surfnsprint

After three road trips that kept drivers away for five weeks, Sprint Car racing returned to Ventura last night. I paid five bucks to the parking girl, fourteen bucks to the ticket lady and two bucks to that cool guy in the trailer that gives me a program and a pencil. I’m now sitting at the top of turn one with my racing pals as the passing train blows that high and lonesome. I can smell the cool ocean air as I eat a sandwich. I feel like I’m in a beautiful dream as the first sprint car pushes off…..

VRA Senior Sprints hit the track. This first heat is loaded with quality drivers such as Wiley Miller, Danny Miller, Dave Marini, Bruce Douglas, Bob Alderman and Bob Hedlund. Five of the drivers in this heat are in the points top ten. Danny took an early lead, with Marini and Wiley giving chase. After a couple of laps Wiley passed Marini and started chasing his brother. In the end he never did catch him, closing with Danny Miller in first, Wiley Miller in second, (how great is it to race your brother in a sprint car?) Dave Marini in third and #62 in fourth. #62 wasn’t in the program and I never did find out who it was. Former Senior Champion Bruce Douglas still seems to be fighting that new car. It must be tough for a very competitive guy.

Second heat includes “Gentleman Jim” Porter, Tim Moon (back from an unbelievable crash in Santa Maria), the unrelenting Ron Bach, John Richards, Grady Winkler, Ron Butler (my own personal hero) and a couple of other guys I don’t know. At the green, Butler jumps out in front of Moon, closely followed by Gentleman Jim. As Bach starts moving up, Moon passes Butler still followed by Porter. Butler starts fading as Bach muscles his way up to second and Richards is working hard for the fourth spot. Butler stalled in the last two laps and the restart is with Moon, Bach, Porter and Richards. Despite Tim Moon’s strong drive, Bach somehow gets around him and finishes first. Moon, Porter and Richards follow him across the finish line with Winkler barely challenging for the transfer. I have to comment; I saw Tim Moon’s car after his Santa Maria crash and it amazes me how these guys climb back into the driver’s seat. That was a great heat, Tim, showing what you’re made of.

That was it for the seniors, only two heats.

Looking up at the sunset, I see Mike Truex silhouetted at the top of the official’s tower hunched over that video camera. If you’re not buying those Loudpedal DVD’s you are missing some great stuff. There is nothing (almost) better late at night than looking at last week’s race. It really gives you a chance to dig into the details and the drama. Drives my wife nuts.

The first VRA Sprints are rolling. I see Steve Gresham’s 07 car but it is being driven by Jimmy Crawford. Crawford (frequent visitor) is an exciting driver and he has plenty of company in this heat. Blake Miller, Kevin Kierce, Luis Espinoza, Shawn Kautz, Derek Buckley and young John Nock line up. At the start, Kautz is out front but quickly starts slipping. Blake takes his customary heat position in the lead followed by Crawford and Kierce. That’s pretty much how it ended. Blake Miller held off the dynamic duo of Crawford and Kierce. Shawn Kautz took the fourth transfer position by barely (inches) holding off a late charging Espinoza. Really surprising to see Espinoza miss the transfer, it looked like his set up was off. I also thought I would see Buckley mixing it up?

Second heat was the least exciting for me (I’m sure the drivers would take umbrage with that). After a little dust up at the beginning of the race, that took out Tom Hendricks, Dennis Rodriquez ran away from the group that included Wes Richardson and Oren Prosser Jr. in respective positions. Larry Lloyd and Ron Wade were fighting a bit for fourth with Lloyd winning out. But it wasn’t much of a fight. This Dennis Rodriquez is an interesting driver, at times he really seems on his game.

Whenever I see the 7 car roll onto the track, I’m pretty sure I’m going to see a race. Greg Taylor has a no nonsense approach to racing. That is, he doesn’t like being in second place. Last week I wrote he was “Taylor the Terrible”. His girlfriend says to me “he’s not terrible”. Not to you, dear, but I’ve seen him lay waste to so many drivers that the name seems to fit. Heat three starts with Mark Weitzman on the pole and Greg on the outside. Joe Henderson and Bill Camarillo were sitting right behind them. Angel Figueroa and Brandon Thomson are in the third row with lonely Charles Turner sitting behind them. On the green flag, Taylor jumped out front but Camarillo quickly was passing him. That seemed to aggravate Taylor who flew out of turn two with a huge lift and wrestled back the lead. Greg never looked back after that. Camarillo wobbled and traded places with Weitzman. Henderson or Thomson was bringing up the rear transfer spot. The only thing I was sure of at the finish was that Greg won this heat. I was informed later that Weitzman, Camarillo and Thomson followed in that order.

