Perris Speedway’s USAC/CRA Firecracker 30 Recap And Photo Gallery

Perris Auto Speedway hosted the USAC/CRA Firecracker 30 on what turned out to be a stupidly hot Southern California day. Locals have been waiting for summer to really kick in after a very mild spring and early summer. As it turned out, the hot weather was appropriate for the speedway’s Firecracker 30.

The California Lightning Sprints and CRA 410 Sprints lined up on the straight away for an autograph session.

While the fans were pouring into the stands, the drivers and their teams brought all the sprinter out on the front straight away for a meet and greet with the fans. One of the fans that came down on to the track was Mark Caraway, who was holding a framed picture. Caraway made a beeline straight to Rickie Gaunt’s Sprinter and waited patiently for Gaunt to get done signing autographs and talking with the fans. When Gaunt was done with his young fans, Caraway introduced himself and explained how six years ago, at this very same event, Caraway’s son Alex won the co-pilot contest and Rickie Gaunt was his assigned driver. Gaunt won that event and Alex Caraway, who was 11 years old at the time, was given a trophy and celebrated with Gaunt.

Caraway showed Gaunt the framed and autographed photograph from that evening and explained that the driver was still the young Caraway’s favorite driver. Gaunt asked where Alex was and his parents explained that he was in the stands, now seventeen years old and too embarrassed to come down on the track. No problem…Gaunt went into the stands to find his former co-pilot.

Ronnie Gardner got his evening started in impressive fashion by setting the quick time in qualifying. Matt Mitchell was second fastest and looked to be on the cars to beat. Faas, Gaunt and Spencer rounded out the top five in qualifying and no one would have been surprised if the feature winner came from this group. Johnny Bluntach cartwheeled his car in turn 1 of his first qualifying lap.

Ronnie Gardner set quick time in qualifying.

Qualifying:
1. Ronnie Gardner, 93, Gardner-16.591; 2. Matt Mitchell, 37, Mitchell-16.611; 3. Nic Faas, 4, Alexander-16.750; 4. Rickie Gaunt, 66, Miller-16.842; 5. Mike Spencer, 50, Chaffin-16.923; 6. Casey Shuman, 92M, Sertich-16.927; 7. Rip Williams, 3, Jory-16.976; 8. Austin Williams, 2, Jory-17.126; 9. Jace VanderWeerd, 88, VanderWeerd-17.143; 10. Wes Gutierrez, 007, WG-17.182; 11. Richard VanderWeerd, 10, VanderWeerd-17.251; 12. Danny Sheridan, 18, Kittle-17.272; 13. David Cardey, 59, Cardey-17.272; 14. Kenny Perkins, 0K, Perkins- 17.272; 15. Greg Bragg, 92, Sertich-17.324; 16. Greg Alexander, 23, Bellegante-17.360; 17. Danny Faria Jr., 2X, Bowman-17.362; 18. Josh Pelkey, 12A, Allen-17.432; 19. A.J. Bender, 12, Bender-17.469; 20. Cody Williams, 44, Jory-17.586; 21. Tony Everhart, 55, Everhart-17.663; 22. Corey Ballard, 20, Ballard-17.872; 23. Rodney Argo, 19, Argo-17.886; 24. Johnny McCall, 77, McCall-17.961; 25. David Bezio, 37X, Bezio-18.069; 26. Gary Potter, 6, Potter-18.288; 27. Brandon Thomson, 36, Springstead-18.448; 28. Ray Potter, 33X, Potter-18.460; 29. Jerry Welton, 62, Welton-18.551; 30. Mike Collins, 50X, Perkins-19.122; 31. Johnny Bluntach, 58, Bluntach-NT.; 32. Royal Adderson, 40, Adderson-NT.

FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Faria, 2. Cardey, 3. Gardner, 4. Spencer, 5. Everhart, 6. Bezio, 7. J. VanderWeerd, 8. Welton.

Danny Faria Jr.

SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Mitchell, 2. Pelkey, 3. Shuman, 4. Ballard, 5. Collins, 6. G. Potter, 7. Gutierrez, 8. Perkins.

Matt Mitchell

THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Argo, 2. Bragg, 3. R. Williams, 4. Faas, 5. R. VanderWeerd, 6. Bender, 7. Thomson.

Rodney Argo

FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. C. Williams, 2. Gaunt, 3. Sheridan, 4. A. Williams, 5. McCall, 6. R. Potter, 7. Alexander.

Cody Williams

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Alexander, 2. R. VanderWeerd, 3. J. VanderWeerd, 4. Everhart, 5. Bezio, 6. Bender, 7. Collins, 8. G. Potter, 9. Welton, 10. Thomson, 11. R. Potter, 12. McCall.

Greg Alexander.

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Mike Spencer, 2. Rip Williams, 3. Nic Faas, 4. Ronnie Gardner, 5. Danny Sheridan, 6. Austin Williams, 7. Cody Williams, 8. Matt Mitchell, 9. Casey Shuman, 10. Danny Faria Jr., 11. Greg Bragg, 12. Richard VanderWeerd, 13. Josh Pelkey, 14. Greg Alexander, 15. Jace VanderWeerd, 16. Rodney Argo, 17. David Bezio, 18. Corey Ballard, 19. A.J. Bender, 20. Rickie Gaunt, 21. Tony Everhart, 22. David Cardey.