RACING SCENE Column – (More PAS Oval Nationals) Nov. 2-3, 2012
By noderel:
Los Angeles, CA. - Total car count for the three racing classes that raced during the 2012 Perris Budweiser Oval Nationals (November 2 and 3) was 44 AMS/Oil USAC Sprints including five 360 cu. in. sprint cars (Nos. 17, 12, 6, 47 and 04). The Perris Senior Sprint Series (for drivers age 45+) had 12 cars Friday and 11 cars Saturday. Actually a season high and two year series high car count of 13 different 360s competed during the weekend. The.7 and 21 cars raced only Friday and the 35 car raced only Saturday. The winged Calif. Lightning Sprints had 21 cars November 2 and 20 the next night. Three BCRA Lights from Nor Cal competed. Dakota Albright, 21, from Oakdale, raced his own No. 35jr A.R.T chassis with a 1,000cc Kawasaki engine. He finished fourth and first in the two 20 lap Perris features. On the track PA system he said, “ This is my first time here. I love this place. I'll be back next year.” Craig Dillard, also from Oakdale, drove the No. 72s TCR/1,000cc Suzuki. The No. 77 Henchcraft/Suzuki of Zach Beard, from Atwater, was the third northern car. He is the son of BCRA Lights past champion Cameron Beard and the grandson of Lloyd Beard, who lost his life at Calistoga in a sprint car crash October 27, 1979. ... The 2013 USAC-CRA Perris race schedule shows ten races starting March 9.The 18th annual PAS Oval Nationals dates will be November 1 and 2.
The November 3 ASCS sprint car race at the Arizona Speedway—ET Motorsports Park dirt track east of Phoenix deprived the Oval Nationals of three additional sprint cars. It was the second consecutive year this conflict has occurred. Too bad they didn't pick another date. Missing Arizona cars at Perris probably were the Robbie Allen 12A driven by Josh Pelkey, Bobby Martin's 51A car driven by R. J. Johnson, and the 16A of owner/driver Mike Martin. Amazingly, Martin drove his car from the front row and led all 30 laps to win the USAC National/CRA 410 Sprint race at Canyon Raceway Park in Peoria, AZ on October 27. Martin used a 360 cu. in. Chevy engine that had titanium in it wherever possible. That engine reportedly won recent Knoxville (IA) 360 Nationals features. It would've been interesting to see it race in the PAS Oval Nationals.
Co-Grand Marshals at the 17th Oval Nationals were long-time Perris track announcers Scott Daloisio (booth) and Chris Holt (pits). They received recognition Saturday during the well-attended pre-race formalities. ... Two USAC National sprinters at Perris had a series of feature winner decals placed on the top of the tails. Jon Stanbrough's DRC No. 21x had seven decals and Dave Darland's Maxim No. 11 had 12 decals mounted. ... Ronnie Case's No. 8x Ventura-based sponsor names were unique—Buena Vista Collision Centers, Sushi Fresh and Eagle Engines.
TOP TRIO SPEAK: Oval Nationals Saturday 40-lap feature winner Mike Spencer became the 12th different Oval Nationals champion after 17 events. When interviewed on the track PA system Mike said, “This is awesome being from the West Coast. A local guy brought it home. This is my biggest race each year, even when I drove the 44 car and people helped by buying tires for us. This is the race I've always wanted to win. I really like Tracy (Hines). I really respect him and passed him on lap 20 when the yellow came out. He came down to my inside line after I passed him inside (on lap 20). I had to pass him again (on lap 38) on the outside. Thanks to car owner Ron Chaffin, crew chief Bruce Bromme, Jr., the crew, and all the fans for coming out.”
Runner-up Hines stated, “I've had broken bones and flipped here. Our team patriarch Dave Calderwood (of Bakersfield) passed away this year and his family kept the team going. Mike (Spencer) and I are really close and have some mutual friends. We could race 100 laps and never touch we like each other so much. He is an engineer and I run ideas by him. I have five more years to go before racing in the senior (age 45+) class. Third place Stanbrough said he went to a backup car and thanked his team and sponsors for all their help. “Maybe I'll come back next year and get one (Oval Nationals victory).”
Completing the top ten were: Damion Gardner, Darland, Bryan Clauson, Rickie Gaunt, Robert Ballou, Chase Stockon and USAC-CRA's Ronnie Gardner. First-time USAC National Sprint Car Series champion Clauson, 23, also spoke to the crowd following the feature. The 2012 Indianapolis 500 rookie starter stated, “I'm happy to be the USAC National Sprint champion for the first time despite missing four races. Congratulations to Mike for winning tonight. I know beating Dave (Darland) wouldn't be easy and it wasn't. I tried to run as hard as I could and mixed it up with five or six laps to go, but my right rear tire was going down and it would be bad to lose it (championship) on a flat tire.”
