 12, Badger duplicated the Davis move, also in turn three, and took second position. He outdistanced P. 3 Miller by 15-yards. First-time PAS winner Davis became the third different Senior Sprint winner in five races this season.
Jesse Denome, of San Diego, started ninth and finished fourth in his own TCR chassis. Pole starter “Hubcap” Mike Collins placed fifth. Rookie Eric Rickard, 46, finished sixth and was the only other finisher. Williams, Douglass and Jim Styer were credited with P. 7-8-9 respectively. Winner Davis told the crowd, “Thanks to you all for coming out and supporting sprint car racing.” He thanked his entire crew and said his crew chief is currently in Indiana racing with the Vanderweerd twins team. Runner-up Badger stated: “I'm a little winded. This is my sixth second place finish. I can't seal the deal.” Third place Miller said, “We moved up the racing line and they got by me.”
USAC-CRA 410s: The 22-car race started at 9:55 with past multi-time July 4 feature winners Rip Williams and Cory Kruseman on the front row. There was a red flag on lap 8 for a wild four to six-time flip down the backstretch by P. 8-running Cody Williams after 7th place Troy Rutherford (No. 42) moved up the track and made contact. Williams, who turned 23 two days earlier, quickly climbed from his car and hustled to the front straight to confront Rutherford before others intervened. The restarted race ran from 9:44 to the lap 30 checkers at 10:02 pm.
Nic Faas had to start last in heat one and in the feature because he changed to his backup Alexander ride after his primary No. 4 engine broke a valve while qualifying fifth fastest in the 28-car field. After finishing fourth in the first heat, Nic started last (22nd) in the feature. Nic was sensational in the feature. He was in P. 14 at the lap 8 green flag, sixth on lap 9, third on lap 13, second a lap later and 50-yards in back of the leader. Spencer, too, was a rapid mover. He came from his frequent outside row four starting position as the fastest qualifier to P. 6 after two laps. Mike was fifth on lap 3, fourth on lap 4, third on lap 10 and first on lap 11 after he shot past the P 1-2 drivers Kruseman and R. Williams simultaneously on the outside in the third and fourth corners. As Spencer and Faas lapped slower cars from laps 17-28, Faas closed ground quickly and trailed Spencer by only ten yards after lap 28. On lap 29 Faas was a mere five yards back when he dived low entering the first turn and pulled even with leader Spencer as they lapped a slower car.
Just then, with the victory in doubt, a two-car impact in turn two involved P. 5 Rip Williams and P. 6 T. Rutherford and sent Rip's No. 3 Jory to the outside wall where it stopped next to the backstretch wall with a broken steering arm. Rutherford continued under caution, but he did not escape unscathed. He had to go to the pits with a flat LR tire as the race was about to go green. Instead of an in-doubt P. 1-2 duel to the final checkered flag, we had a re-run of lap 29 for a green, white, checkered flag finish. Spencer (No. 50) pulled away quickly at the restarted lap 29 and won by ten yards over Faas (No. 4). Brody Roa (Spike No. 91) made an outside pass through the first two turns on lap 30 and took P. 3 from recent high school graduate Ryan Bernal's Ford Racing No. 73.That wasn't the only excitement at the finish. After taking the checkered flag, a group of cars entered the first turn together. The Bezio 37x got out of shape after contact by Greg Alexander's No. 72, which continued. The No. 20 of Corey Ballard, 31, had just passed the No. 92 (David Cardey) and got into No. 72, causing the 20 car to roll once onto its side in the low groove entering the first turn. Other cars scattered and second year driver Ballard's 20 car was righted by corner workers. A truck pushed it to the pits with little damage. Ballard calmly described the incident to listeners in his pit.
Winner Spencer told the large crowd, “This is the race to win next to the Oval Nationals (November). We were better the longer we went.” He posed with the large trophy, victory wreath and a huge wooden $2,500 symbolic check after his fourth PAS triumph in a row. Runner-up Faas stated: “I think I got by (Spencer) on the white flag lap before the yellow. I hope we put on a good show for you guys. (They did.) Come back often.” Third place Roa said, “My car was way too tight at the start.” He thanked all his sponsors, his crew, dad and mom. P. 4 Bernal said he wasn't sure about moving to Indianapolis any time soon. He plans to run the No. 73 Ford-owned car the rest of 2012. He explained how he shot from P. 5 to third place on lap 26 by diving to the inside in the second turn when Kruseman and Rip Williams bumped wheels in that corner. Overall, it was a spectacular night of open-wheel racing before the largest PAS crowd of the season and accompanied by a patriotic aerial fireworks show as well.