KAWASAKI NEWS ON TAP – STAY TUNED FOR RETIREMENT NEWS!

Phoenix was it’s usual heated up playground for this time of year as The Kruser flew in to play in the Manzanita sandbox this week. The night before in Memphis, Tennessee he ran 2nd at the USAC event where Josh Wise won! Over 100 degree temperatures greeted the CRA regulars when they pulled into the pits, and under cooler skies later, the part time driver for the Alexander Trucking car snuck into town and rode away with his second victory of the year for the team.

Mrs Wags weekly panorama of speed and beauty as she see’s it is here!

Driving the La Villa Restaurant, Agromin, Stinger, silver # 4, Cory Kruseman leason’d the boys pretty good this weekend. He flew in to set fast time at 19.485 and started at the back of his heat. He used patience and cunning to pass local favorite Jeremy Sherman and Super Rickie Gaunt for the last transfer spot to the main. He started 8th on the grid in the main and methodically picked his way thru the field until he pulled into 2nd with ten laps to go. A lap 20 crash by Super Rickie brought out a red flag, and Cory jumped out of his car on the front straight and began to help his crew. The right rear had a slow leak, so they changed the bleeder and aired it up 3 lbs past where they wanted it to be, and wished for the best. It only took two laps after the restart to get by leader Mike Kirby and Cory was off to the winners circle easily with his improved and faster car. Cory loves this car and is thankful he can jump in it occasionally when on hiatus from his Tony Stewart owned # 21 Mopar car. After the races he left immediately for his home in Ventura so he could teach at his sprint car school in the morning. He will be driving for the Alexander’s again next Saturday at Tulare before he has to fly back to Indiana for the next USAC race. The teams other car, driven by Jordan Hermansader, was home with a broken motor. They broke a camshaft two weeks ago and are waiting for their busy engine builder to turn it around to get Jordan back on the track.

Mike Kirby was pretty awesome himself this week as he won his heat and started on the 2nd row of the 30-lap main event. He chased down early leader Rip Williams, passed him and looked like he was home free until the red flag came out. On that last restart, it was obvious Cory’s team made his car faster than before, but Mike didn’t give up and chased him to the finish line, a very close second in his ITI Performance, Sander Engineering, Snap On # 39 bullet. It pulled him to within 28 points of the point leader, like who’s counting this early, and in 2nd place in the standings.

The Fischer Motorsports team stayed home this week, but their driver, Steve Ostling showed up in Harlan Willis, Weld Wheels, # 45 TCR this week. Steve was driving it for the 2nd time and looked pretty good in the stout car. He was 3rd in his heat and 2nd quick, so started in the fourth row next to the winner. He ended up in third and was moving up at the end. He will be driving Buzz Shoemaker’s car at Perris next week while Bud Kaeding will be wheeling the Willis car at Tulare.

The “aw shucks” group this week was led by the same Manzy hard luck guy, Tony Jones. On the opening lap of his heat, he got into the third turn corner too hot and banged into Bobby Cody, then proceeded to flip up and into Bob Ream Jr, then on up high to hit the top of the fence and come slamming down, landing upside down on the track. The fence was bent over and his car is officially trash as he killed the Frankenstein monster they worked hard to put together a few weeks ago. He wasn’t hurt, but luckily they have a brand new car in the garage at home. Perhaps their luck will finally change with the new chassis. Bob Ream reported some broken chassis pieces and he was done after looking pretty fast earlier.

Rip Williams was the early leader, but ended up cutting a tire down while running 2nd later in the race and restarted at the back. He then came up to 8th for a good save here for the point leader. He too has little luck on the big Manzy half mile. The Super Rickie crash was the result of a chain reaction as someone checked up and suddenly too many cars in the top groove around turn one going into two. When Rickie got it into the air and flipping, he somehow put a wheel inside the Damion Gardner cockpit and whacked the Demon on the arm. The steering wheel on the red # 50 had to be replaced and the rock guard taped down, but from here on the car was hard to drive as the rock guard was pressed up against Damion’s arm, this making racing secondary and finishing primary. He finished 11th holding on to the end. Rickie was credited with 18th. Rick Zeihl got sucked into the exposed Gaunt car on the track as he came upon scene with no place to go and whacked the blue car pretty hard, His Ben Lancaster owned mount was done for the night. Bruce St James had a horrible night as he never got the car up to speed and competitive, pulling off in his heat and the semi.

