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Perris Auto Speedway
18700 Lake Perris Drive
Perris, CA 92571
(951) 940-0134
http://perrisautospeedway.com/
For further information contact Scott Daloisio (909) 226-7768 or mailto:[email protected]
For Immediate Release
MIKE SPENCER AND CREW HARD AT WORK FOR THE OVAL NATIONALS!
(Perris, CA, October 28, 2015) When 5-time USAC/CRA Sprint Car champion and current point leader Mike Spencer of Temecula, California answered the phone on Tuesday night, he was right where you would expect to find him. In the garage along with his father getting the cars ready for the 20th Annual Budweiser Oval Nationals Presented by All Coast Construction at Perris Auto Speedway on November 12th, 13th and 14th. There would be no other place you could expect to find him as the now 34-year-old used to sleep in his dad’s racecar when he was a toddler as his father prepared the car for the CRA wars at Ascot.
Heading into the Oval Nationals, Spencer, a 2004 mechanical engineering graduate of Cal Poly Pomona, carries a 22-point lead over three-time champion Damion Gardner in one of the greatest point battles in the 12-year history of the Amsoil USAC/CRA Series. The two have been swapping the lead back and forth for the past couple of months and may continue to do so at the three-races on the famous Riverside County clay oval in just two weeks’ time.
To illustrate what a great point’s battle it has been, Spencer carried a 40-point lead over Gardner heading into the first night of the “Hall of Fame Classic” last Friday at Canyon Speedway Park in Peoria, Arizona. However, Spencer flipped in the main event that night and finished 17th, while Gardner recorded his series leading eighth win of 2015. Gardner’s victory, combined with Spencer’s misfortune, saw the lead switch back to Gardner by three points heading into Saturday finale in the Copper State. After leading much of Saturday’s main event, Gardner had to pit due to a flat right rear tire and could only get back to 11th spot before the race ended while Spencer led the final 5-laps for his second win of the year. The victory also propelled Spencer back into a 22-point lead over Gardner as they get ready for the next three rounds of battle at The PAS.
“It was kind of a rollercoaster,” sighed the driver who will become a father for the second time in December. “Not so much about the points going back and forth, but I had a really good race car the first night and ended up crashing and not finishing. On the flip side, we win the next night. It was a big win and I feel like we have some momentum going into the Oval Nationals. There is nothing like a win and sometimes that is what you need to get things going.”
The handsome racer has not won at Perris Auto Speedway since the Oval Nationals in 2012. That is hard to believe as only Gardner has won more USAC/CRA main events than Spencer at the 20-year-old track.
“It has been a while,” Spencer lamented. “In 2012 we won quite a few (six to be exact) of them there and have not won there since. We have run second a bunch. I think the race track has changed a little bit. When things are not going your way, you may not be working hard enough. Obviously we have to get our stuff a little better and I have to do better on my end. You have to step it up and that is what we are trying to do.”
If Spencer wins the title this year, it will be his sixth series championship. In the combined history of the original CRA, SCRA and now USAC/CRA dating back to 1946, he is currently tied for second overall with five time CRA champion Jimmy Oskie. A title this year will tie him for first with National Sprint Car Hall of Famer Ron Shuman, who won four titles with CRA and two with SCRA. They were just a couple of Spencer’s big racing heroes back in the day, but his biggest hero was his father Mike, who just a few feet away turning wrenches on one of the cars during the call.
When queried as to how much he remembered his father racing, Spencer responded, “Not a lot, I think he retired when I was 4. When I was little, I would be in the garage asleep in the racecar while they were working on it. We have photos and videos of him racing. I always watched those when I was a little kid.”
Being around the cars, looking at the pictures and watching the videos bred Spencer to want to do one thing in racing. Race sprint cars on dirt! He was never one of the young guys who wanted to use them as a springboard to some other series due to fat paychecks.
“All I pretty much ever wanted to do was race sprint cars,” he said. “There were times that I thought that would be pretty cool (to race Indy Cars or NASCAR), but my passion has always been dirt sprint cars. I just wanted to get to race sprint cars.”
Being around it and knowing what it takes, makes the “get home from work and get in the garage” aspect easier. However, with the passing of his longtime National Sprint Car Hall of Fame crew chief Bruce Bromme Jr. in the middle of the 2014 season, things have changed drastically for the crew on the famous Ron Chaffin red #50 car. Bromme used to do all the prep work at his shop in Central California. At that time, Spencer just basically showed up at the track and raced. Since then, the car has been kept at his Spencer’s father’s house in Temecula and it is just like when the younger Spencer was growing up with racecar in his garage. They are working on it several nights a week which is nothing strange, but it is different without Bromme.
