PERRIS,
CALIF., March 4, 2006 –Cory Kruseman, Ventura,
Calif., started fifth in Glenn Crossno’s Agromin Soil
#38 Bullet and went on to grab his first USAC/CRA win of
the young season Saturday night at the Perris Auto
Speedway.
“My guys did a great job and they had the Bullet car
right on the money tonight. It’s been a good year for
us so far,” Kruseman said after his 30-lap triumph.
“We went down to Florida and won, and there have just
been a lot of good things that have happened for us this
year. Auto racing is an up and down business, and
we’re up right now. Hopefully, our down isn’t too
far down.”
For the second race in a row, Bobby Cody, Costa Mesa,
Calif., found himself sharing the front row with an
Illinois driver. This time it was Matt Neeley of
Robinson, Ill., driving the Ishii Farms #71G Eagle, who
promptly took the lead at the drop of the green flag.
Josh Ford (Camarillo, Calif.) ran third at the end of
the opening lap ahead of Kruseman. Ford moved his
BerryXpress.com #73 TCR past Cody and into the runner-up
spot on the second circuit, with Kruseman falling into
third. One lap later, Kruseman moved ahead of Ford and
into the second position.
Damion Gardner, Concord, Calif., thrilled the fans on
lap six as he wheeled his Ron Chaffin / Temecula Valley
Pipe & Supply #50 Eagle by Cody along the back
straight. Earlier in the evening, Gardner once again
worked his magic in qualifying, turning the fastest lap
for the third time in as many races this season. By
night’s end, Gardner’s run in time trials would give
him a one-point edge over Kruseman in the series point
standings.
Kruseman took the lead from Neeley along the back
straight on the seventh lap. With less than a third of
the race completed, and Gardner now up to second place,
it was apparent that another showdown between “The
Kruser” and “The Demon” was imminent.
David Cardey’s lap eleven spin was the only caution
period of the race, which also gave Gardner his first
opportunity to challenge for the lead. Gardner seemed
content to follow Kruseman after the restart, perhaps
waiting for lapped traffic to take his shot at the lead.
Kruseman reached lapped traffic on lap 21, with Gardner
poised to take advantage of the slightest mistake. As if
he had a rearview mirror, Kruseman aggressively attacked
lapped traffic and opened-up some distance between
himself and Gardner.
“The scoreboard tells you who is behind you, and
sometimes the people behind you don’t mind taking a
few chances,” Kruseman later explained. “Tonight,
all the lappers seemed to want to run the groove that I
was in, so there were a lot of slide-jobs and moving
people. Luckily, we didn’t bang off of anybody and
everything was clean.”
Everything seemed to be going Kruseman’s way until he
was faced with a pair of cars running side-by-side with
two laps to go. In the process of passing the slower
cars, Kruseman pushed up the race track. This allowed
Gardner to pull back to within striking distance.
With the exception of the one restart, Kruseman and
Gardner were the closest together they had been the
entire race as they flew past the white flag. Heading
into the final set of corners, Kruseman elected to
follow a slower car onto the turn three cushion. It
turned out to be a wise decision since Gardner was
unable to find the traction he needed on the bottom.
“There were two or three lapped cars that I ran up on
and it killed my momentum and broke my stride. It’s
also the time when the guy behind me may be building
some momentum,” recalled Kruseman. “I ran 20 of the
30 laps on the top and I knew what to expect. I just
wanted to make sure that I hit my marks and we’d see
what happens.”
Neeley finished third ahead of Ford and the Hal Engstrom
/ Spenco Machine #44 TCR driven by Mike Spencer
(Temecula, Calif.). In addition to his runner-up finish,
Gardner’s drive from the eighth starting spot earned
him Hard Charger honors for the race.
USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS:
March 4, 2006 – Perris, California, Perris Auto
Speedway
TIME
TRIALS:
1. Damion Gardner, 50, Chaffin-16.375, 2. Josh Wise, 7W,
Priestley- 16.480, 3. Rickie Gaunt, 2A, Smiley- 16.599,
4. Johnny Rodriguez, 7, Priestley- 16.658, 5. Rick
Williams, 6, Williams- 16.675, 6. Mike Spencer, 44,
Engstrom- 16.704, 7. Cory Kruseman, 38, Crossno- 16.775,
8. Josh Ford, 73, Ford- 16.876, 9. Dwayne Marcum, 12,
Pratt- 16.915, 10. Tony Jones, 4, Alexander- 16.918,
11. Matt Neeley, 71g, Ishii- 16.938, 12. J Hicks, 66,
Miller- 16.947, 13. Bobby Cody, 92, Sertich - 16.976,
14. Steve Ostling, 19, Argo- 17.005, 15. R. J. Johnson,
15AZ, Martin - 17.010, 16. Allan Ballard, 97, Ballard-
17.031, 17. Charles Davis, Jr., 8A, Smiley- 17.047, 18.
Jesse Hockett, 2az, Massey- 17.065, 19. Danny Ebberts,
77, Acosta- 17.067, 20. Danny Sheridan, 18, Kittle -
17.073, 21. Levi Jones, 42x, Cheney - 17.110, 22. Rick
Ziehl, 0, Shoemaker- 17.113, 23. Dave Darland, 42,
Cheney - 17.118, 24. Seth Wilson, 17, Racing Optics -
17.118, 25. Evan Suggs, 33E, Suggs- 17.152, 26. David
Cardey, 59, Giardina- 17.170, 27. Mark Heidenreich, 22,
Heidenreich - 17.236, 28. Jack DeArmond, Jr., 9,
DeArmond- 17.240, 29. Blake Miller, 5, Keller - 17.249,
30. Mike Kirby, 96, Kirby - 19.290, 31. Randy Waitman,
09, Waitman- 17.300, 32. Rusty Carlile, 51, Carlile-
17.340, 33. Greg Taylor, 47, Taylor- 17.340, 34. Robert
Ellis, 43, Ellis- 17.468, 35. Jordan Hermansader, 14,
Lancaster- 17.520, 36. Nadine Keller, 16, Keller -
17.525, 37. Ronnie Case, 33, Blair- 17.614, 38. Tom
Stansberry, 75t, Stansberry- 17.625, 39. Rick Becker,
11, Wilkerson- 17.712, 40. Jeremy Ellerston, 98,
Ellerston - 17.717, 41. Ryan Devitt, 35, Devitt- 17.730,
42. Chad Boespflug, 90, Gatten- 17.743, 43. Matt
Stewart, 85, Stewart- 17.753, 44. Josh Williams, 34,
Williams- 17.783, 45. Eric Severson, 36x, Severson-
17.805, 46. Todd Hunsaker, 6x, Hunsaker- 17.875, 47. Rip
Williams, 3, Jory - 18.030, 48. Nate Ziegler, N8,
Ziegler - 18.225, 49. Verne Sweeney, 98S, Sweeney-
18.458, 50. Brandon Springstead, 36, Springstead-
18.482, 51. Ludwig Solberg IV, 13, Solberg- 18.497, 52.
Jim Giardina, 58, Giardina- 18.975, 53. Brandon Thomson,
19T, Thomson- 19.227, 54. Royal Adderson, 38x, Adderson-
21.707, 55. J.J. Ercse, 25, Ruth- 23.158, 56. Thomas
Grunkemeyer, 6z, Grunkemeyer- No Time, 57. Jim Thomson,
91, Thomson- No Time.
C-MAIN
#1: (6 laps)
1. Jordan Hermansader, 2. Greg Taylor, 3. Rip Williams,
4. Rick Becker, 5. Matt Stewart, 6. Ronnie Case, 7.
Verne Sweeney, 8. Eric Severson, 9. Ludwig Solberg IV,
10. Ryan Devitt, 11. Thomas Grunkemeyer, 12. Brandon
Thomson, 13. Jim Thomson.
