57 CARS COME TO PLAY AT PERRIS WITH “SLIDERS” THE ONLY WAY TO THE FRONT.

By Ken Wagner 1120/05

Cory Kruseman outlasted the 57 car field after swapping the lead with Rickie Gaunt several times during the 50 lap feature and then put it on “Kruise Kontrol” for the last 21 laps. Cory, driving the ITI Performance – Sander Engineering, Bullet, Downing # 38, totally mastered the slick track late and won his 9th Valvoline USAC/CRA race of the season going away. It was his fourth time to cash the Kindoll Classic money. It was the 39th and last race of the USAC/CRA season and ended with Cory 161 points behind the champion in the standings.

Mrs Wags pics Click here. And Doug Allen's latest Click here.

Bill Rose came to town for the last time before he gets his act ready to go wing racing full time next year. He drove the National Cold Storage – Shaver Specialties, Ellis, Shaver # 11 from 18th starting spot in the main to second for the hard charger award of the week. Bill used his patience and experience to methodically move thru the field, but was too far behind the leader when he reached his final spot on the podium. It was a great job by the likable character who will be, alas, one of the traveling wingers next season.

Jerry Coons Jr finished his outstanding season in sprint cars driving the L.A. Prep–La Villa Restaurant, Stinger, RC Performance # 4 to third place on the night. Jerry also used his Midwest slick track experience to move forward in the field. He will be driving a midget on Turkey night at Irwindale Raceway. It is always good to see the warm and friendly Arizona native racing with us.

“The last slider wins” was the motto this week as 50 laps and a rare slick surface brought about numerous gambles on the tricky track with only nine cars finishing the race out of the 23 that started. The fate of Dave Darland, Tony Jones, Bobby Cody, Rip Williams, Danny Sheridan, Damion Gardner, and a few more were victims of sliders gone awry or in some cases, hitting the big cushion so hard it broke some parts and they were done. The action reminds me of Eldora where you stay on the top until you throw the slider under someone and hope you don’t encounter the wall on the way back up too hard to continue. If you wanted to go to the front, you had to use the move that many hate, but it was more harmful than helpful for most during the feature. The red flag fuel stop was another issue to deal with as cars changed after the wrenches had a chance to adjust.

The Demon passed a lot of cars from his 8th place starting spot, and that due to his 22 fast time of the year. He was really racy and looking for one more win on the year. He rolled up to second place before getting shuffled back to about 10th on a restart that went haywire, where he stated over again. Early in the race it was all high groove freight train action until Super Rickie Gaunt, the defending Kindoll Classic Champion, made the pass on early leader Levi Jones coming under him in what seemed to be a groove too slick to make work. Then Kruseman made a slide job with inches to spare to take the lead while Damion was moving in on the leader a second time. Damion jumped the cushion and damaged his front end so much he went to the pits and was done for the night. Later after the race, he had a new smile for everyone as he took his “focused face” and parked it for the new look for now, he was soooo beaming.

Crew Chief, Bruce Bromme Jr, who won his ninth championship with car owner Ron Chaffin was all smiles without the usual worried look afterwards. His head was shaking sideways as he explained that 9 DNF’s (did not finish) did not keep them from another championship, but he doesn’t know how. Let me explain by saying Cory, Rip and Kirby all had more DNF’s than usual as consistency was not a word used a lot this season. They all worked hard trying to keep up with each other and Damion was standing on the podium nine of the last eleven races for his move to the front. Before that he had another streak of eight out of 12 trips to the podium. He had 25 podiums on the year, Cory 18, and Ripper 13 and that stat alone told the tale.

Matt Stewart will receive $300 of Wagsbucks, the first and last presentation of this season, this week thanks to Don Flanders. Don has been a Wagtime’s supporter for a long time and just as the 2006 Wagsdash got jump started last week by Kevin Zimmerman, the return of the Wagsbucks got it’s jump start by Don this week. I missed Matt in the pits, but will catch up to him as soon as I can find his phone number. He had hard luck this week when after borrowing a motor from nice guy Tony Everhart just to make the event, he got clobbered by something breaking in the drive train during qualifying and was done for the night, more from the pain I think. Wagsbucks will return next year if the fans deem it important again.

