By Robert Haugh
After overtaking Alamo's Scott Pierovich on Lap 16, 2011 USAC
Western States Midget champion Cory Kruseman of Ventura cruised to victory in the Josh
Ford Racing #73x Ellis/Fontana at the tacky ¼-mile Ocean Speedway in
Watsonville, CA on Friday, July 6 as part of night one of the annual Howard Kaeding Classic event.
After a number of incidents in the first half of the 30-lap
feature, including flips by Kruseman’s teammate Ryan Bernal of Hollister in the Josh Ford
Racing #72 Ellis/Bob Wirth Chevy and San Rafael’s Frankie Guerrini III in the
F&F Racing #63 Stealth/Gaerte, Kruseman cruised to the win by a second over
USAC-Western States points leader Shannon McQueen of Bakersfield in the McQueen
Racing #7 Spike/Esslinger.
Fremont’s Shane Golobic claimed a close third in Doug Bock’s #26 Spike/Esslinger, followed by Danny Ebberts in the Van
Dyne Racing #5 Ellis/Van Dyne and Ronnie Gardner in Mitchell Johnson’s #68
Six-8 Motorsports Ellis/Fontana rounding out the Top five.
McQueen, Ebberts and Gardner all transferred to the feature
through the Semi.
Bakersfield’s Sean Dodenhoff finished sixth in Brad
Dodenhoff’s #9d Spike/Fontana ahead of hard chargers David Prickett in the David Prickett Racing/Neverlift Motorsports #15 Spike/Dyne and Manteca’s
“Nitro” Nick Chivello in the Chivello Motorsports #27
Spike/Esslinger. Rounding out the top 10 were Pierovich in his
#35 Spike/Bob Wirth Mopar who was battling ignition issues after setting fast
time and Jimmy Christian in the Walker Racing/Bay Muffler #10
Stealth/Esslinger. Prickett started 16th while Chivello started 18th.
Anaheim’s Jake Swanson battled his way through the field in
his #05 Spike/Honda, finishing 11th followed by
Pleasanton’s Pete Davis in his #00 Hothead Engine Heaters Stealth/Esslinger.
Three time BCRA champion Nick Foster, Jr. of San Jose placed
13th, two laps down in his #1 “Blue Bayoo” Beast/Esslinger with
Jimmy Voitel in his #21 Ellis/Chevy II in 14th rounding out the cars
running at the conclusion of the 30-lap feature.
Ebberts claimed the Semi over McQueen, Dodenhoff and
Bakersfield’s Wink Schweitzer in Dodenhoff’s #9b EMC/Fontana. Just missing the
transfer was 7-time BCRA champion “Ageless Wonder” Floyd Alvis in Bob Roza’s
#21 Spike/Esslinger.
Dodenhoff claimed Heat 1 over Pierovich, Kruseman and Davis.
Christian claimed heat 2 over Cody Swanson, Jake Swanson and
Guerrini.
Golobic claimed Heat 3 over Troy Rutherford in Calvin
Marten’s #86 Stealth/Esslinger, Atascadero’s Randi Pankratz in her #8 Edmunds
AutoResearch/Fontana and Foster.
Bernal claimed an incident-marred heat 4 over Chivello,
Prickett and Voitel, with only the top three finishing the Heat.
Pierovich topped 27-car field in qualifying, posting a
13.463 lap followed closely by Cody Swanson, Golobic, Cole Carter in Mason
Cook’s #10 Beast/Mopar and Ebberts. The Top 10 were separated by only two
tenths of a second!
Summary:
FEATURE:
(30 laps) 1. Cory Kruseman, 2. Shannon McQueen, 3. Shane Golobic, 4. Danny
Ebberts, 5. Ronnie Gardner, 6. Sean Dodenhof, 7. David Prickett, 8. Nick
Chivello, 9. Scott Pierovich, 10. Jimmy Christian, 11. Jake Swanson, 12. Pete
Davis, 13. Nick Foster, 14. Jimmy Voitel, 15. Wink Schweitzer, 16. Randi
Pankratz, 17. Frankie Guerrini, 18. Cole Carter, 19. Cody Swanson, 20. Ryan
Bernal, 21. Troy Rutherford. NT
LAP
LEADERS: Laps 1-2 Pankratz, Laps 3-15 Pierovich, Laps 16-30
Kruseman.
SEMI:
(12 laps) 1. Ebberts, 2. McQueen, 3. Gardner, 4. Schweitzer, 5. Alvis, 6.
Kaeding, 7. Wood, 8. Shupe. NT
FIRST
HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Dodenhoff, 2. Pierovich, 3. Kruseman, 4.
Davis, 5. Wood, 6. Ebberts. NT
SECOND
HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Christian, 2. C.Swanson, 3. J.Swanson, 4.
Guerrini, 5. Kaeding, 6. Shupe, 7. Gardner. NT
THIRD
HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Golobic, 2. Rutherford, 3. Pankratz, 4.
Foster, 5. Schweitzer, 6. Alvis. NT
FOURTH
HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Bernal, 2. Chivello, 3. Prickett, 4.
Voitel, 5. McQueen, 6. Carter. NT
QUALIFICATIONS:
1. Scott Pierovich, 35, Pierovich-13.463; 2. Cody Swanson, 71, Swanson-13.531;
3. Shane Golobic, 26, Bock-13.614; 4. Cole Carter, 10, Cook-13.626; 5. Danny
Ebberts, 5, VanDyne-13.640; 6. Frankie Guerrini III, 63, Guerrini-13.657; 7.
Randi Pankratz, 8, Pankratz-13.659; 8. Shannon McQueen, 7, McQueen-13.661; 9.
Cory Kruseman, 73, Ford-13.679; 10. Ronnie Gardner, 68, Johnson-13.688; 11.
Troy Rutherford, 86, Martens-13.735; 12. Ryan Bernal, 72, Ford-13.861; 13. Sean
Dodenhoff, 9D, Dodenhoff-14.006; 14. Jimmy Christian, 10c, Walker-14.002; 15.
Wink Schweitzer, 9B, Dodenhoff-14.034; 16. David Prickett, 15,
Neverlift-14.037; 17. Pete Davis, 00, Davis-14.114; 18. Jake Swanson, 05,
Swanson-14.180; 19. Floyd Alvis, 21x, Roza-14.231; 20. Connor Kassik, 115,
Neverlift-14.483; 21. Adam Kaeding, 27c, Blackwell-14.796; 22. Nick Foster, 1x,
Foster-14.871; 23. Jimmy Voitel, 21, Voitel-15.040; 24. Cole Wood, 17w,
Wood-15.308; 25. Ryan Shupe, 10x, Shupe-19.162; 26. Nick Chivello, 27,
Chivello-NT; 27. Alex Schutte, 28, Martens-NT.
