FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 18, 2015
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Troy Rutherford holds off Greg Taylor for the Committee's $1500 feature win

VENTURA, CA (March 14) - Ventura Raceway opened its 2015 season with a full program of exciting short track racing action featuring seven adult classes battling on the 1/5 mile Ventura oval. Racing was exciting and fast paced with the racers returning to action looking forward to a new season.

Troy Rutherford returned to Ventura to take the special $1,500 winners share of the sprint car purse over Greg Taylor, 2014 Series Champ Kyle Smith and Tom Hendricks. Rutherford and past champion Taylor battled nose to tail for most of the 30 lap feature. Heat race wins went to Greg Taylor in heat one, Troy Rutherford in heat two and Jimmy Crawford in heat three. With 19 sprints signed into the pits for Saturday's event the season looks like there will be a strong battle to see who will become the 2015 champion.

VRA Senior Sprints opened their season with one heat race for the 10 cars in the pits. Wally Pankratz took heat one and Ed Schwarz took heat two.. The twenty lap feature started out with Ron Bach leading lap 1-8 until he left with mechanical ills. Lap 9-14 was led by Mike Cook until he was passed by 2014 series champ Clif Waren who then led the way to his first win of 2015. Mike Cook finished second followed by Ed Schwarz, Brian Grosenheider , Danny Parrish, and Steve Brown..

In IMCA Modified action, Joshua Vogt got back to winning at Ventura with a powerful win over a field of eleven modfieds. He started seventh in the race and by lap 12 he was able to get by Andrew Phipps and then go on to take the win. Following Vogt to the line were Andrew Phipps, Dave Phipps, Mark Davis and Jack Parker. Two heat races were run with wins going to Andrew Phipps and Dave
Phipps.

VRA Dwarf Cars were on the track in two divisions, Seniors and Pros. There were 22 cars in Pros and 8 cars in Seniors in attendance. In Seniors, the one 8 lap heat race went to Mike Lewis.. Their 20 lap feature went to Bill VanPraag followed by Keith Vondersaar, Curt Cook and Bob Kaufman,. In Pros it Hannah Mayhew, Johnny Conley and Brandon Wiley took heat ,race wins. The Main Event went to Tim Conley who took the win over his brother Johnny Conley. Following the two Conleys across the line were Tommy Velasquez, Ricky Lewis and April Baneuelos..

VRA's Hobby Stock Class opened with ten cars in attendance. Cameron Dougan returned to Ventura Raceway and took the first win of the new season over Mark Heurung. Jesse James Verdun and Tom Stephens took heat race wins. The 20 lap main event was fast and exciting as Dougan put his number 5 Nova out front on lap1 and raced smoothly to take the win. Following Dougan to the line in the main were David Heurung, Jessse James Verdun, Tom Stephens Sr., and Mira Cook.

Kenny Beyers Jr. began the new Go Kart season where he left off with a feature win. The 2014 track champion won the race going away from the field of 7 karts. Following Beyers to the line were Henry Ito ,Greg Lewis, David Pankratz and Ken Ito. Ken Ito took their one heat race.

VRA Hobby Stocks
Main event
1 5 Cameron Dougan
2 13 David Heurung
3 16 Tom Stephens Sr.
4 42 Jesse James Verdun
5 55D Mira Cook
6 52 Ken Redman
7 05 Randal Dougan
6 Heath Morton, 7 Mike Stanford and 15 Ernie Malone did not start
HEAT one 42, 55d, 43, 05, 6, 13
HEAT two 16,5,15,7,52

VRA Sprint Cars
Main event
1 11 Troy Rutherford
2 7 Greg Taylor
3 55 Kyle Smith
4 14 Tom Hendricks
5 0k Kenny Perkins
6 2k Hobie Conway
7 5 Mark Weitzman
8 15 Rick Hendrix
9 3k George Morris
10 45 Sheldon DeBlauw
11 39 Kyle Edwards
12 51 Jimmy Crawford
13 09 Luis Espinoza
14 65 Austin DeBlauw
15 24 Guy Woodward
16 13 Bruce Douglass
17 4g Chris Gansen
18 7x Dan Tedrick
19 96 Charlie Butcher did not start
HEAT One 7, 13, 2k, 4g, 24, 65, 7x
HEAT two 11, 09, 14, 15, 45, 5
HEAT Three 51, 55, 39, 3k, 0k, 96

VRA Pro Dwarf
MAIN
1 8 Tim Conley
2 69 Johnny Conley
3 14 Tommy Velasquez III
4 11 Ricky Lewis
5 38 April Banuelos
6 92 Jessica Clark
7 41 Nick Velasquez
8 70 Tom Stephens Jr
9 51 Antonio Mazzola
10 64D Tommy Velasquez
11 49 Shaun Irwin
12 7 Chris Neal
13 33B Brandon Wiley
14 23 Corbin Hames
15 20 DJ Lebow
16 43v Hannah Mayhew
17 93 Jason Horton
18 34 Brandon Busenbar
19 86 Jeff Long
20 03 Jonathan Medrano
21 48 Trenton Morley
22 33 Todd Atkins
HEAT one 43v, 14, 93, 7, 11, 51, 18, 03
HEAT two 69, 8, 64D, 70, 33, 41, 34
HEAT three 33b, 20, 23, 38, 92, 49, 86

VRA Senior Sprints
MAIN
1 25 Clif Warren
2 96 Mike Cook
3 5k Brian Grosenheider
4 1k Danny Parrish
5 27 Steve Brown
6 U47 Ed Schwarz
7 5 Mark Weitzman
8 2 Wally Pankratz
9 Chris Meredith
10 49 Ron Bach
HEAT one 2, 25, 49, 27, 5k
HEAT two U47, 66, 96, 5, 1k

IMCA Modifieds
MAIN
1 25v Josh Vogt
2 22 Andres Phipps
3 08 Dave Phipps
4 02 Mark Davis
5 55jr Jack Parker
6 47 Tim Morse
7 11 Andrew Greiman
8 3r John Romero 
9 38 Dennis Eckert
10 69s James Stowe
11 48 Chuck Costabile
HEAT one 22, 25v, 3r, 47, 69s, 11
HEAT two 08, 38, 02, 55jr, 48

GO Karts
MAIN
1 99 Kenny Byers Jr
2 13 Henry Ito
3 14 Greg Lewis
4 34 David Pankratz
5 24 Ken Ito
6 44 Justin Raper
7 4 Brenden McCarthy
HEAT one 24, 13, 4, 99, 14, 34, 44

VRA Senior Dwarfs
1 9 Bill Van Praag
2 48y Keith Vondersaar
3 16c Curt Cook
4 26 Bob Kaufman
5 55 Dave Dotson
6 7 Mike Neal
7 5 Mike Lewis
8 6 David Conley
HEAT one 5, 26, 7, 9, 55, 6, 48y, 16c