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RACING SCENE Column -PAS Sprints, June 13

RACING SCENE Column -PAS Sprints, June 13
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Los Angeles, CA.-- The fifth Amsoil USAC-CRA sprint car race of the 2015 season at Perris Auto Speedway (PAS) took place June 13 with a good-size crowd present. Racing photographer Mike Arthur was back on duty in the PAS pits after being inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Iowa on May 30. He said he enjoyed the experience, but Saturday night Knoxville sprints were rained out. The PAS 410 cu. in. series had 23 cars in the pits, including a pair of 360 cu. in. senior sprints doing double duty. PAS car counts in order this season have been 28, 27, 21, 24 and 23.
 
The competitive and growing PAS Senior Sprints had 13 cars. Three PAS Young Gun drivers present started at the back of the senior sprint main event for a 16-car field. They scored first, second and third place points towards the Young Gun championship no matter where they finished in the 16-car field. Young Guns ran a three driver, 6-lap heat race to start the evening at 7:15. Courtney Crone, 14, led all the way in winning her first sprint car race at PAS. Her driving coach Wally Pankratz and Sammy Tanner were in her No. 81 Steve Watt 360 Chevy pit offering advice.
 
Young Gun drivers normally race 6-lap heats and 15-lap main events. By starting at the back of 20-lap senior sprint features the young gunners get to race five more laps. George Morris, 21, drove Cory Kruseman's Driving School No. 3k from 15th starting spot to finish in P. 8. He said this will be his final young gun campaign and in 2016 he will race VRA 360s in Ventura or a 360 in the USAC West Coast Series. Crone started 14th and finished 11th on the lead lap. Mitch Collins, 18, drove from 16th to 12th and completed 19 laps. Mitch returned from his first year as a statistics major at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He said everything went well and will return in the fall.
 
QUOTES: Young Gun winner George Morris told spectators, “It was fun. The car was set-up right thanks to Hobie (Conway) and my dad. I love racing with the seniors. We get a lot more laps and experience on the track. It helps me get better.” ... P. 2 Crone said, “I raced go-karts, focus midgets and 360 sprints. You do whatever you must. This race I tried to stay out of trouble. I could have been more aggressive. My driving coach Wally is the best. He has been around for so long.” ... P. 3 Collins stated, “I didn't know when I got here I was going to race. Dad (Mike) raced our car in USAC-CRA tonight not in the Senior Sprints, so I got to race it too.”
 
The June 13 PAS sprint car event was a tribute to the late couple, Bill and Evelyn Pratt, of El Monte. Their No. 7 sprint car won the 1972 CRA car owner championship. Evelyn remained a fixture as pit steward at sprint car races until she relocated to Texas several years ago to be closer to her daughter. She passed away at 95 last December. Members of the Pratt family attended the PAS June 13 tribute to their parents. Prior to the first race, two sprint cars drove slow parade laps and then a few hot laps in tribute to Bill and Evelyn. One of their long-time drivers, Steve Ostling, was in a backup Sertich No. 92. Tobey Sampson was in his No. 12B, a tribute car to the late CRA car owner Don Blair.
 
At intermission, PAS promoter Donnie Kazarian announced that at the 20th annual PAS Oval Nationals for USAC National and USAC-CRA Sprint Cars (November 12-14, 2015) Bill will be remembered on Thursday, November 12 and Evelyn on Friday, November 13. The Pratts were the Oval Nationals co- grand marshals 12 years ago. The 2015 Oval Nationals grand marshal will be former sprint car driver Tony Jones. Kazarian and Rickie Gaunt related brief stories about the Pratts over the pit mic.
 
PAS has about an hour of recordings of Evelyn's voice in her capacity of PAS pit steward. Following the drivers meeting and before cars went on the half-mile for warm-up and then hot laps it seemed like old times. A recording played over the track PA system of Evelyn saying, “Let's go gentlemen, to staging.” The track PA played the same recording of Evelyn exhorting main event teams to push their cars to the main event grid. It sounded like Evelyn was present saying those words in person.
 
Other racing personalities who passed lately included Don Weaver, a; successful USAC midget driver and car owner. He lost his courageous battle with leukemia on June 4 in North Carolina where his son Pancho lives and works. Don was the key person in past Legends of Ascot luncheons and awards ceremonies at PAS. Larry Naston, a So Cal race track announcer/Motor-sports Radio Network NASCAR west coast correspondent, also succumbed at age 53 on June 12 after health problems. Others lost this year include author/noted SCCA sports car driver Denise McCluggage and Willow Springs Int'l Raceway (Rosamond) owner Bill Huth. RIP all.
 
