Duane Feduska makes first feature since 1989 at Ascot.

The 20th Valvoline USAC/CRA event of the season featured Damion Gardner’s last lap pass of Aussie driver, Peter Murphy, as they went under the white flag exciting the crowd. Peter led 28 laps before Damion made a very calculated pass for his seventh win of the season. Gardner said “I knew I was faster than Murphy, but he was running in the middle of the track, and I had to wait for “my lane” to open up before I could go for it!”

Mrs Wags pics are ready now. Click here.

“The Demon” has had a couple of unlucky tumbles in recent weeks, but like normal, he was looking to win this week. Driving the Temecula Valley Pipe & Supply, Arizona Race Mart, Shaver, Ron-Ber, Inc, # 50, Damion was more determined to win, a week after crashing in the Main Event and losing valuable points to Rip Williams. He hasn’t given up on winning the championship, but the team is focusing on winning races now and letting things happen for the best. This win might set the tone for the seven remaining events as they head for the fast track of Manzy next Saturday.

In the prior six appearances with the club, Peter Murphy had three top five finishes, but this week he had his best non-wing performance yet, if you don’t count a recent win in a 360 non-wing race up north. Peter drove the Weld wheels, TCR, Gaerte # 45 for only the third time. He took his outside front row starting spot in the Main off to a big lead before the Demon showed up. The likable Aussie is still getting used to driving a traditional sprint car, but he is coming fast in getting it down. Great job by Peter and he was happy with the finish, as were crew chief Mike Nigh and car owner Harlan Willis! It is amazing how the Willis team continues to bring in different drivers and still run up front in the black TCR # 45.

“Chargin” Charles Davis, Jr hasn’t seen much of the USAC/CRA series this season as he and the Smiley Crane Service, Extreme Chassis, Dave Zoriki, # 8 have been on the road back East for much of the last three months. His third place finish is his best with the club this year, as he held off Kapt Kirby the last few laps for a podium appearance. Charlie and teammate, Super Rickie Gaunt, will be back for the Oval Nationals.

Point leader Rip Williams set fast time in qualifying at 16.900 and settled for fifth this week in the competitive 30 lap feature. He leads the championship race by 91 points. The long time veteran is using every trick in the book to make this happen. Mike Kirby was the hard charger of the night as he came from 14th to finish fourth and stay in second place in points, a mere three ahead of Gardner. The track “sweet spot” was mostly in the middle so passing was an adventure all night. Only the brave survive when they go up high, and the fans love it!

Cory Kruseman came all the way from Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the night before he had a flat tire, and still came back to finish seventh. The Kruser had an unusually rough night on the Perris track where he usually shines. He was squeezed by another car into the wall in his heat, and took a bad header that knocked him out. However, he came back to transfer from the semi to the Main. After a few laps in that one, he felt a bad vibration in the car, probably from the crash, and pulled off early. He has two days of sprint car classes to teach before heading back to Indiana and his next race. In the meantime he will deal with the sore chest and aching body. There will be a Kruseman Fan Club Picnic at the Oval Nationals on Saturday, October 30th. You must be a member, so contact Julie Shiosaki at 310-222-8690, for more info.

Ronnie Case continues to lead the Rookie points chase. He is over 140 points ahead of David Cardey, with seven events left on the schedule. Ronnie finished eleventh this week as he makes the wild green # 33 sprinter move forward in the Main each race. His talent will win this annual award if he keeps it up and the hauler doesn’t quit on the team like it did on the last trip to Hanford. They had to go back and get it a few days later after repair. Cardey continues to run well, making the Main more often than not. He has made the feature in 13 of 17 appearances and won two heat races for his highlights. The difference between the two, is Ronnie is consistently finishing ahead of David in the features.