The fourth heat was the first real fist fight of all the heats. Tom Stansberry, Chris Wakim, Steve Conrad, Rob Kershaw, Jim Thomson, Tom Schneider and John Hale (not listed on the program) lined up two wide for the final heat. Stansberry took an early lead with Wakim, Conrad and Kershaw in hot pursuit. Stansberry started fading mid race under a grueling onslaught by the other three leading drivers. Wakim claimed the lead, then Conrad. At that point, Wakim stuffed Conrad behind a lapped car and reclaimed the lead. Kershaw was in third hanging with the two of them and Stansberry settled for the fourth transfer spot as they all crossed. The intensity generated by Wakim, Conrad, Kershaw and Stansberry was a highlight of the heat races for me.

Before I describe the VRA Sprints semi main, let me say that I think Jim Naylor is a god. 60 Minutes ought to be down here doing a story on this super promoter. I can just see the footage of him screaming into the microphone as his field of drivers chase down another exciting finish. I just love the fact that he makes everybody wait mid evening as he takes his tractor out and blades the track. He does a better job on that track then I do shaving. He loves a good track, he loves a good race, he loves his drivers and he’s right that winged sprints are inferior! Once or twice I’ve tried to tell him that I dig his action, but he just looks away and starts changing the subject. Beautiful guy. Thanks for making sprint car racing happen here.

That said, Jimmy, you spritzed the track a bit much tonight. They got so much water on the track that Espinoza thought he should have gone home and gotten his boat. The semi started out as synchronized sliding. It was a series of comical pile ups that slowly started emptying the field. At one point, Hendricks, Nock and Weitzman stacked up in turn one looking like the no see, no speak, no hear monkeys. At the end Angel Figueroa edged out Luis Espinoza, followed by John Nock and Ron Wade. The Affleck Duck came in fifth.

The senior main event got on with a drier track and had a great race. “Gentleman Jim” Porter got out front early and was being chased by Wiley and Danny Miller. Moon was back a little bit but gaining. At this point, Danny Miller spun out on turn four and left the track. On the restart, it was Porter, Moon and Bach with Bob Hedlund starting to push up from the middle. Porter drove a flawless race holding off the persistent Moon and Bach. I didn’t see who finished fourth (it was probably Wiley). But for me the real story was second year driver Bob ‘The Mayor” Hedlund driving home a fifth place finish. This race was easily his best driving and finish ever. His sons did the set up and they couldn’t have been prouder. Somewhere Greg Taylor was smiling.

“Let’s get ready to rumble!!!!” How sweet to hear that familiar announcement again. As all the cars loaded for the main event, I checked the starting positions. Crawford took the pole with Steve Conrad on his right. Taylor and Blake Miller sat behind them. Dennis Rodriquez and Chris Wakim took the third row. Wes Richardson and Weitzman took up the fourth row with Camarillo and Kershaw stacked behind them. I don’t think anybody further back ever factored in this race. One driver later explained to me that when the track is this clean, it’s hard to get from the back to the front. It is true that all the winners of this race came from the front four rows. On a blisteringly fast start, Crawford took the early lead with Taylor constantly challenging. After four or five laps, Taylor relegated Crawford to second and then Miller relegated him to third. Blake quickly caught up to Taylor and began trying to stick his nose under Greg. Taylor wasn’t having it, snapping his turns so hard I thought he was backing into first place. Crawford was looking less than his usual self, starting to fade as Wakim, looking just like his usual self, started picking up spots. Conrad was in the middle of this whole battle, with pressure on all sides. Wakim passed Crawford, but a crash at the other end of the track brought out a yellow and Chris had to revert to his previous position for the restart. The restart with sixteen laps left had Taylor, Miller, Conrad, Crawford and Wakim in that order. Kershaw and Richardson were having their own little battle behind all of this; the rest of them may as well have been in Oxnard.

At this point, Wakim really pushed the high line and quickly gained two spots to third. Miller never gave up trying to catch Taylor, but the micro space between them started growing. Wakim’s high line started to turn against him as the cushion never really developed and he was holding at third. Conrad had a part fall off and lost position. At the very end Crawford’s car seemed to give up. Kershaw settled the dispute he was having with Richardson (fine drive, Wes).

That’s how it finished with Taylor never flinching, Miller never giving up (how sick of second place is this fine driver?) Wakim taking a hard earned third and Kershaw running fourth.

As the winning sprint drivers assembled in the infield, the track had to run the dwarf finals. I watched as Wakim, Taylor and Miller huddled together and I assume they talked about the race. I could see the photographer come over and line them up for a picture. I don’t think the lens could be wide enough to capture all that skill, guts and heart.

I thought about the coming weekend with all the Bandits riding into town. I thought about the pride the local drivers have for this track. I was thinking about the depth and commitment of guys like Kershaw, Wakim, Miller and Taylor. I was thinking about Jim Naylor and Cliff Morgan…..

“you’ll find us rough, sir, but you’ll find us ready…”