CORY KRUSEMAN WINS 50 LAPPER AT PERRIS AUTO SPEEDWAY FOR THIRD WIN OF YEAR.

By Ken Wagner                                   5/29/05

 

Cory Kruseman, of Ventura, California won the Valvoline USAC/CRA “Salute to Indy” 50 lap race at Perris Auto Speedway this week. Driving the ITI Performance, Sander Engineering, Bullitt, Downing # 38, The Kruser started 14th in the main event and chased early leader, Rip Williams, down and led the final 24 laps to win his third race of the season. His win stopped the win streak by Damion Gardner at four, The Demon was involved in a shunt in the main that bent his front end so severely that he fought it until he spun out with a few laps to go as he was charging into 4th place from the back. Rip Williams increased his point lead over Damion to 34 points as he finished third while Gardner was tenth.

 

RJ Johnson graduated from high school on Thursday and then finished second in the main event on Saturday. It was his first podium finish with CRA. The two time AMRA Midget champion beat Rip Williams and Mike Kirby for his best finish ever. R J was followed by the Ripper, Mike Kirby and David Cardey who also had his best ever finish with CRA.

 

Rookie Joshua Williams, cousin to Rip Williams, made his first ever main event and finished sixth coming from 21st to get the hard charger award for the night. In a race of attrition, 22 cars started and only seven finished as a variety of ails took out a large number of cars. There was a red flag fuel stop at lap 36 because of the many yellow flag laps.

 

VALVOLINE USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: May 28, 2005 – Perris, California – Perris Auto Speedway

 

      QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Damion Gardner, 50, Chaffin-16.502; 2. Charles Davis, Jr, 8A, Smiley-16.560; 3. Tony Jones, 87, Vermeer/Ferreira-16.650; 4. Steve Ostling, 5, Keller-16.675; 5. Mike Spencer, 44, Engstrom-16.685; 6. Rickie Gaunt, 2A, Smiley-16.733; 7. Rip Williams, 3, Jory-16.836; 8. R. J. Johnson, 15AZ, Martin-16.882; 9. Mike Kirby, 4, Alexander-16.979; 10. Bobby Graham, 14, Lancaster-17.006; 11. Bobby Cody, 41, Cody-17.017; 12. Seth Wilson, 17, Racing Optics-17.022; 13. Gary Howard, 25, Ruth-17.105; 14. Alan Ballard, 97, Ballard-17.115; 15. Dan Hillberg, 82, Hillberg-17.146; 16. Cory Kruseman, 38, Crossno-17.177; 17. Nadine Keller, 16, Keller-17.320; 18. Tom Stansberry, 48, Bach-17.346; 19. Jordan Hermansader, 92, Sertich-17.393; 20. Rick Becker, 67, Becker-17.420; 21. David Cardey, 59, Giardina-17.447; 22. Ronnie Case, 33, Blair-17.448; 23. Jimmy Crawford, 17C, Crawford-17.642; 24. Shawn Kautz, 29, Kautz-18.277; 25. Joshua Williams, 34, Williams-18.281; 26. Richard Rose, N8, Ziegler-19.158; 27. Danny Sheridan, 18, Kittle-NT.

 

      DASH: (3 laps) 1. Ostling, 2. Jones, 3. Davis, 4. Gardner. :51:98

      FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Cardey, 2.Spencer, 3. Gardner, 4. J Williams, 5, Howard, 6. Kirby, 7. Keller. 2:56:41

      SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Graham, 2. Gaunt, 3. Davis, 4. Stansberry, 5. Rose, 6. Ballard, 7. Case. 2:56:64

      THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Cody, 2. Hermansader, 3. Jones, 4. R. illiams, 5. Crawford, 6. Hillberg. 2:53:82

      FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Kruseman, 2. Johnson, 3. Wilson, 4. Ostling, 5. Becker, 6. Kautz. 3:53:61

      SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Kirby, 2. Becker, 3. Crawford, 4. Case, 5. Ballard, 6. Sheridan, 7. Kautz, 8. Howard, 9. Keller, 10. Rose, 11. Hillberg. 3:34:08

       FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Cory Kruseman, 2. R.J. Johnson, 3. Rip Williams, 4. Mike Kirby, 5. David Cardey, 6. Joshua Williams, 7. Ronnie Case, 8. Steve Ostling, 9. Bobby Graham, 10. Damion Gardner, 11. Rickie Gaunt, 12. Bobby Cody, 13. Rick Becker, 14. Alan Ballard, 15. Danny Sheridan, 16. Jordan Hermansader, 17. Seth Wilson, 18. Charles Davis, Jr., 19. Tom Stansberry, 20, Tony Jones, 21, Jimmy Crawford, 22. Mike Spencer. NT

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Hillberg flipped during the semi. Crawford flipped on lap six of the feature.

 

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-26 Rip Williams, Laps 27-50 Kruseman.

 NEW USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-Rip Williams-745; 2-Gardner-711; 3-Kruseman-695; 4-Kirby-677; 5-Davis-672; 6-Gaunt-523; 7-Jones-384; 8-Wilson-381; 9-Ballard-380; 10-Josh Ford-365. 

NEXT USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR RACE: June 4 – Hanford, CA – Kings Speedway