November 11, 2009

Damion Gardner has been away from the West Coast to run in Indiana for several seasons, and even though he isn’t leading the pack back there yet, he whipped all comers in this prestigious 14th annual Oval Nationals with all the hot dogs, and did it by chasing down a fast Mike Spencer near the end of the 40 lap A Main in his Pace sponsored # 71. He was the Last Man Standing as his last pass was a “win it or wear it” attempt that was successful and he is smiling now! It was one of the best Oval Nationals events ever and Saturday’s track was racy, if you were capable of hooking it up.

For Mrs Wags pics Click here. For my pics of Thursday Click Here. For my pics of Friday Click Here. For my pics of Saturday Click Here. For Doug Allen's best Click here.

Damion was 2nd quick on Thursday, ran 2nd in his heat and was a close 4th in the main that night. On Friday he was 8th quick and 3rd in his heat and again 4th in the main. On Saturday night he started 4th in the A main and battled up until he was on Spencer’s tail and then began to try and unseat him. With a full head of steam on the 36th lap, he made his move under the little red sucker going from turn 3 to completion coming out of turn 4. From there he just had to hold on as Mike made several rushes at him, but couldn’t make the pass back.

Four days of excitement, including a Wednesday night practice, allowed fans to see some of the best short track action on the planet. Even though Friday night’s action was the best of the best, Saturday’s racing was no slouch as the track held up for the four days of pounding with no black grooves appearing and provided a fast track for those who could work it.

The opening night ended with Bryan Clauson winning the 25 lapper to start things off, and a lot of talk about a 5th bar on a few 4 bar cars. Danny Drinnan has come up with an add-on that goes under the driver’s seat and is adjustable in the cockpit by the driver. He told me how it works, and I can’t tell you (if I even understood), but gives a little bit of new adjustment that helps with hooking up the left rear tire? Anyway, Bryan had one on his car and it was big news as many other cars were buying the new deal from Drinnan. Bryan was 4th quick and ran 4th in his heat before starting 4th in the main event grid. On Friday he was 7th in the main and finished the weekend 4th in the big A main and was in it up until the very end of the main event.

Friday may have been the best night of racing these eyes have seen for a while as the heats, Semi and main were fought hard for. There were battles for transfers like you haven’t seen in a while. An example was when Dave Darland and Davey Pombo squared off in heat 5, when they touched several times. They had their battle going for many laps when Dave tried to take his final shot at a transfer coming around turn four on the final lap. He went high to go around Davey, but when the smoke cleared, Davey had the spot and Dave had the wall. Levi Jones led the 25 lapper 3 different times before he finally went by Damion Gardner who had the lead twice before giving it up on lap 14. These two let it all hang out, and Jones win was just about where the word “Barnburner” came from as they each led many times during other laps throughout the event as slide jobs and crossovers were the norm, as they passed each other with great skill providing real entertainment for the jacked up Friday crowd.

Jon Stanbrough set fast time both nights of qualifying and finished 2nd each night as well, but got no love on Saturday when he was looking to me like he might be the "Last Man Standing" until he banged the wall and was done early. Mike Spencer was 7th, 3rd and then 2nd in the big finali after leading 14 laps and looking good in the little red sucker. Only a monster pass beat him as he was strong for 40 laps. Levi Jones was 3rd, 1st and 3rd on the 3 nights as he wrapped up his USAC National points championship with some strong racing for the best overall performance of the weekend.

Rip Williams was 5th, 16th and 7th in the finali as he led 21 laps until Spencer went by on Saturday. Rip had a new ITI Viper chassis for this race, after dumping his old car a few weeks ago. There were over a dozen flips during the weekend, but perhaps none more spectacular than the pair of qualifying crashes by Bullet Blake Miller on Thursday night. The first was just his effort to set fast time as he went in too fast and went flying high into the fence at the end of turn one. The second was caused by a malfunction that didn’t let him shut off the motor going into turn one, so he backed it into the wall to try and save it. That chassis was hurt worse than the first one and he sat the rest of the night out. He had a problem on Friday missing the main and took a provisional on Saturday to get 18th as the back-up to the back-up didn’t perform well for him. His teammate, Rookie Ronnie Gardner had a better time of it as he was 3rd quick in the opener where he finished 10th. On Saturday he came from 23rd starting spot to get 14th as he had a great Oval Nationals debut.

