THE DEMON STILL ON TRACK CHASING THE RIPPER.

The Valvoline USAC/CRA series made the first visit to Bakersfield this week and Cory Kruseman made a family visit to Grandma’s house in town. While he was there, he slipped over to Bakersfield Speedway and won the 30 lap main event, his fourth of the season in the Mark Alexander car. It looked easier than it was, but he later said ”the Alexander’s set-up the car so easy to drive, anyone can win in it”. Easy words for the veteran that drops in to give the locals trouble every now and then. He did it again, but in no way was it easy when Kaeding appeared. Cory said” I race him 100 times a year and when you see the 29 car coming, he is tough!”

Mrs Wags pics are done. Click here check on them.

Cory jumped into the lead with a great traffic move on the leader, Greg Bragg, on lap seven and was “kruising” in the Alexander’s La Villa Restaurant, Agromin, Stinger until late in the race when Bud Kaeding, a fellow National USAC points chaser, moved up to challenge him from second place. On the last two restarts, Bud gave him a wheel, but Cory stayed in the only groove the track allowed all night, and Kaeding settled for second. Bud had shown his tenacity in his heat when he jumped above the cushion and passed his way to the ten lap win. No one else made that move in the heats, except for Alan Ballard once, as the track was very narrow early on.

Bud Kaeding slipped into town to “tune-up” for the Oval Nationals, which he said he always does well at. Bud’s heat was fun to watch as he precariously moved up on the top to get by folks, then in the feature he put the High Five Pizza # 29 car in second, up from his seventh starting spot. Try as he may, the track was his enemy when he tried to get under the winner for a pass.

The Demon, Damion Gardner, quietly made his move from tenth to third in the Main Event, that is until the last lap when he jumped by two cars, to make the podium for the second week in a row. Damion was aggressive in the Temecula Valley Pipe & Supply, Arizona Race Mart car this week as usual. He and point leader, Rip Williams, both missed transferring directly to the main from their heats and missed out on any points there, and since there was no Semi, none there for either in this championship battle that is heating up. Damion and his crew are going for the wins and will let the points battle work itself out, but they are not done.

Young Jordan Hermansader made a great move around early leader Bragg for second at the time, in the “other” Alexander car, and held on to fourth at the flag as he had a pretty good night following and learning from his teammate Kruseman. Bragg led the first six laps and was doing what he needed to do to get a top five finish when another car put him at the back on a restart. Mike Kirby kept his championship hopes open as he started 14th in the Main Event and finished 6th for the hard charger of the week.

Rip Williams had a tough night. Earlier, he set fast time on a lap where he pulled a giant wheelie coming to the checkered flag, and still stayed on the gas! That woke up the crowd! In the feature, Rip spun out and had to go to the back for a restart. He finished eighth while Damion picked up 13 points on him. The next two weeks will be very important for both teams.

Bobby Cody was second quick in qualifying and started eighth on the grid for the Main Event. Unfortunately, he caught the wall on the second lap and took a tumble to bring out the red flag. On a very long stop (?), the short handed crew were able to get the car back out under power, but something wasn’t right and Bobby pulled in before the start. Two laps later, visitor Wild Bill Rose got on his head in turn one, ending the Black Widow Racing team’s hopes for a good finish in the Keller back-up car. Bill will hang around and drive the # 5 in the Oval Nationals. This stop was elongated by a spectator problem that required the ambulance crew’s help in the grandstands.

Rick Ziehl and the Ripper had a spirited battle towards the end of the race as Rip wanted to go back up front after his spin and Rick wanted him to stay behind him. Their little battle had a few passes and moves made, but Ziehl claimed one of his best finishes in seventh ahead of the Ripper at the checkers. Bobby Michnowicz won the 25 lap USAC Ford Focus event, leading all the way as the track was his best ally when others got close. He used the only groove to hold off several different drivers who made wild charges up next to him, but the former sprint car driver, wasn’t fazed by any of it.

The Wagsdash purse has climbed to about $16,700 at this point. The rain! Several leftover auction items are up for bid at wagtimes.com/wdauction.html so check them out and put in a bid. This auction closes out at the Oval nationals at curfew on Saturday night (11 PM). See me or E-mail me to bid. I have t-shirts and a few calendars left. I probably won’t have the finished quilt, Mrs Wags has been busy, but tickets will be available on that for the last race drawing. I also still have the pocket rocket and will draw that on Saturday night, so a few tickets are available there.

Lets get out to Perris on Thursday because they all, over 60 cars, run every night! Come see if the Demon can catch the Ripper and if Kirby can get his Manzy mask on for the two of them.

VALVOLINE USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: October 23, 2004 – Bakersfield, California – Bakersfield Speedway

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Rip Williams, 3, Jory-12.571; 2. Bobby Cody, 41, Cody-12.669; 3. Damion Gardner, 50, Chaffin-12.709; 4. Bud Kaeding, 29, BK-12.750; 5. Rick Ziehl, 14, Lancaster-12.818; 6. Alan Ballard, 97, Ballard-12.843; 7. Jordan Hermansader, 4, Alexander-12.943; 8. Mike Spencer, 44, Engstrom-12.967; 9. Cory Kruseman, 4, Alexander-13.023; 10. Rodney Argo, 91, Ferro-13.030; 11. Clark Templeman, 18T, Templeman-13.122; 12. Mike English, 92, Sertich-13.131; 13. Greg Bragg, 12, Pratt-13.143; 14. Mike Kirby, 38, Crossno-13.220; 15. Bill Rose, 5, Keller-13.246; 16. Ronnie Case, 33, Blair-13.517; 17. Tom Stansberry, 48, Bach-13.585; 18. Nadine Keller, 6, Keller-13.745; 19. Steve Conrad, 56, Conrad-14.057; 20. Dennis Rodriguez, 20, Rowher-14.694.

FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Kaeding, 2. Case, 3. Bragg, 4. Hermansader, 5. Williams, 6, Argo, 7, Conrad. NT

SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Kirby, 2. Stansberry, 3. Spencer, 4. Cody, 5. Ziehl, 6. Templeman, 7. Rodriguez. NT

THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. English, 2. Rose, 3. Ballard, 4. Kruseman, 5. Gardner, 6. Keller. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Cory Kruseman, 2. Bud Kaeding, 3. Damion Gardner, 4. Jordan Hermansader, 5. Mike Spencer, 6. Mike Kirby, 7. Rick Ziehl, 8. Rip Williams, 9. Mike English, 10. Clark Templeman, 11. Ronnie Case, 12. Tom Stansberry, 13. Nadine Keller, 14. Dennis Rodriguez, 15. Steve Conrad, 16. Rodney Argo, 17. Greg Bragg, 18. Alan Ballard, 19. Bill Rose, 20. Bobby Cody. NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-6 Bragg, Laps 7-30 Kruseman.

NEW VALVOLINE USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-Williams-1,488; 2-Gardner-1,427; 3-Kirby-1,389; 4-Troy Rutherford-948; 5-Bragg-847; 6-Spencer-796; 7-Ostling-774; 8-Tony Jones-773; 9-Cody-756; 10-Hermansader-696.