LOS ANGELES, California — PAS OVAL NATIONALS: The 14th annual Budweiser Oval Nationals at Perris Auto Speedway (Thursday through Saturday, November 5-7, 2009) has to rank as one of the best, if not the best, in a series of outstanding sprint car events. I've seen all 14 Oval Nationals and this one has fans and competitors alike raving about the competition and racy track conditions. The overused word awesome might not do the '09 Oval Nationals justice—spectacular is a more appropriate description. The 50+ car field of non-wing sprint cars was high quality with USAC National and USAC-CRA Lucas Oil Regional points up for grabs all three nights and close championship battles ongoing in both series all three nights. Thursday had 53 cars for time trials and Friday had 51, including Friday arrival Rusty Carlile (the 54th competitor). There were 61 competitors on opening night at the 2008 Oval Nationals. Nine drivers have won the 13 prior Oval Nationals championships and five of them--Rip Williams, Tony Jones, Bud Kaeding (3 wins), Cory Kruseman (2), and Dave Darland (2)—raced in the 2009 event. Past winners Jimmy Sills, Rodney Argo, Rickie Gaunt and Jesse Hockett did not compete. Gaunt practiced Wednesday in the No. 72 Josh Ford second car but his neck was still sore from recent surgery so he withdrew. Hockett, the '08 Oval Nat'ionals winner, was racing in the rain-postponed winged sprint Short Track Nationals at Little Rock, Arkansas.
Drivers came from five states as follows: Calif.-37, Indiana-9, Arizona-5, N.Y and Tenn. 1-each. The list of impressive teenage drivers was long and included: Cole Whitt, 18, Henry Clarke, 19, Chad Boat, 17, Austin Williams, 19, Kevin Bloom, Jr,, 16, Coleman Gulick, 16, Justin Grant, 18, Kenny Perkins, 18, Stevie Sussex, 18, Marty Hawkins, 16, Austin Mero, 18,Matthew Shedarowich, 16 and Wes Gutierrez, 18. A car-bending crash Thursday ending the Oval Nat'ls for Wes. First-time drivers at the half-mile clay PAS were Gulick, from Binghamton, N.Y, Jeff Bland, 21, and Bloom, from Anderson, CA in the beautiful new No. 27 Maxim built by Kaeding for David Braund and sponsored by Abreu Vineyards of St. Helena, CA. Bloom told me he raced a bit in the Midwest this summer and learned a lot. It showed at The PAS. The USAC-CRA 2009 rookie of the year battle is a close one between Austin Williams (19) and Ronnie Gardner (21). After the Oval Nationals, in which both rookies raced well, Austin was 12th in points with 347 (four points in back of his 11th ranked brother Cody (20), and Ronnie was 15th in points with 297.
The $5.00 Oval Nationals 40-page program had a color cover with photos of all 13 prior winners in their winning sprinters and is a worthy keepsake. The program contained 14 color photos inside, plus point standings, entry roster, a“Turn One”column by PAS chief announcer Scott Daloisio, and head-shots of all USAC-CRA 2009 feature winners. Wednesday night PAS hosted a four-hour practice (5 to 9 pm) for Oval National teams. About 40 teams parked their rigs in the infield and took part. Three drivers--including Marty Hawkins and Lance Butler-- flipped. Butler's car was unable to continue and was withdrawn. Weather for the '09 Oval Nationals was perfect. There was some light wind Thursday, but no wind Friday and Saturday, based on the limp flags at turn two on the two final nights. Thursday had a 73 degree high and it was 69 @ 4:30 pm and still 55 @ 9:30 pm. Friday was 75 with 70 @ 5:00 and still 57 @ 9:40. Saturday's temp was 72 @ 3:30 and still 52 @ 11:20 pm. An eerie low fog off Lake Perris spread over turns 1-2 and in the pit parking area when team haulers left the pits well after the final checkered flag. Maybe the vortex theory applied. When racing ended it allowed low-hanging fog to arrive at The PAS. Grandstand attendance increased each night as usual—Thursday was about 30% occupied, Friday was about 50% full, and Saturday was about 95% of capacity. The pits were crowded all three nights as usual with competitors and fans who wanted to mingle with competitors and have a closer look at pit action.
