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CRA SPRINT CARS
YUMA SPEEDWAY - YUMA, ARIZONA
MARCH 7, 1992
J.W. HUNT CLASSIC

36 CARS

TIME TRIALS:
1. Lealand McSpadden, 91, Lewis- 18.64, 2. Jack Hewitt, 91L, Lewis- 18.65, 3. Richard Griffin, 4, Fite- 18.91, 4. Mike Kirby, 59, Pivovaroff- 18.95, 5. Steve Ostling, 5, Pratt- 18.96, 6. Billy Boat, 3, Bromme- 19.01, 7. Harlan Willis, 45, Willis- 19.10, 8. Verne Sweeney, 98, Sweeney- 19.20, 9. Mike English, 63, Battersby- 19.27, 10. Ron Shuman, 11, Wilkerson- 19.27, 11. Bobby Michnowicz, 19, Pivovaroff- 19.41, 12. Rip Williams, 47, Gaffney- 19.42, 13. Dennis Rodriguez, 21, Rodriguez- 19.53, 14. Brad Noffsinger, 1, Morales- 19.64, 15. Ron Wolf, 67, Freeman- 19.64, 16. Ricky Johnson, 51, Johnson- 19.68, 17. Jim Blenkarn, 46X, Blenkarn- 19.69, 18. Sid Blandford, 31C, Blandford- 19.69, 19. Kim Craft, 72, Craft- 19.81, 20. Mike Boat, 78A, Clark- 19.87, 21. Gary W. Howard, 75, Kelly- 19.94, 22. Adam Mitchell, 33, Mitchell- 20.16, 23. Don O'Keefe, 0K, O'Keefe- 20.19, 24. Don Tucker, 32, F.B.N. Inc.- 20.23, 25. Cary Faas, 37, Faas- 20.43, 26. Tom Downing, 90, Downing- 20.46, 27. Gary Bland, 61, Bland- 20.56, 28. Troy Cline, 17, Pivovaroff- 20.77, 29. Ricky Gaunt, 4G, Gaunt- 20.80, 30. Frank Baldozier, 74, Anderson- 20.92, 31. Kirk Brown, 43X, Brown- 21.04, 32. Scott Burns, 26, Burns- 21.22, 33. Dan Morton, 64, Morton- 21.36, 34. Dennis Stewart, 84, Stewart- 22.37, 35. Rich Stevens, 163, Stevens- NT, 36. Scott Sloane, 95, Sloane- NT.

TROPHY DASH: (3 laps)
1. Jack Hewitt, 2. Richard Griffin, 3. Lealand McSpadden, 4. Mike Kirby.

FIRST HEAT: (10 laps)
1. Lealand McSpadden, 2. Gary W. Howard, 3. Dennis Rodriguez, 4. Mike English, 5. Cary Faas, 6. Steve Ostling, 7. Jim Blenkarn, 8. Ricky Gaunt, 9. Dan Morton.

SECOND HEAT: (10 laps)
1. Ron Shuman, 2. Jack Hewitt, 3. Billy Boat, 4. Brad Noffsinger, 5. Sid Blandford, 6. Frank Baldozier, 7. Dennis Stewart, 8. Adam Mitchell, 9. Tom Downing.

THIRD HEAT: (10 laps)
1. Richard Griffin, 2. Bobby Michnowicz, 3. Ron Wolf, 4. Kim Craft, 5. Harlan Willis, 6. Don O'Keefe, 7. Gary Bland, 8. Kirk Brown, 9. Rich Stevens.

FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps)
1. Rip Williams, 2. Ricky Johnson, 3. Mike Kirby, 4. Verne Sweeney...(more)

SEMI-MAIN: (12 laps)
1. Steve Ostling, 2. Cary Faas, 3. Harlan Willis, 4. Sid Blandford, 5. Dennis Stewart, 6. Jim Blenkarn...(more)

FEATURE: (30 laps - With Starting Positions)
1. Lealand McSpadden (8th) 2. Mike Kirby (5th) 3. Ron Shuman (10th) 4. Verne Sweeney (1st) 5. Brad Noffsinger (14th) 6. Cary Faas (20th) 7. Bobby Michnowicz (11th) 8. Steve Ostling (4th) 9. Rip Williams (12th) 10. Gary W. Howard (19th) 11. Mike English (9th) 12. Ricky Johnson (16th) 13. Harlan Willis (2nd) 14. Dennis Rodriguez (13th) 15. Sid Blandford (17th) 16. Billy Boat (3rd) 17. Ron Wolf (15th) 18. Richard Griffin (6th) 19. Jack Hewitt (7th) 20. Kim Craft (18th)
-------------------------------------
Lap Leaders: Verne Sweeney 1, Steve Ostling Laps 2-16, Verne Sweeney Laps 17-21, Lealand McSpadden Laps 22-30.

NOTES:
A rainout which turned into a day show, with rodeo like results, greeted the fans at Yuma. The rough track made for some entertaining rides by all drivers as they tried to harness their four wheel mounts around the 3/8 mile sun blistered track.

