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RACING SCENE Column – (USAC SPRINTS PAS OVAL NATIONALS)
– By Tim Kennedy

Los Angeles, CA. - The 16th annual Budweiser Oval Nationals at Perris Auto Speedway (PAS) featured AMS/Oil USAC National and USAC-CRA 410 cu. in. sprint cars. The three day schedule--Thursday-Saturday, November 3-5—was compacted into two days by 0.38 of an inch of rain Friday. PAS management before1:55 pm wisely postponed Friday night racing to Saturday afternoon with the Saturday night show following as scheduled. All three days of racing were completed fully. Feature winners were: Nik Faas, 22, Chris Windom, 20, and Damion Gardner, 34. Owner/driver Gardner, from Concord, CA. and a USAC National Series driver in recent years, received $12,500 from the three-day $80,000+ purse. He repeated his 2009 Oval Nationals Saturday victory. Eleven drivers have won the 16 Oval Nationals and seven past winners raced in the 2011 edition. Damion joined Cory Kruseman and Dave Darland as two-time winners, while Bud Kaeding is the only three-time Oval Nationals winner.

The 16th Oval Nationals had a new feature this year. A pay-per-view live streaming of all Oval Nationals races via the Internet was available. There was a 100-mile radius of the PAS blackout. Cost was $9.99 each for the two preliminary days and $14.99 for the Saturday night event. Each day showed qualifying, all heat races, B and A features. It was most welcome for persons unable to get to Perris in person. On-line comments from remote viewers were favorable. ... The second annual $10,000 Legends of Ascot Match Race with the top two drivers in both National and CRA points were eligible. A wild card driver completed the five driver field for a series of four 4-lap match races. Drivers drew for starting positions in the first of four races and then rotated positions counter-clockwise for subsequent match races. Points were awarded on a 4-3-2-1-0 basis after each race. The high point driver after all four matches received $10,000 in the winner takes all format.

Thur. Nov. 3 – Qualifying for all 49 cars ran from 4:50-5:28 pm. Ryan Bernal, the first driver to qualify,set the fastest time of 16.906 on his second lap and no other driver could top him. It was the first time the high school senior from Hollister (south of San Jose) had seen the PAS track. Eleven drivers ran their FQ lap on lap 1 of 2 and 38 turned their best lap on lap 2. The only other driver able to run a 16-second lap was Mike Spencer, the 30th qualifier, who ran 16.931. Thursday the temperature at PAS was 78 degrees at 3:30 pm and a wind chilled 55 at the A-main checkered flag at 8:53 pm. ..... Rising stars in action in addition to Nik Faas and the Williams boys included five impressive young visitors--Bryan Clauson, 22, NASCAR, USAC Silver Crown, Sprint and Midget, Indy Lights driver from Antelope, CA originally and now from Noblesville, IN; Kyle Larson, 19, Elk Grove--a 22 feature winner this year (including the Belleville (KS) Midget Nationals, WoO sprints in Chico, CA, USAC S/C, Sprint and Midget features at the Eldora (OH) Speedway 4-Crown event), Ryan Bernal, the 2011 USAC Western 360 point leader who turned 18 on Nov. 4; Keith Bloom, Jr, 18, from Anderson, CA., and Chris Windom, of Canton, IL, the 2010 Oval Nationals champion and a 2011 USAC National Sprint championship contender.

Day two: After Friday rain and re-grooming the clay track early Saturday morning, qualifying times got faster. The Wes Gutierrez 007 car had to withdraw. Spencer, the 31st qualifier, set FQ time of 16.051 and came close to the 1-lap track record of 15.954 set on 10/31/02 by Damion Gardner. Twenty drivers ran their faster lap of two on lap 1 and 29 drivers were quicker on lap 2. Thirty-four drivers qualified in the 16-second bracket, 12 in the 17s and three slower. Following hot-lapping, drivers qualified from 12:52-1:34 pm in bright sunshine with welcome blue sky and white clouds. It rained again on Sunday so fans and PAS management were fortunate to complete all three shows. The daytime track was tacky and free of dust thanks to Friday rainfall. The 25-lap feature started at 4:27 and ended at 4:49 pm. PAS staff cleared all grandstands and the pits before people were allowed to reenter with a day three ticket for the third day event. Track staff reworked the track before event three warmups and hot-lapping commenced about 6:00 pm. PAS temperatures were 58 degrees at 12:15 pm before day two time trials started and a cool 45 degrees when the third feature and match races concluded at 11:29 pm. Surprisingly, Saturday was not as chilly as Thursday night because wind was absent. Flags on the poles beyond turn 2 were limp during Saturday racing so wind-chill was not a factor.

