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Bandit VRA Grand Slams Races 3 and 4
Friday and Saturday, September 1^st and 2^nd, 2006

I’ve seen good folk towing a car trailer with a pickup, sprint strapped to the back like a knapsack. I’ve seen forty foot trailers pulled in by transporters that got satellite radio and plasma TV’s in every bunk. I’ve seen the less deserving leave the track with a trophy and a check. I’ve seen heroes crawl out of here on their knees with a pile of scrap dragging behind them. I’ve seen core guys drive a thousand miles; others roll out of bed into their fire suit. I know some of these guys are never leaving Booneville, others are just passing through. I’ve seen some smart guys run with it, some guys run away from it. I met the guy who almost lost everything because it was like heroin. I’ve seen jerks take everybody’s driveline and I’ve seen nobodies who took their transfer and gave it to a friend who needed it more. I’ve seen some guys racing on Visa while others charge it to their trust fund. I seen the black, I’ve seen the white and this weekend I saw it all……..

Grand Slam Victory! Chris Wakim at home in turn two.
Photo: Surfnsprint

Quick Trip through the Pits:

First I want to say kudos to Agromin who put up the cash. I saw heart and soul on the line this weekend and it’s Agromin that wrote the check. I cruised through their scene Saturday night and these guys knock me out. Billy, Steve, Mark, Rob, Wayne and all those other drivers, kids, family and crew. These guys are fully living the Ventura Raceway experience. You can find them on the pole, behind the scenes or in the Hall of Fame. Put a little PowerMix in your life and grow some wealth, health and world peace! It’s working for me.

Hooked up with Bandit Jesse Mack after his Friday night magical mystery tour (dead last to second). He owns some kind of internet something and likes to blow off a little steam on the weekends. From Visalia to Ventura; micros, sprints, 410’s; he’s checking it all out. Got a forward thinking attitude pushing his car and life. He gave the Ventura fans a hell of a show this weekend with 34 combined passes. That’s the most for anybody except maybe Kierce who unofficially passed so many people it was almost rude!

Wes Richardson and Angel Figueroa both qualified for the Saturday night main event. That’s the first time both Bach bad boys rolled out together. I caught them pre race as they walked around the cars checking this and that. They offered me some cold pizza and a soda. We talked about racing as the twilight hour deepened in the clear western and darkened sky. The harsh cold fluorescent lights of the trailer revealed a well stocked and immaculate interior. The pit area was quiet, the air was still and it felt like the calm before the storm. Joe Richardson showed up and admonished both drivers he didn’t want to see them until the winner’s circle. After an afternoon of vicious heat races, they were half way there…..

Friday Night Feature:

Qualifying and then a feature. I guess we call it a feature, what is it when a couple of division guys are seeded by points and the remainder are qualified by lap times? The usual purse ($1,000.00 to win) is up for grabs but no points for this race. However the top four for this feature will be seeded into Saturday night’s Main Event (bigger purse and points; $2,000.00 to win and Grand Slam points and VRA points). I’m pretty sure it was Taylor, Crawford, Kierce and Espinoza seeded into the Friday Night Feature. The qualifying went down about five o’clock in beautiful light with a gentle afternoon breeze. Ventura’s sharp track crew pushed them off like clockwork. Ventura’s Tom Hendricks nailed the quick time with 12.39. Nice job. Visiting 410 driver and 360 champion Blake Miller tore off the number two spot a hundredth of a second behind him. Espinoza, Crawford, Taylor, Kierce and Pombo lined up next, no surprise there. But the final three in the top ten were Tom Schneider, Brandon Thomson and Bruce Douglas. Not shocking, just impressive.

