Johnson Leads Wire to Wire in Ventura Raceway Main Event

Walt Johnson of Sun Valley led wire to wire Saturday night to win the 20-lap three-quarter Midget main event at Ventura Raceway.

Johnson’s win was his first main-event victory at Ventura. Russ Nickell of Bakersfield finished second and Rick Hendrix of Simi Valley was third.

Three-quarter Midget eight-lap heat-race winners were Cory Kruseman of Ventura, J.J. Ersce of Palos Verdes, Steve Alexander of Torrance and Jim Voitel of San Gabriel.

The Midget division races were delayed until 9:30 because ESPN, which had contracted to televise the competition live, was showing the NCAA hockey championship game. Results of the races, which started after a nearly two-hour break in the program, were not available at press time.

Qualifying for the ESPN series at Ventura was held Friday night in Midget and three-quarter Midget classes.

The session lasted almost three hours and ended in controversy for Midget driver Dennis Hart of Ventura.

Hart’s time was good enough to put him in 20th position, but a post-qualifying inspection by U.S. Auto Club officials revealed that Hart’s right-rear wheel was approximately one inch too wide. He subsequently was disqualified.

Hart won the second race of the ESPN series last year.