July 4, 2011

By Ken Wagner

Mike Spencer overcame a slow start on a HOT, HOT, HOT afternoon in Perris to win his 4th CRA feature of the year and 22nd lifetime. He held off the pack in the 30 lap race that had its moments on a racy track in the heat. Early on in the evening Mike struggled to grab 4th in his heat as the little red sucker gasped for air like the rest the field, but when it came to winning time, he did what Bruce Bromme Jr calls his favorite thing, he won another race. Overcoming a strong effort by the “old timer” Rip Williams who led the first 6 laps, Mike cruised into the lead and held off the Ripper and Nic Faas at the end.

My pics Click here to view. Doug Allens work is here as usual click here to view.

The Ripper, Rip Williams, bared his fangs this week as he grabbed 2nd on the podium after a strong showing in the Firecracker 30 event. Rip was very racy in his effort to grab another win in his storied career, but just came up a little short when the checkered flag dropped. Rip was 7th quick in qualifying and ran third in his heat before starting next to his son Austin on the front row of the 30 lap main. He had dropped back to third before rallying back on the last restart late in the race.

Young Nic Faas came close to the top spot at Perris this week as he qualified third and grabbed 4th in his heat to start his night off. In the feature he raced up to 2nd place and was dogging the leader for most of the last half of the event looking very strong. Nic, in his silver bullet # 4, looked in position to make his move on the little red sucker as he surveyed the # 50 from very close. Just when it looked like he had the line and the power to grab the lead, a yellow flag came out and his plans came apart. On that last restart he missed a golden opportunity to pounce on his 2nd lifetime win with CRA and left an opening for the cagy Ripper that pushed him back to third He still made the podium in one of the showcase events of the CRA year. We will see a lot more of Slick Nic on the podium before this year is out.

To say Ronnie Gardner misses his cousin Chet would be overly obvious, but he won’t ever forget the memories of him as he goes forward in his career. The young lion continues to give it his best every week in the low buck Jeff Gardner owned blue # 93 with success hard to come by. Hear that, “low buck” Gardner car, it doesn’t sound right! And it’s all about these tough economic times! This famous race team once featured 4 sprint cars on a given night and Ronnie was the go to gopher working his butt off. Now that he is in the driver’s seat, the team’s coffers are too strained to give him the usual advantages of past Gardner race car efforts. His dad Jeff and brother Jimmy still toil on the Sled with the usual family help. Tonight for a change, in a year when everything seems to be going against him, he came out as determined as ever and set fast time in the 32 car field and put his car in the big show with a third in his heat. Starting 8th in the feature, a grateful to be racing Ronnie “G” showed his potential greatness with his 4th place in the main. In spite of a lack of funds in one of a long line of successful Gardner Sleds, the young racer battles each and every week to get that elusive first big win that will come soon. If ”G” can just get some support for his efforts, you can bet he will be a big winner in the family blue car for years to come.

In the weekly “Battle of the Bro’s” Austin Williams and Richard VanderWeerd came out on top with 6th and 12th finishing places in the main event. Tom and Laurie Sertich brought their usual celebratory gizmos to have fun on the holiday like always, but added a car to the event when Greg Bragg was able to free himself up from a family commitment and race after all. They had already signed a driver to replace him, so they just brought their other car out and did a double work day. Greg was 11th in the smaller motored # 92 and visitor Casey Shuman was 9th. Josh Pelkey made a surprise visit over from Arizona in his Robin and Gaye Allen owned day-glow orange (Robin calls it red) # 12 car. He ran 13th in getting used to Perris. The team was looking for a change and said who knows, they might be back.

As usual there were some hard luck stories this week that probably begin with Johnny Bluntach’s crash in qualifying. The rookie got on his head but was OK as the car was not. David Cardey had no luck in his red family owned # 59 as he pulled off early in the main with what was reported as a fuel leak. Tony Everhart had a particularly racy weekend go astray when in his heat he gave up the lead with a big wheel stand coming around turn four and finished out of a transfer. He moved into the main with a 4th in the semi, but was the second car out of the main. Rickie Gaunt was his racy self this week in David Miller’s car after getting 4th in qualifying and second in his heat. In the main he was plowing forward when he pulled slowly to the infield done for the night. There is always a rash of bad luck in the pits that always costs money to the racers in question. Sometimes we just don’t realize what it costs to compete in these Thunder and Lightning cars? It makes it hard on them when the spare parts are the only parts they have after one of these track “encounters”. Imagine a team that can’t even go racing, even though the rig is loaded and everything is ready, when the owner can’t find money for the fuel to drive the rig to the track. That’s bad!