Tony Jones continues to race while waiting for his wife, Tammy, to deliver their first child, a son to be named Grady. The “Cowboy” will be taking off the next two weeks as her due time is now. Tony didn’t have any problems tonight, finishing 8th after starting 10th in the Main. Duane Feduska made his first Main Event since the late 80’s at Ascot. He has run 10 races this season up to now and struggled every race, so far. This week they added new injectors to their arsenal and it worked. He led his heat until Rambo Rutherford rumbled by him mere inches at the flag. His second place finish put him in the Main where he ran 17th for a big night for him and his open trailered low buck team. They need more financial help, but will take this night and smile.

Wagsdash Champion, Alan Ballard, brought out his brand new TCR and made the Main Event, finishing 12th, as he broke it in just fine. Although not painted yet, the # 97 made his dad Ernie smile just a little bit. Look for Alan to continue to improve as he approaches voting age.

Other visitors this week included Matthew Rossi from Phoenix, for his 7th appearance this season. He made the Main and finished 21st. Mark Derskovick, from nearby El Centro, made his first race this season, but missed the Main driving his 360 powered racer that you might remember was once driven by Billy Pauch at Phoenix. Ronnie Clark, from Tuscon, AZ, made his first USAC/ CRA race and got 16th. Ronnie has run off and on with us over the last few years and was once a teammate of Hank Winters, who retired to run stock cars and then retired to help his son race. Bruce St James made his 9th race, but didn’t transfer after the long trip from Phoenix in the former Glenn Crossno Renegade hauler. Josh Ford, from nearby Ventura, but racing the USAC National trail this year like Kruseman, led the Tulsa race the night before, but a flat put him back. In the Main, he grabbed 10th from his 12th starting spot as his improvement this season is very dramatic. It must be those George Ito strawberries.

Hard luck stories this week start with the Bill Pratt hauler. As we got off the freeway heading to the track early Saturday, their hauler was stalled on the off ramp. Nothing we could do to help as we went on by, but later a big tow rig pulled them into the racetrack pit parking lot. While all the other rigs pulled into the pits, the # 12 crew began working on the problem. It turned out to be gas in the diesel tank that stalled the diesel-powered rig. They had to drain the tank and lines and clean it out before putting diesel fuel back in. They then were able to drive into the pits and driver Greg Bragg ended up 14th in the Main.

Others with tough luck were numerous. Brian Venard nailed the wall in the semi and bent an axle, putting him on the trailer early. Rodney Argo was looking fast running 2nd in the Main and challenging Murphy for the lead when he suddenly headed left and spun out near the turn one entrance to the pits. Don’t know what the trouble was, but he was done. Steve Ostling then dropped out of the Main when he experienced a reoccurring problem that seems to “retard” the motor and lose power when it happens. They have solved the problem before, but replacing several “things” didn’t tell them what it was. They celebrated Mom Fischer’s 81st birthday in the pits afterwards with champagne. She is moving to Arizona very soon and will be missing the races here. Adam Mitchell was running real well when his motor dropped a valve and ended his night. It looks like a rebuild is next, so don’t know when they will make it back. In the meantime, the family will take Maverick, Dubya’s brother, to the Wienie Dog Nationals in San Diego this week to win! Jack DeArmond Jr had a nasty crash in his heat, hurting the number 24 real bad.

Kevin Urton had a real bang-up night as he tangled wheels with several in his heat and then the semi. When he slowed coming around turn four in the heat, it set off a hard crash as Dan Hillberg flew up and over him, collecting Rick Becker and Jordan Hermansader, who was driving the Nadine Keller back-up car this week. Hillberg’s car is junk, as he says, and he wasn’t feeling any too well afterwards, either. The other two seemed to roll on the trailer, but will require some work. I didn’t talk with The Jim Ruth crew after the races, but Dwayne Marcum’s car qualified, then didn’t make his heat when they dropped a valve in the motor. Depending on how serious it is when they open it up, that will determine when they get back.

Nadine Keller will now be known as “the “Flying Hawaiian” because she didn’t like the nickname I came up with for her. Don’t know where it originated, but maybe Jack Gardner, Jr can enlighten us. She is very intent in doing this racing thing and for a driver that has less than 30 races of any kind under her sash, she continues to improve. Look for a poster of her to appear later in the season as the lady policewoman is headed forward and is having a great time.

