By Ken Wagner
Nov 29, 2008

Picture this storybook ending that couldn’t have been scripted any better, even if I had made it up myself: “ Tony Jones” rides off into the sunset on his trusty silver steed, after lassoing his 35th and final CRA win of his career. “The Cowboy” leaves with a tear in his eye and a smile on his face, plus $11,000 in his hands. And next we see the words THE END rolling across the screen. That’s where it all ends, but it sure didn’t start there.

Mrs Wags pics Click here and Wags Click here. And Doug Allen Click here.

This Cowboy had already said the retirement party started tonight as he arrived with hopes of closing the year out with a big win. He started this night of a perfect ending to his 16 year career with 15th quick on the clocks. He was fourth in his heat and miraculously, who wrote this unbelievable crap, started on the pole of the main event. From there he ran away from the field after each and every red flag stop, and ended up on the podium, after brushing off the Demon Damion Gardner who fought to get in position to challenge the winner the very last lap.

Tony Jones leaves a lot of faithful friends, sponsors, fans and yes, even this reporter in his wake as he announced his retirement last week to the surprised, shocked and unbelieving news seekers who supported him. When the good ones retire, it hurts the “racing family” for a while, not that it isn’t his prerogative to do what he damn well pleases, but still those shoes eventually get filled, hopefully. You can’t manufacture the excitement that he, and those heroes before him who set the bar so high, has given us. Revered names like his dad Bubby Jones, Lealand McSpadden, Richard Griffin and many more icons that showcased performances that will live in our minds forever. Tony leaves us with some of those magic moments to savor as well.

Tony will be remembered for his old style driving, elbows up and gas pedal to the floor, that was often unmatched by his peers. He was a winner whose career went up and down over the years, but never did he lose focus on his goal of driving the wheels off his ride. He did it to the very end, culminating with a victory over a stout field one more time, and he made that last fence climbing experience tough to watch. You can’t replace the real heroes, you just hope a new one comes along to fill the huge gap. Tony went out with six wins this season. This year the team didn’t travel far from the CRA home track at Perris. Tony retires at age 38, still with his skills at the top of his abilities. Good luck to the man who has won every special race with CRA including the Oval Nationals, the Kindoll Classic, the 4th of July race, the Sokola Classic and now the 1st annual Glenn Howard Memorial. Good luck my friend, but not goodbye.

I remember plenty about Tony over the years that stand out in my mind. Like the first time I met him when he crashed Larry Henry’s car at El Centro and then received the Wagsbucks. Or one night at Perris when he destroyed the red # 48 and stood in his pits afterward swearing he was all right, but he wasn’t. Maybe the crash last year that hurt the car real bad, but he returned that night to run 7th or something. Winning the Oval Nationals on a last lap pass that ruined the night for the driver he passed who had dominated to that point. Winning his 2007 CRA championship was fun to watch as it unfolded for him and his stellar team. I remember the warm handshakes when he gave himself and the feeling he was my friend for the moment. My memories of Tony’s career will pale compared to what he will cherish of this life he leaves. The last thing I’ll remember about Tony is a portrait of his wife Tammy, son Grady and himself walking off in the sunset with a smile and a tear looking back at what has been one of the most amazing rides into history. That’s The Cowboy, it says it all.

Tony Jones wasn’t the only story of the night, just the biggest. It is my first recollection of a race after thanksgiving since a certain El Centro Wagsdash weekend of 1994 when the Wagtimers couldn’t find a pumpkin pie for our celebration. When Steve Howard’s father Glenn passed away last year, there was serious mourning in the racing fraternity for what was taken from us. Glenn, the ever tunnel visioned person who always kept his eye on the racing world he led, did so much for so many that it was a tragedy for our sport when he left us last October with unfinished business. He left too soon with our hopes of the club we once had and now Steve has to go it alone. Steve quietly collected over $38,000 to add to the purse for this great event in memory of his father, all for the racers. Kind of sounds like a Wagsbucks thing, but it’s not. He was on a mission to make a special night for the racers to honor his father. With Glenn smiling over the scene on Saturday night, the money was spread around. There was lap money for the top 3 positions in the feature. Tony led all 30 laps and got a bonus of nearly $6,000 to go with the winner’s $5000 share, of which $2500 was added by Steve’s efforts. There was extra money for heat winners and more as the racers had one of their best paydays for a “regular” race in history. Congratulations to Steve, a job well done and I hope every racer gave him thanks personally.

Damion Gardner continues to earn kudos for his always improving driving. He has added something to our scene from the moment he appeared a few years ago with a silver and green racer without a wing for the first time. After he ran in one particular SCRA trophy dash against the likes of Cory Kruseman and Richard Griffin, and where he passed them both more than once to win, Cory had a great line when interviewed afterwards. Cory just said “he can’t do that for 30 laps, can he?” Priceless, but that is the way the Demon has been, lightning in a driver’s suit. After winning the CRA championship 3 years ago he headed to Indiana where the tracks are like slick black, and the youngsters run amok on them. He hasn’t taken over there, yet, but is ready to make the Demon charge next year.

Coming home to California has been good for Damion as he won the last two regular Perris races by outdriving the field each time. This race was no different for him except he couldn’t catch up to the Cowboy to mount a serious threat in the 30 lap year ending classic. He won the traditional three lap trophy dash, ran third in his heat before starting 8th on the main event grid. He had his hands full with his Pace sponsored Beast car, but still managed to roll by everyone to get into 2nd place. He was the only big name traveler who showed up for the cash, (there were 7 others and Shane Cottle did the best in 10th) and performed well this night, as he looks forward to next season back in Indiana.

