By Ken Wagner
July 4, 2008

The annual July 4th race at the PAS is traditional with major fireworks filling the sky like usual and much, much more this year. The very warm desert track was well prepared as the crowd came to see two shows while our American flags flew and so didShowtime Danny Sheridan. It was a marvelous day!

My pics are here Click here. And more Click here. Doug Allen's Pics Click here.

Danny Sheridan is still opening some eyes as he storms the track every week. How does fast time sound with the only 16 second qualifying lap of the 36 cars to start it off? Then follow that by a win from the back of his heat and a stunning banzai from 8th to first in the 30 lap main event later in the night, as he ran away with this one! A sweep is always celebrated with the Dean Thompson Award going to a dominating driver and Showtime was on fire for the Firecracker 30! He is the first to get the award since the Demon Damion Gardener did it in August of 2006. Get the broom out!!!

Driving the Kittle Motorsports # 18, Showtime was on his game this week as he shuffled thru six cars in front of him at the start before he came to the leader, Mike Spencer who had taken the lead on lap 13. After a yellow flag stop on lap 19, Danny drove the little blue bugger past the little red sucker on the restart and pulled away to a big lead on his way to his 3rd win of the season. Nobody had anything for Showtime this week as he inched closer to point leader Spencer in the race. Traveling with the team this weekend gave me something that was really special. I got to go racing with a team in their hauler and they won, cool! Now back to Wagtimes reality.

Mike Spencer was 6th quick on the night and ran second in his heat before starting 3rd in the main event. Mike chased down Rip Williams and Alan Ballard early on and looked like he would get his 2nd win of the year as he pulled away during the mid part of the race. After the little blue bugger blew by, he easily held on to 2nd and is still in great position to win his first championship this year. Mike is very quiet and lets his driving speak for him.

I love successes and this week, Alan Ballard drove the green # 75 of Ray Stansberry to a podium finish in third and set off the biggest celebration by the car owner we have seen in a while. Ray was a bit happy after this one. Alan has been in this car for several races and he did a great job this week. Alan, a two time Wagsdash champion, just wants to race and have fun. If this keeps up, we’ll have to get a Ray some calm down potions.

In an unusual format, the fireworks went off exactly at 9 PM and went wild for 18 minutes of the usual aerial color blasts. The feature went off as soon as the lights came back to full bright about 9:30. I spent the entire night of racing at the K-rail in turn four and it is very hard to explain the feelings I enjoyed being so close to the action for the first time. First off, I noticed when they were under full power, you could hear the ghost sound of the motors well before they visually came around turn three to where I was. The awesome sound preceded the cars and sent chills thru my body. The mighty roar seems to roll around the billboards ahead of the cars like a wild whisper in the air. When they actually slid around in front of me with the full bore exhaust roaring, the feeling of power hit me full on in the chest and rumbled my senses. It was a new sensation for me standing there with my camera at the ready and trying to watch the race, capture something significant on digital and still be aware of the nearness to this thunder and lightning show on dirt. Unreal, and I loved it. Now I have a small sense of what the real photographers go thru and perhaps feel, as they do their job. I’ll have to get the tape from Jeff Kristensen of Raceway Video, because I couldn’t get a feel for the race like normal when I sit in the grandstands, and I want to see this sweep from another view. It was hard to keep the full awareness of the race like when I can see the whole track, but I enjoyed it enough I might want to do it again.

Garrett Hansen drove a brand new Mark Priestley beauty this race, this one a four bar car more like Garrett’s own car instead of the coil over version. They had a good night as Garrett was 2nd quick, fourth in his heat and started 7th in the main event. He came on late to get 4th. Blake Miller started and finished 6th as he went up and down the list until the end, Tony Jones was a close as 3rd and as far away as 9th before finishing 7th in the end as he had his hands full with the competition around him.

Greg Bragg came south to strap in the Moosemobile this week. He timed 19th getting use to the car, but ran 2nd in his heat and started 18th in the main. He was the hard charger coming up to 8th making the Mooseworld happy. Seth Wilson made a fairly rare appearance at Perris and came from 20th to 11th for a good run as well.

Rip Williams returned to the track for the first time since he was injured early in the year. While he was gone his son Cody has been keeping his seat warm and doing a very good job of it. Well, Rip was very anxious to get back at it, and racing with his son was also a good thing. Rip didn’t look rusty as he was 4th quick and third in his heat. He took the lead for two laps and then dropped out with a problem. Cody, running a Jory car # 44, continues to impress and finished ahead of his dad, this time.

