From Scott Daloisio
Perris, CA — (August 14, 2012) — The Amsoil USAC/CRA Sprint Car Series return to its home track, Perris Auto Speedway, this Saturday night, August 18th. The lingering question on everybody’s mind is, can anyone stop Mike Spencer? After finishing fourth in the season opener on February 25th, the handsome Cal Poly Pomona Engineering graduate has won five main events in a row on the Riverside County clay oval. The PAS Senior Sprint Cars and the California Lightning Sprints will also be a part of the triple-header program. Spectator gates will open at 5:00 PM and the first race will be at 7:00.
“Mike Spencer is a machine,” Perris Auto Speedway promoter Don Kazarian said with a smile on Tuesday morning. “When you combine him with car owner Ron Chaffin and National Sprint Car Hall of Fame crew chief Bruce Bromme Jr., you are talking the 1927 New York Yankees. They are not impossible to beat as evidenced last week at Santa Maria Speedway, but they are pretty darn close.”
Spencer won his seventh main of 2012 last Friday night at Ocean Speedway in Watsonville and was on his way to what seemed like another win at Santa Maria on Saturday until “Showtime” Danny Sheridan squeezed by him at the line for the win. This Saturday, Norco’s Ronnie Gardner will be driving the #18 Kittle Motorsports car that Sheridan won in at Santa Maria.
Thus far in 2012, Spencer has won seven of the first 12 main events in the Series. Of his five straight wins at The PAS, the soon to be 31-year-old Temecula resident has two complete sweeps of the show (fast time, heat win and main event win).
Sheridan, who is expected to be in the Ford Racing #73, and several other top stars, including Cal State Fullerton student Nic Faas of Huntington Beach, Brody Roa of Buena Park, Riverside’s “Dynamite” David Cardey and the Yorba Linda trio of National Sprint Car Hall of Famer Rip Williams and his sons Cody and Austin, will try to emulate Sheridan’s accomplishment of last Saturday.
Heading into Saturday’s race, Faas, who has placed second to Spencer in three of his five PAS wins, is 120-points behind the four-time champ in the fight for the title. Roa, who lost an engine at Santa Maria after placing third at Watsonville, has a USAC/CRA win this year at Cocopah Speedway in Yuma, Arizona. Cardey will be making his third appearance in the Tom and Lauri Sertich Moose Racing entry on Saturday. Last time out, they had an impressive second place finish to Spencer on July 28th. Rip Williams, the 2004 USAC/CRA champ, had a season best third place finish on the 28th and the 56-year-old has clawed his way to fifth in the standings. His middle son Austin, 22, has a win this year at Santa Maria, while his oldest son Cody set a new track record at Watsonville and is currently ninth in points.
Just two days shy of his 61st birthday, Bruce Douglass will try to make it four wins in seven outings in the PAS Senior Sprint Car Series on Saturday night. Douglass narrowly fought off teammate Victor Davis of Simi Valley for the win on the 28th. Four-time VRA Senior Champion Wiley Miller took third on the 28th. Douglass enters Saturday’s race tied for the point lead with 2011 champion Bill Badger of Santa Clarita.
The California Lightning Sprint Cars will contest the Christian Stover Memorial race at The PAS on Saturday. Stover, a rising open wheel star who visited The PAS victory circle while competing with the CLS, lost his life in an ATV crash in 2009. Anaheim Hills racer Guy Maresch sits on top of the CLS standing, but 2011 Rookie of the Year Steve Limon of Corona has closed the gap to only 50-points heading into Saturday’s race.
After Saturday’s show the Amsoil USAC/CRA series will head to the grand opening of the Route 66 Motorplex on the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds in Victorville for a Sunday night show with the USAC Western Midgets.
Fans who live more than 100-miles away from the track can watch the race live on the Circle Track Network. http://www.circletracknetwork.
Adult tickets for Saturday’s are $25.00. Seniors get in for $20.00. For
active military members with proper id, teens 13-18 with their school id and
kids 6-12 it is just $5.00. Children 5 and under are admitted free.
The entire 2012 PAS schedule is listed at the end of this release.
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