Ronnie Gardner took his first ever VRA Midget win Saturday night in a hard fought victory over Danny Ebberts. Despite some smaller than normal car counts this season, the racing at Ventura Raceway has been outstanding and the 30 lap Midget Main event was no exception. After the green came out it was Gardner on the low side in the turns and Ebberts flying around the top. As the two came out of turn four on the final lap, Gardner led Ebberts to the line, winning his first midget race ever by a one second margin. Finishing behind Gardner and Ebberts were Cody Swanson, season point leader Greg Edenholm, and Bruce Douglass. There were two heat races run with the Sander Engineering Heat One going to David Prickett and the Schroeder Racing Products Heat Two going to Wally Pankratz.
After four races in the VRA Midget series for 2012 the point lead is held by Greg Edenholm by 105 points over Wink Sweitzer, 110 points over Cody Swanson and 155 points over Ronnie Gardner. The VRA midgets return to action on July 14.
VRA Senior Sprints were back in action with point leader Victor Davis going for another win. The VRA Senior point leader could only muster a 4th place finish as Wally Pankratz took his first VRA Sprint Car win. Leading all 20 laps, Pankratz finished ahead of Bruce Douglass, Clif Warren and Victor Davis. Seniors ran two heat races with the wins going to Bruce Douglass in the Spin Tech Mufflers Heat One and Victor Davis in the LRB Manufacturing Heat Two.
IMCA Modifieds were also racing Saturday. Santa Maria regular Josh Vogt took his second race win of the season in the 20 lap main over a field of 11 cars. Finishing second through fifth were Daylan Coffee, Dennis Eckert, Mark Davis and season point leader Jack Parker. Even though the field was smaller than usual the race was an exciting one from beginning to end. Their heat race wins went to went to Jack Parker in the Extreme Muffler Heat One and Josh Vogt in the Speedway Engineering Heat Two. After seven races in the 2012 season Jack Parker leads Brad Prows 255 to 242 with Wayne Heurung in third at 233 points.
Trevor Fitzgibbon returned to action Saturday night to take another win in the VRA Sport Compact Class. Taking the lead from point leader Jess Carlucci on lap five he then went on to lead the race to the finish, followed by Carlucci, James Adler, John Butcher and Zack Peterson. Heath Morton brought out a very nice new number 6 car and then forgot to go to tech after the end of the race and was disqualified from his 4th place finish. There was one heat race run with the win going to Trevor Fitzgibbon.
VRA Go Karts were back again on Saturday racing on the big track. The 20 lap feature win went to Ashley Hazleton over Cody nigh, Mike Evans, Justin Raper and Dillon Ito. Heat race wins went to Cody Nigh and Mike Evans. After five races Cody nigh leads in the point race by 15 points over Ashley Hazleton.
The final group racing Saturday night was the VRA Quad Class. Racing on the 1/5 mile oval track the racing was very fast and exciting. Mat Williams took the win over David Knight and Chris Kirkley. He also took the win in their heat race. Brian Hudnell took the win in the Sportsman division.
Ventura Raceway returns to action next Saturday June 23, with VRA Sprints, VRA Dwarf Cars, Focus Midgets, VRA Mod Lites, Junior Midgets and Mini Dwarf Cars.
- Ventura Raceway on Jun 18, 2012
- Article Date: 6/18/2012 by Ventura Raceway/Cliff Morgan