I had a second race on my schedule this week as I went to Santa Maria Saturday with the Kittle team to watch Danny Sheridan try to double up in a 360 up there. He was very fast and qualified for the pole in the main. Unfortunately, when he fired for the 30 lapper, methanol came gushing out of the fuel line and got him wet in the seat. The little gizmo that had the “pill” or “jet” that controls the flow of fuel came loose and had to be reseated before retuning to the track at the back. In three laps he was up to about 12th, but a restart happened and not long after he bumped the wall, bending the Jacob’s ladder, ruining the right rear wheel, and flattening the tire. To the back again he went and he managed to get back up to about 8th thru the wild traffic! Hell of a show without winning! Luv that weather up there, it was a shame to go home to 110 degrees the next day!

Jack Gardner Jr put his usual bike up for the weekly kids drawing and added some $3000 cash to the purse this week as he continues to support our racing with his pocketbook as well as his race cars. He took the Gardner Motorsports team of three cars to Victorville on Saturday and it might surprise you to hear Ronnie Gardner ran 10th in the main event in Nadine’s # 16 car. Yes, 20 year old Ronnie finally got a chance to drive instead of work on one of the team cars! He has had this need for speed a long time, but has turned the wrenches since he was old enough to get in the pits. Great job for the youngster and I know his smile is still going. Seth Wilson won the event with Blake Miller second, Cody Williams third and his brother Austin Williams fourth. Austin has been doing well in the Ford Focus at Ventura. How long before he and his brother are racing with dad?

The 1st annual Wagsdash Golf Classic is gearing up. It will be at the Sterling Hills Golf Club in Camarillo on Friday September 5th. Plenty of fun with a free putting contest for prizes, a hole in one contest, also featuring Troy Rutherford as the Celebrity Driver "long ball hitter" who will for a small fee, hit your ball on the long drive hole. A lot of fun will be had with drivers and fans playing together followed by a nice buffet dinner afterwards. Anyone who did not play can still go to dinner for a small $25 fee and enjoy the fun and games. Print out the entry blank and send it in. The Wagsdash will benefit from the proceeds of the tournament. You or your business can sponsor a hole or a Tee, so do it! Click here to get the Wagsdash Classic entry form Classic entry form (.pdf) and print it out. If you don't have Adobe reader, go to adobe.com and download the free reader, then print it out. There will be special rates at motel rooms nearby for those who come early to play.

Put your change in a bag and bring it to me for the Lafond Jar of Change Hard Charger award at the Wagsdash. If you want to sponsor the 2009 Wagtimes calendar, sponsor the annual T-shirt, sponsor the race with cash, add something to the auction, start moving toward me now. Don Flanders met Steve Lafond’s challenge of $500 by two as his donation is in. Who’s next? Let’s make this one a good one. I added Jonny Bates and Joey "Elvis" Franklin to the list this week with more to be announced. See ya at Perris.

Perris Auto Speedway
FEATURE: (30 laps - With Starting Positions) 1. Danny Sheridan (8th), 2. Mike Spencer (3rd), 3. Alan Ballard (2nd), 4. Garrett Hansen (7th), 5. Cory Kruseman (10th), 6. Blake Miller (6th), 7. Tony Jones (4th), 8. Greg Bragg (18th), 9. David Cardey (15th), 10. Tyler Brown (12th), 11. Seth Wilson (20th), 12. Josh Ford (1st), 13. Rickie Gaunt (11th), 14. Eric Severson (16th), 15. Todd Hunsaker (22nd), 16. Cody Williams (19th), 17. Josh Williams (21st), 18. Nic Faas (9th), 19. Rip Williams (5th), 20. Henry Clarke (14th), 21. Ronnie Case (13th), 22. J Hicks (17th). NT.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-10 Alan Ballard, Laps 11-12 Rip Williams, Laps 13-19 Mike Spencer, Laps 20-30 Danny Sheridan.

NEW LUCAS OIL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1-Spencer-821; 2-Sheridan-754; 3-Miller-748; 4-Hansen-712; 5-Kruseman-691; 6-Brown-573; 7-Jones-523; 8-Cardey-405; 9-Ford-402; 10-Levi Jones-350.

NEXT LUCAS OIL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR RACE: July 19 – Perris (CA) Auto Speedway

Victorville Speedway
FEATURE:
1. Seth Wilson (4th), 2. Blake Miller (5th), 3. Cody Williams (7th), 4. Austin Williams (17th), 5. Luis Espinoza (6th), 6. Tyler Brown (21st), 7. Ronnie Case (14th), 8. Mike Collins (19th), 9. Todd Hunsaker (9th), 10. Ronnie Gardner (18th), 11. John Butler (22nd), 12. Christopher Ennis (10th), 13. Larry Lloyd (11th), 14. Ed McWilliams (15th), 15. Heidi Tresler (1st), 16. Tom Grunkemeyer (20th), 17. Mathew Shedarowich (13th), 18. Kris Stauffacher (23rd), --John Aden (3rd), --Justin Kierce (16th), --Kevin Kierce (12th), --Kenny Perkins (2nd), --Brandon Thomson (8th).