Officially I have now retired from the press box and USAC effective immediately. Those who know me heard me complain about having to “work” up there during each race, not from having to do the work, but from missing the races from the grandstands like I am used to. It also kept me away from doing my fan interaction that has made the over $450,000 of Wagsbucks we have collected for the racers possible. So from now on I am back to the “old” Wags, whatever that means, that my group said was missing this year. I will concentrate on collecting money for the low buck racers, work on the Wagsdash earlier than usual, help the racers wherever I can and spend the fun time with all my friends at the races from now on. I really appreciated the opportunity to be involved with USAC for the two year old club, but now realize that is not the direction that pleases me and my group. They won’t miss a beat without me!

The PAS portion of the USAC/CRA schedule is done. Beginning with a day show on Feb 4th , then February 18th, March 4th, March 25th, April 15th, April 29th, May 13th, May 27th, June 10th, June 24th, July 1st, July 22nd, August 5th, August 19th,September 2nd, September 16th, September 30th, October 21st, November 2nd, (11th Annual Budweiser Oval Nationals), November 3rd, (11th Annual Budweiser Oval Nationals), November 4th, (11th Annual Budweiser Oval Nationals), November 18th, (10th Annual Jack Kindoll Classic). Put it on your calendar and hopefully the rest of the traveling schedule will appear soon so we can all make our plans.

Two apologies this week, one for scheduling the Oaks for lunch not knowing it didn’t open until 3 PM and failing to put up the results until Sunday night due to missing the passoff of the official results from Freddie when I left the press box early to watch the bloody feature from the grandstands. Then when I got home at 2 AM, finding the program with all my formatted data inaccessible, wow my bad, I had nothing to post or send to Indiana. Then I was busy away from home all day Sunday so forgive me. By the way, no more live updates from me as sitting in the grandstands watching the races doesn’t do the PC any good with all the dust. I will go back to my 1 AM results as the best I can do.

Turkey night looms this week, but no pavement for me and my bride as we head to our Las Vegas hacienda for some fun with the family and wishbone pulling. I hope everyone has great holidays as I go looking for a job when we get back……

And lastly, D J Renwick’s passing this week was a shock to the racing community. His talent in all things racing will be missed. My best to his family and may he rest in peace.

VALVOLINE USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: November 19, 2005 – Perris, California – Perris Auto Speedway – “Kindoll Classic”

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Damion Gardner, 50, Chaffin-16.036; 2. Rick Williams, 6, Williams-16.332; 3. Casey Shuman, 44M, Felker-16.346; 4. Josh Wise, 7, Priestley-16.357; 5. Jerry Coons Jr., 4. Alexander-16.517; 6. Dave Darland, 11x, Walker/Guiducci-16.535; 7. Mike Spencer, 44, Engstrom-16.570; 8. Ricky Gaunt, 2A, Smiley-16.592; 9. Cory Kruseman, 38, Crossno-16.717; 10. Levi Jones, 42, Cheney-16.778; 11. Rodney Argo, 19, Argo-16.788; 12. Ryan Pace, 44p, Pace-16.797; 13. Bobby Cody, 92, Sertich-16.848; 14. Davey Pombo, 3P, Pombo-16.913; 15. Tony Jones, 87, Vermeer/Ferreira-16.924; 16. Rick Ziehl, 0, Shoemaker-16.930; 17. Charles Davis Jr., 8A, Smiley-16.943; 18. Richard Brace, 2R, Brace-16.944; 19. Danny Sheridan, 18, Kittle-16.945; 20. R.J. Johnson, 15AZ, Martin-16.946; 21. David Cardey, 59, Giardina-16.975; 22. Bill Rose, 11, Wilkerson-17.020; 23. Evan Suggs, 33E, Suggs-17.047; 24. Tom Stansberry, 75, Stansberry-17.052; 25. Mike Kirby, 96, Kirby-17.058; 26. Johnny Rodriguez, 7R, Priestley-17.073; 27. Ryan Devitt, 17F, Wilson-17.110; 28. Michael Trimble, 15T, CTR-17.115; 29. Seth Wilson, 17, Wilson-17.248; 30. Rick Becker, 67, Becker-17.282; 31. Jason York, 25N, York-17.285; 32. Rip Williams, 3, Jory-17.520; 33. Jordan Hermansader, 14, Lancaster-17.615; 34. Alan Ballard, 14L, Lancaster-17.660; 35. J.Hicks, 66, Miller-17.674; 36. Blake Miller, 5, Keller-17.735; 37. Robert Ellis, 43, Ellis-17.740; 38. Nadine Keller, 16, Keller-17.855; 39. Keith Williamson, 95, Williamson-17.952; 40. Mark Heidenreich, 22, Heidenreich-18.015; 41. Jeremy Ellertson, 98, Ellertson-18.022; 42. Josh Williams, 34, Williams-18.079; 43. Cal Smith, 23, Smith-18.100; 44. Tony Everhart, 55, Everhart-18.146; 45. Todd Hunsaker, 6x, Hunsaker-18.194; 46. Brandon Springstead, 36, Springstead-18.232; 47. Mike Ziegler, 8N, Ziegler-18.537; 48. Dwayne Marcum, 12, Pratt-18.685; 49. Dan Tedrick, 88, Tedrick-18.802; 50. Eric Severson, 36x, Severson-19.145; 51. Ludvig Solberg, 13, Solberg-19.176; 52. Tom Grunkemeyer, 6P, Grunkemeyer-NT; 53. Matt Stewart, 85, Stewart-NT; 54. Andy Forsberg, 98x, Family Auto-NT; 55. David Sinsley, 69, Sinsley-NT; 56. Josh Ford, 73, Ford-NT; 57. Jimmy Evans, 76, Evans-NT.

