VENTURA RACEWAY HOSTS CRA SATURDAY;

VANDER WEERD LANDS CRA #1 AT THE PAS

Spectacular Ventura (Calif.) Raceway, a staple for USAC participants for over a quarter-century, hosts the AMSOIL USAC/CRA Sprint cars this Saturday. Defending series champion Damion Gardner enters the race 39 points ahead of Nic Faas in the latest standings.

Gardner’s three-race series unbeaten winning streak ended Saturday at Perris (Calif.), although he made a spirited bid for the win. Gardner ended up underneath a flipping Matt Mitchell on lap three but restarted at the back and came on to take second behind eventual race winner Richard Vander Weerd.

Vander Weerd, of Visalia, Calif., earned his first career AMSOIL USAC/CRA Sprint feature victory at Perris. He piloted the Vander Weerd Constrcution/Stony Gate Development entry to the lead on lap 21 and paced the final 10 circuits to beat Gardner, Greg Alexander, Faas and Mike Spencer.

Cody Williams led three laps and Austin Williams led 17 before yielding to Vander Weerd.

Ventura’s own Cory Kruseman, sixth in the latest series points, won the last USAC/CRA Sprint race at the track, four years ago.