Darren Hagen came to town to drive a second Alexander car. On the opening night he was fast, but got shuffled in his heat into a spin, like when you race go-carts and give your buddy a playful spin. So he had to run the semi where he just missed the transfer. Friday he ran up front and actually had the lead early on, but had his hands full with the “flying fab four” (Levi Jones, Jon Stanbrough, Mike Spencer and Damion Gardner). They put on the Scintillating show that was masterful, shuffling him to 5th at the end. He was the first car out of the A Main on Saturday to end his quest. Cole Whitt had his ups and downs as he was 9th in the opener, came from 25th to 8th on Friday for the hard charger award, and was on a run in the A Main when he nailed the wall on Saturday. Dave Darland had a miserable weekend as he fought to stay close to Levi in the championship point’s chase. He ran a different looking car the first night and finished 16th. They changed to a faster more conventional looking car the second night, but he found the wall and was done. On Saturday he had more trouble getting 20th in the semi and was prepared to use a provisional for the A Main, but never showed and dropped too far off the pace from Levi.

Greg Bragg bookended his 17th on Friday with two 11th place finishes in the Moosemobile as he fought hard to score in the big one. Bud Kaeding was hardly noticeable until Saturday night. His 14th on the opener and missing the main on Friday was not like him, a three time Oval Nationals champion. Saturday he ran 6th in the Semi to transfer to his 18th starting spot in the A main which he ran up from to get 5th with a good drive. Tracy Hines had his problems with an 8th on Thursday his best finish. He was 18th on Friday with a 22nd in the finali after he was taken out by another car.

Showtime Danny Sheridan was 18th, 14th and 13th in the three nights with a tire punched by another car hurting his chance to do better the last night. The best news was he was consistent with no incidents, so the Kittle Krew rolled the # 18 Pace sponsored little blue bugger into the trailer each night. Henry Clarke came home in a Keith Kunz car to get 6th, 13th and 9th as he had a good run. David Cardey didn’t have the best weekend running 13th, 9th and 17th to drop back from a close 8 point deficit in the championship points to a 78 point negative, with 3 race dates to go. Garrett Hansen was 22nd, 15th and started 22nd on Saturday to get the hard charger award finishing 6th on a great drive.

Some not so good stories began with practice on Wednesday night and Rickie Gaunt’s attempt to race this weekend. He put in 6 laps of practice, pulled it in and said no way. He may or not be back this year, I haven’t heard, but his surgery was recent enough and his release from the doc was just the day before. With Josh Ford out with a broken foot, he had Rickie and Jerry Coons Jr scheduled to drive his two cars. Jerry was 15th in the Thursday Semi and got out of the ride, so Ford’s rig went home. Cowboy Tony Jones had a miserable string of bad luck. In the opener he was scheduled to start on the front row, but during the lineup, the car burbled to a stop on the front stretch. He re-fired, but went to the back for his 24th place finish. With high hopes on Friday he was the first car out in qualifying and ended up 39th as the track came in much later. Starting 23rd in the main, he came upon two spinners in the night and was collected for his 27th place finish. He desperately wanted to restart, but when they fired the car after a few adjustments, the rear end gave up the ghost and he was done in the silver bullet car. Saturday had to be better, so he ran the semi to 3rd and a transfer and started 15th. He had more problems and finally it ended with him in 16th in the end.

There were so many highlights it’s hard to recall all of them, but the racing was extraordinary and the locals had a good chance to succeed as evidenced by nearly half the A Main field filled with locals unlike the past few years. Anyone who didn’t enjoy this weekend, too bad, maybe you’ll come for the whole thing next time. And it was worth coming for all 3 days unlike most of the fans who only came on Saturday night. With 52 cars in the pits, that alone was surprising, but most came to win this big one and the competition was fierce every night. Congrats to the PAS and Ray for his best Saturday Ovals track yet. The officials and EMT’s all did their jobs and we finished another very successful big time race. Be sure and visit all the sponsors who make it possible for your favorites to race as we need them.

The fun in the campground, when we weren’t racing, was the usual good times as we joined the Kittle Kamp and were thoroughly content with the food and company for the 4 nights we spent there. Our host Brian Kittle’s expertise with his cooking gear and his wife Kris’ keeping everything moving and organized just made it better. There were many who pitched in as the time was too short. I can’t wait till next year.