The 1-lap PAS 410 CI non-wing sprint car track record is 15,954 by Damion Gardner on 10/31/02. Jon Stanbrough set the '09 Oval Nat'ls fastest qualifying lap both nights—16.364 (Thur.) and 16.303 (Fri.). The 10-lap track record is 2:47.14 by Danny Sheridan on 3/10/01. The fastest 10-lap time this year on Thursday was Mike Spencer's 2:51.58 in heat 1 and on Friday Kevin Swindell's 2:52.52 in heat 2. ... Winners of the Thursday and Friday 25-lap A mains each received $2,000. Owner/driver Damion Gardner received $12,500 Saturday after 40 hard laps for his first-time Oval Nationals championship. Damion drove his usual No. 71 Eagle chassis and he received the traditional white eagle first place trophy awarded annually to the Oval National champion. Damion had hot oil enter his cockpit while racing this summer and he received leg burns that hospitalized him four days and he received skin grafts. Damion entered the Oval Nationals sixth in USAC National Sprint Series point standings. Maxim chassis was the car of choice for Thursday winner Bryan Clauson and Friday winner Levi Jones. ... Cole Whitt said he will race the Keith Kunz No. 1 Bullet midget at the USAC Midget Thanksgiving Night Grand Prix in Irwindale November 26. He said he probably would not race in the NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale in late January 2010. He made his NASCAR stock car debut in that event last year in the No. 93 super late model.
OVAL NATIONALS POINT SYSTEM: (Thursday & Friday points combined to set Saturday's C, B and A lineups). Qualifying – top ten received 10 pts. to 1 point in descending order. Heats - Top four finishers received 16, 14, 12 and 10 pts. B-Main – 8, 7, 6 and 5 pts to the top four finishers who advanced to the A main. P. 5 got 60 pts, with following finishers receiving 1-pt less per position to P. 24 which received 41 pts. A Main – Winner received 125 points, with following finishers earning 122, 119, 116, 113, 110, 107, 104, 101, 98, 96, 94, 92, 90, 88, 86, 84, 82, 80, 78, 76, 74, 72 and 70 to P. 24. If four possible provisionals were used P. 25-28 awarded 68, 66, 64 and 62 pts. Provisional starters received no Oval National points in Thursday and Friday A-mains, but they did receive USAC National and CRA championship points.
Final 2009 Oval National Points: (Combined Thurs. & Fri. point totals) Top 12 in points to Sat. A-main – Stanbrough 286, L. Jones 272, D. Gardner 270, Clauson 263, Spencer 259, R. Williams 234, (P.1-6 start A inverted), P 7-12 start straight-up as follows: Cardey 228, Clarke 224, Faas 215, Short 214, Sheridan 204 and Mitchell 189. The next 16 in order earned straight-up B-main starting berths Saturday in this order: Hagen 184, Whitt 180, Hines 175, etc. to 139 to (S. Sussex) the 16th driver in B-points. The first 12 finishers in the 20-lap B-main Saturday transferred to the A-main in positions 13-24. The remaining drivers started the 20-lap C-main straight-up in following point order: C. Williams 138, A. Williams 135, Riggs 131, Mero 127, etc. down to Carlile 42 and Bates 36 for their one night of racing (Friday).
Thursday and Friday divided the 40 fastest qualifiers into five eight-car fully-inverted heat races with the fastest qualifier in each race at the back. The first four finishers in each heat transferred into that night's preliminary A-main. I pick the four transfers in each heat and out of 20 transfers each night (40 total both nights). I picked only 13 of 20 Thurs. and 11 of 20 Fri. (24 of 40 or 60%) because heat race fields were so talented. How difficult was it for the back row fastest two qualifiers in each heat to make the top four positions in their heats? (Thurs.) - Heats 1 through 5 had the two fastest qualifiers in each heat finish in order: 4 & 2 (FQ Stanbrough), 5 & 2, 8 & 6, 5 & 4, 6 & 8 (both DNF). (Fri.) - 3 & 5 (FQ Stanbrough), 6 & 5, 3 & 8, 4 & 5, 1 (Matt Mitchell) & 7. Only eight of 20 (40%) possible transfers to the A were accomplished in the ultra competitive heat races. The B-main lineup had the fastest qualifiers starting straight-up based on qualifying times each night. Thursday they finished 1-2 in the B. The A had three provisional starters—two CRA and one national driver (Boat). Friday the four FQ in the B finished in P. 1-2-3-5.
Qualifying Oddities: (Thurs.)-Twin brothers Jace (# 88) and Richard (# 10) VanderWeerd qualified their family-owned cars back to back as the 25th and 26th drivers to qualify. (Friday) – Three drivers from Visalia qualified in 23-24-25 order with Greg Bragg and the VanderWeerd twins on track in that order. In Thursday's A-main the Williams brothers--Cody, 20, and Austin, 19—started alongside each other in row 12 of 14. Cody finished 23rd and Austin was 25th (DNF). In Saturday's 20-lap C-main Cody was on the pole and Austin alongside in the front row. Austin led all 20 laps and Cody was a DNF. Saturday's C-main had the VanderWeerd twins start on the inside of rows 5 and 7. Richard finished 5th and Jace in P.8.; both transferred to the B-main. Qualifying ran from 5:05 to 6:00 Thursday for 53 cars and from 5:12 to 5:59 Friday for 51 cars. Racing Saturday ran from 6:39 -6:53 pm for the California Lightning Sprints 23-car, 20-lap feature which had two yellow flags. USAC ran the 20-lap C-main from 7:05-7:24 with three yellow flags. The 20-lap B-main ran from 8:05-8:24 with four caution flags. The 40-lap A ran from 9:29-10:27 pm (58-minutes) with four red and four yellow flags.