Jayson May started the weekend's metal massacre with a nasty flip while qualifying!
Photo: surfnsprint

They ran the sprints out before the main event and lined them up for the crowd to meet the drivers. I don’t think they were any strangers, the crowd was sparse and I think everybody there was related to a driver in one way or another. Cliff Morgan is still on sick leave but his team covered and executed a perfect push off. Corey Kruseman showed up on top of tower and settled in to watch the race with us. Kind of like watching a concert with Keith Richards sitting next to you. The cars are two wide, Pombo and Schneider up front, second row has Kierce and Taylor, third row has Crawford and Espinoza and the beaches of Normandy looked safer than that turn one hole. The yellow light goes out, Phillip Stevenson lifts the flag and we are green….

They stormed turn one but it was turn two where Davey Pombo stood on the pedal and shot a hole between the first two cars. He was leading by turn three and Kierce was also right there. Billy Camarillo took it into the wall at turn two and we are yellow. Espinoza has a flat and leaves the track. Rutherford leaves the track, fixes something and comes back on. Green again and it’s Pombo, Kierce, Miller and Crawford. Pombo and Kierce are engaged and a little further back it’s Miller and Crawford. Crawford gets around Miller, Taylor gets around Hendricks and Espinoza suddenly leaves the track (funny, looked at his car later and couldn’t see any damage). Now Miller nicks Crawford again and suddenly Taylor and Crawford are making contact coming into turn one. Crawford starts rotating and then flips! He’s got a broken rear end and Taylor limps off with a flat.

Suddenly the top two point leaders (Espinoza and Crawford) are DNF on a night with no points at stake! It’s like a ten car pileup but it’s only your X Box! Taylor gets back on the track under the yellow and I’m looking at the lineup. Steve Conrad started in the back as an alternate and he has worked his way to sixth! His last row buddy Jesse Mack is also on the move. We restart and Pombo fumbles his lead position. Everywhere the lead driver starts the green, but not in Ventura. In Ventura, the flagman starts the race and it’s every man for himself. It looked like Pombo was asleep and Kierce was very much awake. Kierce saw the flag go up and hit the pedal. Now it’s Kierce, Miller and Pombo with Hendricks hanging tough. In a blink Trimble gets sideways in turn four and dashed to the infield just missing half the cars. Like a pedestrian running across four lanes of rush hour freeway. Miraculously nobody hits him. He’d get it later in the weekend….

Now it’s Kierce, Miller and Hendricks with Miller diving low and actually nicking Kierce for the front. But it was short-lived; before he could complete a lap Billy Camarillo caught a wall in turn two again, started flipping and pulled in Jim Thomson. It was the first bad crash of a rash and the track went red. Thomson had the EMT’s look at him but I heard he was ok. Fourteen completed and sixteen to go. Kierce resumed the lead position and we are green. It’s Blake Miller trying to pass Kevin Kierce but Kevin doesn’t make mistakes twice. They are in lockstep, high in turns one and two, low in turns three and four. Further back it’s Hendricks, Trimble and Pombo. Now Kierce and Miller are in traffic and Miller is getting stuffed. Kierce starts pulling away and it’s five to go when Trimble stalls in three and we are yellow again, green again!

Now the track has turned into a giant cigar and Kevin Kierce is smoking it! He is so on the gas he is gone, gone, gone! He would have just run his victory laps but there was a freak out in turn three. All I can see is that Taylor, Conrad, Prosser and Hendrix are piled. I heard somebody was sliding somebody! Now the back of your top ten is moving up! Green again and Kevin Kierce really is faster than anybody. He’s been doing the heavy lifting all season, running every chance he got and now it’s paying off. He was so far ahead he was into tomorrow and making breakfast! That engine was dying and Kevin sent it straight to hell in style, roaring under the checkered flag. Jesse Mack went from the back to second and just wanted to thank his sponsors. Blake Miller took third, was headed to Perris to run 410’s on Saturday night which meant fifth place Wakim was seeded for the Saturday event. This wasn’t the only time this weekend Wakim would be helped by the Millers, more on that later. Bruce Douglas had clinched third place, big weekend for Bruce who was opening the Ventura Surf Museum on Saturday and now seeded into Saturday nights Main Event! This hard working son of a gun just wanted to thank Debra! Bruce is the real surfnsprint!

