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RACING SCENE Column (Mar. 21) – By Tim Kennedy
Los Angeles, CA. -- PAS Sprint Car Opener: The USAC-CRA 410 cu. in. sprint car opener at Perris Auto Speedway (PAS) on March 15 was exciting dirt track action as expected. An estimated 2,500+ persons present received value for their money. A strong field of 31 USAC-CRA sprinters were joined in the pits by three other open-wheel series for an impressive 72 cars--all in the infield pits. All four series ran heats and main events. Other car counts:
> 21 California Lightning Sprints – winged cars powered by motorcycle engines.
> 14 PAS Senior Sprints (360 cu. in. engines) for drivers age 45+ .
> 6 Young Gun sprint cars (360s) for drivers age 14-21.
USAC-CRA started 22 cars and finished with 21 still racing at the checkered flag and 12 cars on the lead lap. The winner lapped P. 13 Cory Kruseman on the final lap. The close battle for the lead between winner Damion Gardner and runner-up Mike Spencer was classic as they lapped dueling cars. Pole starter Ronnie Gardner led the first two laps before yielding to fourth starter Spencer on lap 3. Mike led to lap 14 when sixth starter/FQ Damion took the lead for good with a pass in turn four. The 1-2 battle was traditional non-wing sprint car racing at its finest.
Spencer trailed by about ten yards from lap 15-22 and made a determined charge to regain the lead amid lapped cars. He trailed Gardner by five yards from laps 24-26 and was even closer to Gardner on lap 27. On lap 28 Gardner passed two slower cars (Nos. 88 and 98) as both leaders used the inside groove. Spencer took a bit longer to pass the two back-markers and that was the race. Only the lapped Kruseman No. 7 separated Gardner and Spencer at the lap 30 checkers. Nic Faas and Matt Mitchell finished in P. 3-4 and pole-man R. Gardner was fifth. It appears the top four drivers March 15 are the drivers to beat for the 2014 USAC-CRA championship.
ROOKIES: Three drivers raced as USAC-CRA rookies and all made the 22 car feature. First cousins Jake Swanson, 20, from Anaheim, newlywed Cody Swanson, 23, from Covina, and Rip Williams' third son Logan, 18, are ready and able to race in 410 sprint features. Jake, a USAC Western Midgets front-runner, has the No. 92 Sertich “Moose-mobile” ride. He set fifth FQ time of 16.572, ran fourth in his heat, and from second starting spot finished seventh in the feature. Cuz Cody, an Irwindale Speedway legend cars and late model veteran, was 16th FQ at 17.018 in one of two John Springstead cars. He also finished fourth in his heat and 17th in the main after racing on the lead lap to lap 20. Logan, the 2013 PAS Young Gun Series champion, qualified 27th fastest at 18.194 in John Jory's No. 5. He finished sixth in the 12-lap semi-main to earn the final feature berth. Logan started 22nd and finished 18th after being lapped on lap 19. Jake appears to be the rookie of the year favorite at this early date. It seems team Sertich made a wise choice for their seat after David Cardey retired from sprint car racing.
Damion won the Dean Thompson Award for executing the tough to do triple—set fast time, win your heat race and the main event on the same night. The Billy Wilkerson Memorial Award was presented by Billy's widow Anne to long-time Ascot and Perris pit announcer Chris Holt, a most deserving honoree. ... Jessica Clark, 20-year old girl friend of sprint car driver Jake Swanson, was in the pits. She is a veteran USAC Ford Focus midget, S2 stock car and Lucas Oil Modified driver on paved tracks during 2013-14. They are the local equivalent to Indy Car's Graham Rahal dating NHRA funny car driver Courtney Force currently.
Before the features, PAS 2013 PAS Senior Sprint and Young Gun top three drivers in points received their trophies. Seniors champion Rick Hendrix, who turned 61 on March 15, was interviewed with P. 2-3 drivers Bruce Douglass and Ed Schwarz. Rick said, “Thanks to my wife Yumi. She's my crew chief. I couldn't do this without her.” ... Rip Williams, 57, will be racing against all three of his sons in four John Jory sprint cars this season. Newlywed Cory, 24, drives No. 44. Austin, 23, drives No. 2 and Rip drives No. 3 as usual. Logan, 18, is driving No. 5. Although he was present March 15, NSCHoF inductee Rip did not race because he was recuperating from a recent bout with pneumonia.
Perris had a hot day March 15 and a brisk wind until about 6:00 pm. It was still 84 degrees at 5:10 pm. It was a full moon night and conditions were ripe for a dry, slick track and dust later with four divisions racing. It happened as expected. CLS cars had transponders and group qualifying occurred during CLS hot-lap sessions. They used the quarter-mile track for turns one-two and the half-mile for turns three-four. Young Guns and Senior Sprints used the PAS half-mile.