“It has definitely been an adjustment,” the 5-time champ said. “He (Bromme) was the leader and basically ran the whole operation. The car has been down here in Temecula all year and early in the season we started getting into a routine on preparing the car and getting used to the way we do things at the track. I feel we have been improving all year and getting better at making decisions as far as changing the car around and making it adapt to the racetrack. We had all been doing it for a long time, but at the same time it has been a little bit of a learning curve without Bruce around. We are lucky Ron Chaffin is behind, supporting us and keeping the car on the track.”
Prep for the Oval Nationals is not a whole lot different than the rest of the year according to Spencer.
“It is pretty much the same,” he said while taking a few minutes away from working on the car that was wrecked in Arizona. “For a big race like the Oval Nationals you just have to be sure all the maintenance is up to date and your spare stuff is in order, organized and ready to go because you never know when you will need it. There is a little more prep on the spare stuff and tires. The Oval Nationals is the biggest race of the year so you try to have your best motor in the car, your best rear end and all of the best parts you have to try and go win it.”
First place will pay $25,000.00 at the Saturday finale of the Oval Nationals and $1,000.00 to start. The two preliminary nights, Thursday and Friday, will each pay $5,000.00 to win and $500.00 to start. All three nights of intense racing action will be full-points paying races for the USAC National and USAC/CRA Sprint Car Series.
Teams wishing to enter the historic running of the 20th Annual Budweiser Oval Nationals Presented by All Coast Construction can download the entry blank at the following link: http://perrisautospeedway.com/forms/15ovalform.html
Advanced tickets for the Oval Nationals are on sale now at: http://pas.tix.com/Schedule.aspx?OrgNum=7 or by calling 1-800-595-4849.
Camping on the Lake Perris Fairgrounds will be available for the Oval Nationals for $25.00 per night beginning on Wednesday, November 11th. Tailgating is encouraged in the spectator parking lot as well.
Perris Auto Speedway wants to thank its corporate sponsors for the 2015 season. AA Lynco Painting, All Coast Construction, All Seasons Tree Repair, Amsoil, Archibald’s Restaurants, Ayers Hotel and Spa, BlueLine Rentals, Budweiser, California Budget Finance, CamGuard, Champion Towing, City of Perris, Perris Com Ecco, Daytona Boat & RV Storage, Drop Zone, Edelbrock, Engine Pro, Harry’s Café, HD Industries, Hoosier Tires, Horizon Solar, K&N Engineering, Livingwaters Hospice, Luke’s Transmission, Moon Nursery, Paul Oil Company, Pepsi-Cola, Pick-A-Part Auto Salvage, Pizza Factory, Red Lion Inns and Suites, Robert Dempster, Scott Sales, Shaver Racing Engines, Sherwin-Williams, Stassines Cross, Square H, Swedish Speed, Trench Shoring, US Foods and Valley News.
To keep up with all of the latest Perris Auto Speedway news, photos, gossip and receive special offers, sign up at The PAS Facebook site at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Perris-Auto-Speedway/113876798686480?ref=hl
You can also keep up with the latest news and receive special offers from The PAS Twitter site: Perris Auto Speedway on Twitter.
Video and DVD productions of all racing events at Perris Auto Speedway are available from Loudpedal Productions. For more information on these productions you can contact them by calling (805) 844-3854, E-mailing mailto:[email protected] or you can visit the web site LoudPedal Productions
Perris Auto Speedway is located on the Lake Perris Fairgrounds (home of October’s Southern California Fair), approximately one hour east of Los Angeles and one hour North of San Diego. To get to the track, take the 215 freeway, exit on the Ramona Expressway and go three miles east to the fairgrounds.
[email protected] is the only authorized Internet address to issue official media news released from The Perris Auto Speedway or Oval Entertainment.
2015 PERRIS AUTO SPEEDWAY SCHEDULE
November 7 PASSCAR CAMPIONS NIGHT PASSCAR Series - Street Stocks, Super Stocks, Factory Stocks, IMCA Modifieds
November 11 Oval National Practice
November 12 20th Annual Budweiser Oval Nationals USAC National & CRA Sprint Cars
November 13 20th Annual Budweiser Oval Nationals USAC National & CRA Sprint Cars
November 14 20th Annual Budweiser Oval Nationals USAC National & CRA Sprint Cars
November 25 Turkey Night Grand Prix Practice
November 26 Agajanian Enterprises and Oval Entertainment, LLC Present the 75th Running of the Turkey Night Grand Prix USAS National and Western Midgets
SCHEDULE SUBJECT TO CHANGE
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