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PAS Sprint Car Triple-Header

PAS Sprint Car Triple-Header
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The “So Cal Sprint Car Spectacular” at Perris Auto Speedway on April 12 was a first-time event featuring three sprint car series. World of Outlaws (WoO) winged 410 cu. in. sprint cars were joined for the first time by USAC-CRA 410 non-wing sprinters AND non-wing PAS Senior Sprints (360 cu. in. and a few restricted 410s) for drivers age 45+. Grandstands and pits were more crowded this year than last year when WoO was accompanied only by the winged California Lightning Sprints powered by motorcycle engines. Several hundred additional fans in the grandstand this year made the triple-header sprint car program a must-see in-person event.

On April 12 there were 63 cars present—16 WoO pitted beyond the first turn in the paved parking lot, plus 28 USAC-CRA cars and 19 senior sprinters in the infield as usual. Twenty-seven of the 28 USAC-CRA cars qualified from 5:46-6:05 pm. Jake Swanson's No. 92 Sertich “Moose-mobile” lost oil pressure and had an engine vibration during the first wheel-packing session. That parked the car for the evening and prevented the promising sprint car rookie from racing. He finished the 2013 USAC Western Midget Series second in driver points.

PAS Seniors had a track record 19 cars in the pits for their second race in year four as a separate series. Four newcomers joined the fun group that races hard for trophies. Darren Slater, a 54-year old Scripps Ranch resident, had his No. 44 TCR in action. It is the ex-Hal Engstrom ride driven by Mike Spencer before he moved to Ron Chafin's No. 50 Maxim ride and multi-USAC-CRA championships. Slater is a long-time friend of Engstrom and bought the car from him several years ago. Slater is the Barona Speedway 1993 250cc micros driving champion. He has raced other series as well and plans to be a senior sprint regular.

The WoO series ran its 14th event at PAS since the track opened in 1996. It had a PAS-low 16 cars present. Only season-long point chasers raced this year. WoO qualified from 6:31-6:43 pm. In 2013 WoO had 21 cars at PAS; 26 WoO cars raced at PAS in 2012. This year WoO had 31 cars in action Friday, April 11 at Kings Speedway in Hanford, near Fresno. The King of the West (KoW) winged sprint car series booked a point race Saturday, April 12 at Tulare, just south of Hanford. That race conflict kept an estimated five to seven cars in the San Joaquin Valley instead of traveling south to Perris. The April KoW 12 race in Tulare had 31 cars present.

Nine WoO drivers (and cars) present at PAS last season and missing this year were: Craig Dollansky (No. 7), Chad Kemenah (63), Kyle Hirst (83jr), Jonathan Allard (0), Greg Wilson (20w), Jason Meyers (21m), Austen Wheatley (44), and Bill Rose's two No. 6 cars for himself and David Gravel. A look at the 2014 WoO sprint car schedule shows 85 set race dates and eight dates at tracks TBA (to be announced). These events will take place in 24 states and three Canadian provinces.

WoO is in its 36th season. Two of the original WoO competitors—Steve Kinser, 59, and three-time WoO champion Sammy Swindell, 58, raced this year at PAS. Kinser, who will turn 60 onJune 2, announced his intention to quit chasing WoO points after 2014. PAS fans were able to watch the 20-time “king of the outlaws” racing for the final time in California. In the future, Steve might race closer to home and he will still field a car for his son Kraig. Steve and Sammy rank one-two on the list of WoO feature victories. Steve won his 577th in Florida two months ago and Sammy has 292. Retired Mark Kinser is third with 153 WoO triumphs. Donny Schatz ranks fourth on the list with 150. Sammy fared better at PAS this year with fourth place in the feature. Steve had a forgettable PAS result with 13th fastest qualifying time (14.589) after his son Kraig (the final qualifier) posted a 14.494, bumping his dad from 12th on the speed chart and a pole starting spot in one of the heat races. Steve finished fourth in his heat, had a main event spin on lap 2 and DNF-(mechanical problem).

The temperature at PAS was a warm 70 degrees at 5:00 pm and 57 after the WoO feature. There was a brisk wind much of the evening. WoO fast qualifying time was 13.997 (129+ mph) by Joey Saldana, who set his seventh FQ time in 14 WoO events this season. The existing PAS WoO track record is 13.875. Saldana won the 30-lap WoO feature and became the tenth different 2014 winner in 14 WoO races. WoO raced three times in Florida, twice in Las Vegas and once in Tucson, AZ before embarking on eight events at six California tracks—Tulare, Stockton, Merced, Calistoga, Hanford and Perris. Chico (March 29) was a rain-out. WoO 2014 car counts prior to Perris averaged 32 cars through Hanford. Feature winners have been: Brad Sweet (three times), Donny Schatz (twice), Daryn Pittman (twice), Steve Kinser, Paul McMahan, Rico Abreu, Kerry Madsen, David Gravel, Cody Darrah and Saldana at Perris.

WoO teams like to travel at night in California to avoid as much traffic as possible. Teams traveled south from Hanford on highways 99, 5, 58, 14 or 395 to I-15 and 215 to PAS. Some teams stayed overnight in Tehachapi and Lancaster. One team used the 210 through Pasadena to the 60 and 215. Teams arrived at PAS by noon on race day. After the PAS race most WoO trailers were headed out of the track within 45 minutes. Numerous worn-out race tires were left behind in the PAS pits; some young fans took them home as souvenirs. Some WoO teams stayed overnight in the Perris area. Others drove east on I-10 towards the next race 740 miles away in El Paso, TX on Tuesday, April 15. Some traveling teams planned to stay overnight in Blythe or Phoenix. Teams expected to be in El Paso by Sunday night.

