|
March
13, 2005 - Cory
Kruseman won his first Valvoline USAC/CRA event of the
year, and sixth with the club, at Bakersfield Speedway
this week. Cory started third in the 30 lap feature and
took the lead on lap thirteen and crossed the finish line
ahead of Damion Gardner, who came in second. Cory drove
the ITI Performance, Sander Engineering, TCR,
Downing # 38 up to the top groove on the quick and narrow
surface and made it work for his 69th west
coast 410 sprint win. Cory had struggled in changing teams
this season, but he said his crew worked hard to make some
changes that made him happy and “anyone could have
driven the car tonight”!
Damion
Gardner had one of his toughest nights in his non-wing
career when he flipped in his heat and crunched the
Temecula Valley Pipe & Supply, Arizona Race
Mart, Eagle, Shaver # 50 badly. A new front end and
various other bolt-on parts put him in the semi where he
ran second to Rickie Gaunt and started ninth in the main
event. In the
feature the Demon put on another sterling show for the
fans, moving up thru the pack with some lightning moves
that made the crowd cheer him on.
He just nipped Danny Ebberts at the flag for
second. Damion set fast time for the third race in a row,
even though he qualified at the end of the 32 car field
and is becoming the one to beat in the series.
Danny
Ebberts was planning to run for CRA rookie of the year
until he did well enough in the USAC Silver Crown opener
to make the sprinter secondary in his goals. He might have
to rethink that as he led for six laps before surrendering
to Kruseman’s charge and making his first podium with
the CRA. A
great drive in the Spintech, Outlaw Graphics, Stinger,
Blair # 77 owned by Sal Acosta.
Mike
Kirby had his problems this week when he failed to
transfer from both his heat and the semi to make the main.
He use a provisional to tag the field in the Alexander
entry, but developed a reported motor problem and dropped
out on lap 15, surrendering his point lead to Charles
Davis Jr.
The
Bakersfield track was great for some and difficult for
others as the racy surface had some mystery spots that
change the order often during the night. Jordan
Hermansader was looking like he wanted a win bad here
after leading the first six laps, but a rut popped him
over the cushion allowing several to slip by him before he
finally settled for eighth in the Sertich Moosemobile #
92.
VALVOLINE
USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS:
March 12, 2005 – Bakersfield, California – Bakersfield
Speedway
32 CARS
QUALIFICATIONS:
1. Damion Gardner, 50, Chaffin - 12.356, 2. Bobby Cody,
41, Cody - 12.360, 3. Rip Williams, 3, Jory -12.416, 4.
Charles Davis Jr., 8A, Smiley - 12.670, 5. Alan Ballard,
97, Ballard - 12.778, 6. Rickie Gaunt, 2A, Smiley -
12.780, 7. Mike Spencer, 44, Engstrom - 12.801, 8. Troy
Rutherford, 5, Keller - 12.808, 9. Danny Sheridan, 18,
Kittle - 12.836, 10. Cory Kruseman, 38, Crossno - 12.859,
11. Dwayne Marcum, 12, Pratt - 12.894, 12. Greg Bragg, 11,
Wilkerson - 12.933, 13. Jimmy Crawford, 17C, Crawford -
12.970, 14. Mike Kirby, 4, Alexander - 12.971, 15. Danny
Ebberts, 77, Acosta - 13.002, 16. Jordan Hermansader, 92,
Sertich - 13.009, 17. J Hicks, 66, Miller - 13.078, 18.
Dave Darland, 42, Cheney - 13.082, 19. Rick Ziehl, 14,
Lancaster - 13.182, 20. Tony Jones, 87, Vermeer/Ferreira
-13.295, 21. Josh Ford, 73, Ford - 13.338, 22. Josh Wise,
7, Priestley - 13.345, 23. Bill Rose, 6R, Rose - 13.365,
24. Peter Murphy, 21A, Dorathy - 13.404, 25. Nadine
Keller, 16, Keller - 13.551, 26. Seth Wilson, 17,
Racing Optics - 13.719, 27. Rodney Argo, 19, Argo -
13.760, 28. David Cardey, 59, Giardina - 13.895, 29. Tom
Stansberry, 48, Bach - 13.925, 30. Dan Hillberg, 82,
Hillberg -14.082, 31. Matt Stewart, 85, Stewart -
14.978, 32. Terry Foster, 19X, Foster - 15.254.
FIRST HEAT:
(10 laps)
1. Josh Ford, 2. Tom Stansberry, 3. Danny Sheridan, 4.
Alan Ballard, 5. J Hicks, 6. Jimmy Crawford, 7. Nadine
Keller, 8. Damion Gardner. NT.
SECOND
HEAT: (10 laps)
1. Seth Wilson, 2. Josh Wise, 3. Dave Darland, 4. Cory
Kruseman, 5. Bobby Cody, 6. Rickie Gaunt, 7. Mike Kirby,
8. Dan Hillberg. NT.
THIRD HEAT:
(10 laps)
1. Bill Rose, 2. Danny Ebberts, 3. Rip Williams, 4. Rick
Ziehl, 5. Dwayne Marcum, 6. Rodney Argo, 7. Matt Stewart,
8. Mike Spencer. NT.
FOURTH
HEAT: (10 laps)
1. Jordan Hermansader, 2. David Cardey, 3. Charles Davis
Jr., 4. Troy Rutherford, 5. Greg Bragg, 6. Tony Jones, 7.
Terry Foster, 8. Peter Murphy. NT.
SEMI: (12
laps)
1. Rickie Gaunt, 2. Damion Gardner, 3. Jimmy Crawford, 4.
J Hicks, 5. Mike Kirby, 6. Tony Jones, 7. Dan Hillberg,
8. Rodney Argo, 9. Terry Foster, 10. Matt Stewart, 11.
Dwayne Marcum, 12. Bobby Cody, 13. Greg Bragg, 14. Nadine
Keller. NT.
FEATURE:
(30 laps - With Starting Positions)
1. Cory Kruseman (3rd), 2. Damion Gardner (9th), 3. Danny
Ebberts (2nd), 4. Rip Williams (8th), 5. Alan Ballard
(6th), 6. Rickie Gaunt (10th), 7. Charles Davis Jr. (7th),
8. Jordan Hermansader (1st), 9. Troy Rutherford (5th), 10.
Josh Wise (16th), 11. Dave Darland (13th), 12. J Hicks
(12th), 13. Josh Ford (15th), 14. Bill Rose (17th), 15.
Jimmy Crawford (11th),16. Seth Wilson (18th), 17. Tom
Stansberry (20th), 18. David Cardey (19th), 19. Rick Ziehl
(14th), 20. Mike Kirby (21st), 21. Danny Sheridan (4th).
NT.
----------------------------
**Gardner flipped during the first heat race.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS:
Laps 1-6 Hermansader, Laps 7-12 Ebberts, Laps 13-30
Kruseman.
NEW USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR STANDINGS:
1-Davis-215; 2-Gardner-210; 3-Rip Williams-206;
4-Kruseman-194; 5-Kirby-183; 6-Ballard-119; 7-Wilson-113;
8-Steve Ostling-109; 9-Rick Williams-103; 10. Gaunt-102.
NEXT USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR RACE:
March 18-19 - Phoenix, AZ - Manzanita Speedway - 5th
"Sokola Classic" |
