Steering Clear of Trouble, Stewart Wins

In front of a near-capacity crowd and a national cable television audience, Tony Stewart of Indianapolis survived a war of attrition at Ventura Raceway, adding to his lead in the USAC Western States Midget Championship points standings.

The victory was the second of the season for the 1991 USAC Sprint Car rookie of the year, who finished fifth in the Midget standings last year.

Only six of 20 starters were running at the finish of the 30-lap main event, which was slowed five times by accidents.

Pole-sitter Page Jones, who defeated Stewart in an earlier 10-lap heat, was eliminated after flipping in the first turn on the first lap.

Wally Pankratz and Simi Valley’s Rick Hendrix were forced from the race when five cars spun or collided trying to avoid Jones.

Seven-time Western States champion Ron (Sleepy) Tripp had the pole for the restart, but Stewart got the jump when the green flag dropped.

Keith Rauch and Carry Faas spun out on the restart, John Cofer flipped into Jimmy Sills and Robbie Flock one lap later, and there were two more incidents on successive laps, but Stewart avoided the carnage each time.

The 12-lap semi-main served as a preview of what was to come, with Rauch taking the checkered flag under caution conditions after several spinouts and crashes.

The most spectacular flip of the evening occurred in the semi-main when Bob Ellis of Moreno Valley came over the rear tire of a car that had slowed for the caution flag. Ellis flew into the first-turn wall head-on at full power, then flipping back into traffic.

Randy Moody of Ventura took the 20-lap three-quarter Midget main event, holding off another Ventura racer, Marc Hart.