Day three: Time trials ran from 6:49-7:18 pm and 36 of 37 cars qualified. Bobby Bender's car was a DNQ. Kruseman, the 19th driver to qualify, set FQ time of 16.443. That time was still faster by 0.463 than the fastest qualifying time on a fresh track Thursday. Amazingly, it was the second round of qualifying that day on the track. Six drivers ran their faster lap on lap 1 and 29 were quicker on their second lap. Greg Bragg, 15th to qualify, did not complete a lap because of a problem. Twenty qualifiers ran in the 16s, 13 were in the 17s, and two were in the 18s or slower.

THURSDAY: Racing had a 10-lap C main for 41st and slower qualifiers, five 10-lap heat races with the eight starters in each fully inverted by qualifying times. The top four finishers in each heat advanced directly to the 25-lap A-main. Winners came from starting positions 1-1-6 (Faas)-1-4 (Hines). Back row starters finished 6 & 7, 8 & 6, 5 & 4, 5 & 6, and 2 & 7, so with only two drivers making the A from heats quickest qualifiers were unhappy and vocal. Seven of the 15 fastest qualifiers (only one of the 9 FQ) made the A-main from heats. Kaeding (14th FQ) and Faas (13th FQ) had front row starting positions for the A because USAC used the National Series system. The P. 6 starting spot for the FQ went to Keith Bloom, the third FQ. The straight-up start by qualifying times for the 24-car 12 lap B main advanced P 1-4 to the A and four of the five FQ moved on to the A-main. CRA drivers Austin Williams and Matt Mitchell used provisional starting slots to make it a 26-car A field. Thursday A-main winner Faas started second and raced as though he had a hot date waiting. He led all 25 laps and had a straightaway lead by lap 10. He won by a straightaway and had four lapped cars between his Mark Alexander No. 4x and Kaeding's No. 29. Faas lapped up to 18th place with 24 cars racing at the finish of the all-green flag race. It took only 7:02.36 to run 25 laps---a possible NTR time? Heat 3 was a preview of his sensational feature performance. Nic started H-3 sixth and was third on lap 1, second on lap 3 and first from laps 6-10. He won H-3 by a straightaway over Levi Jones and on lap 8 ran a near track record 16.092 (TR-15.954) en-route to his first of two impressive victories Thursday.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON: Racing had a 10-lap C main that advanced the top four finishers to the back of the B. Five fully inverted eight-car heats sent the first four in each heat directly to the A. Winners came from starting positions 7-4-2-5-1 so the track was more racy than Thursday night despite it being a sunny, day race. Back row drivers in the heat races finished 1 & 6, 4 & 3, 3 & 6, 2 & 8 (flip), and 7 & 6, so five of the eight back row drivers qualified for the A directly from heats. The four transferees from the straight-up start, 23-car, 12-lap B to the 25-lap A came from positions 1-6-8-10. With a six-car invert for the A, 11th FQ Kruseman had pole position, with 9th FQ Gardner alongside. The P. 6 slot went to second FQ Levi Jones. Two National Series provisional berths went to Hunter Schuerenberg and Jon Stanbrough. The two CRA provisionals went to Greg Bragg and Danny Sheridan, making it a crowded 28-car feature field.

