By Ken Wagner
March 5, 2006

On a very cold night at the PAS, Cory Kruseman won his first CRA race of the season, 15th lifetime CRA and 78th on the all time west coast list in the Glenn Crossno owned Agromin, Sander Engineering, ITI Performance, Bullet chassied, red # 38 car. The Kruser qualified seventh, won his heat race and started fifth in the main event. He quickly moved into 2nd to trail early leader Mat Neely, from Brownsburg, Indiana, before overtaking him on lap seven and pulling away for the win. Later Glenn, his car owner, said “winning never gets old” to my query about just that. Cory’s best moves came in traffic as he danced thru lappers with smooth precision on a fast track and kept the Demon Damion Gardner at bay late in the race.

Mrs wags photos are ready , Click here and Doug Allen's work Click here.

Cory won two Florida races earlier in the year, one that paid $10,000 to win, and looks like he is out to win another championship. When he wasn’t busy in the afternoon, he took the Outdoor channel announcer, Brienne Pedigo, for a ride in his two-seater. Later, she commented it was a blast, especially when he handed her his steering wheel at speed!

The Demon was without his crew chief this week as Bruce Bromme Jr was home after Achilles heel surgery, but the mighty cell phone kept them in touch for the night. Damion, once again had fast time, his third of three races this season, and started in “his” usual 8th starting spot in the feature. He ran second in his heat in the Temecula Valley Pipe & Supply, Arizona Race Mart, Ber-Ron, Inc, red number 50 car. He methodically moved into second place and chased down the Kruser, but only had one good look at a win when lap traffic came into play. He couldn’t make the pass because the hole closed up and the bottom wasn’t as fast as the top. He never settles, but it was his second runner-up in a row. He was the hard charger of the night with his 8th to 2nd run.

This will be the battle to watch all season as both the Kruser and the Demon are out to win plus beat each other and anyone else who gets in the way. We will see some classic action from the two reds cars from week to week as the season heats up. Damion now leads Cory by one point in the championship points race. Can it get any better?

Mat Neely came out from Indiana to run a brand new # 71G wing car of the Ishii Farms from the Fresno area, and did very well when he ran second in his heat and finished on the podium behind the two red cars. Mat is a nice and talented young driver who has impressed everywhere he runs. He is committed to his mid west racing, so won’t get back this way until late in the year.

With 57 cars out for the TV show being taped by the Outdoor channel to air on April 1st, it was a bustling pits early in the day as they all got settled in. In addition to Neely, USAC champion Levi Jones, Dave Darland, Josh Wise and Jesse Hockett also were in the house from afar since their racing hasn’t started yet. I was surprised some of the northern California heroes didn’t come down, but their season is getting underway soon, so they were busy.

There were plenty of other strong efforts put in by many as the season is now underway with few breaks in the series action from now on. Josh Ford came to play hard and was a force up front in the main. He finished fourth and had a good night in his strawberry car. There were three drivers besides Gardner who passed six cars this week.Mike Spencer started 11th and finished 5th. He won the semi to transfer after just missing from his heat. Mike Kirby came from 21st to 15th with a foggy visor bothering him late in the feature, and Dave Darland came up from 18th to 12th. Bobby Cody had a good night in the saddle of the Moosemobile. Driving Tom and Laurie Sertich’s number 92, he finished ninth with some wild blasts and will drive full time for them this season.

Glad to see the “blues brothers” Chargin’ Charles Davis Jr and Super Rickie Gaunt back in Tony Smiley’s blue cars. Rickie was sixth and Charlie tenth in the main event. Smiley’s Crane business is way too busy, but they plan to race as much as possible this season.

Randy Waitman had a hard end-over end crash reminiscent of the one he experienced several years ago at the PAS, and in the same corner of turn one. It looked nasty and it took a while to get him out of the car, partially because of the concern for his former injuries. He was transported for observation, but a possible broken wrist was reported the worst of it. Steve “hello my name is Steve O”, Ostling, also experienced a hard flip in turn one, but his was a result of another car who, as Steve said “stuffed me” and sent him flying. He was driving the # 19 Ford of Don Argo and the red car is now beat up. Steve is fine and said, “it happens”. He has plans to run the # 87 car this year, the one vacated by Tony Jones, but it isn’t ready yet. Speaking of Tony, the Cowboy is settling in just fine in the Alexander Trucking entry and hopes to put it in the winners circle soon. He was 7th and felt good about the outing, and promises better stuff soon. His struggles last year set records for futility and this change was good for him.

With so many cars, there were two 12 car Consi’s to start the night off with the top four in each going to the back of the heats. Jordan Hermansader and Nadine Keller had runaway victories, but both failed to make the main event. Jordan didn’t come out for the Semi after running 7th in his heat, while Nadine retired with no brakes in the semi. Rip Williams had problems in qualifying and had a very slow time as a result. He ran third in his Consi and transferred to the back of the third heat where he was a close fifth. In the semi he started last and spun out on the first lap, then came back to get 7th, one short of transferring. Prepared to take a provisional, Rip got a little luck when Seth Wilson had to drop out of the main, and presto Rip was on the back row. He finally finished this one in 20th position after running 58 laps of competition, more than anyone else.