Iron Men! KK and the 2Crew win the Friday night feature!
Photo: Dave Wolf

Like I said, Jesse Mack had the most passes tonight with twenty, followed by Chris Wakim with eleven. The indomitable Chris Wakim had crashed badly the week previous. Another Wednesday night grind in his garage and he was rolling onto the track Friday afternoon. He took the last qualifying transfer and worked into the feature. He took the car from starting sixteenth to fifth. Miller’s default moved him up one and seeded him into the main event. Survivor. The stage was set.

Saturday’s Main Event:

First off a shout out to Bigbird and Yoshi Yasaki. Yoshi is a cameraman from Japan working in Hollywood who gets out to Ventura every chance he gets! I was stoked to see Yoshi in the stands for tonight’s race!

Bigbird and Yoshi digging the action in front of turn one
Photo: surfnsprint

I photographed the heat races Saturday afternoon so I didn’t keep any notes. The crisp afternoon light highlighted an unusual amount of destruction, with one heat having two reds. Jeff Oliver hit the wall in turn two on the first lap. Flipped so hard he dug a six foot trench in the cushion. Walked away into the afternoon glare with a real surprised look. The awesome Will Perkins came back and tore it up again on the backstretch. I have missed watching this guy race, this was a huge disappointment (I’m sure Rick Hendrix has a different feeling for the whole affair, he got caught up and was done for the day). There was an incredible throw down for the transfer between Brandon Thomson and Brian Camarillo, Brandon got the best of this one but these are both rising stars. Derek Buckley looked strong in his heat, placing second right behind Luis Espinoza. Espinoza has matured into a driver that just expects to win his heat. He just gets out there and gets it done. You see the same thing in Crawford, Kierce, ect……amazing how mental the whole thing is….The day rolled into evening and the large car count spawned two semis. Two would transfer from each semi with Tom Hendricks ripping the first semi. Oliver came back from his heat disaster to take the second transfer. Semi number two showed why Rutherford is top five, dominating for the first transfer. Tom Schneider got together with Joey Laymen on the front stretch and Laymen took a wild ride. It’s now Sunday morning and I bet Joey is still trying to get the taste of blood, metal and oil out of his mouth. Joe Henderson showed his grit and snatched the very last transfer. That left twenty four cars out in the cold. Twenty four drivers who bought the ticket showed up at the platform and were now only watching as the train pulled out of the station. That’s gotta be a tough feeling….

Kevin Kierce pulled an invert of ten and that rocked the lineup. Chris Wakim went to the pole and Derek Buckley landed next to him. Bill Camarillo and Bruce Douglas were behind them, Brandon Thomson and Davey Pombo in the third row. Kierce, Taylor, Crawford and Espinoza were all further back. Mike and Tim Truex hit the record button, Scott Holder pronounced the line up correct and twenty two sprint cars launched.

Wakim took the lead but we immediately had a cluster cluck in turn three. Most significant was that Kierce was going to the back. Camarillo was out. Joining Kierce in the rear was Richardson, Fiscus, Oliver, Trimble, Prosser and Jay Ervine. Complete restart, with Wakim again lunging to the front. Now we locked into a cycle of Wakim with Buckley high, Crawford on their butt by going low and the young Brandon Thomson hauling in fourth. Pombo, Taylor and Espinoza were all trying to catch Brandon! The Derek Buckley fan club over in turn four is going nuts as Derek is sticking to the high speed Wakim. Wakim had been on the phone all evening with Danny Miller and was using a set up formula Danny came up with. Danny was in Perris dealing with his son Blake’s race there. Anyhow whatever they dreamed up was working gangbusters. Wakim was the “Bullet” tonight but Derek was up for it. On the backstretch Derek passed Chris for the lead and everybody in the joint was rocking. Suddenly Steve Conrad had to check up for whatever and it spread to Fiscus and Figueroa. As the cars cycled on the yellow, Buckley fell back alongside Wakim and was pounding on the side of his car and screaming “Come on, you cowboy, let’s race!” That how Kierce told me the story and he was there. Buckley did confirm it to me later but added he also yelled “Is there any chance in hell you are going to let me win this race?!” Wakim just shook his head no….

