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Race Report - Ventura Raceway Newsletter 4/3/11

After a rainout on March 26, Ventura Raceway got back to action Saturday night April 2, with a full program of wild and exciting racing action. It was a very busy night as seven adult classes and three kids’ classes competed.

Greg Taylor led the first 29 of 30 laps of the VRA Sprint Car feature only to see it go away in turn 4 of the final lap when he and Derek Buckley, who had been running second almost all race got together coming to the finish and stopped at the top of the track bringing out the yellow flag. That put Dakota Kershaw out front for the restart with one lap to go. Troy Rutherford who had one off the track early in the race for a pit stop came from last spot to be in second as the green flew for the final lap. Rutherford was able to pass Kershaw in turn two and went on the take the win and regain the season points lead. Kershaw finished second with Don Gansen third, Josh ford fourth and Steve Conrad in fifth. The turn four incident on the last lap placed Taylor 13th and Buckley 14th in the final standings. Saturday's race saw 27 cars in the pits with four heat races competed. Wins went to Dakota Kershaw, Greg Taylor, Steve Conrad and Derek Buckley. One semi main was run with the win gong to Troy Rutherford.

VRA Senior Sprints returned to action Saturday with two heat races and a 20 lap feature. The heat race wins were taken by Rob Kershaw and Bruce Douglass. The 20 lap main event went to Douglass with Russell Deblauw second, Kershaw third, Victor Davis fourth and Richard McCormick fifth. Douglass's win puts him into first place in the point race over 2010 season champion Kershaw.

IMCA Modifieds raced two heats with wins going to Danny Lauer and Austin Rodarte. The 20 lap feature had to be shortened to 15 laps due to many on-track incidents that took 1/2 of the starting field out of the race. Lauer had a tough start in the event but came from last to first to take his third IMCA win at Ventura this season. Following him across the finish line were Chris Crompe, Brad Prows, Rob Green and Doug Thornton.

VRA Dwarf Cars ran in two divisions with heat race wins going to George Calvo and Mike Neal in Seniors and Kevin Calvo and Mike Lewis in pros. The two divisions then ran a combined main event for the 22 cars in attendance. Wins went to Ray Estrada in the Pros and George Calvo in Seniors. The race saw a large accident before a compete lap was run that sent Kevin Calvo to the hospital to be checked out after he flipped on the front straight. This and several other on-track incidents caused the race to be shortened to 15 laps.

VRA Mod Lites ran their second event with four cars in attendance. The heat race went to Jim Chapp and their 15 lap feature went to Kevin Alverson.

The final adult class racing Saturday night was the VRA Sport Compacts. Two heat races were run with the wins going to Gary Marshall Jr. in heat one and Trevor Fitzgibbon in heat two. The 15 lap feature went to Fitzgibbon followed on the track by Marshall, Cody Greiman, Brent Underwood and Jess Carlucci. After the race, Marshall's car failed a post race tech inspection and was removed from the finishing order.

The three VRA Kids classes also ran Saturday night with wins going to Destyn Garcia in the Supercharger heat, J D Brown in the Piston Heat and Tommy Velasquez and Oliver Blades in Junior Midget heats. Main event wins went to Brennan Rogers in Junior Midget, Nick Velasquez in Superchargers and Jake Aguilar in Pistons.

VENTURA'S 2011 OPENING NIGHT
by Cliff Morgan

MARCH 6, 2011 --- Troy Rutherford started the new 2011 season the same way he let off in 2010 with a powerful win over Greg Taylor in the 30 lap feature for VRA Sprints Saturday night. Rutherford came from his 6th starting position to pass race leader Greg Taylor on lap 27 of the 30 lap race. Taylor had passed early race leader Marcus Niemela on lap8 and then led until Rutherford got by on lap 27. Taylor and Rutherford battled nose to tail for most of the race that started 20 cars from a field of 31 cars in the pits. following Rutherford and Taylor to the line were Marcus Niemela and Brandon Thomson. Heat race wins went to Derek Buckley, Thomson, Rutherford and Justin Kierce. One semi main was run to fill the main event field with the win going to Bruce Douglas.

IMCA Modifieds opened their season with two heat races for the 19 cars in the pits. Danny Lauer took heat one and heat two went to Randy Thornell. The twenty lap feature was all Lauer as he led from the opening green flag to the checkered. 2010 VRA IMCA track champion Austin Rodarte finished second with Thornell third, Brad Prows fourth and Doug Thornton fifth.

VRA Dwarf Cars were on the track in two divisions, Seniors and Pros. There were 10 cars at the race in each division. In Seniors, the two heat races went to George Calve and Mitch Hedrick. Their 20 lap feature went to 2010 series champion George Calvo followed by Mark Davis, George Sack Jr., Keith Koslov and Dave Dotson. In Pros it was Thomas Velasquez and Angel Figueroa taking heat race wins. 2010 series champion Figureoa came back to take the win in the 20 lap feature over Ray Estrada, Kevin Calvo, Eric Alton and Curt Cook.

VRA's new Mod Lite Class had their first event with Chris Olson taking the win in the heat race and feature. Following Olson across the line in the main were Kevin Alverson and Jim Chapp.

The final group racing on opening night were our three kids divisions. In VRA Mini Dwarf Superchargers, Cameron McCauley took the heat race win and the feature win. following him in the feature were Joe Snyder, Nick Velasquez, Destyn Garcia and Logan Rutherford. In Mini Dwarf Pistons the heat race and feature win went to J.D. Brown. Garrett Egan and Dylan Garcia followed him across the line in the main event. In VRA Junior Midgets, 2010 series champion Brennan Rogers got back to his winning ways by taking the 15 lap feature. following him were Tommy Velasquez, Devin McCree, Kayle Brazel and Chase Lippert. Heat race wins went to McCree and Oliver Blades.

Racing resumes next Saturday night March 12, with a full program of exciting racing featuring VRA Sprints, Senior Sprints, IMCA Modifieds, Sport Compacts and Go Karts.

Segments pertaining to VRA Dwarfs taken with compliments from Ventura County Star and other media