By Ken Wagner
May 10, 2008

There is always a rule when you go to Perris at night, bring a jacket! The warm day time weather fooled many to leave their jackets in the car on a night that the breezes sent them scurrying for warm cover as the night unfolded. And on this night the talented CRA field was overwhelmed by Danny “Showtime” Sheridan. Danny made the Kittle Kar look like a blue blur as he started 13th in the 23 car main event field and quickly worked his way towards the front as he was the fastest car on the track. A red flag bucket loading experience allowed crew chiefs to adjust before the last few laps were run. Now with Danny following David Cardey and the leader Garrett Hansen on the restart, Showtime lived up to his nickname by putting a very slick “Showtime Slider” on both cars in front of him and pulled away to a rousing win.

Wags pics Click here. Doug Allen's good stuff click here.

It was Danny’s 5th CRA win and second this season as he made up for a 5th place heat race finish, that was helped with someone else’s slider, with a runaway Semi win with him no doubt a little hot under the collar. Perhaps that quick 12 laps on the track was telling for the crew to make the Kittle Kar ready for the main, and they sure did. Danny will be spending Mother’s day at Disneyland!! Hardly!

DynOmite David Cardey put on a show of his own this week as he chased down the early leader Hansen in spite of some unusual hopping moves thru the 1st turn corner many times around oval laps. Nevertheless, he still was third when Danny went by and so he took his own move into second for a great finish. He looks like he is about to spring for another win for himself, and soon.

Garrett Hansen looked like he had his second win of his young career until Danny got by late in the race, but he was sharp as he lead 19 laps after getting by early leader Alex Schutte on lap 8. Driving his own car again this week, the Mark Priestley led crew got the #7 car flying and he is showing off some heady driving. The nice thing about youth is when they mature, hang on and watch.

As always there were some neat stuff behind the scenes of this race. Austin Williams is still running second fiddle to his brother Cody and you can see he is “very anxious” to get in one of these 410’s of his own! He busied himself by catching a yard long garden snake in the pits and showed it around early in the afternoon. He plays football at Eldorado High School in Orange County and drives a Focus midget when time permits.

The Ron Chaffin race team showed up with a new tall trailer this week and inside was very nice with red the accent color on the cabinets. The new truck will be along soon, but they sold the old trailer to someone who owns an old Bromme car. Hmmm, the car should be right at home in that trailer.

Hard luck this week jumped on many and started with Tony Everhart who never got his car out racing. Henry Clarke had one of those maddening moments when he crashed going down the back stretch in the main event and got his # 41 KDK, Kruseman Development Kar, hung up on the top cable of the catch fence on the third turn wall. The bucket loader came in handy as they pulled it off the cable and delivered it to the Kruseman pit. Cory Kruseman had a rear-end break while he was trying to move up in the main, and he was done early, but still leads Mike Spencer in the points by 22. Mike finished 5th in the little red sucker.

Brian Venard returned to the dirt wars in the green # 12 this week and made the main, but it went downhill from there as he lost power in the green machine and got hit from behind, The fuel cell ruptured upon impact and spew fuel down the back stretch. He was the first car out. The car owner, Don Blair, has been having some health issues and is unable to get on his feet to go racing, but hopefully time will heal him and get him back out there soon.

Tod Hunsaker had perhaps his best outing happening this week as he was very racy in his heat and looked good early in the main, until ………. the motor took a dump! Too bad Wagsbucks isn’t still happening weekly because there were many possible hard lucker’s this week. The Ralphie section at Perris is collecting money for the first car that misses the main from the semi. Hmmmmm, sounds familiar, doesn’t it? That was exactly the way the Wagsbucks started some nearly 20 years ago. Good going Ralphie, they need the help.

Josh Ford looked very racy this week and was pressing the leader, when IT happened. His car got over the cushion and popped straight at the first turn wall, where he whacked it, got upside down and was done for the night after returning in the semi and missing the transfer. I didn’t see it, but J J Ercsegot on his head in his heat and the red # 84 car was done!

On the positive side, Tony Jones ran a strong 4th this week just ahead of Seth Wilson who got his highest finish in a while, a fifth place run. It must be the black car. The War Wagon must be gone with the black wagon replacing it. Cody Williams is starting to get some strong followings in the stands. This week he was running fifth in his heat when he made one of his dad’s moves, a low charge into turn one, and sliding up into the last transfer to the main where he ran 15th. Eric Severson is wringing out the Lee Leonard owned # 48. This car has been around a while and was last driven by Bobby Michnowicz according to my recollection. He ran fourth in his heat and 16th in the main event. Alex Schutte flirted with the win for 7 laps before he gave it up this week, looking strong running up front.

Next race is two weeks away at the PAS followed by Tulare the next night. In the meantime, who knows where I’ll be, maybe home reading a book.

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Danny Sheridan, 2. David Cardey, 3. Garrett Hansen, 4. Tony Jones, 5. Seth Wilson, 6. Mike Spencer, 7. Blake Miller, 8. Shane Golobic, 9. Alan Ballard, 10. Rodney Argo, 11. Tyler Brown, 12. Alex Schutte, 13. Davey Pombo, 14. J Hicks, 15. Cody Williams, 16. Eric Severson, 17. Luis Espinoza, 18. Jordan Hermansader, 19. Royal Adderson, 20. Henry Clarke, 21. Cory Kruseman, 22. Todd Hunsaker, 23. Brian Venard. NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-7 Schutte, Laps 8-26 Hansen, Laps 27-30 Sheridan.

NEW USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1-Kruseman-591; 2-Spencer-569; 3-Miller-522; 4-Hansen-496; 5-Sheridan-493; 6-Brown-393; 7-Levi Jones-350; 8-Tony Jones-349; 9-Cardey-319; 10-Ford-308.

NEXT USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR RACE: May 24 – Perris (CA) Auto Speedway