The Chris and Derek adventure was electrifying everybody in the place….

Buckley was pounding on the side of his car and screaming "Come on, you cowboy, let's race!"
Photo: surfnsprint

Green again and now it’s Wakim stalking Buckley. Twelve laps down and eighteen to go.

It’s Buckley, Wakim, Crawford, Taylor and Pombo. Everybody is high when suddenly a Taylor slide job goes south in turn two and gathers up Davey Pombo. Tough break for Pombo, he is done. Tough Brandon Thomson has also broken something and leaves. On the new green, it is Buckley, Wakim, Crawford and Espinoza in a tight race. I remember watching Wakim hugging Buckley so tightly in complete faith that Derek was going to hold a clean line. That’s unbelievable next level racing, trusting each other like brothers. Now Trimble gets sideways in turn three and Richardson t bones him pretty good. Taylor is also stopped and he is gone. We go green and look who’s back in the top five, here comes iron man Kevin Kierce fighting and clawing his way back to the front from the back. I’m outta words on Kevin Kierce; this guy can’t bear a good race without him. He lost his engine in Friday’s win and now he’s got his dad’s old engine that they threw in this morning. Kevin lost his dad a while back; I suspect his dad’s having a hoot watching his boy now!

Now Prosser got caught up in some mess on the front and flipped wicked. The track went red and the cars all shut down. Oren was ok but this was a new chassis and it had to hurt.

I’m watching photographer Dave Wolf walk the track and talk to the stranded drivers. Dave Wolf owns that infield, he’s seen it all and photographed most of it. He’s there every day from the hot laps to the final checkered flag and that can be a cold and windy place. He walks from car to car and talks to each driver. They want to know what happened, what line is working, whatever. They’re like his children and he loves them all equally.

Twenty laps completed, ten to go and Wakim is stalking real patient. Finally Buckley swings a little too high on turn one, Wakim executes perhaps the cleanest slide job of the weekend and takes him coming out of turn two. Kierce has worked to third and it’s Wakim, Buckley, Kierce and Crawford. We have one more yellow when Tim Moon spins in one, then its off to the races. Wakim is a freaking speed machine, clipping off perfectly drawn lines, no doubt, no hesitation, no takers as he shreds the checkered flag. Kierce takes second and tells me later he knew Wakim was gone. The two top runners up from last years chase are now in their groove. Kierce is moving again from fourth to third in the VRA point’s race. Incredible work ethic. Wakim has won three of the last six races and even if can’t reach the championship; he has confirmed his role as one of Ventura’s greatest. Derek Buckley drove the pants off his car and showed everybody the spirit of dirt track racing. Jimmy Crawford took fourth and is still haunting fifth place Luis Espinoza’s point lead. Jeff Fiscus was the best bandit showing with sixth. Scott has not recalculated VRA points yet but we’ll post those points as soon as they come. On the Grand Slam, Jimmy Crawford is now first with 320 points. Greg Taylor’s DNF pushes him to second with 306. Kevin Kierce moves up to third with 296 points. Then it’s Espinoza, Trimble, Rutherford, Wakim, Douglas, Fiscus and Mack rounding out the top ten.

I want to thank every bandit that made the drive to race at Ventura. When I see this much effort, this much speed and this much destruction, I have to reach deep to come to terms with it all. The thrill of victory is fleeting compared to hard patches. Wakim caught a wheel last week and broke just about everything on that car. Fortunately you could throw him and his crew (hey Arnie) in a dark closet with a bag of parts and they will come out with a winning sprint car. I try to realize that living racing is enjoying the process. I enjoy the guys offering me cold pizza in their trailer as much as the victory dinner later. The fresh chance of every heat race is just as good as a grand slam win. I respect the winners that have figured that out and are living racing.

Chris Wakim with twenty of his 218,296 fans.
Photo: surfnsprint

posted: 2:51 PM