By Ken Wagner
July 21, 2008

There is always the reality of surprise at a sprint car race that adds to the excitement of what’s next each week and each race. But, this week I was not surprised when an aggressive battle for 2nd place between Danny Sheridan and Garrett Hanson ended with “Showtime” upside down against the fence in turn one and Garrett going on for the win. It could have been the other way, but it was surely brewing.

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To say there was some bad blood between these two in the past would be redundant. This week when Sheridan tried to go under Garrett, after several attempts to drive up around him, he came low around turn four and slipped beside him headed towards turn one, when disaster struck.. As low as the Blue Bugger was on the track going down the front stretch, it couldn’t avoid the “yellow Storm” moving down on him to try and cut him off and ultimately Danny got bounced in the air when contact was made. Danny was furious as his car was wreckered off and he was done for the night. When interviewed in victory circle Garrett didn’t know what Chris Holt was talking about, contact in turn one?

Perhaps it was just racing, but when Garrett moved left into Danny’s space, putting his left rear right into the battle bars, there was no place for the blue bugger to go but up and over the yellow cars left rear wheel. Danny was in no man’s land and had no place to put his car to avoid the outcome. He narrowly missed taking Hansen into the fence with him. Will Danny give him any room the next time they have an encounter? You figure it out.

Blake Miller ran a really smart race taking the lead on lap 3 and running 25 laps with no trouble as he kept his lead stretched out until a red flag flew with three laps to go. Blake couldn’t hold off the determined Hanson and finished 2nd on the night. Blake was 12th quick, ran second in his heat and started on the front row with Seth Wilson.

Tony Jones lamented early in the day it had been a long time since his last win last year as his crew put the finishing touches on a brand new car for him. He had high hopes for this new car as his crew still works just as hard as they did last year when he was the Champion. He was 3rd quick, ran 4th in his heat to start 7th on the main event grid. He moved up smartly breaking in the new silver bullet and made the podium with a strong charge. Look for him to break that drought soon.

There was a slight soft spot in the 2nd turn cushion, if you can call it that, and many who got into it on their way to the back stretch had to slow down to rein in their mount before getting back on the gas. The one most hurt was David Cardey who had come from the 15th starting position to claim third on some great driving. He caught it just enough to get himself way sideways and up against the wall. A small tipover ensued with only three laps to go and he was still coming. Earlier in his heat he had impressed with a great charge around turn two between two cars he had been following and emerged leading and winning that heat. I didn’t know there was that much room back there!

Greg Bragg returned to the cockpit of the Moosemobile this week as it looks like he will drive the car from now on. He won his heat and started 16th in the main. He raced up to 9th for the hard charger award for the second week in a row. Looks like he is enjoying himself in this car, even though it’s at least a 4 hour trip from home for him.

The track was good even after some heat and wind and with a lot of stormy weather in the area during the week. Although the track record wasn’t threatened, there was plenty of racing room for all. When the full moon popped up over the mountain behind the scoreboard, I knew some weird stuff would happen this night. During intermission Danny Sheridan received the Dean Thompson Award given to a driver who can sweep the night with fast time, a heat win and the feature win. Damion Gardner was the last one to do it a few years ago. The feature was done at 10 pm and I was home in bed by two for a change. Mrs Wags arrived home from Oklahoma in the morning so now that it is three weeks until the next race she can get her traveling duds on. By the way, the August 9th race at the PAS has been cancelled.

Thank you to many who greeted me with cash and some auction items this week. We are now up to nearly $2500 in the Wagsdash purse so far, but a long way to go! I will be at Santa Maria, Perris and Calistoga for some of you who have more to give before the September 6th race day, but you can still send it to me now. You’ll love the new Wagsdash T-shirt, we try to make them unique you know, so get your name or business on it. For the first time in history a Wagtimer, Braden Wasson, is doing the artwork! He has done many other hot shirts like ones for Bob Ream JR and Danny Sheridan so his talent is nothing new and we are all excited. I’ll have calendars with me at the next race so come see me!

Did you ever notice John Beckett of the Red sox looks like David Cardey? Whatever, but with a few weeks off, I will concentrate on calling some of those who I didn’t have time to talk with about the Wagsdash. If you are planning on playing golf in the Wagsdash classic, get your sheets in so we can work out the foursomes. If you have one already, fine! It’s possible there will be a Wags sighting at Santa Maria for the Slam event this Saturday, but don’t expect anything in this changing world of ours, I might be watching the summer high school basketball classic featuring about 1000 teams.