Boudakian Dominates Ventura Main Event

Harry Boudakian of Visalia showed he was the man to beat from the start of Saturday night’s racing program at Ventura Raceway.

Boudakian set a track record on the quarter-mile dirt oval with a qualifying lap of 12.633 seconds, ran away to an impressive heat win and then breezed to victory in the 30-lap main event for Outlaw-Winged Mini Sprints.

Five caution flags--three the result of accidents--were about the only thing that allowed the field to stay close to Boudakian. Two of the wrecks occurred on the original start and restart of the race. But Boudakian quickly re-established control after each stoppage.

A more competitive fight was for second place, where Jim Keener of Visalia fought off Fresno’s Rick Carstens and Hanford’s Blake Robertson. Robertson won the semi-main event earlier in the evening.

Other heat winners in the mini-sprint division were Luke Bebereia, Carstens and Mike Faria.

The USAC three-quarter midget main event was not complete at press time, but Ventura’s Cory Kruseman got the night off to a quick start with a three-quarter midget qualifying record of 13.617 seconds.

Heat-race winners were Steve Kellick, James Voitel, Gary Howard and Scott Hansen. Mark Holtz took the semi-main event.