Qualifying: CRA third-ranked 2009 point driver Blake Miller, 22, was the 27th qualifier to time Thursday in his blue Gardner Sled No. 93. He flipped high and hard in endos about four times into the first turn catch-fence. The car was done, but not personable Blake. The Gardner team unloaded their backup car—the black 93 (ex-No. 16 Rickie Gaunt and Nadine Gardner ride). Blake came out last (53rd) to qualify and ran a 17.181 for 23rd fastest time and rolled one and a half times to the first turn crash-wall. Again he walked away, but that car was eliminated too. So Blake had to watch Thursday racing from the pits. He returned Friday and Saturday and raced the Gardner No. 96 Ronnie Gardner backup car with a tape 3 covering the 6 in 96.
Unusual Race Lineups: (Fri.) - Son Austin Williams and his dad Rip, 53, occupied the front row in the first heat race. Was there any pre-race strategy? “No, I just told him to give me room at the start,” Rip told me Saturday. The Friday 24-car B-main looked like an A-main lineup. The rapid race ran from 8:20 to 8:23pm and took only 3:22.84 in an all-green flag race as 21 of 23 starters finished , all on the lead lap. Bruce St. James, 41, started second in Friday's fourth heat race, ran second to Tony Jones all 10 laps, and made the A-main. He is a KTAR 610AM radio talk show host in Phoenix and a National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Executive Board member. That group had a meeting Friday while everyone was in Perris for the major Oval Nationals event. When interviewed on the infield microphone, St. James said his mom in another state was watching the Oval Nationals racing live on the Internet via the USAC website live feed. She said the winner was so far out front the camera primarily focused on him. He twitters in the pits at races between his races. Bruce was thrilled to make a PAS feature race. He raved about the excellent track conditions that allowed his car to take a great set entering the turns and maintain speed.
PIT NOTES: The Nic Faas team built his No. 17F Maxim in Indiana during April after they moved from So Cal. to the Hoosier state to race more often. The car had 45 races on it, all non-wing, when the team returned home for the Oval Nationals. Nic won two main events in the car at North Vernon, IN and Lawrenceburg, IN in non-wing King of Indiana Sprint Series (KISS) events. He also ran the USAC National Sprint series races. They did not bring a backup car to California. At PAS Nic demonstrated the benefits of racing frequently all summer and he raced as an experienced veteran at just age 20. ... When interviewed Friday over the PA system, Darren Hagen (still angry from an on-track incident Thursday) said, “Next Halloween let's all dress up as Bryan Clauson and run into people.” Ouch! ... Garrett Hansen's No.7 was the No. 70 Gary Hansen Welding white Maxim with a Kistler (Ohio) engine that Garrett raced during past CRA seasons. Garrett races it as the Mark Priestley entry now and Mark owns the backup engine. Garrett is a Mechanical Engineering student in his fourth year at California State University, Long Beach. Mike Spencer is a BSME graduate from Cal Poly University in Pomona, so the two front runners/feature winners have brains as well as heavy throttle feet. Garrett ranks fourth in 2009 CRA sprint car points and is simultaneously the USAC Western Midget Series 2009 point leader (by 92 points with two races remaining) as he is closing in on his first USAC driving championship. .... Photographer Jim Fargo presented $200 each to the Hard Chargers in the two preliminary A-mains. Winners were David Cardey for passing nine cars Thursday (P 22 to P. 13) and to Cole Whitt for passing 17 cars Friday (P. 25 to P. 8). When interviewed Whitt said he is just finishing his second year as the Keith Kunz team driver. “He (Kunz) has it figured out and we work hard for each other all year.” The 2008 USAC National Midget champion added that the Saturday track was pretty wet and he hoped it would dry out later. “We'll work with what we've got,” added true racer Whitt. ... Swindell's Roth No. 83 is a JEI chassis. ... PAS starter Eddie Ramirez worked solo in the starter's stand as usual. ...Those not fortunate to be at The PAS for the three 2009 Oval Nationals nights of outstanding sprint car racing were able to watch the races live via on the Internet thanks to cameraman Dean Mills and the USAC website live feed.