USAC-CRA heats: Two of 23 cars present were eliminated in heats - (Anthony Lopiccolo – wall contact in first turn) and (Parker Colston – mechanical problem B4 the lineup). So the main event started only 21 cars, one short of normal. Interestingly, the Vander Weerd twins—Jace and Richard—won heats 2 and 3. In heat 1 on lap 3 between the first two corners P. 2 Logan Williams got sideways at the cushion. His brother Cody (in P. 3) slid sideways into Logan's team car, which continued non-stop. P. 4 Mike Spencer's No. 50 Maxim could not avoid sliding into Cody's car and did a slow flip over Cody's No. 44 Spike. It landed upright, and received a push to the work area for front axle work. Cody's car was out on a hook.
 
Spencer restarted lap 2 at the back and was in P. 4 in one lap, P. 3 by lap 3, P. 2 at lap 5 and 20-yards in back of leader Rickie Gaunt. After eight laps Spencer was right behind “Super Rickie”; he took the lead on lap 9 with an inside pass at turn one. Spencer led lap 9 by ten yards and won the 10-lap race by 30-yards. Not too shabby for a prompt recovery after a flip. Mike is a real racer.
 
The 30-lap USAC-CRA feature started at 9;16 and had a red flag for Cal Smith's flip without injury at the mid-backstretch crash-wall. The restart at 9:25 had a spectacular move by race winner Damion Gardner in Mark Alexander's No. 4. Damion started fourth, alongside Jake Swanson's No. 92. Chris Gansen was on pole and A. J. Bender was outside in the first row. Damion shot between the two front row drivers on the restarted first lap and had the lead exiting the second turn. He led all 30 laps for his third victory in the eight races run this season.
 
The feature had one caution at lap 13 when Damion led by 40-yards. Spencer, the sixth starter, took P. 2 from Swanson on lap 14 with an inside pass in the second turn. As Damion encountered slower cars on lap 25, his 30-yard advantage shrank; Spencer closed in and trailed by five yards. Fifth starter Austin Williams was in P. 3 at lap 16 and only five yards in back of Spencer. It made an exciting 1-2-3 finish, but positions remained unchanged. Nine of 15 finishers completed all 30 laps. P. 11 Jace Vander Weerd was lapped only by winner Gardner at the lap 30 checkers.
 
Quotes: Winner Damion said, “We've had a lot of bad luck lately, but weathered the storm and kept digging. Running second, third or fourth and breaking is tough on everybody. I get on everyone. But we keep digging.” ... Runner-up Spencer told spectators, “It wasn't near as bad as last time here. They cut the track and it was a fast race. I ran those guys down and thought we had a fast car. I'm excited about our progress. It was a crazy night, flipped in a heat race, got a new front axle in it and raced.” ... P. 3 Austin Williams stated, “I was right there with Spencer, but lapped cars got in the way. I didn't want to take out Mike. It was hot today and it's spitting out water now. It will be good for our next race in Santa Maria (July 3) and July 4 here.”
 
SENIOR SPRINTS: The entertaining and talented PAS Senior Sprints for experienced or rookie 360 cu. in. sprint car drivers age 45 and older continues to grow at PAS in year five. So far this season 23 different senior sprinters have raced at PAS. Senior champions have been: Bill Badger (No. 75) in 2011 & 2014, Bruce Douglass (No. 31) in 2012, and Rick Hendrix (No. 15) in 2013. Some of the newer senior sprint drivers deserve the spotlight.
 
Sensational veteran sprint car/midget driver Dwayne Marcum, 48, originally raced out of Fresno, but he has lived in Riverside since 2012. He has raced his comeback ride—the 2015 No. 25 Triple X chassis owned by his step-brother Jason Yount and his wife Lisa, of Fresno. “My mom married Jason's dad. Jason called me in December and asked if I wanted to go racing again in a new car. I said sure,” Dwayne related. After racing at PAS, Yount tows the No. 25 sprint car back home to Fresno on an open-trailer, just as teams transported cars through the 1960s. Dwayne said he got Jason his first BCRA midget ride in Sam Horton's No. 17.
 
