MOTOR RACING : Voigt and Bartels Win by Avoiding Trouble

Ventura Raceway canceled the Demolition Derby that was scheduled to close out Friday night’s Stock Car program, due to lack of entries.

Nonetheless, the crowd of 1,048 got to see plenty of destruction, courtesy of the Stock Car drivers.

Keeping in the holiday spirit, there were even some fireworks thrown in during the Modified feature, when Doug Thornton of Ventura leaped from his car and threw a punch at James Weston of Goleta after a crash on the 15th lap in the front straightaway.

There were nine caution periods in four feature races, and races were stopped completely three other times due to more-serious accidents.

In the midst of the carnage, racing did take place, and the results were actually pretty.

Greg Voigt of Goleta won his fourth 20-lap Street Stock feature, and Ron Bartels of Marina Del Rey took his first victory in the 20-lap Modified main event.

Voigt was nearly three-quarters of a lap ahead of Bob Carpenter of Sierra Madre at the finish, while Bartels had to fend off a late challenge from defending national champion Scott Pounds of Bakersfield.

Bartels started fourth, and grabbed the lead on the first lap.

By the 10th lap, Bartels was leading by a quarter of a lap, but a caution flag on the 15th lap after Weston and Thornton tangled brought Pounds within striking distance.

“I thought on the restart I was going to be in trouble,” Bartels said. “I couldn’t give it full throttle because I was losing traction.”

Bartels got the jump on Pounds, and took the high line for the remaining five laps.

Voigt passed Jason Secor of Ventura on the 10th lap to take the lead, and needed only three laps to open up a one-third-lap advantage.

There were only four cars on the lead lap with Voigt at the finish.

Two-time track champion Richard Webster of Camarillo went wire to wire in the 15-lap Mini Stock feature.

Webster opened up a half-lap lead over Oxnard’s Jim Jewett Sr. by the 11th lap of the race before backing off and cruising to a one-quarter-lap victory.

William Kruft of Ventura earned his first victory in the 15-lap Pony Stock feature.