USAC officials Terri and Russell Bliss were back in North Carolina dodging the latest hurricane rains to attend Terri’s daughter Selena’s wedding this race day. Their travel agent, Julie Shiosaki also attended, and all three were missed in the pits this week.

Wagsdash is coming October 16th, so don’t be bashful and help build the purse. Do it now or come to the Chili feed at noon on that Saturday and do it then. This is the last week to get sponsors on the annual Wagsdash T-shirt, so call me at 949-472-9247! Remember, the 30 lap Wagsdash race itself is gone. In it’s place will be two short dashes, one for the low buck boys and another for the Big Dawg racers, with a total purse of about $2500 each. The balance of the Wagsdash purse money will be inserted into the 30 lap Main Event that night which wll now pay $5000 to win. It should be a fun event from noon until 10 PM! Plan on coming early to the festivities to help. I could use a few EZ-UP’s to protect the auction items, so let me know if you can loan me a few.

The next race is across the desert to Phoenix, where the big half mile awaits the travelers and the high speed racing is always the bomb! Manzanita, now run by Dennis Wood, now features some improvements and clean-up done by track crew and volunteers, recently. It will be a great weekend as everyone tunes up for the upcoming Western World that will feature the USAC/CRA and some of the National USAC runners as well.

VALVOLINE USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: September 18, 2004 – Perris, California – Perris Auto Speedway

FIRST HEAT: (10 laps)
1. Kirby, 2. Cody, 3. M rphy, 4. Williams, 5. Wilson, 6. Venard, 7. Gaunt, 8. St. James, 9. Deskovick. 2:55.31

SECOND HEAT: (10 laps)
1. Ziehl, 2. Davis, 3. Spencer, 4. Rossi, 5. Mitchell, 6. Ballard, 7. Kruseman, 8. Ferro, 9. Cardey. NT

THIRD HEAT: (10 laps)
1. Bragg, 2. Argo, 3. Gardner, 4. Case, 5. Jones, 6. Ford, 7. Keller, 8. DeArmond. 2:56.21

FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps)
1. Rutherford, 2. Feduska, 3. Ostling, 4. Clark, 5. Urton, 6. Hillberg, 7. Becker, 8. Hermansader. NT

SEMI: (12 laps)
1. Gaunt, 2. Jones, 3. Mitchell, 4. Ford, 5. Ballard, 6. Kruseman, 7. Urton, 8. Cardey, 9. Wilson, 10. Keller, 11. St. James, 12. Deskovick, 13. Hermansader, 14. Venard, 15. Ferro. 3:31.30

FEATURE: (30 laps)
1. Damion Gardner (5th), 2. Peter Murphy (2nd), 3. Charles Davis Jr (3rd), 4. Mike Kirby (14th), 5. Rip Williams (8th), 6. Troy Rutherford (6th), 7. Mike Spencer (7th), 8. Tony Jones (9th), 9. Rickie Gaunt (10th), 10. Josh Ford (12th), 11. Ronnie Case (16th), 12. Alan Ballard (11th), 13. Rick Ziehl (15th), 14. Greg Bragg (19th), 15. Bobby Cody (17th), 16. Ronnie Clark (20th), 17. Duane Feduska (21st), 18. Adam Mitchell (18th), 19. Cory Kruseman (13th), 20. David Cardey (23rd), 21. Matthew Rossi (22nd), 22. Steve Ostling (4th), 23. Rodney Argo (1st)

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-28 Murphy, Laps 29-30 Gardner.

NEW VALVOLINE USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-Williams-1,258; 2-Kirby-1,167; 3-Gardner-1,164; 4-Rutherford-880; 5-Jones-726; 6-Bragg-712; 7-Ostling-678; 8-Cody-663; 9-Spencer-617; 10-Venard-600

NEXT VALVOLINE USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR RACE: September 25 – Phoenix, Arizona – Manzanita Speedway