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AMSOIL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: August 14, 2010 – Santa Maria, California – Santa Maria Speedway

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Rip Williams, 3, Jory-14.352; 2. Mike Spencer, 50, Chaffin-14.380; 3. Davey Pombo, 3X, Bowman-14.387; 4. Blake Miller, 7, Priestley-14.457; 5. Troy Rutherford, 73, Ford-14.523; 6. Cody Williams, 44, Jory-14.525; 7. Jace VanderWeerd, 88, VanderWeerd-14.527; 8. Tony Jones, 4, Alexander-14.533; 9. Tyler Schmidt, 49, Schmidt-14.660; 10. Bud Kaeding, 2X, Bowman-14.663; 11. Ronnie Gardner, 93, Gardner-14.675; 12. Dennis Howell, 62, Howell-14.748; 13. Rickie Gaunt, 66, Miller-14.751; 14. Matt Mitchell, 37, Mitchell-14.766; 15. Rusty Carlile, 51,Carlile-14.788; 16. Jesse Mack, 71X, Kruseman-14.828; 17. Marty Hawkins, 3M, Hawkins-14.849; 18. Cory Kruseman, 21K, Kruseman-14.905; 19. Rick Hendrix, 15, Hendrix-14.919; 20. Richard VanderWeerd, 10, VanderWeerd-14.922; 21. Danny Faria Jr., 17V, Faria-14.947; 22. Danny Sheridan, 18, Kittle-14.970; 23. Bill Jones, 16J, Jones-15.058; 24. Nic Faas, 17F, Faas-15.143; 25. Austin Williams, 2, Jory-15.205; 26. Jimmy Crawford, 11,
Crawford-15.250; 27. Peter Murphy, 11X, Buster and Ziggy-15.271; 28. Greg Bragg, 92, Sertich-15.347; 29. Lynn Anderson, 7X, Anderson-15.515; 30. Tony Everhart, 55, Everhart-15.659; 31. Steve Hix, 57, Hix-15.712.

FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. A.Williams, 2. Gaunt, 3. Rutherford, 4. R.Williams, 5. Hawkins, 6. Anderson, 7. Faria, 8. Schmidt. NT

SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Crawford, 2. Kruseman, 3. Mitchell, 4. Sheridan, 5. Spencer, 6. Kaeding, 7. C.Williams. 8. Everhart. 2:28:30

THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Murphy, 2. Hendrix, 3. Gardner, 4. Pombo, 5. Carlile, 6. J.VanderWeerd, 7. B.Jones. 2:26:69

FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Miller, 2. Mack, 3. T.Jones, 4. Howell, 5. R.VanderWeerd, 6. Bragg, 7. Faas. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Spencer, 2. J.VanderWeerd, 3. Kaeding, 4. R.VanderWeerd, 5. Carlile, 6. Hawkins, 7. Faria, 8. B.Jones, 9. Hix, 10. Anderson, 11. Faas, 12. Bragg. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Blake Miller, 2. Troy Rutherford, 3. Bud Kaeding, 4. Mike Spencer, 5. Rip Williams, 6. Danny Faria Jr., 7. Cory Kruseman, 8. Jace VanderWeerd, 9. Danny Sheridan, 10. Marty Hawkins, 11. Peter Murphy, 12. Jimmy Crawford, 13. Tony Jones, 14. Rusty Carlile, 15. Austin Williams, 16. Rickie Gaunt, 17. Ronnie Gardner, 18. Rick Hendrix, 19. Jesse Mack, 20. Richard VanderWeerd, 21. Matt Mitchell, 22. Dennis Howell. NT
---------------------------------
**Waitman and Kershaw flipped during the semi. Crawford flipped during the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-7 Gaunt, Laps 8-30 Miller.

NEW AMSOIL USAC/CRA SPRINT POINTS: 1-Spencer-729; 2-Sheridan-649; 3-Kruseman-572; 4-Miller-559; 5-Mitchell-489; 6-Bragg-409; 7-Crawford-385; 8-David Cardey-375; 9-Jones-359; 10-C.Williams-343.

NEXT AMSOIL USAC/CRA SPRINT RACE: August 28 – Perris (CA) Auto Speedway

I guess Lance must of had a few too many beers,Beerman.

I copied and pasted the results issued by USAC. It looks like the Waitman/Kershaw note was left over from a Perris race.

Tyler Schmidt flipped in the semi-main and Matt Mitchell flipped in the feature.