Rookie of the year candidate Blake Miller made his third main event in a row for 2006. He looks good out there as he drives the team car of car owner, Nadine Keller’s # 16 entry. Former Wagsdash winner Alan Ballard is racing on a race by race schedule. If he has the money, he will race, but needs serious sponsorship to make the full series. Where is that In N Out deal he needs so much?

My favorite yellow car is gone as Mark Priestley changed his two team cars to black and blue. Don’t know if that was something he needed to do, or if he got tired of yellow, but the sharp and bright look will be missed by this wag. In the meantime, Johnny Rodriguez and Josh Wise drove the two entries this week with Wise 8th and Rodriguez 11th.

David Cardey has committed to the full CRA series this year in the “Tooth Doc” owned # 59. He won’t be running any more stock cars unless a good opportunity comes knockin’. He had some oil pressure problems in the main after winning his heat and pulled in early. Check out his new poster with the “wine me – dine me – 59 me” girls boldly posing with his car. You have to have one, so hit the pits next race and the girls and David will autograph it for you.

I had to apologize to Ronnie Case this week when I presented him with a trophy for his 2004 Wagsdash win. Somehow, with my funky one year plan that had the highest finishing Wagsdash competitor getting that $2500 win, he didn’t get a trophy. We fixed that and now he has one. He smiled and said thanks.

Even though it was very cold late in the night, the track was heavy and fast with some great action for the TV. The heats were fast and a little single fileish, but those that needed to pass, did. Cory had control pretty early with the Demon’s charge the excitement that made the ending more special. The next outing is at Manzanita and should be another barn burner.

The Wags retirement and relocation saga moves on to the next phase now. The last few months have been taken up with going to high school basketball games, and that has been a joy for me like normal. You don’t think 115 games is too much, do you? My three grandsons in Vegas play baseball, so I will be seeing a few of those this spring. One in little league, one in high school and the oldest in an adult league. More recently, I have been in Las Vegas during the week trolling for a “position”, but none has surfaced for me. If I don’t find something that does not include nights and weekends work, I will have to change from my long time Data Processing profile and become a Wal-Mart greeter. It may really be retirement for me, but I just know something fun and exciting is out there waiting for me, as I don’t really want to be retired yet! Back home in Mission Viejo, Mrs Wags still holds down her job, and “da da” Wagsland went into Escrow last week. We all know it’s not a sale until escrow closes, so we will await the outcome. Last month we shipped about half our worldly goods to our Las Vegas Hacienda, so now I will pack the rest up, and when the deed is transferred, we’ll finish the move. Terry already has had one job interview in Las Vegas and her profile fits in at most companies, so she will transition to a job there pretty easy, we hope. In the meantime my racing season began this weekend so I’ll be back on track there after almost three months off ignoring racing. I missed it and am glad I am racing again. Our commute from LV to the races will be a little lengthy at times, but I don’t intend to miss many races as I continue my retirement adventures.

Wagsbucks didn’t exactly explode off in my first attempt to resurrect it, but with some help from the track announcers, it should improve and grow in time, if it’s meant to be. It’s up to the fans if they want to support it, so I will just say I am ready to make it happen and await the results, so look for me now that I sit in the grandstands again.

My best goes out to Bruce and Pam Bromme Jr as both are having trying times right now. She is fighting cancer and he an Achilles tendon tear that was surgically repaired last week. Here’s praying both recover from their physical problems soon and get back to racing the good life.

And congrats to one of my favorite blondes and her future husband, if their wedding rumor I heard is true. It couldn’t happen to a nicer couple.

USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: March 4, 2006 – Perris, California, Perris Auto Speedway

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Damion Gardner, 50, Chaffin - 16.375, 2. Josh Wise, 7W, Rodriguez - 17.420, 3. Rickie Gaunt, 2a, Zoriki/Smiley- 16.599, 4. Johnny Rodriguez, 7, Rodriguez -16.658, 5. Rick Williams, 6, Williams- 16.675, 6. Mike Spencer, 44, Engstrom - 16.704, 7. Cory Kruseman, 38, Crossno - 16.775, 8. Josh Ford, 73, Ford - 16.876, 9. Dwayne Marcum, 12, Pratt- 16.915, 10. Tony Jones.

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Cory Kruseman, 2. Damion Gardner, 3. Matt Neeley, 4. Josh Ford, 5. Mike Spencer, 6. Rickie Gaunt, 7. Tony Jones, 8. Josh Wise, 9. Bobby Cody, 10. Charles Davis, Jr., 11. Johnny Rodriguez, 12. Dave Darland, 13. R. J. Johnson, 14. Danny Ebberts, 15. Mike Kirby, 16. Allan Ballard, 17. Danny Sheridan, 18. Rick Williams, 19. Jesse Hockett, 20. Rip Williams, 21. Blake Miller, 22. David Cardey- NT

USAC/CRA POINT STANDINGS: 1. Gardner-200, 2. Kruseman-199, 3. Spencer-155, 4. Sheridan-132, 5. Hockett-121, 6. Williams-97, 6. Kirby-97, 8. Ford-94 9. Tony Jones-89, 10. Cardey-85,