By Ken Wagner
November 11, 2007

The Western World isn’t what it use to be, any way you look at it, but the sprints done good by putting on a wild show! Three special things happened during the weekend, but only two got any USAC press. First Tony Jones won the 2007 USAC/CRA championship, Levi Jones won the National USAC sprint car title and Jerry Coons Jr swept both main events overcoming being sent to the back of the starting grid when they didn’t get to the appointed place on time. You can guess which one got no notice from the Magical USAC world.

For the pics done by Bethany Click here

If I told you what the Cowboy, Tony Jones had to overcome to get his championship clinched this weekend, you wouldn’t believe it! OK, I’ll try. No way he comes from the back with a motor that sounded very ill, and he continued to pass cars! He started off the weekend on Friday night with 19th quick out of 60 cars on the clock. He won his heat handily, but had problems in the main, finishing 16th. His rival Mike Spencer started on the pole and finished 10th to cut the lead to 78. On Saturday he dropped out of the Semi and had to take a provisional to make the “A” main.

Not long after the 40 lap main started, he pulled over waving his arm to let them all go by, and brought out the yellow as he quickly went to the work area. The motor was wounded, yet his crew sent him back out to get as many points as possible. Running on seven cylinders, and making that dull motor sound we have all heard from time to time, he managed to come from 28th all the way up to 15th at the end, and miraculously just one spot behind Spencer who had started in the third row. This left him with only a 76 point lead, (Boo) but with one race left, and knowing the most you can earn is 74, (6 for fast time, 8 for a heat race win and 60 for a victory), that cinched it for the cowboy by two points (Yeah). The car looked like it had gone thru space re-entry when he pulled into his pit. A gaping whole in the firewall was clearly evident after a rocky missile clanged thru the hood to damage the silver bullet racer. It was pretty amazing, as I look back, knowing he had a leak in addition to everything, and surprisingly still hung on by “cowboying it up” for a finish that made his crew happy campers. Congratulations to Tony and the Alexander’s, it was their first championship, and they earned it. And you know they also won the Wagsdash a couple of times with Mike English and J Hicks in the seat. As for Spencer and the Chaffin/Bromme gang, look out next year, Mike will be up there very soon.

On Friday night, Jerry Coons Jr started fifth in the main and went on to win the opener as his car looked like he had it dialed in like it was glued to the track. Saturday, he was to start in row three, but they didn’t make the call on time and were sent to the back for the start. If you watched him moving smoothly thru the field, you might have thought perhaps he would get in the top five before the end, especially after Dave Darland took the lead from a fast Ricky Stenhouse and was pulling away. A few yellows, and one red flag, when Danny Sheridan flipped hard, allowed him to inch closer and his car just continued to motor by everyone. He a racy Darland with there laps to go. I really haven’t seen anything like that charge at Manzy since Lealand McSpadden retired, so it was very special what he did in the Hoffman car at the annual Western World. He really did look like he was hooked to the track as no one had anything for him.

Levi Jones came in with 120 point lead over Darren Hagen and in the end celebrated his National USAC championship with car owner Tony Stewart on the podium with him after the race. The switch to Chevy engines didn’t hurt the team as they were very successful this year. Bubby Jones, father of Tony and Davey (crew chief for the Kasey Kahne youngsters) was Levi’s crew chief and shared the glory on the podium. Well, at least he shared the glory for his job well done.

As usual there were a lot of success stories this weekend, but with the slicker surface than the west coast boys are used to, it did them in again. Only seven CRA regulars made the feature each night as the surface is just not something that have enough experience in. Bud Kaeding, one of many west coast drivers who run the National series, was only able to get third this race, without any family aids to help him out this time. It was clear the horsepower and experience from the Indiana dry slick tracks was the key to their dominance.

On a nice warm weekend, there was some racing going on at the new improved Manzanita Speedway, no doubt. Don’t get carried away, the surface isn’t quite what we remember in the “old” days, but many changes get my approval. Number one is the OPHR, old people’s hand rail, in the main grandstands that really makes those of us who need just a skosh more help up and down very happy. Thank you Bobby! The new fencing in front of the grandstands is awesome and will be even better when it gets painted black so no reflections distort the view. It unfortunately ends my camera work from the grandstands there, but that’s a small price to pay for a fence that will work in keeping stuff out of the grandstands. The new parking lot covering is a big help and much more is planned for the future, so when the Indians give up some mud, things will be AOK at Manzy.

Robert Ballou had a wild crash on the back stretch Friday night, and after a long stand around and after the cars re-fired to restart, the red came out and they transferred him to the hospital. Unlike Perris where there is always another ambulance nearby, we had to wait a while until a new ambulance returned. Ballou had a concussion and a broken arm, but he was back at the track on Saturday to watch.

Jeremy Sherman finished 6th for the best west coast drive, and for a while looked like he might sneak up a little further. Mat Neely came to town with a ride in Bob Price’s car. He didn’t have much luck, so when Daron Clayton left for home suddenly because his wife went into labor, Mat jumped in the Trucker’s car and came up to 11th from the back.