The original day three schedule for 2011 replaced the day three D, C, B and A features of past years with a fan favored full show format—all teams participating in time trials, heats, C, B and A mains. The only change was a 40-lap main Saturday instead of 25 laps used Thursday and Friday. When rain postponed the Friday show to Saturday afternoon it made a very busy Saturday with two complete shows in one day. PAS promoter Donnie Kazarian announced a format change that returned the Saturday night program to C, B and A mains only as in past Oval Nationals. That announcement touched off a firestorm of complaints from fans via telephone calls to PAS and complaints on Internet websites. To his credit, Kazarian quickly reversed course and gave paying customers what they wanted—a full show with TT, heats, B and A mains. That news was well received and resulted in happy fans and a nearly full main grandstand Saturday night.Track and muddy infield prep work took place early Saturday. The hard-working PAS team had the track in excellent, almost new track record shape for the TWO complete racing events Saturday.

SATURDAY NIGHT: Racing had four 10-lap heats that transferred only the top two finishers in each to the A-main. Those eight drivers joined the eight drivers with the most Oval Nationals points from Thursday night and Saturday afternoon racing. The top eight point drivers (with points in parenthesis) were: No. 50 Spencer (273), 4x Faas (268), 5 Windom (264), 27 Bloom (250), 20 L. Jones (246), 71 Gardner (243), 29 Bud Kaeding (237), and 4 Hines (223). No.72 Robert Ballou also tallied 223 points but Hines received the coveted eighth and final spot because he had the faster Saturday qualifying time—16.595 (Hines) to 16.639 by Ballou. Spencer received the Dean Thompson Oval Nationals High Point Award. After hot-lapping on the re-groomed half-mile clay track, Saturday day three qualifying for 36 drivers took place from 6:49-7:18. Four USAC heats had starting inversions of four and transferees came from starting positions 2-4, 4-2, 2-3 and 1-4, giving the A main 16 cars. Two 12-lap B mains followed from 8:58-9:29 and each B race advanced four drivers to the A, making the field 24. B drivers who advanced came from starting positions 1-2-8-6 and then 2-4-1-7. Two CRA provisional starters (Sheridan and Rip Williams) made it a 26 car field. The first six drivers in Oval Nationals points started the A main inverted by day one and two points. P. 6 in points Gardner and P. 5 Levi Jones had the front row and high-point man Spencer started in P. 6. The 40-lap A ran from 10:21-10:54 pm. The Legends of Ascot Match Race scheduled for Friday followed the A Saturday at the request of participating drivers. They used the same cars they had raced in the just completed 40-lap feature. Four 4-lap match races started at 11:17 and concluded at 11:25 pm. Almost 100% of the spectators remained in their grandstand seats to witness the thrilling five-car winner takes all $10,000 once a year competition.

MATCH RACES: Drivers drew for race one starting positions and the wild card driver (Larson) had to start fifth in race one. Winners (and their starting positions) were: Faas (2), Spencer (2), Spencer (1) and Windom (3). Winners of the first three match races led all four laps. Windom took the lead from pole starter/lap 1-3 leader Jones on lap 4 of 4 on the inside between turn 4 and the finish line. Points were awarded on a 4-3-2-1-0 basis, Faas (4 points) led over Windom, Spencer, Larson (who passed Jones on Lap 4) and Jones was fifth after race one. After the second match, Faas (7 points) still led by 1 point over Spencer (6). Windom (4), Jones (2) and Larson (1) trailed. Race 3 had a new point leader after Spencer won his second consecutive match race to total 10 points. Faas had 7, Windom 6, Jones 5 and Larson 2. Race 4 went to Windom and his 4 points gave him10 overall. P. 2 Jones finished with 8 points. Faas started fourth and finished fifth, ending with 7 points. Larson started second and finished third and his 2 points gave him 4 points for fifth place overall. His mom watched from the top row of grandstand C. Larson, a 22 feature winner this year so far driving primarily for Keith Kunz, was spectacular during the match races with his controlled rim-riding style. The key driver in race four was Spencer, who had to start fifth and needed to finish at least fourth for 1 point to out-point Windom for the $10 Gs. He did just that by passing fourth starter Faas on lap 1 and keeping P. 4 by about five yards all four laps. His 1 critical point gave Mike 11 points and a $10,000 payoff. That is the richest sprint car race purse—16 laps or eight miles. Infield announcer Chris Holt interviewed Spencer who said, “It wasn't easy. I drew 3 (for race one). That was cool and fun. I hope fans enjoyed it.” He also thanked match race sponsors for financially backing the unique event. Key sponsors were: Race 1 - Dick Woodland Air Museum in Paso Robles; Race 2 – Belita Michnowicz in memory of the late Mark Spivey; Race 3 – Lois Ward in memory of her late husband Dave Ward, and Race 4 – L of A organizer Don Weaver.

