By Ken Wagner
September 27, 2008

On another nice day in our racing world at the PAS, the USAC/CRA racing did it good once again. Tony Jones continued his string at Perris Auto Speedway when he came from his second row starting position to win his third race in a row. Tony blistered his heat race foes when he surged past them all on the first lap and ran away with that 10 lap event. In the main he would bide his time until traffic allowed him to pin Danny Sheridan against a lap car where he took the lead on lap 15 and the battle with Showtime ensued.

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

The Cowboy looked fast all night in the silver bullet lap after lap, and repelled each thrust by Sheridan and claimed his third win in his last four tries. Driving the same silver bullet # 4, La Villa Restaurant, Ferreira Dairy car as usual, the team said they found something in this nearly year old chassis, and the last month has proved them right with their changes. Even though the team is running a limited no travel schedule, they are still 5th in points. Tony celebrated his son Grady’s 4th birthday in the pits after the races with everyone, as his wife Tammy was serving cake to all who came by.

Danny Sheridan looked to be the winner when he jumped into the lead in the Kittle Motorsports, Scott Sales, Pace Electronics # 18, but got snarled in lap traffic at the wrong time and came home a strong second this week. Danny made several moves on the leader, but couldn’t wrest away the faster top groove from the Cowboy, so no go this time. The little blue bugger continues to gain a little each week on the point leader as the team sets their goals on winning the championship that is reachable with 10 racing nights to go in the season that is 2/3rds done at this point.

The Gardner Motorsports four, count em’, four entries this week finished 3rd, 4th, 7th and 13th in the main event. They pulled those four cars from one hauler and went to work early in the afternoon. First Rickie Gaunt led the opening 11 laps, but faded to 4th in the end. Blake Miller started in the third row and grabbed third place in the end, to inch closer to Mike Spencer, the point leader, as the year winds down. The battle for 2nd is getting interesting asDanny Sheridan and Blake are a few points apart as they try to move in on the leader. Blake drove his own car very well in getting on the podium this week.

Tyler Brown was all smiles after practicing in the Miller # 93 this past week and then getting his own Sled built to drive for this race. Tyler was 2nd quick in the brand new car and brought it home in 7th in the break in debut of a blue # 96 model. Nadine Gardner made one of her infrequent starts a good one with her 13th place finish. If four cars are not enough, look for Ronnie Gardner to run the last race or two this season as the young hustling mechanic adds his name to the long list of racing Gardner’s.

Mike Spencer claimed 5th this week as he continues to run towards the front and holds an 109 point lead over Blake Miller in the championship race. After crew chief Bruce Bromme Jr hurt his shoulder last week, it will be a while before he can resume working on the car. Bruce is waiting for consultation for a replacement shoulder procedure that won’t be before late October at least. In the meantime the car will be at Mike Spencer Sr’s house and the work done there. Bruce won’t be touching the car for quite some time. That shouldn’t be a problem as the close nit crew has Gary Tanaka, his son Michael and Eric Kaufman, ,all who have worked on the car for years under Bruce to lead the crew’s efforts. With driver Mike Spencer and his Father, they will do just fine.

Josh Fordhad a new 4 bar car out this week as he said they wanted to try something other than the coil over he had been using for a long time. He set fast time and finished 6th on the night as he has been more consistent recently. David Cardey had somewhat of a double this week as he won the opening night of the two day Lightning Sprint Nationals competing at the PAS. He was third in his heat in the 410 this week and finished 9th I the main event. I don’t know what he did in the Lightning Sprint after the regularsprint feature, but am sure he was close to the front.

Garrett Hansen has not gotten much press for what some observers describe as one of the worst crashes in Manzanita history last week. He and the Priestley crew went to run the 360 event there and he balled it up on the first lap of the main event. What little we heard of this bad wreck was listed as “he went to the hospital and was released”, so I didn’t think much of it until I found out he was in a neck brace and would not be driving anything for at least three weeks. The young driver was in the battle for second in points and was having a great year until this happened. Let’s hope he heals fast, but doesn’t return until he’s healed totally. These head injuries are serious and need time to heal up properly.

Talk about a tough road to hoe, that’s what Alan Ballard was delegated to do this week after two motors went to the motor doc and only a measly little 360 was available this week in the Ray Stansberry # 75. Alan qualified 12th in the 24 car field, ran fourth in his heat and finished 10th in the main event. He later said he never worked so hard for position as this week. Great job as they try to maintain their position for the big races coming up.

Jordan Hermansader has his week cut out for him as he was running strong in the main when his car quit on him and hit the wall. He didn’t know what was wrong as they left the track, but some midnight oil will be burned this week. Ronnie Case has not had any luck trying to get back to speed in his racing career. His recent shakedown outings in his new car have netted him little and this week was no difference when he came in the pits with a quiet motor during hot laps. He scratched for the evening, not getting even one green flag start in this night.

This week Rip Williams was grounded by his doctor when some water was discovered water around his heart. When asked how that could have happened, Rip said he didn’t know, but had felt bad, thus the Doc visit. Some medicine was prescribed and we will see how long he is out. He looked fine and turned his # 3 over to his son Cody where he was ninth quick in qualifying and pulled out of the main with a problem later.

The Camarillo brothers, Brent and Brian, didn’t have much luck this week on their visit to get ready to run the Oval Nationals. They reported possible motor ails kept them from getting much seat time. Matt Mitchell was out but came in early in the main also for another fruitless outing..

The 2008 Legends of Ascot Event is at near Sell-Out capacity. The 5th Annual Legends of Ascot Event announced that October 6, 2008, is the last day ticket purchases will be accepted. Admission is by advanced purchase only. There are NO ticket sales on the day of the Event. Admission to the Event includes plenty of “bench racing”, the Award Presentations, auctions, raffles, an excellent buffet lunch, collectable souvenir program, the vintage racecar display, and admission to the USAC/CRA sprint car races on event day. Every year the event sells out, and Don Weaver, founder of the event, suggests that attendees order their tickets to the event as soon as possible. Contact: Legends of Ascot (310) 549-3562, legendsofascot@aol.com, www.legendsofascot.com.

Shiny tire winner this week was Brein Kinney as the team had the blue # 85 blazing. This coming week it is the annual fair race where you pay $ 8 to get in the fair and see the sprints for FREE. It’s $ 5 if you get on the internet. Whatever, let’s go racing! I still have calendars and t-shirts, so e-mail me or see me. We already have over $200 for next year’s event, the 19th annual Wagsdash, so will start working on that.

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Tony Jones, 2. Danny Sheridan, 3. Blake Miller, 4. Rickie Gaunt, 5. Mike Spencer, 6. Josh Ford, 7. Tyler Brown, 8. Greg Bragg, 9. David Cardey, 10. Alan Ballard, 11. Ludvig Solberg IV, 12. Todd Hunsaker, 13. Nadine Gardner, 14. Brein Kinney, 15. Royal Adderson, 16. Rodney Argo, 17. Cody Williams, 18. Jordan Hermansader, 19. Matt Mitchell, 20. Brian Camarillo, 21. Tony Everhart, 22. Brent Camarillo, 23. Joe Gunderson. NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-11 Gaunt, Laps 12-14 Sheridan, Laps 15-30 Jones.

NEW LUCAS OIL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1-Spencer-1,227; 2-Miller-1,118; 3-Sheridan-1,098; 4-Garrett Hansen-1,039; 5-Jones-859; 6-Cory Kruseman-858; 7-Brown-856; 8-Cardey-737; 9-Ford-646; 10-Nic Faas-471.

NEXT LUCAS OIL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR RACE: October 4 - Perris (CA) Auto Speedway