Griffin Behind All Night

It should be no surprise that Sprint Car Racing Assn. two-time defending champion and points leader Richard Griffin came up a little short to Mike Kirby of Lomita in the 30-lap feature race Saturday night at Ventura Raceway.

Griffin, of Silver City, N.M., almost did not make the race. His private plane developed engine trouble before he reached Arizona, forcing him to rent a car, drive to Phoenix, take a commercial flight to Los Angeles, rent another car and drive to the track.

He arrived 15 minutes before qualifying ended but still turned a 12.342-second lap--fifth fastest--without taking any warm-up laps.

Griffin finished fourth in the six-lap passing masters’ dash, and started sixth in the feature.

Kirby, 1993 California Racing Assn. champion, started from the outside of the front row and grabbed the lead at the start.

While Kirby was going wire-to-wire, Griffin steadily worked his way through the pack.

Griffin moved into fifth place on the fifth lap, took fourth place on lap seven, moved into third on a ninth-lap restart after a caution flag, and passed Troy Cline of Santa Clarita for second on lap 11.

“The track was slick and loose, but we’ll take it and move on to the next race,” Griffin said. “[The plane trouble] turned out not to be a big deal, but overall, it was a long day.”

Jeremy Sherman of Phoenix was third, Cline, who went wire-to-wire in the passing masters dash, was fourth, and Troy Rutherford of Ojai was fifth.

Rutherford qualified third at 12.304 seconds, and Kirby qualified eighth at 12.381.

Rob Anderson of Simi Valley, who leads the California Dwarf Car Racing Assn. pro division standings, took the lead on the ninth lap and won the 20-lap main event.

Anderson passed Nathan Robinson coming out of turn two and went on to win by one-half lap.

Bill Andrews of Acton was second, Seth Wilson of San Diego was third and Robinson was fourth.

Ron Bach of Ventura took the lead from Ken Lippert of Granada Hills heading into turn three with three laps remaining in the CDCRA 20-lap Sr. Division main event and pulled away from the field.

Steve Denham of Yucaipa passed Lippert one lap later at the finish line and held on for second place.