You want to talk about bad? I’ll give you bad. For me, it’s always a pleasure to go sprint car racing and doubly so when I get to do a ride-a-long with one of the teams. The 4th of July has always been a difficult event for me logistically when I have to get parked way out front because of the fireworks that go off later from my normal pit parking spot, and then walk inside to get my mule and go back to get my “stuff” out of the car and finally, get to the pits, yada, yada, yada. Going home after the races is reversing the process by going to the car to offload the mule, go park the mule and then walk back to the car. Well, on a ride-a-long with the Kittle Motorsports Krew, I just have to get out of the rig and walk over to my mule, brought in these days by my savior Beazer who makes sure it gets into the pits for me. So that added benefit really helps, but the hard part is still ahead of me and everyone else who comes to play. The heat of the summer in Perris can be devastating, it’s a desert for crying out loud, and this year it was more sweltering than usual. Arrival this day at 10:30 AM, and putting the Wagtimer’s blankets down, first in the wrong place by the way, and returning later to remove them and reattach them in the normal place, was shockingly wearing in that heat. My loving wife who chose to stay home with the family in beautiful downtown 111 degree Las Vegas, setting by the pool sipping margarita’s I am sure, sent me a cute text. She said “It will be 111 here at home, with 7 percent humidity, honey! Where you are, ha, ha, ha, it will be 102 with 35 percent humidity, have a nice day”! And you wonder why I drink, Gatorade that is!

So already a tad warm, I start my camera clicking and riding around like usual, but my little cooler that holds my life saving Gatorade was taking a hit earlier than usual and eventually emptied way too early. Yet the usual speed and beauty of the day overrode my heated self as I managed to stay out of the way most of the time while soaking it all up. It was a heartwarming day in an unusual way as I realized how lucky I am! Getting to do what I love the most with many making my day in all sorts of ways. Like the ease of riding straight into the pits without a bother and getting my new battery into my mule by my favorite crew chief and sent on my way. Like the greetings of many pit siders and fans as the front straightaway line-up of race cars brought out a lot of smiles and greetings from fans who came down to talk to the drivers and take pics of it all. Do I have it great or what! The kind words and greetings to me personally from my many racing friends is a blessing, thank you! And during the real heat of the afternoon, I had an opportunity to catch a quick cooling off in the Kittle Toter with the “girls of racing” bunch in there before surging back into the heated evening and on with the show. Like sitting with my Wagtimes friends in the stands and enjoying the races with them. It’s all good and it was a great day, although a draining one with all the look and feel of being in a furnace at times. And the best part of it all, when it was all over and I was pooped, I just popped back in the air-conditioned Toter for the ride home, no sweat, no bother, and I didn’t have to drive home for a change in the night after a race. Halleluiah, am I lucky or what!

Cal Smith told me Gary Potter, who use to drive something other than sprint cars at Ascot back in the day, appeared this week and that is the only thing I know about him. He ran a heat and the semi, but didn’t make the main on his first night in the car. It apparently is the former Johnny Bates car, so it looks like it’s one and one. We lose one driver and gain one driver. Don’t know Bates plans, but in these times I suspect he was just trying to right his books.

It is the last call for the Jack Kraemer Memorial Event as this tribute will go off at Terre Haute on July 13th during Indiana Sprint Week. Mike Clark has continued to collect money for honoring my longtime friend and fan Jack Kraemer. Mike reports the Hard Charger of the race will get at least $1000 of the collected money. All of the money collected will be paid out with additional awards for the hard luck car owner, the fast timer and maybe more as the evening collections progress. Get involved by seeing Mike at the race which is only 10 days away. Or call him at 562-619-6335 to let him know you want to send money.

