Troy Rutherford started the new 2012 season with a powerful win over Greg Taylor in the 30 lap feature for VRA Sprints Saturday night. A opening night field of twenty VRA 360 Sprint Cars started the race that saw Rutherford lead all 30 laps from pole starting position to take his first win in the new season. Taylor battled hard all race to try to get by Rutherford to no avail. Following Rutherford and Taylor to the line were Tom Hendricks, Brian Camarillo and Clark Templeman III. Heat race wins went to Clif Warren in the Extreme Muffler Heat One, Jeff Culver in the Kaeding Performance Heat Two and Tom Hendricks in the BR Motorsports Heat Three. The race was stopped for one red flag incident in turn one involving Clif Warren and Jeff Culver who both flipped.
VRA Senior Sprints also opened their season with the 20 lap feature win going top Bruce Douglas followed by Clif Warren, teammate Victor Davis, Wally Pankratz and Chris Meridith. Heat race wins went to Victor Davis in the Spin Tech Muffler Heat One and Clif Warren in the Steve Watt Enterprises Heat Two.
VRA Dwarf Cars were on the track in two divisions, Seniors and Pros. There were 21 Pros and 10 Seniors signed into the pits for opening night. In Seniors, the two heat races went to Mike Lewis and Mike Neal. Their 20 lap feature went to Mike Lewis making his first Senior start followed by Bill VanPraag, Tom Stephens, Troy Kunas and Mike Neal. In Pros it was Ray Estrada, Craig Clements and Chris Wakim taking heat race wins. Kevin Calvo took the feature win over Ray Estrada, Eric Moore, Lee Majors and Randy Gordon.
VRA's Sport Compact division saw two heat races and a main event run on opening night. The heat race wins went to Trevor Fitzgibon and Zach Peterson. The 20 lap main event went to 2011 Series champ Trevor Fitzgibbon, who lapped the field, followed by Martin Nehring, James Adler, Jess Carlucci and John Butcher. The race saw radio personality Bo Jaxon start his first VRA Race. He finished 6th in the 10 car event in his 95.1 Ford Pinto.
The final group racing on opening night were our three kids divisions. In VRA Mini Dwarf Superchargers, Nick Velasquez took the heat race win and the feature win following him in the feature were Destyn Garcia and J D Brown making his first Supercharger start. In Mini Dwarf Pistons the feature win went to Blake Hendricks, with Garrett Egan, Zack Chavez, Bailey Hendricks and Dylan Neal following him across the line in the main event. In VRA Junior Midgets. Oliver Blades took their heat race win. In their 15 lap feature, Miles Hedrick took the win over Devin McCree, Kayle Brazel, Tommy Velasquez and Oliver Blades.
Racing resumes next Saturday night March 10, with the first round in the 2012 All Coast Challenge Series within a series. On that night the Sprint Car winner will take home a winner's check for $2,500. On that night we will present a full program of exciting racing featuring VRA 360 Sprints, IMCA Modifieds, VRA Mod Lites and VRA Focus Midgets.