Danny (No. 2BZ) Faria, Jr, a 39-year old dairy farmer from Tipton, and Kyle (No. 1) Larson were teammates in a pair of red cars owned by Junior “Buster” Bowman and George “Ziggy” Snider. Kaeding's car was a third affiliated car. ..... Seth Wilson returned to racing for the first time since he broke a kneecap during his wild qualifying flip in his own No. 1x at the USAC-CRA Victorville event on March 26. The ex-San Clemente and current Las Vegas resident was aboard the Ray Stansberry white & fluorescent green No. 75 for the Oval Nationals.. ..... First-time drivers at The PAS included Nor Cal drivers Geoff Ensign, of Sebastapol, Ryan Bernal, from Hollister, and Colby Copeland, 19, of Roseville. ..... Five drivers used 360 cu. in. engines. They were: # 37x David Bezio, 30, of El Cajon, # 92 Andy Forsberg, # 12 Bobby Bender, # 33x Ray Potter , and # 11 Troy Rutherford on Nov. 3. 360s that made features were Forsberg and Rutherford Thursday and Bezio Saturday afternoon.

FLIPS – Nine drivers flipped or rolled. On Thursday Faria rolled in heat 3. Day two Saturday afternoon had four flips. Bragg (92x) flipped while qualifying. Austin Williams rolled once at turn 1 in H-4. Then Austin came back in the repaired Jory # 2 and flipped wildly about four times from turn 3 to 4. He went to Riverside Community Hospital for X-rays and medical evaluation of his shoulder pain. He received a reported concussion and a broken shoulder blade. Hunter Schuerenberg flipped at turn 2 in the B-main. Saturday night four drivers flipped/or rolled. Jon Stanbrough rolled in H-4 in turn 4. Colby Copeland flipped his # 24c wildly three and a half times on the front straight in the second B main. Richard Vanderweerd, one of the 20-year old racing twins from Visalia, and Brady Bacon flipped simultaneously exiting turn 2 in the A-main. Copeland and Vanderweerd were dazed initially but remained track-side.

Drivers deserving praise for Oval Nationals runs include: Thursday – Wes Gutierrez, the 12th FQ in a rare PAS appearance, started in P. 6 and took the final A transfer position (4th) from John Aden at the lap 10 checkers in H-2. In the main Wes started third and finished fifth in the all-green 25-lapper. His car did not race Saturday. ..... Saturday afternoon – H-1 – Windom started in P. 7 and won the 8-car race with an inside pass of Rip Williams on L 9 leaving turn 2 and won by 30-yards over Rip. H-3 – Copeland led all 10 laps from outside row 1 with all three Buster & Ziggy cars in that heat. H-5 – Casey Shuman, 32, LAW from pole and Greg Alexander, 22, finished second. A-main – Windom came from row 3 to lead laps 9-25 and win by 20-yards over PAS star Spencer. ..... Saturday night – In the second B main (at 43 degrees on an I-phone at 9:10 pm) Brady Bacon (Hoffman # 69) dropped from P. 2 at the start to P. 4 on L 1. Brady came back to P. 3 on L 4, P. 2 on L 6 and passed laps 1-9 leader Stanbrough, who drove the Hoffman 69 car a week earlier in Peoria, AZ, on L 10 on the inside at the starting line and beat P. 2 Stanbrough by 15-yards. Larson, of Elk Grove, started in P. 23 and charged forward to P. 13 (+ 10 positions) in the 40-lap A-main. He earned the first Tony Jones Hard Charger Award for the Oval Nationals finale. Tony presented it to Kyle prior to Kyle's racing in the four match races. Kyle said, “I pretty much sucked this weekend. I missed the first two features. Hopefully we'll pass cars in the match races and win that money.” He was a spectacular rim-rider in all four match races but placed fifth overall. His usual USAC car owner Keith Kunz was in the pits.

