surfnsprint

Seaside Park, I love this place. After a month of Sunday’s writing about racing, I’ve been invited up into the tower, which has to be the best seat in the house. I’m sitting at the top of the world next to race master Cliff Morgan as he weaves five classes totaling 109 cars (that’s right, one hundred and nine cars) into position.

Right below us, I suspect Jim Naylor is gargling tea and honey, getting ready to scream his lungs out. It’s Saturday night, we’re racing and you have your eyes and ears right on the heartbeat of Ventura Raceway.

I got ready for this racing season by listening to nothing to Bruce Springsteen for three months. I got so many “born to run, deathtrap, baby strap your hands, stand on it, thunder road” lyrics in my brain I can’t think straight. But Greg Taylor just ran hot laps and the sound of that Raney engine roaring just wiped that all out. I am suddenly at peace.

Check out the new paint jobs. Joe Henderson seems to have a new attitude strutting some black and white. Wakim has ditched the “white knight” look and rolled out a snappy blue and white stripe. Espinoza has turbocharged the “deep purple” look. Somehow he has squeezed more color out of that car. Good looking. Clark Templeman has monster flames worked across the front end. I really dig this driver. Clark took some nasty hits last year but here he is. Racing heritage hard at work.

Three Ford Focus heats started the party. Nice and easy, everybody worked their way around the track and made nice. Quinton Crye, Brent Engstrom and Nick Carlson handle the checkered flags.

Next the USAC midgets strode on the field and woke everybody up for the new season. These midgets are monsters! The first lap showed hairball nerve and verve. I didn’t think they were gonna make two laps! They made 8 laps and Josh Lakatos edged Jerome Rodella for the first heat. Heat Two features midget wunderkind Garret Hansen. This kid (actually not a kid anymore) knows his way around a sprint car too! He doesn’t even transfer, but his fast qualifying time will still put him near the front of the main event. Scott Pierovich drives hard and takes the heat. Heat Three has Tyler Brown stealing past Shannon McQueen at the white flag to take the checkered.

Pony stocks up next. If you want to meet some cool people, go into the pits and hang with the pony racers. They remind me of the Wild Bunch. They rule the message boards with insults, one ups and helping hands. Mike Frazier took the first heat, Jack Hoyt claimed the second.

Now we have the first and only heat for VRA Junior Focus Midgets, created for drivers 13 to 16. Naylor wants the kids to race towards the future. Robby Josett shows some grit and takes the historic first heat followed Jonathon Henry. Other drivers included Dakota Kershaw, Dustin Petty and Justin Pierce. These drivers are going to rock.

First VRA Sprint Heat smokes the field. Michael Trimble comes out fighting (I don’t know Trimble, I’ll have to check him out) Joe Henderson is also looking huge taking second. Angel Figueroa and Luis Espinoza take third and fourth.

Second heat, Kershaw is looking young, fast and first! Conrad quickly grabs second. Everybody likes this driver, “Silent Steve” Conrad. Silent but deadly. (OK, here’s the deal with nicknames. I agree with jackslash.com that nicknames are cool. I don’t know everybody’s nickname and I don’t care. I’m just gonna keep throwing things out and see what sticks.) Third and fourth are Brandon and father Jim Thomson. The only heat of the night where fourth was happy for third. Brandon is really maturing, very strong driving!

Third heat, something happens to Derek Buckley and his car is in flames. He gets out faster than a nasty rumor and is rolling in the dirt! They are spraying the car flames while Cliff is in the tower yelling “spray the driver!” Before they could get to him, Buckley gets up, takes a bow and walks off into the pits. Wes Richardson starts his season the right way with first. We are expecting great things out of Wes Richardson this year. Ross Millar is looking more aggressive than last year and takes second. Jimmy Crawford is back on the high line and rolls past Tom Hendricks for third. Hendricks good on you, that’s a strong start. But people get ready, here comes Crawford and he’s pounding on the door.

Fourth Heat just clocks all that comes before. Greg Taylor stretches his muscles and dominates the field. Troy Rutherford is putting everyone on notice with a very aggressive drive taking second. Third goes to constantly improving Billy Camarillo. Put a little Agromin in your cereal. Fourth is Oren Prosser Jr. Face it race fans, Oren Prosser Jr. is just plain fast! This fourth heat was the cream!

VRA Junior Focus Midgets main event goes off with Dakota Kershaw taking first and Robby Jossett following in second place. I am looking forward to getting in the pits and learning about these drivers this year.

Ford Focus run semi with Williams, Howell, Collins and Kirkbride advancing.

