By Ken Wagner
October 25, 2008

On what may be the last CRA 410 appearance at Ventura, Tyler Brown put his new Sled out front when the green flag flew and “Big Brown” never looked back. There was many a challenger behind him, but the feature had way too many yellows on the too tacky track, and this interrupted the racing flow. Tyler ignored it all in bringing home the 4th win for the Gardner Motorsports family this season. The Gardner’s were recently honored for their lifetime of achievements at the Legends of Ascot event. Tyler was 11th quick in qualifying and ran 4th in his heat before getting the pole position in the main event.

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Big Brown didn’t let any grass grow under his feet as he restarted again and again and pulled away each time, letting those behind him worry each other to try and challenge him. Driving the Black Widow Racing, Gardner Mechanical Pipe and Supply, MJB Plating # 96, Tyler didn’t make a mistake as he stayed focused and won his 2nd CRA race of the year. The young quiet driver with the small smile just did his job and will have bragging rights this week in the Gardner race shop.

Cory Kruseman used his home track wily ways to hold off a faster Tony Jones this week as he couldn’t catch up to Tyler for an expected win. The Agromin Soil, Sander Engineering # 21 tried everything, but the sometime CRA driver gathered in the runner-up spot for another good outing.

The Cowboy Tony Jones looked like a winner this week after getting 2nd quick in qualifying and starting 7th in the main. He pushed the cushion to get into second before ending up on the podium in third at the end. He looked like he had a lot for the top two, but Ventura requires patience and taking advantage of your openings to get there, so he didn’t get all the way where he wanted to be. He was on the gas in the silver bullet, La Villa Restaurant, Alexander Trucking, Ferreira Dairy, # 4 for 30 laps as he tried every line, every lap. Hey Tony, isn’t running above the cushion illegal?

Ventura is always a great place to go for racing and this week was no exception. The fog began rolling in late in the afternoon and the track was very tacky so those who could handle it, did, and those who couldn’t, spun. We had a lot of spin outs in the main event, thus taking away from the sterling action every time it looked like some great move was about to fly, the yellow flew instead. Still, it is always exciting to see the fire breathing monsters put on their show and it still was one great main to watch.

In addition to the action up front, there were plenty of come from the back action. Danny Sheridan didn’t have a sterling qualifying shot, as did Mike Spencer, so they were both on the move from the back. Include Blake Miller in that list as he had to go to the back after an early yellow flag adjustment the team made on his car. Danny was the hard charger coming from 18th to 8th, while Mike came from 15th to 7th and Blake from the back on a restart to 9th. All were doing some work, especially early, until the pack got more strung out.

Young Cody Williams missed out in the main as when he fired up, his fuel cell was reportedly loose and they black flagged him. Local driver Chris Wakim did a great job after starting on the outside of row one. He hung in there until he got shuffled back to 10th at the end. Matt Stewart had another go at driving the # 55 Tony Everhart owned sprinter this week. He made the main but two stops put him out pretty early. Josh Ford had a monster crash into the boards, but don’t know what caused it. He finished 13th, lucky number ehhh, so everyone behind him was parked in the pits at the end as well, most due to track incidents.

The Oval Nationals is up next with practice on Wednesday, free to spectators in the grandstands, and three nights of racing. Plenty of out of town visitors are coming to town, both racing and fans, so it should prove to be a good one. The cutback purse will not make it one of the most prestigious in the long history of the event, but it should be good racing because it is the Ovals! If the water gods can give us tacky tracks each night, the locals will do well. If they go dry slick, look for the invaders to prevail. Let’s see if we can cheer on a local winner for a change! I don’t do predictions, but there are at least five or six local teams that could be the big winner on Saturday night, and the red, blue, bluer and silver cars, not necessarily in that order, can all do the job. See ya all there!

10/25/08 FEATURE: (30 laps - With Starting Positions)

1. Tyler Brown (1st), 2. Cory Kruseman (3rd), 3. Tony Jones (7th), 4. Rickie Gaunt (5th), 5. Rip Williams (9th), 6. Alan Ballard (11th), 7. Mike Spencer (15th), 8. Danny Sheridan (18th), 9. Blake Miller (8th), 10. Chris Wakim (2nd), 11. Luis Espinoza (17th), 12. Rodney Argo (21st), 13. Josh Ford (13th), 14. Jimmy Crawford (14th), 15. J Hicks (12th), 16. Ron Bach (19th), 17. David Cardey (10th), 18. Nic Faas (6th), 19. Troy Rutherford (4th), 20. Matt Stewart (20th), 21. Cody Williams (16th - DNS). NT.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Tyler Brown

NEW LUCAS OIL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR POINTS:

1-Mike Spencer-1,365; 2-Blake Miller-1,303; 3-Danny Sheridan-1,260; 4-Tony Jones-1,045; 5-Garrett Hansen-1,039; 6-Tyler Brown-975; 7-Cory Kruseman-949; 8-David Cardey-833; 9-Josh Ford-765; 10-Alan Ballard-593.

NEXT USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR RACE:

October 30-November 1-2 – Perris (CA) Auto Speedway – 13th “Budwesier Oval Nationals” presented by Temecula Valley Pipe & Supply