The 410 sprints first of four heats (all 10-laps) started at 7:30, followed by two senior sprints 8-lap heats, three CLS 8-lap heats and one young gun 6-lap heat. Then the 410 sprint 12-lap semi-main started at 9:09 and concluded at 9:18. Track prep followed. Four features followed. Seniors ran 20-laps from 9:51-10:06 with one red flag. CLS ran 20 laps from 10:15-10:34 with two cautions; young guns ran 15-laps from 10:40-10:50 with one yellow. The featured 410 sprints 30-lap main started at 11:01 and concluded at 11:18 pm after two cautions. It was still 64 degrees near midnight at the track.
Suggestion: I noticed some fans with young children leaving the grandstand before the 410 feature. That is a shame. In the future, the 410 sprints should be the first or at the latest the second main event run on a four division night. That is true especially on a hot, windy day that dries out the track. That way more fans would be able to see the primary division present to the checkered flag. Also, the 22-car field of USAC-CRA sprints would have a better, racier track surface (less dusty on hot/windy days) to race on all 30-laps. Support divisions are great for additional income for the speedway and to develop young drivers. Those of us hard core racing fans will stay until the final checkered flag, but first-time or newer spectators may not come back to the track after a strung-out racing program. Racing has to entice new fans to the track and convince them to return.
USAC-CRA TOP THREE: Winner Gardner told the crowd, “I like to dominate and put on a show. The Alexander boys (his car owners) have found something so we'll be good.” Asked about Spencer, Damion stated, “He didn't give it away. He made it tough on me. My car was so good it didn't matter. Lapping cars was tough tonight.” He received an extra $500 for victory from A & A Plastics making it a $3,000 night. ... Runner-up Spencer on the infield microphone said, “That's the name of the game. You have to get through traffic. It helped me there for awhile and I caught up to him. In the last two laps I got caught up in traffic and it didn't play out in our favor. I look forward to battling him all year. We'll come back on April 12 to get him then.” ...Third place Faas said his first night at Perris with Keith Ford Motorsports was a good night. “They did a good job preparing the track after all the heats and races,” he added. ... The hard charger award went to Cody Williams for charging from 20th starting spot to finish tenth.
Other feature winners: Ventura's Bruce Douglass, 62, won the 20-lap seniors main in Victor Davis' No. 13 instead of his own No. 31. He started tenth and led the final ten laps after passing early leader /P. 2 finisher Steve Brown (No. 27). Ten of 13 starters finished and eight drivers completed all 20 laps. ... Young Gun Trent Williams, a 17-year old from Victorville, won his first ever sprint car main in a 15-lap race. He started second and led all the way. All six starters finished and ran 15 laps, including rookie Maylassa Young, 21, from Oak Hills in her first PAS main. She drove a pickup truck and towed the No. 0k Perkins car home on an open trailer. ... The CLS 20-lap main had three leaders and four lead changes before Jeff Dyer (No. 4) won. March 8 CLS El Centro feature winner Bobby Michnowicz led laps 5-17 and had his engine let go in turn four on lap 18, causing his DNF. His son Kevin spun earlier in turn two and Alex Grigoreas launched the No. 84 car into a violent flip over a wheel of Kevin's spinning car.
One interesting CLS driver is rookie Chris Hoffman, 20. During hot lapping between 6-7 pm he slid off the first turn and rolled his No. 55 onto its side just beyond the lip of the banked first turn. K-rails at the top of the quarter-mile had been removed for CLS racing. His easy roll did not damage his nose or top wings. Speaking to Hoffman in the pits I learned he is a police officer in Hawthorne (near LA Airport). He is the officer who (on June 30, 2013) shot and killed a Rottweiler dog named Max. The dog had
jumped from the open window of his owner's car and charged at three officers after his 52-year old owner was cuffed for interfering with officers responding to a call. The dog menacingly approached the officers. Chris said he shot the dog four times in self-defense. It died at the scene. The incident made the TV news on all LA channels and was on You Tube. The dog owner is suing the city of Hawthorne.
Kudos to Seth Wilson, who raced at PAS despite the theft of his Freightliner truck the prior week. It was missing from his Racing Optics shop near Las Vegas Motor Speedway after the NASCAR weekend at the 1.5-mile LVMS. The thieves could not take the trailer because of the goose-neck, but they stripped the trailer of Seth's shock dyno and all equipment inside the trailer. ... Chris Morgan was present with the NASCAR Sprint Cup show car to advertise the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana race dates for the Nationwide and Sprint Cup events on March 22-23. Hopefully, ACS will reciprocate by having a sprint car on display at ACS to help gain new spectators for the PAS dirt track.
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