Jim Naylor and Cliff Morgan huddle in the tower. There are so many cars and races they’ve gotta cut laps. They are running behind schedule and lap counts start getting dropped faster than bad habits. VRA Sprint semi main #1 advances two cars in only eight laps. Chris Wakim and Bob Alderman survive. Semi #2 advances Tom Harper and Errol Sack. Kevin Kierce just misses the cut. Unbelievable. Hard to advance when laps are getting cut.

Ford Focus runs a fifteen lap main event. It’s a spirited race that Keith Janca wins, Quinton Crye in second and Chris Veach is third. A crowd favorite Bobby Michnowicz takes seventh tonight (here’s a shout out to Larry O, fastest gun on the internet!)

USAC Midget Main Event is also trimmed to twenty five laps. Garret Hanson keeps jumping to the front but crashes keep restarting the race. Doesn’t matter to Garret. There are more crashes than Tennessee tornados, but Hanson continues to dominate with Michael Lewis chasing. So many yellows they decide mid race to trim to twenty laps. Drivers, points and lap counts continue to fall. Midgets have one way radios and they are getting rapid fire direction the USAC race steward, an interesting guy named Howard who’s up in the tower. When you are sitting in the stands and see a crash and a yellow, those midgets start getting whipped into shape. “Single file” he’s yelling in the radio, “get back into single file, number 4 get back behind number 7, number 12 you slow down or I’m going to throw you off the track, SLOW DOWN did you hear me this is a yellow not hot laps!!” Reminded me of a biker dad trying to organize a bunch of wet cats. Now the field is down to seven cars. Seven cars or twenty cars, it still doesn’t matter to Garrett. He walks to first, followed by Terry Coons Jr. and Tyler Brown. Great stuff. I wonder if Garrett ever gets tired of winning. Every time I see him, he’s winning.

Let’s Get Ready To Rumble. VRA Sprint Cars in their first main event in five months, two weeks, three days and one hour. I ran down to the Turn One grandstands to watch with my family and friends. Anticipation was thick. The methanol aroma was wafting with the breeze. The cars filed by and finally it was hammer down in Ventura town.

Let’s get to the point; this race was all about Greg Taylor! Greg Taylor took all of the frustration from his last season and whipped it into a massive demonstration of power and skill. But he wasn’t unchallenged.

Henderson and Rutherford were on the front row and took it into the first laps. Taylor had started on the second row next to Michael Trimble. They were both in the hunt. Then Rutherford passed Henderson and was clearly leading the pack. This Troy Rutherford is a powerful driver. At this point Taylor puts a clean slide job on Henderson down in turn two, takes second place and sets his sights on front runner Rutherford.

Back in the huddle, you are seeing contenders like Crawford, Kershaw, Camarillo and Conrad. Even the back of the pack looked good. Most passes were shared by four drivers from the back of the pack with eight passes each. That was Espinoza, Wakim, Tom Harper and Bob Alderman. But the most important passing (with seven passes) was getting done by Jimmy “Neutron” Crawford who was working from starting at ninth and now he is challenging the front runners. Dude!

Rutherford continues to hold off Taylor, they are actually drag racing down the backstretch! It doesn’t get any better! Trimble’s out. Prosser’s out. Now Taylor throws some powerful slide jobs on Rutherford (“hey they were clean!” -Taylor) and Rutherford finally falls. Now with clean air in front of him, Taylor just starts banging out the laps, swinging high and just about touching the wall on every corner.

Crawford uncharacteristically starts going low and passes Rutherford. You have Taylor high, Crawford low and Rutherford trying everything. Billy Camarillo is hanging fourth and that’s something to brag about with this crowd. Henderson is present with one of his best races. Conrad is also on the move continuing his momentum from last season. (Attention all sponsors, bargain on aisle 56!)

As we come into the white flag, Taylor is so far out front I think he was home in bed before the last car crossed. Crawford second, Rutherford third, Conrad fourth and Joe Henderson fights his way into the top five column. This is going to be an incredible season.

Due to the late schedule, they ran the ponies last, but it was terribly anticlimactic. Quick work by Jack Hoyt for the win with “Hurricane Andrew” Greiman destroying the rest of the field.

It’s nice to see this wonderful resource being enjoyed by so many people. The parking lot was full, the stands were packed and the popcorn was popping. This is great news for the Raceway. I believe the Raceway is ready to start the greatest time of its history. Jim Naylor’s hard work has transformed this site into an outstanding venue for family entertainment. People like to watch racing, it contains the most inspiring elements of character. Technology is adding to the fun. Pioneers like Rick Lewis got the websites going. In car cameras are coming. Tell your friends, bring your friends. Check out vrafan.com or Save Ventura Raceway.

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