USAC National Sprint winners in 2012: There were 34 USAC National point races completed and five special events (SE) with no points. Rain canceled nine USAC National sprint events. There were 19 different point race winners and four drivers won the five SE mains. Clauson won seven times and Darland won five. Double winners were Gardner, Hines, Stanbrough, Stockon and Windom. Single feature winners were Bacon, Ballou, Clayton, East, Grant, Hagen, L. Jones, Bud Kaeding, M. Martin, Schuerenberg, Spencer and K. Thomas, Jr. Kyle Larson won two SE mains (at Oscaloosa, Iowa) and was the 20th series winner. Clayton, Darland and Schuerenberg also won SE non-point mains. Eighteen different car owners won a USAC points feature. ... The Bennett Brothers two-car team at Perris had an orange No. 5x Maxim for Thomas Meseraull that was raced by Windom (2011) and Justin Grant (2010). The white/black No. 5 driven by Wes McIntyre was a newer DRC chassis.
USAC-CRA FEATURE WINNERS: There were 22 point races in the 2012 California-based 410 sprint car series. Twelve different drivers won. Spencer won his record fifth consecutive series driving title by a whopping 375 points over runner-up Nic Faas. Spencer won nine mains; double winners were Ryan Bernal and Faas. Solo winners were: Clauson, Darland, Danny Faria, Kyle Hirst, Cory Kruseman, M. Martin, Brody Roa, Danny Sheridan, and Austin Williams. Kyle Larson won a non-point race in Chico on September 5 to become the 13th different USAC-CRA winner in 23 total events.
Larson was a guest on Speed's Wind Tunnel show November 4 with Dave DeSpain. The Elk Grove, Calif. driver finished sixth at Rockingham, N.C on November 3 in the 2012 NASCAR K & N East stock car finale. He won both the K & N East 2012 championship and rookie of the year titles. In the 26 year history of that series, only Joey Logano (2007) and Ryan Truex (2009) have won both titles in the same season. Next, Larson drove the NASCAR Camping World Series No. 4 Chevy truck, led many laps and was in front of the Phoenix NASCAR truck race Friday, November 9. He was about to win when a late caution caused a double-file restart. Larson slipped to a P. 2 finish in only his third truck race (he also has a P. 3 truck finish). Larson won the USAC National/Western Midget feature at Canyon Raceway in Peoria, Ariz. on Saturday, November 10. DeSpain said it was Larson's 27th feature victory in 115 events this year. Last year he won about 25 mains in various open-wheel wing and non-wing circuits and late model stock cars. At age 20 Larson reminds me of Jeff Gordon (circa 1991-92) talent-wise in a wide variety of cars. He will race in the Thanksgiving Night Midget GP at Perris in Keith Kunz No. 71 Bullet/Speedway Toyota. Then he will head to Australia for more racing in December.
Alex Bowman, of Tucson, is another ex-USAC open-wheel star (2008 USAC Ford Focus National Champion) rising rapidly at age 20. He set another quick time (a NTR) in ARCA this year at Kansas City driving the No. 22 Cunningham Racing Dodge. Alex had 11 top fives and 13 top tens in 19 ARCA races this year and won four of the 19 ARCA features (at Salem and Winchester, IN banked half-miles, the seven-eights mile Iowa Speedway, and 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway). Kevin Swindell placed second at KC in a Bill Venturini Toyota. Alex finished fourth in 2012 ARCA points and won the rookie of the year title. He had similar success last year in the NASCAR K & N East Series. He placed sixth in final points and won 2011 K & N East rookie of the year. Alex raced the No. 99 Toyota in the November 10 NASCAR Nationwide Series Phoenix 200. He started in P. 22 and ran in the top ten as high as seventh against more experienced NNS and Cup drivers most of the race. He finished in P. 15, one of 20 drivers on the led lap. Personable Alex could be the next Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. USAC open-wheel vet to become a NASCAR champion.
Perris Mechanical Failures: Kevin Thomas, Jr. qualified Friday at a slow 28.880 because his engine had a cracked head. His 2012 Spike No. 9k has sponsorship by Black-Jack Oil Co., of Natchez, Mississippi. He races on the non-wing USAC 410 circuit but is not related to the 1990s USAC driver of the same name. He used a different engine Saturday. ... Kenny Perkins (No. 0K) had fuel starvation because of a fuel bladder pickup problem and did not race. ... The Keith Ford team used three 73 cars for Ryan Bernal and Sacramento's Kyle Hirst and did not get to race Saturday. Crashes eliminated the 73 and 73x cars Friday. Bernal was qualifying a brand new 73 car Saturday when the engine began smoking heavily on the backstretch on lap two; he pulled in with a hole in the right side of the block. ... Chase Stockon broke a connection rod while qualifying his own turquoise blue No. 32 DRC when the engine soured. He pulled in when a connecting rod put a hole in the right side of his block. He borrowed that engine from Jeff Walker's No. 11 team at Peoria, AZ. Saturday at Perris. He went to Walker and asked to borrow Darland's backup No. 11 Maxim that was parked next to the pit board. Walker generously allowed him borrow it. Stockon qualified it at the end of time trials (37th car) and, without any practice in the different chassis, turned 29th fastest time. He finished second in his heat, started 13th and finished ninth in the 40-lap main.