A surprise sighting in the pits this week was the monster Kittle Motorsports hauler. As usual Danny Sheridan was behind the wheel of the fast new Sherman Chassied, Pace Lighting sponsored 410 car and was a bonus for Showtime fans. It “probably” will be the last time we see the big Kittle rig as it is officially parked until sold now. We know it’s not the end of 410 racing for Danny even though the team will concentrate on the 360 series that they have already run 2 races in this year. Future racing trips, in a normal smaller trailer, will feature two different cars owned by two different people. One will be Gary Kittle’s stout 360 car that they have been running for years, while the other is Warren Dorathy’s red # 21 car. Danny drove for Warren in the past so this is a good deal for all. The team now houses both cars in their shop and will hit different tracks with different combinations as the year plays out. The red # 21 and blue # 18 will battle hard for success with Showtime at the wheel and occasionally will feature a 410 motor owned by crewman Paul Dean for the big CRA races when the team can secure sponsor money. Even now Calistoga is in the team sights if they can get enough cash to make that costly trip even without the big 6 MPG Kittle hauler. They figure they need $2500 to make it happen if anyone wants to get involved, call crew chief Randy Shiosaki. This is all good news for fans as we need Showtime at our races.

Wagsdash rumors are flying as the year gets to the midway point. Actually there are no rumors anywhere because there is no Wagsdash planned at this time, as I have already announced. Yet I am still planning on collecting money to add to the purse of one race in Wags fashion. That will include the low buck hard charger, best appearing car and crew, top finishing low buck racer, and hard luck awards, all depending on how much money I get. I have no illusions on big bucks like the Wagsdash’s in the past, but hopefully those who follow my theory of helping the little guy will step up with a few bucks for that day. This Wags collected money has always featured the low buck fans money collected, so stay involved and we will have fun with it. I am thinking the last race of the year, but could move it sooner if I can figure a way to make it work. I have at least 2 dozen nicely framed pics of the past that will be showcased on this Wags Web site for your bidding. Also, to date I have over $100 in my Lafond Jar of Change for the hard charger of the race and Steve Lafond reports he has twice that. Last year we had over $1000 in his award, so we hope to beat that! Remember to collect your change and give to Steve or me as the year gets to that time. There probably won’t be a calendar this year as Mrs Wags has been busy. Also we hope to have a Wagtimer’s bash at a nearby restaurant before our mini-dash wherever it is, so stay tuned for that. We can do that here in Las Vegas even, your choice, talk to me. Even without a full on Wagsdash, we want do our annual get together feed and still help the low buck racers like the last 20 years in what I’ll call the Mini-Dash cashola!

The annual Indiana Speed Week will have the Wags on tour with Mike Clark for a change starting this coming week. I haven’t been back there for a while, but Jack’s memorial makes it a must go there and you know I love my 410 racing. Mike Spencer and Ron Chaffin’s little red sucker will be making the trip, so I’ll have one car to cheer for from home. Matt Mitchell will also be there, but he got a ride back there and won’t tow there and I’ll hope for success for him as well. See you along the way!

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Mike Spencer, 2. Rip Williams, 3. Nic Faas, 4. Ronnie Gardner, 5. Danny Sheridan, 6. Austin Williams, 7. Cody Williams, 8. Matt Mitchell, 9. Casey Shuman, 10. Danny Faria Jr., 11. Greg Bragg, 12. Richard VanderWeerd, 13. Josh Pelkey, 14. Greg Alexander, 15. Jace VanderWeerd, 16. Rodney Argo, 17. David Bezio, 18. Corey Ballard, 19. A.J. Bender, 20. Rickie Gaunt, 21. Tony Everhart, 22. David Cardey. NT.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-6 R. Williams, Laps 7-30 Spencer. NEW AMSOIL USAC/CRA SPRINT POINTS: 1-Spencer-433; 2-Mitchell-423; 3-Faas-411; 4-Bragg-341; 5-A.Williams-330; 6-Gaunt-304; 7-Cardey-293; 8-C.Williams-281; 9-Blake Miller-277; 10-R.Williams-272.

NEXT AMSOIL USAC/CRA SPRINT RACE: July 30 – Perris (CA) Auto Speedway - "Kindoll Classic"