MISCELLANEOUS: The 32-page Oval Nationals color program was $5.00. ..... All of the top ten USAC National points drivers and nine of the top ten in USAC-CRA 2011 points raced. Only P. 10 David Cardey did not race Nov. 3-5. He was present but his No. 59 was not. ..... National and CRA point leaders (L. Jones and Spencer) lost and gained point leads over P. 2 drivers during the Oval Nationals. Jones went from + 43 points to + 33 over P. 2 Windom. Spencer went from + 34 over Mitchell to + 53 over Faas and 139 over Mitchell with only one race remaining on Nov. 12 in Hanford. ..... Danita Cardey has succeeded Kim Kazarian all year as judge of the kids dance contest in the grandstand front aisle. Promoter Donny Kazarian made a surprise special award to USAC-CRA No. 50 car owner Ron Chaffin as the only car owner with a car competing in all 16 Oval Nationals. His drivers have been Richard Griffin, D. Gardner, and Spencer. Ron's words relayed by announcer Scott Daloisio were: “They always knew we were here.” At the starting line Donnie also presented jackets to grand marshals Ed and Bob Ramirez, the PAS starters for all 15 years prior to 2011. They retired after 2010. Kevin Winters has been the new PAS starter in 2011. The Mission Fire & Rescue crew also received recognition at the starting line before the first race Saturday night. Two long-time PAS employees—videographer Jeff Kristensen and music board operator Joe Zulewski--received recognition and thanks via the PA system as they worked their final PAS events. .....Oval Nationals A-main drivers: 16 drivers made all three features. They were: Kaeding, Faas, East, Schuerenberg, Bloom, Spencer, Clauson, Hines, D. Gardner, Windom, Jones, Darland, Sheridan, Stanbrough, Kruseman, and Mitchell. Ten drivers—Ballou, Rutherford, Johnson, Shuman, R. Vanderweerd, Rip and Cody Williams, Bernal, Bacon, and R. Gardner—made two A-mains. Twelve drivers—Gutierrez, Forsberg, Golobic, Ford, A. Williams, Bragg, Bezio, Alexander, Copeland, Gaunt, Larson, and Aden—made one A-main.

MORE MISCEL: Pit steward Evelyn Pratt had a new PAS pennant “Evelyn's Corner” hanging over the pit board. Evelyn, now 92, had hip replacement recently and has returned to her gardening business. ... Don Blair, a long-time CRA sprint car owner/speed shop owner in Pasadena, died on 9/29/11, one day short of his 90th birthday. His funeral service was in Montebello and interment in Simi Valley. One of his past drivers, Jimmy Oskie, drove several slow memorial laps in the black No. 12 Blair Chevy Saturday night with two USA flags flying from the roll cage. Wingman Rickie Gaunt (in the No. 66) then took several hot laps for popular Don. He will be missed by all. ..... On Sunday, Oct. 30 while returning home to So Cal on I-10 from the Peoria, AZ event, Rip Williams and the Jory Racing Team hauler were stopped at the US. Border Patrol special checkpoint on the Arizona side before the Colorado River. The agents had their German Shepherd go though the hauler looking for illegals or drugs. ..... At PAS on Nov. 3 Sheridan drove the same tough No. 18 he had flipped at Peoria Oct. 28 and raced the next day. He raced it on Saturday afternoon, but had to use the backup No. 18 for the Saturday night PAS race. ... Brett Roa bought a 410 cu. in. engine for his 20-year old son Brody to use at the Oval Nationals instead of a 360 in his No. 91R car. He bought it from Massey Racing in Phoenix. It was the engine in the No. 2AZ raced in Arizona by the late Jesse Hockett. Brody qualified at 18010 on L 1 and dropped a cylinder on his second timed lap Thursday, ending his first 410 effort. The Roa team reinstalled their 360 for Saturday racing. He ran a 16.791 (28th FQ of 49) for the day two event and a 17.314 (29th FQ) for event three.

