9/17/2012
Sprint Source
Swanson Secures First Midget Win At Ventura
Saturday night September 15 was a night for first time winners in three of the six classes raced. In Midgets, 3/4 Midgets and Sport Compacts the night's feature winners were first time Ventura Raceway Winners.
With 10 midgets in the pits all vying for the winner’s purse the crowd was expecting the typical intense racing the Midgets have produced in 2012. Two heart races were held with wins going to Cody Swanson in the Sander Engineering Heat One and Greg Edenholm in the Schroeder Racing Products Heat Two. The 30 lap feature was a hard fought battle between Randi Pankratz who led the first 14 laps only to be passed by Cody Swanson who took the lead on lap 15 going on to take his first ever Ventura Raceway and first ever Midget win of his career, from his inside third row starting position. Also getting by Pankratz was a hard charging Kyle Smith who took second place with Pankratz finishing third. Following Swanson, Smith and Pankratz to the line were Bruce Hiroshima and Greg Edenholm. Swanson's win moves him atop the VRA Midget Standings over Greg Edenholm, Randi Pankratz and Ronnie Gardner. Gardner had a terrible night trying to get his new engine to run. He never ran a lap in competition on Saturday night.
IMCA Modifieds also were on the card Saturday night with the 20 lap feature win going to past IMCA track champion Austin Rodarte over his brother Aaron Rodarte, Dennis Eckert, Brad Prows and Jack Parker. Parker now takes a 19 point lead in the season point race over Prows with only one race remaining in their season on Saturday September 29. Two heats were run with wins going to Dennis Eckert in the Extreme Muffler Heat One and Austin Rodarte in the Speedway Engineering Heat Two.
In VRA Sport Compact racing the night saw the heat race wins go to Michaela Stanton and James Adler. Their 20 lap main event went to first time winner Michaela Stanton who battled Heath Morton for 20 laps to get her first career win. She and Morton were followed to the line by Jess Carlucci, Zack Peterson and Brad Long. Peterson's fifth place finish keeps him 15 points ahead of Jess Carlucci after 10 races in 2012.
NMRA TQ Midgets were on hand and raced in a 25 lap Ron Otto Memorial Race. Heat race wins went to West Evans and Chuck West. The 25 lap Ron Otto Memorial race saw three leaders. Don Kiefer led laps 1-3 then Bruce Hiroshima led until laps 18 when West Evans took the lead and his first ever race win at Ventura Raceway. He was followed by Chuck West, Bruce Hiroshima, Scott Dobson and Scott Niven
VRA Quads were on hand racing in two classes, Open and Sportsman. In the Sportsman Class Troy Slayton took the win over Justin Smith. In the Open Class the heat race went to Dave Knight and the feature went to Kyle Eurto followed by Knight, Matt Williams, Jesse Pfieffer and Brandon Watters. After 8 races Knight leads the point race by 170 over Williams.
The final class racing on Saturday night was the QRC Outlaw Karts. This visiting group put on a great race on the infield track. These winged go karts were competing here for the second time. Their 20 lap feature went to Tim Randolph followed by Ryan Fruge, Jim Garceau, Robert Gordon and Ron Souza. Ruben Nodal took their heat race.
Article Credit: Ventura Raceway/Cliff Morgan
Submitted By: Ventura Raceway