The Ripper Rip Williams had a lot on his mind this night, yet he was able to start 2nd on the grid in the main and come home third with a strong run in his new Maxim chassied car. He had his two sons running this week, but the more experienced Cadillac Cody finished ahead of his brother Awesome Austin in their heat and transferred on to the main where he was a creditable 13th. Austin ran 5th in his heat and 13th in the semi in his debut with CRA. Does this mean we will see three of the black Jory cars next year? Anyway, dad did very well and they all have a short winter to ponder next season. Austin graduates in the spring, so here we go and I don’t hear anything about retirement from the senior member of this racing trio. Note here, Austin was fifth at Victorville on Sunday. Ronnie Gardner was 6th as the two rookie must have done well.

Tyler Brown led the Gardner clan this week with a 4th place spot after battling 30 laps of people trying to pass him. Teammate Blake Miller ran 6th as he protected his 2nd place overall finish in CRA this year by 10 points over a hopeful Danny Sheridan. “Showtime” didn’t have any luck in this one after passing Ripper for second, but going back because of a yellow, and then getting speared by another car which broke some ladder or something, but he managed to limp home in 5th place with a solid year under his belt.

The race could have had some more excitement after the suspense to see if Tony could hold onto the win with so many restarts. Way too many red and yellow flags sucked some of the air out of this one, but what could be better, we were still racing. Glenn would have been proud.

Man if I had all the Wagsbucks in the world this week, it wouldn’t have been enough. It all started with a helicopter spin by one of Glenn Crossno’s cars as “Casey Shuman did not get on his head, but made several fast spins in his qualifying attempt and caused some severe rebuild efforts for that team. The champion Mike Spencer then got on his head hard and earned some free bolt-on pieces from Steve Howards collection of adds to the purse. In the C main Brein Kinney did a fantastic wheel stand coming around turn three that went awry and he got bounced on his head.

It wasn’t done yet when the fourth heat started and Alan Ballard put a slider on Chad Boat that looked like he made it, but aybe not as Chad caught his wheel on the yellow and green car and went sideways into a nasty looking flip against the wall. He was fine, but anxious to go visit Alan. Not long after the restart Alan was hard on the gas when a car in front of him pushed and slid up in front of him enough that he launched himself up and over into his own wall banging incident. Hard racing sometime does this and Alan is a hard charger, he just didn’t get anything for his efforts this week. Alan has been really doing well in Ray Stansberry’s car this year.

There was much, much more to come as the feature began its stop and go antics. First out was young Nic Faas who looks like he will be running in Indiana next year. He got into the wall in turn four and I don’t know if he got help or not, but it wasn’t bad as crashes go. Then Wild man Rodney Argo who lived up to his nickname in the fast Don Argo owned Ford powered car when he went flying wild into the second turn wall in what looked real nasty. He was OK and again, I don’t know if he got help here, but he seems to find other cars like a heat seeking missile sometimes, and there appeared to be contact with another not local black car. Next up to the “on your head in the Glenn Howard Memorial Classic” was nice guy Dave Darland. Dave can drive the wheels off these cars and this time he got em’ in the air when he stopped. He was fine, the Josh FordTeam car ….. was not. Henry Clarke and another car had some screeching argument on the back stretch when he went on his head. Tony Jones must have been getting impatient by now as it was still early in the race. That was the end of the high flyers, but a few more bumps and grinds until 30 laps finally ended.

Another great year of racing interrupted by economy problems leads us to this point, and what about next year? It’s full speed ahead for some and let’s think about it for others as the schedule starts coming together. Already we know the CRA season opens with the Copper World event at Manzy on February 20/21, followed by a Wednesday night visit to my area at the Las Vegas Speedway. Then the Perris opener comes the following Saturday, but for the working man, I’ll probably be quite alone in Vegas as people aren’t likely to give up a week of vacation for this 4 races in 9 days over a near 1000 mile triangle, but fans are more likely to hit both weekends. The Banquet is Jan 24th, I think, so smoke em’ if you got em’??????

Now starts my B-ball winter as four high school tourneys in So Cal are calling this week. I look forward to the Chili Bowl and a few B-ball games back there too. Thanks to everyone who made my year the best. Hope next year is even better. Happy holiday’s, that’s Merry Xmas to the real people. I’ll do a little synopsis over the winter and maybe even predict something. Ta Ta.

11/29/08 FEATURE: (30 laps - With Starting Positions) 1. Tony Jones (1st), 2. Damion Gardner (8th), 3. Rip Williams (2nd), 4. Tyler Brown (5th), 5. Danny Sheridan (4th), 6. Blake Miller (9th), 7. Cory Kruseman (11th), 8. Jordan Hermansader (12th), 9. Josh Ford (14th), 10. Shane Cottle (18th), 11. Greg Bragg (22nd), 12. David Cardey (17th), 13. Cody Williams (20th), 14. Mike Spencer (23rd), 15. Jesse Hockett (7th), 16. R.J. Johnson (21st), 17. Alex Schutte (3rd), 18. Bill Rose (19th), 19. Eric Severson (16th), 20. Dave Darland (13th), 21. Henry Clarke (15th), 22. Casey Shuman (24th), 23. Rodney Argo (6th), 24. Nic Faas (10th). NT.

FINAL LUCAS OIL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1- Mike Spencer-1,597; 2- Blake Miller-1,532; 3- Danny Sheridan-1,522; 4- Tony Jones-1,225; 5- Tyler Brown-1,149; 6- David Cardey-1,066; 7- Garrett Hansen-1,039; 8- Cory Kruseman-995; 9- Josh Ford-882; 10- Nic Faas-676