C-MAIN
#2: (6 laps)
1. Nadine Keller, 2. Jeremy Ellertson, 3. Tom
Stansberry, 4. Josh Williams, 5. Chad Boespflug, 6. Nate
Ziegler, 7. Brandon Springstead, 8. Todd Hunsaker, 9.
Royal Adderson, 10. J.J. Ercse, 11. Jim Giardina, 12.
Robert Ellis.
FIRST
HEAT: (10 laps)
1. Charles Davis Jr., 2. Damion Gardner, 3. Bobby Cody,
4. Blake Miller, 5. Evan Suggs, 6. Levi Jones, 7. Jordan
Hermansader, 8. Nadine Keller, 9. Dwayne Marcum, 10.
Rick Williams.
SECOND
HEAT: (10 laps)
1. David Cardey, 2. Jesse Hockett, 3. Tony Jones,
4. Mike Kirby, 5. Mike Spencer, 6. Steve Ostling, 7.
Rick Ziehl, 8. Josh Wise, 9. Greg Taylor, 10. Jeremy
Ellertson.
THIRD
HEAT: (10 laps)
1. Cory Kruseman, 2. Mat Neely, 3. R.J. Johnson, 4.
Rickie Gaunt, 5. Rip Williams, 6. Mark Heidenreich, 7.
Tom Stansberry, 8. Danny Ebberts, 9. Dave Darland, 10.
Randy Waitman.
FOURTH
HEAT: (10 laps)
1. Danny Sheridan, 2. Seth Wilson, 3. Johnny
Rodriguez, 4. Josh Ford, 5. J Hicks, 6. Jack DeArmond
Jr., 7. Alan Ballard, 8. Rick Becker, 9. Rusty Carlile,
10. Josh Williams.
SEMI: (12
laps)
1. Mike Spencer, 2. Josh Wise, 3. Rick Williams, 4. Dave
Darland, 5. Alan Ballard, 6. Danny Ebberts, 7. Rip
Williams, 8. Rick Ziehl, 9. Levi Jones, 10. Greg Taylor,
11. Dwayne Marcum, 12. Evan Suggs, 13. Josh Williams,
14. Jack DeArmond Jr., 15. Rusty Carlile, 16. Tom
Stansberry, 17. Jeremy Ellertson, 18. Mark Heidenreich,
19. J Hicks, 20. Nadine Keller, 21. Steve Ostling, 22.
Rick Becker.
FEATURE:
(30 laps - With Starting Positions)
1. Cory Kruseman (5th), 2. Damion Gardner (8th), 3. Mat
Neely (2nd), 4. Josh Ford (4th), 5. Mike Spencer (11th),
6. Rickie Gaunt (7th), 7. Tony Jones (3rd), 8.
Josh Wise (9th), 9. Bobby Cody (1st), 10. Charles Davis
Jr. (14th), 11. Johnny Rodriguez (6th), 12. Dave Darland
(18th), 13. R.J. Johnson (12th), 14. Danny Ebberts
(16th), 15. Mike Kirby (21st), 16. Alan Ballard (13th),
17. Danny Sheridan (17th), 18. Rick Williams (10th), 19.
Jesse Hockett (15th), 20. Rip Williams (22nd), 21. Blake
Miller (20th), 22. David Cardey (19th).
----------------------
**Waitman flipped during the third heat and was
transported to
Riverside
Community
Hospital
for observation; Ostling flipped during the semi.
*Note: Seth
Wilson scratched prior to the start of the main event
allowing Rip Williams to earn a direct transfer from the
semi.
FEATURE
LAP LEADERS:
Lap 1-6 Neely, 7-30 Kruseman
HARD
CHARGER: Gardner 8th – 2nd
USAC/CRA POINT STANDINGS:
1. Gardner-200, 2. Kruseman-199, 3. Spencer-155, 4.
Sheridan-132, 5. Hockett-121, 6. Williams-97, 6.
Kirby-97, 8. Ford-94, 9. Tony Jones-89, 10.
Cardey-85
NEXT
USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR RACE:
March 18 - Manzanita Speedway
, Phoenix, AZ
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