By Ken Wagner
Aug 24, 2008

The cooler temps at the Perris Auto Speedway had a calming effect on everyone as the lowest car count of the year greeted an energetic crowd. Given it is the dog days of summer, the main event still had three different leaders and Tony “The Cowboy” Jones took charge and won his first CRA race of the year and is now 16th on the all time win list. The win was followed by the usual stand up in the cockpit antics as he went around the track that the Cowboy is famous for, and ended with a fence climbing like normal to cheer his family and the crowd. He was pretty pumped in the winner’s circle as he thanked the world like always.

Here's my pics Click here. and Doug Allen's click here.

To say it’s about time is hardly anything new for Tony Jones the reputed gunslinger and reigning champion. But the team, running on a limited schedule, hadn’t clicked perfectly until now as they brought out a brand new car and the results were grand. Tony, driving the La Villa Restaurant, Alexander Trucking, Ferreira Dairy, Silver # 4, almost dominated the night with a third quick qualifying pass and wonhis heat. He started outside row three in sixth spot and methodically worked his way up behind the leader, Rip Williams, and eventually rolled around the outside of him to take the lead and stretch it out at the end.

The Ripper looked great as he worked his way into the lead in the John Jory Corp, AMA Plastics, Ricks Truck Works, black # 3 and held on to get second, his best finish of the year. He took the lead from a visiting Bill Rose, driving for David Miller this week only, and looked to get his 105th win until the Jones express flew by. Rip’s recovery from his nasty accident early in the year was complete a few weeks ago and he is as strong as ever. Seeing him race with his son Cody adds some interest to every race night as the young gun is improving rapidly and this week was 14th after running second in his heat.

Third place was looking all yellow as the race neared the end, but Danny Sheridan changed it to blue when the little blue bugger slipped by the little yellow beauty driven by Garret Hansen on the last corner. Rumor has it that Danny waved at his best buddy as he went by, but that’s just a rumor. Danny, driving the Kittle Motorsports, Scott Sales, Pace Electronics, blue # 18, set fast time this week, ran third in his heat and started 8th in the main event. He had to hustle past several hot shoes to get on the podium after last week’s high flying act at Santa Maria ruined their night there.

The “woe is me club” had many in it’s clutches this week starting with Josh Ford whose mount gave up on him and sent him out the back gate before the evening even got started. Bullet Blake Miller missed the main last week when the car wouldn’t fire. They spent the better part of the afternoon trying to get the blue # 93 going, but discovered some rocker arm problems. So while everyone else was running the heats, the Blakester express went back to the shop to get more rocker arms and returned to have it ready to start at the back of the main event. He settled into 7th for a good ride and great ending of a bad starting night for the team. The other team car with Tyler Brown driving had problems too. In qualifying the # 96 car looked sluggish. In his heat he was just plain slow as a fuel pickup problem was found later. He got it resolved for the main, but lost mufflers on both sides of the motor and was done. It seems they were filling up with fuel (?) and the vibration broke the welds, thus falling on the track. The first one they were able to replace when a red flag happened, but the second one was curtains for the likable Tyler, and he wasn’t ready to stop racing yet.

Probably the saddest of stories came from the Eric Severson camp after breaking two motors upon firing them during the week. He borrowed a bullet from David Miller and ran a strong third in his heat to earn the pole in the Main Event. Starting next to David’s # 66 car, he surged into the lead and started running away from the pack. For ten laps and a couple of yellows he continued to be the class of the field. Unfortunately, he got on his head and put his car on the trailer, thus ending a spectacular start. One more sad story happened to the # 51 car of Jimmy Crawford in his heat when on the start he was banged from the side and got airborne. Last but not least, Alan Ballard, who was 2nd quick on the night, didn’t start the main for a reason I don’t know, thus ending a great opportunity for him and car owners Ray Stansberry/Ron Bach.

Keith Williamson continues to race as often as possible in his Ford powered # 95 and this week came over the desert road from Phoenix to have some fun. Unfortunately for him, he and another car tangled, putting him on the trailer early. He and brother Gary work very hard to try and make their low buck car a winner.

David Cardey and Danny Sheridan showed us a crazier side of themselves this week when they took to the track in an off road truck. David driving and Danny hanging on, they stormed around the track in the Mazda powered vehicle. On one lap David had the left side so far up you could see a lot of the undercarriage, yahoo. They better check with the Cowboy to see if it’s OK to ride rough out there.

As the 18th annual Wagsdash approaches in two weeks, there is much I need help on. I need auction items, Golfers to play in the Wagsdash tournament, Baked goods for the cookie sale, money for the purse, change for the hard charger award in the Wagsdash and fans to come eat the La Villa Restaurant Chili on Saturday afternoon. John and Maria Gardner have blessed us with a great chili feed the last two years and John said there might be a surprise this year for us. Come on out and for you Saturday travelers, remember how heavy the traffic is that day and plan accordingly.

