By Ken Wagner
May 13, 2006

On a full moon night the color yellow came up strong as Mike Kirby and his hard working crew finally hit the elusive much wanted jackpot, pulling out their first win together since the team was formed last September. Mike was the first car out to qualify in the early soup and was 21st fast timer. First on the track and first in the winners circle for the LA PREP # 96 was just fine for the happy winner who stated “Thanks to my guys for all the hard work, as we struggle all year”, as he gushed in the winners circle after the big 40 lap win.

My pics are here Click here.

Driving the Jim Kirby owned Statewide Towing, Communications Innovations, RC Performance, brand new Ellis chassied car, Mike was the “old Mike” as he methodically moved thru traffic until he got the lead and was his cagey self in winning his second Sokola Classic in a row. The team has switched from the TCR coil over style to the new Ellis 4 bar car and things are looking up. It was his 11th USAC/CRA and 61st lifetime win, and now he is just two now behind Bob Hogle on the all time list lead by Dean Thompson' 103.

Super Rickie Gaunt was just that as he started 10th and swept up to fight Danny Sheridan for the right to go get Kirby, and then was all over the eventual winner until the very end of the 40 lap race. Driving Tony Smiley’s, Smiley Crane, David Zoriki Motorsports # 2A, Rickie was 5th quick and won the Semi after missing the transfer in his heat, and had a good look at his second win of the year. Rickie is making the blue car fly these days.

Tony Jones has a big smile on his face these days driving for the Alexander Trucking crew. The Cowboy is having fun again, finishing races and running up front more often than not. He drives the La Villa Restaurant, Communications Innovations, silver # 4 and from the looks of things, should be ringing the bell on the top of the podium soon. He still has that charisma and should be going off in the winners circle like old times very soon.

Danny Sheridan continues to run wheel to wheel with the big boys and is working his way towards his first big win. He and Rickie put on a classic battle with neither giving an inch until Rickie finally got by for good. Danny is ready every week and after his outstanding performance this race, he was a little disappointed, but fear not, he is here to stay.

The new point leader Damion Gardner didn’t exactly have a great night, even after finishing 6th in the main. It started out normally with his 8th of 9 fast times and he moved to third in his heat to transfer to the main and his normal 8th starting spot. On the 2nd lap, he got into someone and beat up his front end when all you know what broke loose. During the red flag stop, his crew led by Bruce Bromme Jr, rebuilt it quickly, but couldn’t do anything about the cracked front chassis piece. They had to add coil over’s, replacing the standard shocks, and he went out to do his best with less than usual. That turned out to be 6th on a great drive without his usual well set-up car.

When the feature started, they got in a lap before disaster struck. Blake Miller and Mike Spencer were going hot and heavy at it for the lead that Blake held at the time. I missed the contact, but when they slowed, the accordion back-up began. There were several pockets of trouble, not the least was Cory Kruseman’s crash. He, Rip Williams, Spencer and Chad Boespflug did not return with various crash related maladies. Cory had already suffered from a heat race incident that forced a motor change and some major repairs to the car. They missed the semi, choosing to take a provisional in the main and that didn’t work out well at all when he was officially scored 23rd.

David Cardey had a great night when he qualified 12th, ran 2nd in his heat and started 3rd on the Main Event grid. He snagged fifth with some great driving and will be knocking on the door soon. Two rookies had their best nights as Jonny Bates and Matt Stewart both made the main event for the first time. Jonny “B” was smooth in his third outing in a 410 and drove the former Fischer Motorsports # 29 like he was used to it. Matt made the family happy with his night.

I have a few 2006 calendar left.

My famous friend George from England sends along the following info. His countryman Murray Harison will be at Manzy the next two weeks to run on the big oval. He's going to be running the Ed Masseth owned 360 sprinter that was formerly driven by Josh Pelkey. The car has been prepped and shaken down by Josh in readiness for Murray's arrival, and it even has the Englishman's name on the side already!!

George says Murray is a great driver, and one of the real top guns over there. He won the BriSCA F1 Stockcar World and European Championship's in 1999 and followed this with a third place the following year. He actually won the European Championship racing against a stellar field of top F1 oval races from across the UK and Europe. This was achieved with none other than legendary American owner / mechanic Lou Cicconi Senior as his crew chief!!

In addition to being a very successful UK oval competitor, Murray is also a well traveled international racer who has also competed in the USA running a big block DIRT Modified in Delaware with Mike Isles. He has run extensively in mainland Europe (Holland etc), and also in New Zealand where he did very well. However, he's always wanted to race a U.S. sprint car and this trip sees the realization of his racing career ambition to date. "It's a dream come true'' is how he described the opportunity in a recent magazine article here. ''Hopefully I can acquit myself well, but my main hopes are to qualify for the feature races - anything above that will be a bonus''. He's also a very well respected car builder and engineer too, and turns out some really fantastic cars, for both dirt and tarmac racing. One piece of interesting 'trivia' is that last year he constructed the wheels for the latest Batmobile used in the most recent Batman film!! This race in Arizona has come about via one of his ex - crew members who now lives in Phoenix - the guy made the arrangements with Josh Pelkey. Josh has raced in England twice now and made a really great impression with the UK and European oval race fans. Murray assisted him with some valuable driver tuition and provided a car for practice on his last racing trip here in 2004. Head to Manzy a check him out this weekend, I will.

I’ll look for everyone this weekend as I head from the heat of Vegas to the same in Phoenix. Whatever.

NEW USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR POINT STANDINGS: 1-Gardner-561; 2-Kruseman-530; 3-Sheridan-433; 4-Gaunt-412; 5-Jones-403; 6-Spencer-387; 7-Davis-372; 8-Cardey-340; 9-Kirby-332; 10-Ford-331. FEATURE: (40 laps) 1. Mike Kirby, 2. Rickie Gaunt, 3. Tony Jones, 4. Danny Sheridan, 5. David Cardey, 6. Damion Gardner, 7. Johnny Rodriguez, 8. Alan Ballard, 9. Evan Suggs, 10. Seth Wilson