Winners: Clauson, 20, led all 25 laps Thursday. L. Jones, 27, led laps 1-2, 7-12 and 14-25 Friday. Hagen led laps 3-6 and D. Gardner led lap 13. This race became an instant classic that has people still raving about it. There were three leaders and four lead changes in 25 laps. D. Gardner, 32, led laps 37-40 to win Saturday after R. Williams led the first 21 laps and Spencer led lap 22-36. It was another classic race with intense competition and great passes. Interestingly, the top three podium finishers for the three Oval National A-mains had only five drivers in the nine positions. (Thurs.)-Clauson, Stanbrough, Jones; (Fri.)-Jones, Stanbrough, Spencer; (Sat.)-Gardner, Spencer, Jones. ... Brothers: Someone proposed a brothers heat race for a special purse. C and A Williams, Brian, 25, and Brent, 21, Camarillo, twins R and J VanderWeerd and possibly the Kershaws. The winner take all purse could be based on the best combined finish of the highest finishing two brother team. ... FLIPS: (Thurs)--(5)--Qualifying: Blake Miller (twice in 93 & 93x), H-3: H. Clarke, H-5: Kevin Swindell, and A-main: A. Williams after he lost his brakes. (Fri.)--(5)--Practice: C. Gulick (after the steering failed), Qualifying: Marty Hawkins and Jeff Bland, H-5: Darland, A-main: T. Jones. (Sat.)--(6)--B-main: Darland, A-main: Hagen, Hines, Whitt, Swindell and Cardey.
A-MAIN RECAPS:
(Thurs.)--Tony Jones had the outside front row position but he stalled next the the wall just before the first turn after pushing off. “It lugged and was my fault,” Jones admitted on the pit microphone. He had to go to the back row for the start and finished 24th. Outside row two starter Clauson moved up a row and started outside in row one. With that break he led all 25 laps. He had a straightaway lead at the lap 16 red flag. It was his first PAS main event victory. Pole starter G. Hansen was third on lap 17 when he stopped by the fourth turn wall. GH restarted and placed 22nd. Clauson beat runner-up Stanbrough by 15-yards; 23 of 27 starters finished, with 22 cars on the lead lap. Racing concluded at 9:18 pm. ...
(Fri.)--The classic A-main had three leaders as detailed above. There were more lead changes around the track as well. At lap 15 the top three runners (Jones, Gardner, Stanbrough) became a close foursome on lap 20 when Spencer closed in rapidly and joined the party. Indianan Stanbrough took second from Gardner on lap 20 with an inside pass through turns 1-2. On lap 22 Stanbrough made a low pass for the lead in the third turn, but Jones re-passed him on the inside at turn 4. The top four cars had a car length or two between each car at lap 23. When the white flag flew on lap 24, the leaders lapped the Sussex No. 0 and outside-running Stanbrough pulled even with inside runner Jones. As the two leaders exited turn 4 on the final lap Stanbrough moved past Jones as they passed section K. Jones got a solid bite on the inside and beat his rival by about three feet at the finish line (0.025 officially). It was his first feature triumph at Perris. Spencer took third place from Gardner on the backstretch during the last lap. The checkered flag flew at 9:18 pm again and had fans buzzing in excitement after watching one of the all-time great races at The PAS.
(Sat.)—CRA drivers R. Williams and Spencer occupied the front row. Williams was in a three-race old Viper from ITI and he led the initial 21 laps. Stanbrough, the FQ on the first two nights and Oval Nationals high point driver, started sixth and was fifth on lap 8 when he dropped out with a broken drive-line in his Riggs-owned Indiana Underground “We Dig Earth” No. 37x. Spencer took the lead on lap 22 with an outside fourth turn to starting line pass. He opened a ten-yard lead over Clauson by a lap 29 red flag for Swindell's flip. He told his crew to make no changes under the red. At the green flag Spencer ran high and Clauson low as they battled closely until Cardey's crash on lap 32 caused the next interruption. On the restart it was another four-car lead pack with Spencer, Clauson, Gardner and L. Jones fighting for the lead. On lap 35 Gardner made a great outside pass through turns 3-4 to take second from Clauson. A lap later he duplicated the move in the same turns to take the lead from Spencer, but a yellow flag flew again for a slowing car. The caution flag wiped out that pass and returned Spencer to the lead. Determined Gardner thought Spencer would block that same outside move to retain first position. So Gardner made a daring classic slide job pass for the lead on lap 37 entering turn 3 and moved up in front of Spencer without contact. He opened a 15-yard lead by lap 38 and extended his lead to 20-yards at the lap 40 checkers, which flew at 10:27 pm. Gardner became the tenth driver to win an Oval Nationals championship. Brady Short was in P. 7 at lap 37 and “had a left rear bar problem” as he dropped three positions in the closing laps to finish tenth. Fifteen of 26 starters were running at the finish and all drivers finished on the lead lap.
