Perris, California…(May 27, 2001) Mike Kirby has earned a reputation for knowing how to save a race car. When the car is not right, Kirby admits that his main goal is to be able to roll the car into the trailer at the end of the night. When the car is right, Kirby is usually a force to be reckoned with. In recent weeks, Kirby's had his elbows up higher than normal. A sign that the Mark Alexander & Brad Geurin / Statewide Towing No. 5 Stinger is now to his liking. After a 20th to fourth run the night before, Kirby returned to the Perris Auto Speedway Sunday night with his confidence high. He left with a 30 lap Sprint Car Racing Association (SCRA) main event win.
"I had a great race car," Kirby said with a familiar smile. "We've struggled for most of the year and Mark Alexander brought out one of his cars and told me that it would work and to try it. This car is really different from any other car that I've driven before. It's something that Mark asked Richard Harvey (Stinger Chassis) to make and they designed it together. We've tried a couple different cars this year, but I think we'll keep this one for a while." Kirby started seventh, but was up to fifth in three laps. On that same lap, Scott executed a perfect turn three slide job on Griffin to put his Pace Electronics No. 83 TCR into the lead. Griffin tried to reply in turn one, but wound up losing positions to Kruseman and Ostling. Wasting little time, Kruseman darted down to the bottom of turn four and took the lead from Scott four laps into the race.
Despite winning last night, Kruseman's team built him a new car for this race. Appearing not to miss a beat, Kruseman pulled away from Scott once out front. Alex Grigoreas came to a stop in turn two to bring out the yellow flag on lap eight. While the yellow flag was waving, Rickie Gaunt got up in the air after climbing the turn three wall. Gaunt's car somehow landed on all four wheels allowing him to drive away without stalling. Gaunt would go on to finish sixth in Kirby's back-up car. None of the top-five positions changed on the restart. Scott was able to keep pace with Kruseman over the course of the next few circuits, but could never get close enough to challenge for the lead. Just before the halfway point of the race, Kirby passed both Ostling and Griffin to move into the third position.
Kruseman, who earlier won the Sander Engineering Fast Time Award, reached the first back marker on lap 19. Scott approached lapped traffic as well and Kirby immediately pounced on an opportunity to take the runner-up spot. Scott and Kirby exchanged positions on lap 22 before Kirby took control coming down to complete the lap. Once in second, Kirby rapidly closed on Kruseman. With less than five laps to go, Kruseman found himself trapped behind a pack of slower cars. With Kirby only a few feet from his tail tank, Kruseman muscled his way between a couple lapped of cars and bravely put some distance between himself and Kirby. Not to be out done, Kirby made a spectacular outside pass on the same two cars so he could stay near to the leader.
Kruseman accepted the white flag as he adamantly worked to put Greg DeCaires a lap down. Feeling the urgency of the moment, Kruseman tapped DeCaires exiting turn two. Kruseman might have been hoping to slip around the outside of DeCaires, but instead climbed his tire and spun to a stop, giving the lead and the eventual win to Kirby.
"I took my time a little more than he did. I don't know if he thought we were too close, but we just made a little better decision than he did that one time, but that's racing," Kirby grinned. "I was hard on the brakes at the time because I could see it coming. I think Cory did the right thing, he just over did it. He just tried to move the guy. Had he been able to move him, I don't think I would have been able to beat him."
FEATURE: (30 laps)
1. Mike Kirby.
2. John Scott. 3. Tony Jones. 4. Richard Griffin. 5. Danny Sheridan. 6. Rickie Gaunt. 7. Troy Rutherford. 8. Steve Ostling. 9. Mike English. 10. Casey Shuman. 11. Brian Venard, 12. George Gervais. 13. Rip Williams. 14. Cory Kruseman. 15. Marc Hart. 16. Gary W. Howard. 17. Charles Davis, Jr. 18. Kevin White. 19. Greg DeCaires, 20. Verne Sweeney. 21. Alex Grigoreas. 22. Rodney Argo.
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS:
Laps 1-2 Richard Griffin, Laps 3-4 John Scott, Laps 5-28 Cory Kruseman,
Laps 29-30 Mike Kirby
SCRA Point Standings as of: 05/28/01
1. Cory Kruseman- 920; 2. Richard Griffin- 732; 3. Troy Rutherford- 724; 4. John Scott- 685; 5. Tony Jones- 680;
6. Mike Kirby- 645; 7. Steve Ostling- 627; 8. Rip Williams- 571; 9. Mike English- 564; 10. Rickie Gaunt- 478. |
