DAVID CARDEY PASES THE LEADER TWICE TO WIN LIGHTNING SPRINT MAIN.

On a night that Perris had four divisions running, Ronnie Case used his CRA experience to tame the well prepared dirt oval and come from 14th starting spot to sweep by former champ, Jimmy Crawford and win going away. The 360 VRA Main was worth waiting for as 22 cars, of the 33 who came to play, hustled for their space in the race. David Cardey, current CRA rookie points leader, won the winged lightning sprint main and had to pass the leader twice to do it!

Mrs Wags pit walk was fun. Click here to see!

With all the “hot” things going on in the LA area this week, Lakers cramming San Antonio back to Texas, NASCAR on TV on Saturday night (bad for local racing), SCRA at Tulare, and much, much more, I chose a late afternoon trip to Perris and was not sorry. The expected heat wasn’t there as cool breezes made it fun in the pits without the Mule, drat as it was too late to go get it, and we spent the afternoon meeting new drivers and having fun with them.

Ronnie Case drove his own # 8, dayglow orange sprinter very well all night. Without qualifying, the VRA racers pick a pill and are lined up in the heats by that number, as if they had qualified. Ronnie must have got a low number as he started on the back row of his heat and powered up to 4th in the ten lap event to transfer. In the feature, he started 14th and found the high groove to his liking and used it to work his way patiently towards the front. The last ten laps were entertaining as he joined the top three, who were very busy with each other, and blew by them for a convincing win!

Jimmy “Neutron” Crawford has been running his Twister West # 18 with the CRA all season and had no luck at all. He finally destroyed that car a few weeks ago at Perris and received the Wagsbucks that night getting him the first invite into the Wagsdash later in the year. He arrived tonight with a brand new red # 30 car this week and things went very OK. He started 6th in this heat and finished 2nd before starting the main and immediately chasing early leader Danny Ebberts and making a monster slide job for the lead and finishing 2nd on the night to the Rockets charge at the end. He was later DQ’d when he didn’t go to tech after the race?

Will “the Thrill” Perkins has retired, again, after a bad crash last week. This leaves his dad, Bill, without a driver, but not for long. A familiar name in the midget ranks, Danny Ebberts, was ready to step in, and did he ever. Danny also has a Silver Crown ride this year, but was anxious to get started in his first sprinter adventure when we met him early in the day. Danny won his heat from the pole, and started on the front row of the main event with Neutron Crawford. He beat Jimmy to the corner, but surrendered the lead for the first lap lead. He then fought back and took the lead and held it until Crawford made that wild slider. Danny ended up 4th, but moved up a spot with Crawford’s troubles, after getting shuffled in traffic by Steve Ostling, but still ran a great race for his first time ever!

Buzz Shoemaker has had a number of drivers in his car this season. When Steve Ostling arrived to shoe the # 0 this week, he brought his own steering wheel. How did I know it was special with one less spoke and had gripping power that matches his gloves like Velcro works, can you believe it? He started on the 2nd row of his heat and won pretty easily and then came charging thru the field to get on the podium in third, now second.

I met Mike Whitcomb and Steve Hess during the afternoon. Mike was driving his own car # 84 and Steve was helping him because he crashed his car two weeks ago and was building a new Stinger and would be back out soon. Two young guys having fun racing. Jay Ervine from Las Vegas was driving for car owner Jim Tuttle from Phoenix. These two use to race against each other and now are teamed up. The # 21 is a pretty car with flames.

Super Rickie Gaunt continues to whip up on the SCRA competitors as he won his third feature of the season, this time at Tulare’s Thunderbowl, and continues to lead the points. Damion Gardner set fast time and led twice, but settled for third while the “Extreme Team” of Gaunt and Charles Davis Jr. are taking charge together as they finished one/two for the 2nd time this season. All 22 cars that showed up made the feature. Check the SCRA web page for further details.

Under the friends winning elsewhere column, Richard Harvey Jr won at Santa Maria last week and RJ Johnson won at Manzy over the weekend. This coming week we travel to the best little dirt track in America, Ventura Raceway, and the little bowl always features plenty of excitement. Get aboard, the speed and beauty train is leaving the station!

A FEATURE (40 Laps)
1. Gaunt, 2. Davis, 3. Gardner, 4. Kaeding, 5. Spencer, 6. Sweet, 7. Ziehl, 8. Wilson, 9. Altaffer, 10. Sheridan, 11. Ballard, 12. Martin, 13. Shuman, 14. Nation, 15. Chaney, 16. Thompson, 17. Sweeney, 18. Clark, 19. Marcum, 20. Kruseman, 21. Verville, 22. Ellertson - No Time.

Laps Led: Spencer 1-10, Gardner 11-13, Gaunt 14, Gardner 15-28, Gaunt 29-40