By Ken Wagner
March 17, 2008

Watching Jeremy Sherman come thru the pack at Manzy is pure poetry in motion. Too bad we didn’t see that this trip over there. Jeremy winning at Manzy is pretty normal as he won his 97th all time victory in sprints this past week as USAC/CRA barely came to town for one of their four appearances of 2008. Unfortunately only six teams from CRAland arrived and the resulting 22 car show was lackluster at best. Jeremy didn’t get to show off his passing abilities coming from somewhere in mid pack because he started up front. He could only use his lap car expertise as he rolled around to victory unchallenged for 28 laps, but not his fault. It was what one famous announcer once uttered “they are stringing them out nicely” and you know when it’s fast at Manzy, everyone is fast.

Mrs Wags pics click here. Wags pics Click here to see. Ellen Ellis adds these Click here to see.

Jeremy did what he does best and no one had anything for him after the smokey bandit left the track, as he roared from his front row starting spot to easily claim another win on his home track. End of story except when you find out he built the chassis himself and it was his second start, and second win in the Fred Bryan owned sprinter. It was his 11th all time win with CRA.

Perhaps the highlight for CRA was Blake Miller getting very close to the track record with an 18.348, just a tick off Levi Jones record of a few years back. It makes him second quick of all time here. Well, unless you were CRA regular RJ Johnson who chased the winner the whole race finishing in a strong second and that was a highlight. RJ also won the Midget main, a companion part of the show. There were about 10 midgets, so they ran three times, a heat race, a semi, and the 15 lap feature. RJ won his heat and the feature and was 2nd in the semi. Of course that’s all in jest as the small cars just ran twice before the main and were done quickly.

Mike Spencer played his cards well as he finished, grabbed third and pulled to within 5 points of point leader Cory Kruseman who stayed home in Ventura to run 360’s this week. Tyler Brown ran strong in the other Gardner car and was 4th for another good run by the young man.

Danny Sheridan was playing “smoky the bandit” this week as his motor smoked every time he hit the track from qualifying until he retired early in the main event after battling and leading Jeremy for two laps. I wonder what would have happened if the smoke had cleared? The reported story was a leaking oil pan, but the crew couldn’t get it to stop even though they had several chances to fix it. He looked very fast!

So something’s up in CRAland ehh as few traveled, probably the least ever? Economy, little teams out of money, big teams out of money, perhaps some in fighting, high cost of diesel, racing fuel, motel rooms, racing parts and so on, unhappiness with USAC, too many two day shows so early, or could it be what some so called experts concluded a long time ago, the 410’s are dead in California? NARC is gone up north and 360’s thrive up there. They also are doing OK down south, but I don’t think 410’s are dead, just money and sponsors, same thing, are slowing down like the house market. It will bounce back, but in the meantime Perris will have the most CRA cars until the next tax rebate comes????????? Don’t worry, I don’t have a clue like most of you and only hope that we can fix what’s wrong and get back to what we love best, 410 sprint car racing in California. It would be nice if you fans would go to the races and support your favorites, it might make a difference!

Manzy’s new look continues as the concession area has been totally redone to look like a 50’s drive-inn. The trees in the infield that blocked some of the backstretch are gone. The parking lot is not muddy any more. The hand rails are marvelous for some older fans. The look is good and more is coming, but so far they have spent well into six figures making things better, not the least of which is a new sturdier higher safety fence. That part does eliminate any pictures from the grandstand by me because the pattern of the fencing doesn’t allow anything near clear shots and it is so high the infield is off limits now as well. No complaints from me as safety is more important than what I might capture from up there.

Question of the week: What is the reason for the big screen TV on the side of the USAC trailer? Since there is no PC to run it, can we please get the ballgames on it?

Our pit walk was way better this trip without our trusty Mule because we got a ride in with Gail Davis and out with the Massey’s, eliminating the muddy grind a walk would have. Thank you! It was very pleasant weather and easy to see the cars unloading. Fun at the Ellis Hacienda continued as our three dogs, Dubya, Dusty and Scooter, got a road trip and had fun with their two, Max and Pepper. The drive home was interesting as the morning was chilly and as soon as we hit highway 40 and headed towards Kingman, the snow started wickedly? It was so big, what was big, the snowflakes! They were really large and the landscape quickly became white around us. We took the Laughlin cutoff and soon it was sunny again. I thought briefly it would be interesting to get snowed in at Kingman, but I forged on like normal and we got home to a cool Las Vegas and the NCAA bracket show on TV. I will be in Anaheim to watch my Bruins this coming week. If they can make it to Phoenix next weekend, that would be nice!

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Jeremy Sherman, 2. R.J. Johnson, 3. Mike Spencer, 4. Tyler Brown, 5. Jesse Hockett, 6. Casey Shuman, 7. Blake Miller, 8. Nic Faas, 9. Garrett Hansen, 10. Thomas Ogle, 11. Nathan High, 12. Kyle Wissmiller, 13. Andrew Reinbold, 14. Keith Williamson, 15. Levi Jones, 16. Mike Leslie, 17. Rickie Gaunt, 18. Chad Boat, 19. Rick Ziehl, 20. Bernie Smith, 21. Charles Davis Jr., 22. Danny Sheridan. NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-2 Sheridan, Laps 3-30 Sherman.

NEW USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1-Cory Kruseman-360; 2-Spencer-355; 3-L.Jones-350; 4-Miller-335; 5-Hansen-315; 6-Sheridan-294; 7-Hockett-292; 8-Brown-270; 9-Cole Whitt-244; 10-Josh Ford-207.

NEXT USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR RACE: March 29 - Perris (CA) Auto Speedway