Lealand outlasted the track and the competition as he found his groove wherever the #91 car led him.

On Lap 8 of the Main, Jack Hewitt made contact with Richard Griffin on the Front Straight and flipped. Also involved were Ron Shuman and Brad Noffsinger. Griffin and Hewitt dropped out, while Shuman and Noffsinger restarted at the back. Shuman ended up taking third from Sweeney coming to the checkered flag.

The Bromme Sprinter, driven by Billy Boat, made a valiant attempt to pass the eventual winner, but caught the wall in turn three late in the race, and flew softly over it to land on his cage. Billy was unhurt, but put on a whale of a show up until then.

Mike Kirby in the Danny Pivovaroff #59 made second place his home with a good drive.

Cary Faas went thru the pack at least twice, finally finishing sixth.

*Thanks to J Hicks & Chris Holt.

It was indeed a very entertaining show. The road out of the pits on Saturday night was so slick that many teams were not able to pull their trailers out of the pits.

This was a TV show. One of the anouncers was a young and upcoming super star of racing, can anybody name him?

I remember that race. Wow was that track ever rough. I also remember the fleabag motel we stayed in after the rainout - the bedframe was broken so the bed was held off the ground by a couple boulders from the parking lot.

I don't remember seeing that race on TV. Even if it was shown, I doubt you could have seen much of it as that place was pretty dusty.

Didn't the midgets run that weekend too?

Rough is an understatement! That track was brutal. I remember I was running in the top ten and the floor board came up and was acting like a throttle stop. I had to sit in the car for 20 minutes cuz I could not get my hands off the steering wheel from holding on so tight when the race was over. Was a fun weekend tho and I did some T.V. spots for a local station. The atmoshpere is not the same at the races anymore, everyone thinks they are going to NASCAR next week now. Off to Tulsa to have some real fun in a few weeks.

D-Rod

Frank Lewis set it up to video tape this show so that he could promote the races on the midwest tour. It turned into a worse case scenario when the rains came.

Hey Rich, had they changed the sheets after the last users left the motel?

That would have been Jeff Gordon,he and Larry Nuber and Ralph Shaheen(sp) were there taping the race but I don't remember what network it was for.

That was a rough race track on Sunday heck we blew out all four shocks on the car and on the red flag for Billy Boat we changed them all and after the race two more of them were blown out, six shocks junk in 30laps and we won so I can only imagine what all other people must have broke during that race.

A little personal story about that weekend,my father and I took care of Frank Lewis' race cars and on this particular weekend it was my birthday on Saturday and Lealand's son Jeff birthday was on Sunday.So on Sunday after Lealand had won both the sprint car and midget mains he gave me the sprint car trophy and Jeff the midget trophy and told us that was his goal for the day, to win both races so he could give me and his son both a main event win on our birthdays. I kind of chuckled when he told us that knowing full well how much luck is involved in winning a race let alone two races in one day so i kinda questioned his goal for the day,but in the back of my mind and knowing Lealand the way that i know him it was more than likely a true deal since that is the kinda guy Lealand. That was the coolest birthday present that i have ever recieved and i still have that trophy sitting here in the living room.

Terry James Jr.

What a memorable race that was for all of us who were there... A seedy motel by the border with the wife and kids. A great interview with Jack Hewitt before the show (JW Hunt flew him in) about the track conditions. Anyone remember it? ( It's not that bad, if you just go fast enough you can fly right over them holes" ).. Billy driving it up the wall, literally, just like we thought he would because you couldn't tell were the track ended, and the wall started. He just kept getting higher and higher until he drove it up the wall.

I was up in Wyoming in 99 watching a obscure station at 3 in the morning on one of those big satellite dishes mounted with a motor that you would turn to point at satellites...Well I surprisingly found a tape of the show and it was well done, and the track looked even rougher than it did from the stands and that's saying a lot... I'd talked with Larry Nuber at some time during that weekend, but I didn't know he was taping a show. I was surprised to see Gorden in the booth with those guy's and I remember he spent a lot of time praising the drivers, and sprint cars in general. Still don't know who it was originally made for, but I'd sure like to have a copy of it.

Kenny

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

I did have a copy of the tape, I hope I didn't discard it.

The condition of the track that day resembled something that SCORE would have set up. Their was a huge hole in turn four that caught Verne Sweeney on the last lap.

Another thing I recall about that race - driving along I-8 between El Centro and Yuma there were a bunch of farms. We're cruising along the highway and we're watching all the crop dusters do their thing. This guy is flying straight towards right along the top of the telephone poles. He's going about 40 mph or something. I look up and flying it is a hispanic gentleman wearing a football helmet. So I'm cracking up as we roll down the road. We then pass the farmhouse/hangar and there was a half dozen twisted up airframes next to the hanger and things became a bit clearer.

Didn't know him yet but I sseem to recall there was some kid named Yeley that finished 2nd or 3rd in that midget race.