2010 VRA Forms

September 25th, 2010 Results

Brody Roa VRA 360 Rookie wins the 20th running of the Wagsdash

Cory Kruseman, family and crew enjoy the spoils of his USAC/CRA win Saturday Night.  

Ventura CA - September 25, 2010.....The mighty USAC/CRA 410 Sprint Cars returned to Ventura Raceway Saturday night September 25, for the first time in two years and all the expected excitement that built up to the event was fulfilled as 37 cars races in four heats, two semi main and a 30 lap feature. Racing was top notch all evening long as the USAC Stars were challenged by our own VRA Stars throughout the event. For the first time in 2010 cars were qualified on the time clock to set the heat race fields. Not surprisingly a 410 took top honors as Matt Mitchell came close to Blake Miler’s all time record of 11.675 seconds with a run of 11.746. The biggest surprise of the night had to be the 11.767 time set by7 VRA Rookie Star Marcus Niemela in a 360 powered machine. Niemela in his first ever USAC race held fast time until Mitchell passed him near the end of qualifying. Other VRA drivers in the top ten were Brian Camarillo at 12.072 and Brandon Thomson at 12.087. Heat races were set by qualifying speeds with all 37 cars taking times. The top 31 cars were separated by a scant 1-second. Heat race wins went to Cory Kruseman in heat one, VRA point leader Troy Rutherford in heat two, VRA driver Cody Kershaw in heat three and VRA driver Brent Camarillo in heat four. So when the heats were over it was VRA drivers 3 and USC drivers 1. There were two semi-mains run due to the large car count. Each 12-lap race started 11 cars with the top three going to the feature. Semi main number one saw the win go to VRA driver Rick Hendrix followed by past VRA Driver Dennis Rodriguez and Mike English. Semi main two went to Dennis Howell with Ludwig Solberg IV and VRA driver Chris Wakim joining him in transferring to the main. The 30 lap main event started a large field of 24 cars as two provisional cars were added to the field under USAC rules. The front row saw VRA driver Josh Ford and Ronnie Gardner lead the field to the green. Ford led laps one through three when Kruseman took the lead and led to the finish. He was challenged by Tony Jones but held off the challenges to take a popular win with the Ventura Fans. Several incidents in the first 6 laps thinned the field to the 17 cars that completed the event. Following Kruseman and Jones across the finish line were Mike Spencer and a powerful finishes by VRA drivers Brandon Thomson in fourth, Josh Ford in fifth, Troy Rutherford in seventh and VRA Rookie Star Brody Roa in ninth.

AS a part of the USAC program the 20th running of the WAGSDASH was competed. The invitational race started 16 selected cars and ran 20 laps. VRA drivers Brody Roa and Brandon Thomson were the stars of the show challenging each other lap after lap to the checkered flag. Roa, who had finished ninth in the USAC feature and fifth in this race, drove a great race to take his first ever sprint car main event and took home a very nice paycheck courtesy of Ken Wagner and the WAGSDASH supporters who put up the purse for this event. Other top runners in this event included Dennis Howell in third, Greg Brag in fourth, VRA regular Kenny Perkins in fifth, Ronnie Gardner in sixth and VRA regular Steve Conrad in seventh.

The final event of the night was the VRA Senior Sprints. Three heats were run with wins going to Victor Davis in heat one, Cliff Warren in heat two and Russell DeBlauw in heat three. The 18 car feature ran 20 laps with the win going to Gary Howard followed by Cliff Warren, Victor Davis, Russell DeBlauw and Ed Schwarz. Senior Point leader Rob Kershaw finished 13 but maintains a 330-point lead over Bruce Douglass who finished eighth. Cliff Warren is in third in points 370 points behind Kershaw.

We will resume our regular racing next week October 2 with VRA Sprints, Senior Sprints, Pro Dwarf Cars, USAC Young Gun Midgets and kid’s classes.