Again this year promoter Don Kazarian authorized the collection of money for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life to help eradicate cancer. For the eighth year sprint car drivers went through the grandstands with their helmets and fans dropped cash into helmets. PAS has contributed $89,711.00 to the cancer society over the past seven years. The goal this year is to top $100,000 via fan and PAS donations.

Prior to the National Anthem, there was a minute of silence in memory of two persons connected to USAC-CRA sprint car racing. Pam Alexander, mother of Mark and Steve Alexander (car owners of Damion Gardner's No. 4), succumbed from cancer recently. ... Former CRA car owner John Elias, owner of J. Elias Redi-Mix, passed away recently following a heart attack. His drivers in the 1980s included Buster Venard, Bob East and Rip Williams.

Former CRA car owner Ernie Duncan, 84, lost his life to cancer in Fullerton on March 31. He owned ADCO Equipment Rental for many years and owned a beautiful Al Bartz-built, 15-time CRA feature winning sprinter from 1967-71. His car numbers were 45, 3, 2 and 98 and his driver was friend Billy Wilkerson for all but one of those victories. Joe Saldana, father of the current WoO driver, won the November, 1970 Ascot Park Grand Prix in Duncan's black No. 2. That car is now on display at Dick Woodland's museum in Paso Robles. The Los Angeles Times on April 3 carried a lengthy obituary and photo of Missouri native Duncan, whose given name was Lonnie Ernest Duncan, Jr.. Following services on April 4, interment followed at Loma Vista Memorial Park in Fullerton.

After three heats for USAC-CRA and three for WoO teams, seniors ran two heats. USAC-CRA ran a 12-lap B-main with P 1-10 advancing to the 30-lap feature. WoO ran a six-lap trophy dash with the finishing order setting P 1-6 for the 30-lap WoO feature that concluded racing. The Senior Sprint main ran from 9:20 to 9:38. Officials cut the scheduled 20-lap seniors main to 15-laps after a wild single-car first lap flip without injury. The front axle of Tony Lima's 14-year old TCR sprint car wound up atop the 36-ft high reinforced wire protective fence that did the job of protecting spectators in the crowded fourth turn grandstand. Bruce Douglass, 63, won in the borrowed Victor Davis No. 13 over Ed Schwarz and Bill Badger. Douglass stated, “The race was fun, clean and the track is great.” Davis, a PAS Senior winner, has retired. He allowed his friend Douglass to race his car. Davis said,“The driver has to buy the fuel and tires.”

The USAC-CRA 30-lap main ran from 9:52-10:25 with a lap 23 red flag following Cody Williams' third turn flip. The duel between winner Damion Gardner and runner-up Mike Spencer was another classic. Damion scored his second 2014 PAS victory and is now three for three in 2014 USAC-CRA feature victories. He told the crowd, “I made a couple of mistakes and had to fight them off. I had to make good restarts each time.” Runner-up Spencer told spectators, “The middle part of the race was pretty good and I caught him (Gardner). I passed him in traffic (on lap 21) but caught traffic. He almost gave it to me in the cushion there (on lap 26 when both leaders jumped the cushion in turn four).” Matt Mitchell started third and led the first three laps before Gardner shot into the lead on the outside through the third and fourth turns. P. 3 Mitchell said, “They were good. I struggled with our new piece. We'll work the bugs out if we can race more than once a month.”

The WoO 30-lap feature started at 10:40, restarted at 10:45 and finished at 11:01. Saldana led laps 1 and 6-30. All 13 finishers ran 30 laps. Saldana was virtually on P. 13 Kraig Kinser's tail during the final two laps. Runner-up Pittman led laps 2-5. Third finisher Brad Sweet, with his family (including grandparents) down from Grass Valley, closed rapidly during the final laps and made the top three finish closer than expected. Saldana, who had his 30-yard lead cut to about three lengths in the closing laps, won $10,000, Pittman $5,500 and Sweet $3,200.

When interviewed by WoO's Natalie Sather over the infield microphone, Saldana said, “I'm a fan of sprint car racing and it was great to see the USAC-CRA race tonight. Car owner Dan Motter is in Chile on business. The track was moving down. My tires were slowing so I moved down and just followed the last place car. A lot of times you want to give up and go home, but tonight it paid off.” Runner-up Pittman said he considered a slide job,” but I couldn't pull it off without leaving the door open for him to slide me. I'm mad at myself. We'll just go to the El Paso race. No sense balling up both cars with a slide job.” Third place Sweet stated, “We had a good solid night. It was fast on top and slick on the bottom. I never had the right lane to move up. I raced hard with Sammy (Swindell) at the end to keep third.” Schatz received the hard charger award for starting 12th and finishing sixth.

The 2013 WoO Perris race had 21 WoO cars plus 20 CLS support class cars for a less crowded pit area. So the 2014 WoO show offered spectators more races and 80 scheduled feature laps versus 50 last year. Track announcer Scott Daloisio at one point asked spectators if they would like to see the same triple-header all sprint car event back on the PAS schedule next year. Vocal response was affirmative, indicating fans welcomed the new event on the PAS open-wheel racing calendar. WoO drivers welcomed the rare opportunity to watch USAC 410 non-wing racing from the pits and did so. World Racing Group traveling WoO announcer Johnny Gibson announced all WoO qualifying and races at PAS. Both the WoO yearbook and PAS race program were on sale for $5.00 each. NOTE: The April 15 WoO race in El Paso had 21 cars present, including Texas winged sprint car teams. Kerry Madsen led all 30 laps for his second 2014 WoO victory.