Coming up is the Pacific Open at the Thunderbowl in Tulare for Saturday and Sunday, so I predict the smaller tacky oval will provide more great racing and hopefully everyone will perform well and the fans will pack the place for some great sprint car racing. See ya there!

11/7/09 FEATURE: (40 laps - With Starting Positions)
1. Damion Gardner (4th- #71 DG), 2. Mike Spencer (2nd- #50 Chaffin), 3. Levi Jones (5th- #20 Stewart), 4. Bryan Clauson (3rd- #7 Tucker), 5. Bud Kaeding (18th), 6. Garrett Hansen (22nd), 7. Rip Williams (1st- #3 Jory), 8. Cory Kruseman (19th), 9. Henry Clarke (8th- #67 Kunz), 10. Brady Short (10th- #36 Short), 11. Greg Bragg (21st), 12. Keith Bloom Jr. (20th), 13. Danny Sheridan (11th- #18 Kittle), 14. Ronnie Gardner (23rd), 15. Austin Williams (25th), 16. Tony Jones (15th), 17. David Cardey (7th- #38 Crossno), 18. Blake Miller (26th), 19. Kevin Swindell (17th), 20. Nic Faas (9th- #17F Faas), 21. Cole Whitt (13th), 22. Tracy Hines (14th), 23. Chad Boat (24th), 24. Jon Stanbrough (6th- #37 Indiana Underground), 25. Matt Mitchell (12th- #37x Mitchell), 26. Darren Hagen (16th). NT

11/6/09 Feature (25 laps with starting positions)
1. Levi Jones (2nd), 2. Jon Stanbrough (7th), 3. Mike Spencer (6th), 4. Damion Gardner (5th), 5. Darren Hagen (4th), 6. Matt Mitchell (3rd), 7. Bryan Clauson (9th), 8. Cole Whitt (25th), 9. David Cardey (14th), 10. Nic Faas (8th), 11. Cory Kruseman (11th), 12. Brady Short (12th), 13. Henry Clarke (1st), 14. Danny Sheridan (13th), 15. Garrett Hansen (27th), 16. Rip Williams (17th), 17. Greg Bragg (26th), 18. Tracy Hines (28th), 19. Kevin Swindell (22nd), 20. R.J. Johnson (16th), 21. Jimmy Crawford (10th), 22. Bruce St. James (20th), 23. Davey Pombo (15th), 24. Steve Sussex (18th), 25. Brent Camarillo (19th), 26. Kenny Perkins (21st), 27. Tony Jones (23rd), 28. Casey Riggs (24th). NT

11/5/09 Feature (25 laps with starting positions). Bryan Clauson (4th), 2. Jon Stanbrough (6th), 3. Levi Jones (8th), 4. Damion Gardner (5th), 5. Rip Williams (3rd), 6. Henry Clarke (10th), 7. Mike Spencer (12th), 8. Tracy Hines (14th), 9. Cole Whitt (11th), 10. Ronnie Gardner (7th), 11. Greg Bragg (13th), 12. Brady Short (16th), 13. David Cardey (22nd), 14. Bud Kaeding (18th), 15. Nic Faas (9th), 16. Dave Darland (17th), 17. John Aden (20th), 18. Danny Sheridan (21st), 19. Jeff Bland Jr. (15th), 20. Cory Kruseman (27th), 21. Matt Mitchell (25th), 22. Garrett Hansen (1st), 23. Cody Williams (23rd), 24. Tony Jones (2nd), 25. Austin Williams (24th), 26. Chad Boat (26th), 27. Austin Mero (19th). NT

NEW LUCAS OIL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-Spencer-913; 2-Cardey-835; 3-Hansen-748; 4-Miller-705; 5-Sheridan-665; 6-Bragg-652; 7-Mitchell-584; 8-R.Williams-562; 9-Kruseman-485; 10-T.Jones-392.

NEW USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-L.Jones-1,735; 2-Darland-1,557; 3-Whitt-1,545; 4-Jerry Coons Jr.-1,352; 5-Hines-1,312; 6-D.Gardner-1,295; 7-Hagen-1,004; 8-Clauson-933; 9-Boat-889; 10-Stanbrough-831.

NEXT USAC NATIONAL & LUCAS OIL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR RACES: November 13-14 – Tulare, CA – Thunderbowl Raceway – 30th “Pacific Coast Nationals”