Kody Swanson, a two-time 2011 Silver Crown winner, was present in the PAS pits but his entered No. 69x Alan Kaiser ride was not. He said Alan was too busy with his construction business to come south with his sprint car from Nor Cal.. .... Attendees at the 2011 Oval Nationals included past drivers John Redican, Dale Crossno, Brad Noffsinger, Buzz Rose, Bob Ream, Stan Atherton, Tony Elliott, Don Weaver, and Oskie. Also on hand were Jay Agajanian, Bill Hicks, Irwindale super stock champion Bryan Harrell, starter Steve Vodden, writers Norm Bogan and Ken Wagner, plus Speedway Motorcycle 2-time (including 2011) world champion Greg Hancock. ..... Darren Hagen had a scheduling conflict and was unable to make it to Perris, where he crashed in the Priestley No. 7 on the front straight last year in the 15th Ovals and received back injuries. Mark Priestley contacted Cory Kruseman to drive his No. 7 at the Ovals and he performed well as expected. Cory was leading the A-main on L 9 Saturday afternoon when a suspension bolt sheared off according to a track PA announcement and caused his DNF.

CAR NOTES: Windom's ride—the No. 5 Baldwin Brothers 2010 Maxim/Claxton--is the same car Justin Grant raced at the PAS last November. ..... Greg Alexander's No. 23 Bellegante ride has 2009 updates to the decades old Beast chassis, so it is not as ancient as some think according to Greg. ..... The 33x car raced by Ray Potter, 34-year old rookie from Yorba Linda, is an ex-Glenn Crossno ITI No. 38 raced by Kruseman some years ago. They converted the coil suspension car to a four-bar car. Potter bought the red & black car from owner Dwight Cheney, who said he bought Crossno's ITI business. ... The No. 121 Maxim raced by Shane Golobic, of Fremont, is owned by Joe Von Schriltz of Fremont. He had sponsorship from Countrywide Builders, the former sponsor of Weldon Offill's No. 88 sprint cars.

CALIF. LIGHTNING SPRINTS: The winged mini sprints powered by motorcycle engines were to race Friday and Saturday nights. There were 27 cars in their pits in the parking lot beyond turn 2. They ran three heat races Saturday from 3:53-4:04 pm. Winners were P. 4 starter Tim Brown, 51, P. 3 starter Kevin Michnowicz, and P. 4 starter Brian Corso, a 43-year old BCRA Midget Lights veteran from Ripon. A CLS 20-lap feature ran from 9:44-10:04 pm with a L 4 nasty-looking flip by Stephen Limon onto the turn 4 embankment after contact by another car. He was uninjured, but the car was twisted wildly. Kevin became the third leader on L 14 and won by 30-yards over L 4-13 leader Jarrett Kramer. Tim Brown, Corso, A. J. Bender, L 1-3 leader Alexander Bissett, Darren Hillberg, Brent Sexton, Dale Gamer and Guy Maresch completed the top ten. Sixteen of the 26 starters finished. CLS ran 16 events in 2011 with seven different winners. Kevin, 17-year old son of former CRA sprint car driver Bobby (No. 21) Michnowicz, won four features. Dad Bobby won six mains in their No. 21K Henchcraft/1,200cc Kawasaki when Kevin was absent. Brown won his first championship by 208 points.

PAS management announced Saturday that their 2012 USAC-CRA sprint car season-opening race will be held on Saturday, February 25.The World of Outlaws winged 410 sprint cars will return to The PAS on Saturday, March 10 after an absence of about four years. The 17th annual Oval Nationals figure to be held November 1-2-3. Sprint cars fans look forward to that best classic sprint car competition and more dirt track racing at the best dirt track racing site in the West.

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Two long-time PAS employees—videographer Jeff Kristensen and music board operator Joe Zulewski--received recognition and thanks via the PA system as they worked their final PAS events...

??? What brought about these changes??? I don't think it'll be the same without Jeff video-ing each race! Anyone have any details on these changes???

After 20-years shooting video, Jeff has decided to hang up his camera and do some other things. Joe, who started at The PAS as a "gopher" when he was about 12, is getting a promotion in his 9-5 job and will not be able to work at The PAS anymore. We will miss their work, but more than that, we will miss their friendship. Hoepfully we will still see them at the races.