Hard Luck: Richard VanderWeerd (No. 10) was running sixth Friday in the second turn on lap 29 in of the 30-lap main. Contact from the No. 5x car driven by Thomas Meseraull resulted in him flipping one and a half times. He climbed out okay, but angry. He commandeered a 4-wheeler and drove over to the front straight under the red flag to confront Meseraull verbally before returning to his pit. VanderWeerd, one of the 22-year old racing twins from Visalia, raced Saturday in the same No. 10 car. His team revealed the car had relatively little damage, mostly broken radius rods. Both of the twins raced with USAC in Indiana during June and that experience showed November 2 and 3 as he raced up front with USAC National Series stars.
FRIDAY OVAL NAT. TOP THREE: Winner Clauson stated over the PA microphone, “I knew I had to get a good run off turn four. I saw Jon (Stanbrough) low. I knew it wasn't going to be easy and it won't be easy tomorrow either. I'm known at times as a bottom-feeder, but tonight I showed I can run at the top too.” ... Runner-up Stanbrough stated: “ I quit racing for points tonight. I really wanted to win tonight. I always enjoy coming to California at the end of the year. We were fast enough. If it was a 35 or 40 lap race we could have got it.” ... P. 3 Darland said, “I got good starts off turn four, but couldn't pull it off. My car was tight. The track got awfully slick. They did some work on the track and changed it, and my car wasn't the way it was. It was a good track and race. See what happens tomorrow night. Me and Bryan have been racing hard all summer and the championship will come down to tomorrow night.” ... Clauson led National Sprint points 1974-1967 over Darland as of November 1. After the Friday Perris race Clauson led 2042 to 2034. The final race Saturday made the difference five points—2087-2082. Third place Stanbrough finished with 2019, P. 4 Hines 1891 and P. 5 Gardner 1802.
SENIOR 360 SPRINTS: Rick Hendrix, 59, made his PAS 360 cu. in. senior sprint debut in his own No. 15 Maxim that he bought new in 2010 from Kaeding Performance. He was competitive and finished third Friday. ... Steve Robinette, a 52-year old newcomer from Vista, drove Bill Perkins 360 sprint rental car with a yellow rookie flag on the cage. ... Dr. Jim Giardina, DDS, known as “the tooth doc” when he raced a 410 sprint with CRA at Ascot, had a new 360 car out Friday, but it did not finish. ... Many-time VRA senior sprint Friday feature winner Wiley Miller enjoyed his first Perris main event victory. The 58-year old led all 20 laps Friday in his No. 75x Maxim and enjoyed it so much he promptly “retired on top”and skipped racing Saturday. He put all his racing stuff up for sale. He let USAC-CRA Racing Director Steve Ostling, 49, race Saturday. All the retired CRA/SCRA past feature winner did was win the 20-lap senior sprint feature for drivers age 45+ convincingly. “I last raced five years ago at Ventura in the No. 09 Luis Espinoza 360 sprint car,” he told me. ... Bruce Douglass entered the Oval Nationals 360 doubleheader six points ahead of 2011 inaugural senior sprint champion Bill Badger 441-435. Bruce won the 2012 senior championship by six points (546-540) over Badger. The new champ jokingly stated over the PA system, “I want to thank my sponsor—Depends Diapers”. Winner Ostling said his daughter Taylor was in Germany watching the race over the Internet. Six driver/car owners were eligible for the John Aden 777 Chassis Co. new chassis generously donated by Aden to a competitor who raced in every PAS senior event or missed only one race. “Hubcap” Mike Collins won the drawing so he will have a new 777 No. 04 next season.
CLS: Bobby Michnowicz started seventh, led laps 4-20 and won Friday's winged Calif. Lightning Sprint 20-lap main for his seventh 2012 CLS feature triumph in event 15. The ex-410 sprint car winner won his first CLS championship in his own No.12M Henchcraft by 55 points (2159-2104) over Steve Limon, the 2011 CLS rookie of the year. On Friday Dan Hillberg blew his No. 10 engine and his 10x car driven by ex-SCRA sprint car driver Alex Grigoreas lost oil pressure“because a tube was too short” according to a crewman. Jarrett Kramer, the 2010 CLS champion, finished second both nights at the Oval Nationals.
The 14th annual Fred Ercse Classic Slick Kart Race for Charity (American Heart Assn.) in memory of Fred Ercse and others affected by heart disease will be held Tuesday,November 20 at Go Kart World, 21830 Recreation Rd, Carson. Entree fee is $25 and sign-ups start at 7:00 pm. Racing will begin at 8:00 with heats, last chance qualifying race, and a 50-lap main event. Past winners include well-known drivers such as Josh Wise, Garrett Hansen, Blake Miller, Greg and Brad Alexander, Chris Tooley, and Jake Argo. There have been two rain-outs. Open-wheel racer J. J. Ercse and his wife began this event shortly after his dad Fred died suddenly from heart disease.