Don Kazarian announced this week at the pit meeting that the Oval Nationals purse will be cut back this year due to the current economy crunch that has hurt racers and the track alike. This opens the door to anyone who wants to help boost the purse for the three day event. The question is how many cars will there be this year, with the seriously low car counts on a weekly basis, and will that support everyone running three days for the lower purse. The Temechula Valley Pipe and Supply $30,000 to win event has been one of the year’s top event’s for years, let’s hope it can continue. The announced $12,500 to win is a comedown, but the drop will help those on back in their pocketbook, hopefully. Dropping one night would help all the racers as the cost of lodging, fuel, tires and other parts for one day is a significant number. Perhaps dropping the USAC sanction fee would free up some cash for the racers. Maybe USAC could add cash to the purse, ha ha, not in this lifetime!

The short list of invited racers for the Wagsdash includes the winner and hard charger of this coming weeks VRA regular race at Ventura. Also these drivers have been invited already during the year: Billy Blinn, Ludwig Solberg IV, Jonas Reynolds, Joe Gunderson, Eric Severson, Jonny Bates, Brein Kinney, Todd Hunsaker and now Tony Everhart and Cody Williams. The field will be filled on race day, but playing golf and or entering the pit stop competition sure helps. Hint, hint.

Interesting note here. Ron Chaffin, and crew Chief Bruce Bromme Jr, will reach a milestone in their history together. The next win by Mike Spencer in the little red sucker will be 100! This according to Robert Mayson who knows these things. Imagine 10 by Lealand McSpadden, 49 for the Gasman Richard Griffin, 34 for the Demon Damion Gardner and 6 for Mike Spencer and we have 99 big ones. Pretty amazing! Congrats to Ron, Bruce and all the team, that is quite an achievement in what 13 years together. Get ready to celebrate.

Mrs Wags and I will be on the road to Calistoga Friday and stay in the Bay area until a Thursday arrival in Ventura. Hope to see a lot of my old friends up north on this excursion. Support the troops and racers.

LUCAS OIL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS:
August 23, 2008 – Perris, California – Perris Auto Speedway

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Danny Sheridan, 18, Kittle-16.575; 2. Alan Ballard, 75, Stansberry-16.627; 3. Tony Jones, 4, Alexander-16.758; 4. Mike Spencer, 50, Chaffin-16.791; 5. Rip Williams, 3, Jory-16.825; 6. Garrett Hansen, 07, Preistley-16.965; 7. Tyler Brown, 96, Gardner-16.990; 8. Eric Severson, 48n, Leonard-17.001; 9. Jimmy Crawford, 51, Crawford-17.051; 10. Bill Rose, 66, Miller-17.116; 11. David Cardey, 38, Crossno-17.179; 12. Cody Williams, 44, Jory-17.280; 13. Shane Golobic, 121, Golobic-17.335; 14. Ludvig Solberg IV, 84, Persall-17.920; 15. Keith Williamson, 95, Williamson-18.167; 16. Brein Kinney, 85, Persall-18.652; 17. Joe Gunderson, 23, Bellegante-18.736; 18. Tony Everhart, 55, Everhart-19.012; 19. Josh Ford, 73, Ford-NT; 20. Blake Miller, 93, Gardner-NT.

FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Golobic, 2. Spencer, 3. Sheridan, 4. Rose, 5. Kinney, 6. Brown. 2:55.27

SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Cardey, 2. R.Williams, 3. Severson, 4. Solberg, 5. Ballard, 6. Gunderson. 2:52.23

THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Jones, 2. C.Williams, 3. Hansen, 4. Williamson, 5. Everhart, 6. Crawford. 2:52.21

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Tony Jones, 2. Rip Williams, 3. Danny Sheridan, 4. Garrett Hansen, 5. Mike Spencer, 6. David Cardey, 7. Blake Miller, 8. Bill Rose, 9. Shane Golobic, 10. Ludvig Solberg IV, 11. Brein Kinney, 12. Joe Gunderson, 13. Tyler Brown, 14. Cody Williams, 15. Tony Everhart, 16. Keith Williamson, 17. Eric Severson, 18. Jimmy Crawford, 19. Alan Ballard. NT

**Crawford flipped during the third heat. Severson flipped during the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-10 Severson, Laps 11-23 R.Williams, Laps 24-30 Jones.

NEW LUCAS OIL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1-Spencer-992; 2-Hansen-900; 3-Sheridan-868; 4-Miller-855; 5-Cory Kruseman-691; 6-Brown-686; 7-Jones-658; 8-Cardey-545; 9-Ford-506; 10-Nic Faas-405.

NEXT LUCAS OIL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR RACE: August 30-31 – Calistoga (CA) Speedway