JIM BONETTI HOLDS OFF MCGRAW IN MODIFIED RACE AT VENTURA RACEWAY

Source: Ventura Raceway Media Relations
Date: 08/01/2008

With a victory in Thursday night’s racing at the Ventura County Fair hanging in the balance, Bonetti maintained the status quo and won the IMCA Modified main event.

The ageless Wally Pankratz won the United States Auto Club Ford Focus Midget feature and Harris Brooks won the USAC Junior Focus Midget race. Incredibly, Oxnard’s Michael Stanford won his second consecutive Demolition Derby event, driving the same car both times.

Bonetti (of Las Vegas) and McGraw (Ojai) exchanged the lead several times in the opening laps of the Modified feature. But six laps from the end, Bonetti heard a vibration in the drive train and thought his bid to win was in trouble.

“I heard a noise in the rear end,” Bonetti said. “I was trying to relax and not drive so hard.”

There were several restarts during the race and those near the end gave McGraw chances to catch the leader.

“On the restarts, I was putting the (left front) tire in the (infield) berm and waiting until they hit me. Then I took off,” said Bonetti, who won at the Fair for the first time. McGraw finished second.

The event attracted 44 cars to the Modified field, believed to be the largest field in the history of the class at Ventura. The big entry forced track officials to run four heat races and a pair of semi-main events to fill the feature field. The pressure to win the big race was nothing compared to the pressure to make the starting field.

If rubbing is racing, this was riot. How tough was it? Jack Parker, the two-time defending IMCA Modified champ at Ventura, did not make the starting field for the main event.

Raceway General Manager Jammy Earnest called it, “One of the most intense nights we’ve ever had here.”

All told, the four classes attracted 81 cars and filled the grandstands.

Pankratz (Orange) probably has the most laps at Ventura in all of USAC. He trailed Henry Clark (Orange) about halfway through the Focus feature, then made a smooth veteran’s move in turns three and four to slip under Clark and get the lead. Pankratz led the rest of the way.

There was a neat sidebar to the Focus finish. Nick Carlson (Norwalk), Walt Johnson (Burbank) and Alex Bowman (Tucson) are all among the top drivers in the division. They challenged each other before the race to start at the back of the field, with the respective teams throwing cash in a pool for the best finisher among the three. Eventually other sponsors got involved and the pool reached $500. Johnson finished fifth and got the cash. Carlson was credited with seventh place and Bowman was eighth.

Brooks’ (Houston, Tex.) victory in the Junior Focus feature was notable because the event was completed without a caution flag.

Stanford’s car, which absorbed considerable punishment on Wednesday, delivered the final blow on Thursday to win an entertaining Derby.

More information on Ventura Raceway is available at www.venturaraceway.com.

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