The track got scary fast in the main. Good charge for Bud coming from like 10th? ? The last lap cluster F changed up thing's as far as final standings. I'm pretty sure they waved the checker's a lap early too ! !

Richard Vanderweerd also flipped hard in the feature coming out of turn 4. I watched it the whole way, he got the front wheels up due to the hooked up surface and when he stabbed the throttle some more it lifted up and drug the tail tank and instantly did a viscous airborne barrel roll then slammed down on its nose in front of a couple of on coming cars. Scary scene as cars were coming at him fast. He literally flipped from the horsepower...WOW. The Matt Mitchell flip was a nasty looking tumble as well.

That main event didnt have a ton of passing back and forth but you would have to be dead to not have appreciated the speed and daring of the drivers. That track was scary fast and there were some great battles going on. I had an absolute blast at the track!

There are some very well produced highlights from loudpedalvideo as I saw a two camera crew working the track that night. Loudpedal does great work.

"Winged or non-winged its all about 
the sprint cars for me!"
http://mattmusselldesigns.daportfolio.com

By my count they threw the checkers at the right time.

"Winged or non-winged its all about 
the sprint cars for me!"
http://mattmusselldesigns.daportfolio.com

Tyler Schmidt's car almost took out the flagman. He got up on the frontstretch wall coming out of 4 and collected the fence right at the flagmans area and then slammed down and slid into entry of turn 1.

"Winged or non-winged its all about 
the sprint cars for me!"
http://mattmusselldesigns.daportfolio.com

You'd be pretty wrong. 30 lap race, 30 laps were run.

The racing was great! If you could not be amazed at the long battle between Bud Kaeding and Mike Spencer, you weren't watching the race. It was like everybody on the track was super fast, and it was going to take a mistake to be beat.

Thanks to all the racers for a good show.

I also wanted to mention how nice it was to have a real infield announcer at the track this past Saturday night. Doug Bushey asks knowledgable questions and made sure to interview the entire top 3 finishers. That big shwag guy that is normally there can go do some wrestling event somewhere for all I care, he is worthless to a dirt track experience. He knows nothing about dirt track racing and quite frankly annoys most fans. I hate low brow antics at dirt tracks. Also Gary Thomas is a great treat to have announce when the winged cars are in town, he is good at his craft. Thats my story and I am sticking to it.

"Winged or non-winged its all about 
the sprint cars for me!"
http://mattmusselldesigns.daportfolio.com

It was over heard in the pits that USAC admitted they missed by One lap but the rule is when the checkered flies the race is offcial

Thank you for the kind words! I only wish we had more time for interviews during Saturday night's show...I had planned to do a lot more color commentary between races throughout the night, but the breaks and intermission were cut out because the show was running a bit longer than expected.

My comments on the show...

I've said this over and over on here, but kudos to Chris Kearns and crew for yet another outstanding job Saturday night! Everyone I talked to had nothing but great things to say about the event...even before it started when 32 cars entered the pits (the second Berry Pack 73 was for Josh Ford, but he elected not to participate earlier in the day according to the team).

Every race, Chris brings two child bicycles...one boy bike and one girl bike...and every child that enters the grandstands is given a free raffle ticket. The bicycles are given away at intermission. Also, for each race, Chris buys two sets of trophys...one for the winner of each division, the other for the winning driver to donate to a child of choice in the stands. Talk about smiles on kids faces!

The track was prepared all night long, before and after each heat and even prior to the mains. The clay was super tacky and produced some wicked-fast racing! The track workers got a serious workout from all the wall scraping that was necessary before each race.

I love the "away" races. They always include some local hot shoes. Saturday night was one of the best groups of cars ever. We were treated to non-regulars that included Bud Kaeding (fresh off of a week of serious cash winnings in Iowa, and another stellar Silver Crown performance), his teammates Davey Pombo and Peter Murphy (who had a 360 in his car and still managed to run well), Danny Faria Jr. (who was without a doubt the most spectacular showman of the night), the Vanderweerd twins, Rick Hendrix, Dennis Howell (who ran in the top 3 until trouble), Rusty Carlile, Jesse Mack (driving a Cory Kruseman Bullet for the first time), Lynn Anderson, Steve Hix, Bill Jones, Marty Wilcox, and Tyler Schmidt (who made some daring moves throughout the event). The entire state of California was represented well...and there really weren't too many 360's in the pits as expected.

