Heurung, Raschke Record First Main-Event Victories

It was a night of firsts for Mark Heurung and Chris Raschke at the Ventura Raceway on Friday night.

Heurung, of Ventura, making his first appearance of the season, took the pole position in his pink Camaro and used it to hold off 14 challengers for his first Street Stock 15-lap oval main-event win.

It was a little harder, however, for Raschke, who worked his way up from seventh to second by Lap 7, when Ventura’s Kevin Parker and Raschke passed leader Jim Jewett of Oxnard on the front straightaway.

Raschke, also of Ventura, powered past Parker in Turn 2 on the ninth lap and went on to edge Paul Moore of Oxnard by four car lengths in the 20-lap Mini-Stock main event.

The victory was Raschke’s first main-event win.

Randy Bingham of Camarillo and John Csorba of Oxnard won the Mini-Stock and Street Stock figure-eight main events, respectively.

Last year’s Mini-Stock champion, Rock Ake Jr. of Moorpark, won the 10-lap Mini-Stock “B” main event to advance to the main event along with Jim Trisdale of Oxnard, Gene Boucher of Ojai and Gary Swenson of Ventura.

Street Stock eight-lap heat winners were Tom Stephens and Dave Hume, both of Ventura.

Swenson, Wes Harris of Camarillo and Jewett drove to eight-lap heat wins in the Mini-Stock division. Pat Garrety of Oxnard won the six-lap Mini-Stock trophy dash and Jim Firsich of Port Hueneme took the checkered flag in the four-lap Street Stock division.

Moore had the best qualifying time in the Mini-Stock division at 18.122 seconds. Ventura’s Don Keeter clocked 16.901 in the Street Stock division.