Ostling Earns Ventura Win Despite Surge by Kruseman

Steve Ostling of Lakewood earned his first Sprint Car Racing Assn. victory Friday night at Ventura Raceway, passing Bobby Michnowitz of Dominguez Hills on the 10th lap and running away with the 30-lap feature.

The most impressive driving of the evening came from Ventura’s Cory Kruseman, who finished third behind Rip Williams of Yorba Linda.

Kruseman initially started 10th, but stalled in the backstretch on the first lap, forcing a caution flag and a restart.

Kruseman pulled off the track and got the car repaired before the restart, but he was sent to the back of the 18-car field.

By the 10th lap, Kruseman had worked his way up to ninth, where he stayed for another 10 laps before making his move.

Randy Moody of Ventura earned his fourth victory in the 20-lap International Motor Contest Assn. Sprint Car main event, which was the first time that SCRA and IMCA Sprints were featured on the same program at Ventura.

Moody led by almost a lap with three laps remaining, but eased up for a half-lap victory over Paul Hewlett of Santa Paula.

Cal Smith of Montclair edged Dale Harwood of Simi Valley for third place.

Only five of the 14 cars that started the race were running at the finish and eight of the cars had dropped out before eight laps were completed.