November 5, 2011

By Ken Wagner

The 16th annual Oval Nationals was ushered in with a tacky track and a runaway win by young Nic Faas as he took off and blew away the field with nobody catching him. With the threat of rain the next day, Don Kazarian announced there would be no Sunday racing as he wanted to do both shows on Saturday if it came to that, and it did. Friday was spent watching some heavy rain pelt the camp grounds as many tried to make the best of it. It got sooooo cold that I finally headed back to the hotel to warm up. May people were out having dinner at the local fooderies and it was a fun evening for many.

For my pics Click here to see Friday action. For Saturday Click here to see. Doug Allens work is here as usual click here to view.

Saturday dawned bright and chilly and Chrs Windom showed he had what it took after early leader, Cory Kruseman banged the wall and was done. The racing Saturday was fast, but not a lot of passing, so the bundled fans had to handle both in their day of racing. Kudos to the track prep bunch, but they just couldn’t get two great groove s like normal, yet most drivers tried all over the track to find a passing groove. In the finally, Damion Gardner took the lead and without a rear view mirror, didn’t know no one was going to catch him this race and he took the 40 lap final with ease. I asked him later what he was thinking as he couldn’t see what was going on behind him. He said “he just wanted to hit his marks every time around” and it all worked for him as he won his 2nd Ovals in two years.

Looking back it had it all, both good and bad! From windy, cool, wet, wild and a double header to boot, it was very interesting! it was also very hard on racers and fans alike, not to mention the PAS people who had to organize and redo as the 3 days went along. Starting with a windy practice night that was sooooo cold I took my riding buddy, Randy Shiosaki, away from it all and a nice steak in a warm Outback nearby. Thursday dawned a little less windy and the pits were packed early as most had come in the day before.

It’s hard to believe all the important things during the three days, but I started seeing things right away. The VanderWeerd’s were changing a motor early on Thursday, then had to switch cars on Saturday when Jace’s car was wrecked and then Richard flipped in the feature. Austin Williams took two wild rides with the second one on Saturday sending him to the hospital pretty beat up, but he’s OK. Colby Copeland flipped down the front stretch on Saturday with his car trailing parts along the way. He was checked out and returned to the track.

11/3/11/FEATURE: (25 laps) 1. Nic Faas, 2. Hunter Schuerenberg, 3. Bud Kaeding, 4. Mike Spencer, 5. Wes Gutierrez, 6. Bryan Clauson, 7. Keith Bloom Jr., 8. Chris Windom, 9. Damion Gardner, 10. Bobby East, 11. Robert Ballou, 12. Tracy Hines, 13. Levi Jones, 14. Ryan Bernal, 15. Danny Sheridan, 16. Dave Darland, 17. Matt Mitchell, 18. Cory Kruseman, 19. Austin Williams, 20. Richard VanderWeerd, 21. Shane Golobic, 22. Jon Stanbrough, 23. Troy Rutherford, 24. Brady Bacon, 25. Andy Forsberg, 26. Josh Ford. 7:02.36

11/5/11 FEATURE: (25 laps) 1. Chris Windom, 2. Mike Spencer, 3. Levi Jones, 4. Damion Gardner, 5. Nic Faas, 6. Keith Bloom Jr., 7. Tracy Hines, 8. Matt Mitchell, 9. Robert Ballou, 10. Bud Kaeding, 11. R.J. Johnson, 12. Bobby East, 13. Casey Shuman, 14. Troy Rutherford, 15. Jon Stanbrough, 16. Hunter Schuerenberg, 17. Ronnie Gardner, 18. Rip Williams, 19. Greg Bragg, 20. Dave Darland, 21. Greg Alexander, 22. David Bezio, 23. Cody Williams, 24. Colby Copeland, 25. Danny Sheridan, 26. Rickie Gaunt, 27. Cory Kruseman, 28. Bryan Clauson. NT

11/5/11 FEATURE: (40 laps) 1. Damion Gardner (#71 DG), 2. Mike Spencer (#50 Chaffin), 3. Levi Jones (#20 Stewart), 4. Bud Kaeding (#29 Buster & Ziggy), 5. Chris Windom (#5x Baldwin), 6. Nic Faas (#4x Alexander), 7. Tracy Hines (#4 Hines), 8. Bryan Clauson, 9. Bobby East, 10. Cory Kruseman, 11. Casey Shuman, 12. Hunter Schuerenberg, 13. Kyle Larson, 14. Ryan Bernal, 15. Cody Williams, 16. R.J. Johnson, 17. Dave Darland, 18. Ronnie Gardner, 19. Danny Sheridan, 20. John Aden, 21. Keith Bloom Jr. (#27 Abreu), 22. Jon Stanbrough, 23. Matt Mitchell, 24. Richard VanderWeerd, 25. Brady Bacon, 26. Rip Williams. NT

NEW USAC AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-Jones-1,602; 2-Windom-1,569; 3-Schuerenberg-1,378; 4-Stanbrough-1,376; 5-Hines-1,250; 6-D.Gardner-1,248; 7-Ballou-1,238; 8-Clauson-1,187; 9-Darland-1,119; 10-East-994.

NEW AMSOIL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-Spencer, 1,212; 2-Faas-1,159; 3-Mitchell-1,073; 4-A.Williams-741; 5-C.Williams-633; 6-Bragg-631; 7-Sheridan-570; 8-R.Williams-552; 9-Gaunt-520; 10-R.Gardner-484.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL NATIONAL & CRA SPRINT CAR RACE: November 12 – Hanford, CA – Giant Chevrolet Kings Speedway – “The Finals”