Brad Sweet got a head start on his ride for next year after young Kevin Swindell was set down for the year by USAC. I wonder if that will work on the aggressive young driver, but it appears his dad is part of the problem. Brad was 8th on Saturday night on a good ride. Damion Gardner has had a rough year in the PACE # 71. As a rookie in Indiana, he finished 10th in points, but deserved better. Driving cars he was not that familiar with, then add two year old Mopar castoff’s from Tony Stewart’s team, he didn’t have everything he needed, yet had some moments to reflect back on. If he can get some newer motors and the chassis he prefers, his results will be much better next year. He was 8th and 13th in the two features this weekend out-performing his former CRA mates, so must have learned something of the slick track secrets. Look for him to do much better next year.

The event itself was not of my liking as I passed on Thursday nights late model event, but couldn’t pass on Saturday’s because I failed to get to the track early enough in the afternoon to go into the pits and had to wait until their feature was done to go congratulate the new champion and Jerry Coons Jr. Although some around me told me how great this type of racing is, and they were certainly as fast if not faster than my sprint cars, I still couldn’t get into stock cars at the Western. Mike Kirby, a former sprint car driver with CRA, broke his motor both nights he ran and his sister Karla had a nasty looking crash on Saturday to eliminate the two I wanted to watch. What I saw was 4 heats, two last chance races and a 30 lap feature that had several drivers who were considerably faster than the others, but they were not around when the checkers flew so it left a happy winner who prevailed over a small field that managed to run 30 laps. I hope this isn’t the way the Western will go in the future as these fast cars should run a night of their own and give us back the 360’s.

It was one of the most exciting races I have seen at Manzanita for a long time, if you were watching first Dave Darland and then Jerry Coons Jr. Dave really had his # 44 running to the front very quickly and when he took the lead from Ricky Stenhouse on lap 15, it looked like he might have it under control. Not this time as Coons was coming fast from the get go, and the many yellows and one red flag allowed him the luxury of pulling closer as he made a McSpadden like charge thru the field from the back. Pretty awesome and extremely surprising as you analyze the other hot drivers in the field that he flew by. He left both new USAC champions in his dust in a car that looked like it was on traction control, it was so hooked up.

Will the gentleman who sent me a check for the McSpadden photo from the Wagsdash auction, whose name and phone number I lost, please call me so I can send you the photo, I will be happy to do that. We didn’t cross paths at the Oval Nationals and I still have the picture.

I’ll be at the Trophy cup this weekend, ending my racing season. Next up will be the Chili Bowl after that in January, so time marches on. Is it my imagination or did this year go extremely fast? I am already thinking about next year and hoping all your holidays are fun.

FRIDAY FEATURE: (25 laps) 1. Jerry Coons Jr., 2. Jesse Hockett, 3. Dave Darland, 4. Levi Jones, 5. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 6. Brady Short, 7. Bud Kaeding, 8. Damion Gardner, 9. Brady Bacon, 10. Mike Spencer, 11. Chris Windom, 12. Rick Ziehl, 13. Darren Hagen (#67k), 14. Casey Shuman, 15. Thomas Meseraull, 16. Tony Jones, 17. Brad Sweet, 18. Josh Ford, 19. Daron Clayton, 20. Jon Stanbrough, 21. Scotty Weir, 22. Danny Sheridan, 23. Robert Ballou, 24. Jeremy Sherman, 25. Rickie Gaunt, 26. Rip Williams, 27. Dustin Morgan, 28. Matt Mitchell. NT

SATURDAY FEATURE: (40 laps) 1. Jerry Coons Jr. (#69 Dynamics), 2. Dave Darland (#44 Pace), 3. Bud Kaeding (#29 BK), 4. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (#21 Stewart), 5. Darren Hagen (#67K Kunz), 6. Jeremy Sherman, 7. Casey Shuman, 8. Brad Sweet (#9 Kahne), 9. Brady Short (#2B 2B Racing), 10. Jon Stanbrough, 11. Mat Neely, 12. Chris Windom (#17 Windom), 13. Damion Gardner (#71 Leffler), 14. Mike Spencer (#50 Chaffin), 15. Tony Jones, 16. Rick Ziehl, 17. R.J. Johnson, 18. Josh Ford, 19. Jesse Hockett (#75 VKCC), 20. Cole Whitt, 21. Garrett Hansen, 22. Hunter Scheurenberg, 23. Levi Jones (#20 Stewart), 24. Rip Williams, 25. Dustin Morgan, 26. Danny Sheridan, 27. Brady Bacon (#99 Kahne), 28. Shane Cottle. NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-14 Stenhouse, Laps 15-37 Darland, Laps 38-40 Coons.

FINAL LUCAS OIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-L.Jones-1.402; 2-Hagen-1,317; 3-Darland-1,274; 4-Bacon-1,087; 5-Hockett-1,073; 6-Stenhouse-1,023; 7-Short-955; 8-Kevin Swindell-952; 9-Coons-909; 10-Gardner-903.

NEW LUCAS OIL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-T.Jones-1,947; 2-Spencer-1,871; 3-Sheridan-1,743; 4-Gaunt-1,656; 5-Weir-1,570; 6-Williams-1,431; 7-Cardey-1,260; 8-Kruseman-1,206; 9-Miller-1,076; 10-Ford-985.

NEXT LUCAS OIL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR RACE: November 17 - Perris (Calif.) Auto Speedway - "Kindoll Classic"