There were some positive sides to the weekend for some folks, beginning with the Troy Rutherford team. Last week, you might remember, Troy crashed pretty hard and bent up the # 7 seriously. Mark Priestly and his team spent a lot of hours rebuilding the car during the week and were rewarded with a 5th place finish. The Venard Family sprinter had a good outing this week. Brian Venard was on fast time for the longest time until several cars did better as the track got faster late. He made several great moves in his heat to get 4th and a transfer, only to get passed at the line for a visit into the Semi. He won that going away from Gaunt and Sherman! He finished 9th for another good ride and “roll it on the trailer” experience.

With most of the heroes in one house this weekend for a change, the fans got a dose of what it should be like, if there had been no split, it was great! The top two SCRA runners, Gaunt and Charles Davis Jr, came to play hard with the USAC regulars. Although those two have only run the USAC races at Manzy, they have done well there. Charlie was 4th this race after Rickie crashed as they battled the USAC/CRA top stars very well. With the 5 hour drive home from the Ellis Hacienda, I confined my mind to life and the big picture, thus solving all of racings problems. Now if my lotto ticket only hits the big jackpot, I can make everything perfect.

As for my unexpected retirement I have hinted at recently, and keeping in mind I had fully intended to work until 65, here is the scoop. After almost 28 years at Kawasaski, the company is reorganizing, and have made me an offer I can’t refuse, early retirement with a nice package. The final details are not complete, but it looks like Mrs Wags and I have to get busy and figure out what to do with this new found time on our hands and how to plan our golden years while we still have our health. At this point, I expect some immediate changes in our lifestyle, and in my Wagtimes world, as I will be retired at Kawasaki by my 62nd birthday in two weeks. I might have to go back into the job market, and I don’t know at this time if I will be looking for another job in my field of Data Processing or looking for something more fun like a job in racing! It will take some time to sort out as we begin to look to make retirement in Las Vegas, where we already have family, a reality within the next few years. We will be announcing any planned changes, if appropriate, but in the meantime, racing is still number one in our fun time and we will work hard to keep it that way.

I am so sad to announce the loss of another Wagtimer as Jan Fargo, wife of Manzy photographer Jim Fargo, lost her 5 year battle with cancer this past week. Jan’s service is set for Tuesday night at 7 PM at Paradise Memorial Chapel, 3934 E. Indian School Road in Phoenix, AZ. Cards of condolence can go to: Jim Fargo, 3539 E Medlock, Phoenix, AZ 80518-1516. She was a fighter and will be missed by those close to her.

I am looking forward to finally going to a race at Tulare, so Happy Mothers Day to all of you and to all, a good night.

FEATURE: (30 laps)
1. Cory Kruseman, 2. Mike Kirby, 3. Steve Ostling, 4. Charles Davis Jr., 5. Troy Rutherford, 6. Jeremy Sherman, 7. Eric Wilkins, 8. Rip Williams, 9. Brian Venard, 10. Mike Spencer, 11. Damion Gardner, 12. Bobby Cody, 13. Josh Ford, 14. Greg Bragg, 15. Jeff Slinkard, 16. Matt Rossi, 17. David Cardey, 18. Ricky Gaunt, 19. Rick Ziehl, 20. Mike Leslie. NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-7 Williams, Laps 8-22 Kirby, Laps 23-30 Kruseman.

NEW USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-Williams-458; 2-Kirby-432; 3-Gardner-423; 4-Rutherford-412; 5-Kruseman-313; 6-Sherman-284;7-Tony Jones-268; 8-Bragg-248; 9-B.Venard-242; 10-Ostling-208.

NEXT USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR RACE: May 22 – Ventura (CA) Raceway.