Oh boy, was I glad to be at Ventura. Leaqving the 107 warm degree's of Vegas was easy this week as Ventura was awesome as always. They don't call it t\ "the best little racetrack by the sea" for nuthin'. The racing was special, even though the heat of the day didn't allow moisture to stay in the track like normal, and the track was somewhat slick in the heats, they were awesome as action in each one made for some great raicng. The track was redone by Mr Naylor and the feature was a Kruseman experience as he came from 7th starting spot to pass several heroes and camp on Danny Sheridan's tail quickly. They put on a great race as Cory tried to get under Danny for a half down laps until he made the pass and now Danny was the agressor. Cory was fast at his home track, yet young Mr Sheridan wasn't giving up. When they got into some iffy traffic, it looked like Danny would have his chance. Cory did slow skosh coming into three as they both surveyed the packed track, and heading around to four, Danny was up high trying to get a wheel even with the Kruser coming around turn four, when Cory shut the door and moved up enough to put Danny into the wall and stopped. Danny was a few feet short of Cory seeing him, so it was just an incident with no blame. Danny was able to push off and restart at the rear and regain to 14th before the end, but his chance didn't work. Now the Demon was on Cory's tail and it was what the crowd was waiting for. The two red cars were a blur going around with Damion doing everything he could to get an edge, but Cory was on his home court. Damon had one good oportunity on a restart with five to go, but didn't stick well enough when he got under Cory coming out of three and eventually followed him across the finish line for second place.
It was an action packed feature as Mike English, subbing for an ailing Rip Williams, did a great job. He was second quick in the seat he hadn't visited in a while. The starteing 9th, he rolled it up to third before dropping back to 6th at the end. Rip said he was OK, but didn't feel rioght when he hot lapped, and asked his retired friend to drive for him. Mike couldn't say no and did a great job. but he is retired. Mike Kirby came flying up from the fifth row to become a player in third near the end, but couldn't close the gap to attack the demon. Tony Jones was a close 4th as he looked good as well. Bullet Blake Miller got his car nuimber with another great job at his home track where he was the VRA Champion last year.
All in all, it was a great day at the beach and a near full house was good to see.
USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: June 3, 2006 –– Ventura, California – Ventura Raceway
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Jimmy Crawford, 17c, Crawford-12.182, 2. Mike English, 3, Jory-12.261, 3. Cory Kruseman, 38, Crossno-12.270, 4. Damion Gardner, 50, Chaffin-12.275, 5. Tony Jones, 4, Alexander-12.320, 6. Mike Spencer, 44, Engstrom-12.392, 7. Blake Miller, 5, Keller-12.435, 8. Kevin Kierce, 2, Collie-12.456, 9. Danny Sheridan, 18, Kittle-12.499, 10. Mike Kirby, 96, Kirby-12.657, 11. Evan Suggs, 33E, Suggs-12.696, 12. Dwayne Marcum, 12, Pratt-12.722, 13. J Hicks, 66, Miller-12.761, 14. Wes Richardson, 47x, Bach-12.780, 15. Troy Rutherford, 11x, Rutherford-12.806, 16. Jeff Oliver, 35J, Andrews-12.911, 17. Tom Stansberry, 75, Stansberry-13.067, 18. Hobie Conway, 29, Kruseman-13.082, 19. Brandon Thomson, 19T, Thomson-13.151, 20. Nadine Keller, 16, Keller-13.163, 21. Josh Williams, 34, Williams-13.273, 22. Davey Pombo, 14, Lancaster-13.273, 23. David Cardey, 59, Giardina-13.287, 24. Nate Ziegler, 8N, Ziegler-13.354, 25. Greg Taylor, 47, Taylor-13.368, 26. Matt Stewart, 85, Stewart-13.420, 27. Josh Ford, 73, Ford-13.467, 28. Michael Trimble, 15t, Trimble-13.467, 29. Chad Boespflug, 90, Gatten-13.541, 30. Eric Severson, 36x, Severson-13.657, 31. Larry Lloyd, 87, Lloyd-14.039, 32. Ron Tjaarda, 0, Kruseman-14.133, 33. Angel Figueroa, 48, Bach-14.195, 34. Zachary Hawthorne, 5z, Kruseman-14.324, 35. Robert Ferguson, 96x, Cook-14.970. (NOTE: Rip Williams also in car #3).
FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Crawford, 2. Sheridan, 3. Jones, 4. Boespflug, 5. Stansberry, 6. Hicks, 7. Taylor, 8. J.Williams, 9. Figueroa. NT
SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Pombo, 2. Stewart, 3. Kirby, 4. Spencer, 5. English, 6. Richardson, 7. Severson, 8. Conway, 9. Hawthorne. NT
THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Kruseman, 2. Ford, 3. Miller, 4. Rutherford, 5. Lloyd, 6. Thomson, 7. Ferguson, 8. Cardey, 9. Suggs. NT
FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Gardner, 2. Marcum, 3. Kierce, 4. Trimble, 5. Oliver, 6. Keller, 7. Ziegler, 8. Tjaarda. NT
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. English, 2. Suggs, 3. Richardson, 4. Taylor, 5. Cardey, 6. Hicks, 7. Stansberry, 8. Oliver, 9. J.Williams, 10. Conway, 11. Figueroa, 12. Ziegler, 13. Lloyd, 14. Hawthorne, 15. Thomson, 16. Keller. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Cory Kruseman, 2. Damion Gardner, 3. Mike Kirby, 4. Tony Jones, 5. Blake Miller, 6. Mike English, 7. Mike Spencer, 8. Josh Ford, 9. Jimmy Crawford, 10. Troy Rutherford, 11. Kevin Kierce, 12. Evan Suggs, 13. Dwayne Marcum, 14. Danny Sheridan, 15. David Cardey, 16. Chad Boespflug, 17. Michael Trimble, 18. Wes Richardson, 19. Davey Pombo, 20. Matt Stewart, 21. Greg Taylor. NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-16 Sheridan, Laps 17-30 Kruseman.
NEW USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR POINT STANDINGS: 1-Gardner-756; 2. Kruseman-726; 3-Jones-564; 4-Spencer-550; 5-Sheridan-545; 6-Gaunt-527; 7-Charles Davis Jr.-460; 8-Kirby-442; 9-Ford-425; 10-Cardey-422.
NEXT USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR RACE: June 10 – Perris, California – Perris Auto Speedway