CONSOLATION #1 (8 laps) 1. Ballard, 2. Miller, 3. Ellertson, 4. Smith, 5. Hunsaker, 6. Grunkemeyer, 7. Ziegler, 8. Tedrick, 9. Solberg. 2:22.95

CONSOLATION #2 (8 laps) 1. Hicks, 2. Hermansader, 3. Ellis, 4. Forsberg, 5. Heidenreich, 6. Everhart, 7. J.Williams, 8. Springstead, 9. Severson. 2:24.76

DASH: (3 laps) 1. Shuman, 2. Gardner, 3. Wise, 4. Rick Williams. :50.24

FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Gardner, 2. Kirby, 3. Kruseman, 4. Davis, 5. Coons, 6. Wilson, 7. Cody, 8. Ballard, 9. Hicks, 10. Cardey. NT

SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Rodriguez, 2. Darland, 3. Becker, 4. L.Jones, 5. Brace, 6. Rick Williams, 7. Rose, 8. Pombo, 9. Hermansader, 10. Miller. 2:56.19

THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Shuman, 2. Spencer, 3. T.Nones, 4. Sheridan, 5. York, 6. Suggs, 7. Ellis, 8. Ellertson, 9. Devitt, 10. Argo. NT

FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Rip Williams, 2. Johnson, 3. Gaunt, 4. Wise, 5. Pace, 6. Ziehl, 7. Smith, 8. Trimble, 9. Forsberg, 10. Stansberry. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Coons, 2. Ziehl, 3. Pombo, 4. Rose, 5. Cody, 6. Brace, 7. Suggs, 8. Hicks, 9. Stansberry, 10. Hermansader, 11. Pace, 12. Miller, 13. Trimble, 14. Ballard, 15. Ellis, 16. Ellertson, 17. Smith, 18. Wilson, 19. York, 20. Forsberg, 21. Rick Williams, 22. Cardey, 23. Devitt. NT

FEATURE: (50 laps) 1. Cory Kruseman, 2. Bill Rose, 3. Jerry Coons Jr., 4. Levi Jones, 5. Davey Pombo, 6. Rick Ziehl, 7. Charles Davis Jr., 8. Mike Spencer, 9. Richard Brace, 10. Rip Williams, 11. Casey Shuman, 12. R.J. Johnson, 13. Rickie Gaunt, 14. Damion Gardner, 15. Bobby Cody, 16. Danny Sheridan, 17. Dave Darland, 18. Josh Wise, 19. Rick Becker, 20. Tony Jones, 21. Blake Miller, 22. Johnny Rodriguez, 23. Mike Kirby. NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-2 Levi Jones, Laps 3-20 Gaunt, Laps 21-25 Kruseman, Laps 26-29 Gaunt, Laps 30-50 Kruseman.

FINAL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-Gardner-2,169; 2-Kruseman-2,008; 3-Rip Williams-1,935; 4-Kirby-1,643; 5-Spencer-1,488; 6-Davis-1,447; 7-Gaunt-1,395; 8-Josh Ford-1,161; 9-Sheridan-1,153; 10-Wilson-1,030.