Tough break for Greg Bragg, who blew a head gasket in heat race competition, and for Davey Pombo, who lost a motor crossing the line in a transfer spot during his heat. Richard Vanderweerd was lucky to escape injury when he flipped by himself in turn 4 of the feature, then was hit in the roll cage by one of the Williams boys that had nowhere to go. I completely missed the flip by Matt Mitchell, but heard it was spectacular. He walked away as well.

It was great to see most of the locals tow up to the beautiful central coast. By my count, we had a total of 16 series "regulars" make the trip to represent the USAC-CRA series, including 12 of the top 13 in series points. Don't get me started about the one that stayed home to host a car wash...blasphemy...real race fans that support the series need the dust from Saturday's races washed off their cars on Sunday, not during the event! The fans that hear all the stories about our hero that has taken all the glory lately were truly dissappointed that they didn't get to see "the hottest sprint car driver West of the Mississippi" last weekend...and me too! David has seriously done some amazing things this year with his own equipment...pulling off some of the most unbelievable last-minute feats I've ever witnessed. Someone better sponsor this guy soon or our series will suffer!

I think only one person I talked to all night had any complaints...and that was one driver who had hoped for a less tacky surface. He thought that the fans deserved to see more slide jobs and that slowing the racing down would provide a closer finish. Hard to argue with that logic, but what I witnessed was spectacular! We got to see the fastest surface we've seen all year, and cars still passing high and low, jockying for position in every race. It was scary fast...but that's when I am reminded how good these drivers really are. They had wing-sprint speed all night and still managed to treat the fans to a heck of a battle with different leaders. And no one left because of dust in their eyes!

My only regret was that I didn't buy a seat for Cory Krusemans' Sprint Car School on Sunday morning. When I left the hotel about the same time the school was starting, the temperature was in the mid 60's...so I'm sure the track was still in outstanding shape and provided a perfect surface for learning. I've done the school twice...both times during the summer, but with temperatures over 90 and the track was dusty and slick-as-glass. I'm sure Sunday's class was treated to some hammer-down clay and had a blast. I recommend that everyone try Cory's school at least once. You'll definitely have a whole new respect for the drivers after you unbuckle (and reach for some new BVDs)!

Chris...thank you for the red carpet treatment that you and your staff gave me all night. You truly are a first-class promoter and I can't wait to help you guys out again.

Doug Bushey

Passionate Fan / Announcer / Media & Public Relations 
Agent 

Unless Steve Ostling doesn't know his own rulebook, whoever you "heard" that from is wrong. People assumed USAC checkered it early because they assumed there was a yellow for Gaunt's spin in 3 on lap 29. The call for a yellow came on the USAC radio after the leader took the checkered, which meant the yellow was irrelevant. There was no yellow flag or light displayed and no yellow was called over the one-way.

30 lap race, 30 laps completed.

I was looking forward to hearing more interviews from you also, but I must say you did an excellent job with the mic at the conclusion of the 30 lapper. Kudos to you Doug Bushey! BTW, thanks for the informative race recap.

"Ralphie, Senor, muchas gracias por una mas cerveza"  -
Scott Daloisio @ the PAS

Don't forget about the car that was turned around in turn 4 also that other car's had to dodge and no doubt changed the finishing order, Might be smart to put the flagman up in the air where they belong so they can see the whole track then. Since when should sprint car's have to salom through more than One obstacle under a green flag ? ? ?

More than half the field had taken the flag when Gardner spun in 4. I watched the last handful of cars pass turn 4 and there were no position changes. I doubt if there were more than one or two cars that passed before I saw Gardner stopped in 4.

Slalom? He spun up high, everyone went below him. There was no "slalom"

You need to ask Kruseman who is listed as 7th and Murphy who was 11th about what they had to deal with on the cluster f of the last lap and then get back to me. Until then good day Sir.

Doug, thank you for a great recap and for the compliments. You are welcome at any of my Sprint Car races. Sorry we were running behind and didnt have more time for interviews. I would like to have you interview drivers in the cars under red. No one seems to do that.

I am happy to hear everyone seemed to really enjoy the night. I was actually suprised by how much passing actually went on in the feature. I would be curious to know what the total positions gained were by Kruseman, Sheridan, Faria, Kaeding. (you would think I could get that kind of info in my position huh. lol)

Chris Kearns
www.ChrisKearnsPresents.com
805-714-8538
[email protected]