The Marcum/Yount team was not ready to race their new car until April so missed the March 7 season opener. On April 18, with 19 cars present, Dwayne finished fourth in the 20-lap main in the new car's maiden outing. On May 2, with 15 total senior sprints in the pits, Dwayne placed fifth in the main. Then it all came together. On May 23, with 15 seniors racing, Dwayne won his first ever sprint car feature in the third race for the white/black numeral No. 25. On June 13 there were 14 seniors racing and Dwayne drove the No. 25 to his second consecutive victory. Despite missing the opener in March Dwayne has jumped up to about fourth in senior points. Three senior sprint point nights remain in 2015. Does he have time to win his first senior sprint car championship?
MEL MURPHY, 66, from unincorporated Woodcrest (near Riverside) made his senior sprint debut June 13 in the older Chris Gansen Maxim chassis, No. 4d. He said he helps the team at times in their shop. They offered him a chance to race their now backup car with the seniors after they bought a new Maxim for Chris to race. Max accepted and was competitive June 13 in his first sprint car outing in about 11 years. Max drove his own older No. 62 sprint car in SCRA races at PAS and sold it. He said the Maxim is a great car to drive.
 
Smiling Max was interviewed by pit announcer Ronnie Everhart and admitted to a bit of nervousness. He raced well by starting second in the second senior heat race. He led lap 1 over past PAS senior champion Bruce Douglass and finished second (- a straightaway) with six veteran senior drivers still racing at the finish. Mel started fifth in the 16-car seniors feature; he was in P. 13 on lap 14 when he dropped out.
 
JACK DeARMOND, JR., 49, is a Corona del Mar resident and works in real estate. He is owner/driver of the black No. 9, a 2002 Twister chassis and the only coil-over suspension car still active at PAS. The car had a nasty-looking flip June 13 while in P. 8 on lap 17 of the 20-lap PAS main. It hit the wall, rolled two and a half times at the crash-wall before landing on its side. Jack was not hurt seriously, but the older chassis received “serious front end damage and the cage was shifted to the left” according to pit reporter Everhart.
Prior to the the races I spoke to Jack and learned he had been out of racing almost a decade. He returned recently to have fun racing for points and trophies with other seniors. He might need a new chassis and a sponsor to continue racing. Jack is the son of Jack, Sr., who raced CRA sprints for Barton Welch and others during the mid-1960s. Jack, Jr. said his dad suffered a fatal heart attack in the PAS grandstand about a decade ago while watching him race. Jack, Jr rushed up from the pits, but his dad was not conscious and did not survive. Jack, Jr said on the day his dad died he had just come from the funeral service for his brother Dick DeArmond, who had raced NMRA-TQ midgets in his younger years.
 
DALE UNDERWOOD, 51, of Wildomar, is a veteran IMCA Modified (No. 98) driver at PAS and other western tracks. He said he won the 1999 PAS track championship and a 2004 modified title. After a divorce he got back to racing. His new wife likes racing and works on his car in the pits. Dale's blue-white-red 98 sprint car is a 2010 Maxim he purchased from an owner in Nor Cal. Dale has Indiana Truck Salvage as his sponsor, as does the No. 5x Dino Napier sprint car raced by fellow IMCA Modified driver and Napier's stepson Tommy Malcolm, of Corona. They pit at PAS next to each other for mutual assistance.
 
RICHARD McCORMICK, 57, of Canyon Country, led laps early and tied his P. 3 career-best third in a senior feature on May 23 and again placed third on June 13. He drives the No. 71 2004 TCR chassis owned by Steve Luport, of Burbank. It was the No. 45 Harlan Willis-owned car that Damion Gardner drove in his early races at PAS. The 71 sponsor on the hood is Matt Sweeney Special Effects. The firm did the movie “Fast & Furious” special effects and consulted on the 2015 release “Furious 7”. Richard has printed “In Memory of Bruce McCormick” at the front of the car. Bruce was one of three brothers (Ed and Bob were the others) who worked as CRA corner yellow flagmen at Ascot and other tracks in the 1960s-70s.
 
CHRIS WAKIM, 52, of Simi Valley, is a NMRA and USAC-TQ Midget Series veteran. He
drives the No. 81m 2014 Maxim owned by Steve Watt, of Ventura. Steve Horne is the crew chief and he also serves in the same capacity for the Vander Weerd team from Visalia. Both teams pit near each other for Horne's convenience. Watt told me his No. 81 Maxim raced by PAS Young Gun rookie Courtney Crone on May 23 was damaged three times—watts linkage in warm-ups/hot-laps, tail when she backed into the turn 3 wall in a heat race, and other significant damage when she rode the crash-wall in turns 3 and 4 during the main. Total cost of repair was $4,000, which Courtney's dad Jack paid. “It was an expensive night,” Jack agreed.