VENTURA RACEWAY : Shuman Catches Kirby, Then Goes Past Williams

Four-time non-winged sprint car champion Ron Shuman passed defending California Racing Assn. champion Mike Kirby of Lomita at the finish line with one lap remaining in Thursday’s 30-lap Sprint Car Racing Assn. feature race at Ventura Raceway.

Shuman held the lead to the finish, culminating a five-lap battle for the lead and giving the Tempe resident the lead in the points standings.

Shuman started fifth, and was content to hold his position for the first half of the race until a 16th-lap crash caused a 20-minute delay.

Rip Williams of Yorba Linda, who fell to second place with 871 points to Shuman’s 892, ran over the back of a lapped car driven by Dale Cross of Clovis.

Cross’ car did a barrel roll, landing upright, while Williams’ vehicle flipped end over end into the Turn 1 fence. It hung there by its nose, the tail section barely touching the ground.

It took safety crews seven minutes just to figure out how to dislodge the car from the fence, and another 12 minutes to clear the damaged cars from the track.

After the restart, Shuman needed just four laps to move into second place, from where he immediately set his sights on Kirby, whose car apparently had been leaking water during the delay.

Shuman made his first attempt at Kirby on Lap 25, going for an inside pass between turns but fell back after pulling even.

Shuman mounted several challenges before finally getting the job done as the white flag came out.