Doty Wins Race, Gamester Takes Title at Ventura Raceway

Kevin Doty of Indianapolis captured the United States Auto Club 50-lap National Midget main-event race at Ventura Raceway last Saturday night. However it was Russ Gamester of Peru, Ind., who clinched the USAC National Midget Points championship earlier in the evening.

Former USAC Midget champion Stan Fox of Janesville, Wis., took an early lead in the main event before a broken steering box allowed Gamester to move into first on lap six.

A broken rear end on Gamester’s car put him out of action on lap 14 and Doty took command for the win, holding off Sleepy Tripp of Costa Mesa and Ventura’s Dennis Hart.

Gamester locked up the season points championship with a sixth-place finish in qualifying and a fourth-place heat-race finish, eliminating the faint hopes of five-time national champion Rich Vogler of Indianapolis and two-time champ Kevin Olson of Rockford, Ill.

Robby Flock of the City of Industry recorded the first sub-13-second qualifying lap time at Ventura with a fast-lap track record of 12.91. Flock also came back to win the 10-lap semi-main event after flipping his car in the first heat race.

Heat-race winners were P. J. Jones of Rolling Hills, Fox, Tommy White of Bakersfield, and Ron Hughes, Jr. of Conroe, Tex., a paraplegic who drove his car to victory with the aid of hand controls.

USAC Western States TQ Midget champion Gary Howard of Anaheim Hills won the 28-lap TQ Challenge, which featured the top 10 Western States drivers and the top three rookie drivers for the 1989 season. Rob Hansen of Simi Valley was second.