Sunset at Perris (Video Highlights from FloRacing.com)
11/4/22
Perris Auto Speedway
Perris, CA
26th Perris Oval Nationals
USAC National Sprint Cars
USAC-CRA
38 cars
CJ Leary (25th car out to time) set quick time for the second night in a row at 16.477 seconds. Jake Swanson (2nd car out) was second quick, followed by Logan Seavey (1st), Justin Grant (17th), Mitchel Moles (38th), Robert Ballou (35th), Matt Westfall (6th), Emerson Axsom (12th), Kevin Thomas Jr. (16th) and Cody Williams (30th). Matt Mitchell hit the wall in hot laps and got one lap at the end. Chase Johnson had engine issues and didn’t get a time. Kyle Edwards and Jason McDougal did not get a time and scratched for the night.
Heat one (started): 1. Thomas Jr. 17GP (4) 2. Charles Davis Jr. 47 (1) 3. Max Adams 73 (3) 4. Leary 77m (6) / 5. RJ Johnson 51 (7) 6. Jadon Rogers 14 (2) 7. Matt McCarthy 28M (8) 8. Troy DeGaton 39T (9) 9. Moles 19AZ (5)
10-lap heats took the top four to the feature. Davis led Rogers, Thomas and Adams early. On lap two, Leary got by Adams for fourth. Thomas used a move in turn two on lap three to take second from Rogers. Adams shot from fifth to third on lap four. At that point, Leary made contact with Moles, who was done. The restart saw Davis leading Thomas, Adams, Rogers and Leary. Thomas took the lead when the race went green, and Leary snagged the fourth and final transfer from Rogers.
Heat two (started): 1. C. Williams 44 (4) 2. Swanson 21AZ (6) 3. Brody Roa 91R (1) 4. Ballou 12 (5) / 5. Eddie Tafoya Jr. 51T (2) 6. Matt Mitchell 37 (7) 7. Sterling Cling 34 (3) 8. Jake Neal 214 (9) 9. Chris Bonneau 15 (8) DNS – Kyle Edwards 39E
C. Williams shot by the front row and led the distance. Roa was second, ahead of Swanson and Tafoya. Ballou snagged fourth from Tafoya on lap two. Swanson took second from Roa on lap three.
Heat three (started): 1. Brady Bacon 69 (4) 2. Austin Grabowski 72 (2) 3. Daniel Whitley 3F (1) 4. Westfall 33m (5) / 5. AJ Bender 21 (3) 6. Seavey 42 (6) 7. Chris Gansen 4G (7) 8. Nate Schank 1$ (8) 9. Gary Marshall Jr. 23 (9)
Grabowsky led early over Bacon, Whitley and Bender. Westfall used a move on the low side to take fifth from Seavey on lap three, and did the same to Bender to take fourth a lap later. Bacon put a slider on Grabowski in turn three to take the point on lap five, and then pulled away.
Heat four (started): 1. Damion Gardner 1 (2) 2. Austin Williams 2 (4) 3. Logan Williams 5w (3) 4. Axsom 47BC (5) / 5. Grant 4 (6) 6. Ricky Lewis 41 (8) 7. Logan Calderwood 6 (1) 8. Tommy Malcolm 5x (7) 9. Chase Johnson 8m (9) DNS – Jason McDougal 22AZ
Gardner led wire to wire. L. Williams took third from Calderwood with a slider on lap three. Axsom reeled in Calderwood and took the final transfer with three to go, using the high side.
B main (started): 1. Grant (2) 2. Seavey (1) 3. Bender (5) 4. Malcolm (12) 5. Rogers (6) 6. Tafoya (7) 7. RJ Johnson (9) 8. Lewis (14) / 9. Moles (3) 10. Cling (4) 11. Gansen (11) 12. McCarthy (13) 13. Calderwood (8) 14. C. Johnson (18) 15. Schank (15) 16. Neal (16) 17. Marshall (19) 18. DeGaton (17) 19. Mitchell (10) DNS – Bonneau, Edwards, McDougal
The 12-lap B took the top eight to the A. Grant led Seavey for the distance. Cling was third early, followed by Rogers and Bender, who shot from fifth to third on lap three. On lap four, Moles jumped the cushion, rode the wall and tipped over. He collected Mitchell, who had nowhere to go. Incredibly, Moles would restart and charge back within one spot of a transfer. Malcolm moved up eight spots to transfer from fourth.
A main (started): 1. Ballou (4) 2. Thomas Jr. (1) 3. Swanson (5) 4. Leary (6) 5. Bacon (8) 6. Axsom (2) 7. Westfall (3) 8. Grant (11) 9. C. Williams (7) 10. Adams (13) 11. Gardner (9) 12. RJ Johnson (22) 13. A. Williams (12) 14. Malcolm (23) 15. Seavey (10) 16. Rogers (16) 17. Roa (20) 18. L. Williams (15) 19. Moles (25, prov.) 20. Davis Jr. (19) 21. Tafoya (17) 22. Bender (14) 23. Mitchell (26, prov.) 24. Gansen (27, prov.) 25. Lewis (24) 26. Whitley (21) 27. Grabowsky (18)
The 30-lapper Axsom leading Thomas and Ballou on lap one. Thomas quickly took the lead on lap two, while Leary and Bacon moved into fourth and fifth on lap three. On lap ten, Whitley flipped high into the turn four fence. He was uninjured, but a lengthy delay was needed to fix the fence. Thomas led Axsom, Ballou, Leary and Bacon back to green. Another caution came for a slowed Bender on lap 15, with no chance up front. Bacon was the only one trying the top and he’d get by Leary for fourth on the restart. He then took third from Ballou using the high side with ten to go. That seemed to wake up Balllou, who grabbed the spot back from Bacon on lap 22. He then shot under Axsom for second on lap 23. Leary and Swanson moved by Brady and Axsom. On the white flag lap, Ballou shot to the bottom of turn two to take the lead and the win from Thomas. Swanson passed Leary on the last lap for third. RJ Johnson was the hard-charger.