Ramsey and Allen second in Cruiser main

Dennis Allen had some standards to meet in the Perris Auto Speedway’s Cruiser race of April 9.

Allen, who is a member of the Fallbrook Union High School District board, was in Washington for a school board conference and missed the April 2 race. Jim Ramsey, the other driver of the Thunderbird, turned to Andy Delarrio, whose car won the 2004 championship but is currently too damaged to race, as his co-driver. Ramsey and Delarrio finished second April 2, giving Allen a benchmark to uphold.

“Dennis, basically, he was under pressure after having Andy drive the week before,” Ramsey said.

Allen matched Delarrio’s performance as the Thunderbird finished second April 9. “He lived up to the relief driver,” Ramsey remarked. “He did a great job on the gas.”

The Cruiser class involves two drivers, one who handles the steering wheel and brake pedal and the other who controls the gas pedal. Ramsey and Allen were the original co-drivers when the Thunderbird made its debut in 2003; Ramsey steers while Allen handles the gas pedal.

“He knows what I’m doing and I know what he’s doing,” Ramsey said of Allen. “It really works well.”

Ironically, the Thunderbird hit the wall in practice laps with both Delarrio and Allen. A wet track during practice laps April 9 led to a visit to the turn four concrete and bent the right front wheel. “It threw the whole front end out,” Ramsey noted.

The bent rims presented a problem during the heat race. “When we ran the heat race, it wasn’t handling quite as good as we thought,” Allen said.

The Thunderbird started the heat race on the outside of the second row and finished second. Because there were two heat races, the Brooktown Racing team was credited with a third-place overall finish in the heat, and the inversion drawing gave them a main event start on the outside of the third row.

The heat race also included another visit to the wall, this time alongside the turn two wall. Both right wheels were bent. “We didn’t have enough spares, so we had to try to run those through the main,” Ramsey remarked.

The handling issue was rectified by the drivers, along with crew chief Mike Lackey, between the heat race and the main event. A camber change seemed to improve the performance. “It handled a lot better in the main,” Allen noted.

The drivers’ strategy in the main event was to avoid early trouble by staying back but taking advantage of any sufficient openings. Such an opening occurred early in the first lap.

“We actually got out pretty easy around the corner,” Ramsey said.

“The outside line went right, the inside line went left. We just shot up the middle,” Allen explained.

The Thunderbird passed four cars during that opening before catching up with the leader. “We were doing great,” Allen remarked.

Ramsey and Allen had the lead for two-thirds of the 12-lap race. “We were running really great,” Ramsey noted.

Ramsey and Allen were about to lap another Brooktown Racing team, that of Kevin Martin and Dave Hill, when Allen saw a yellow car on his left. “I kind of let off the throttle a little bit,” Allen said.

The yellow car, the #2 car of Ray Bundy and Dean Holdridge, took over the lead. “As they went by they kind of clipped us,” Allen noted.

Bundy and Holdridge slid into the turn and hit the #54 car of Martin and Hill. “The #2 car and Kevin kind of got together on turn four,” Ramsey explained.

Bundy and Holdridge came back across the track. “We could have hit them right in the middle, but we didn’t,” Allen said.

Instead, Ramsey and Allen clipped the left rear quarter panel of the #2 car, sending Bundy and Holdridge into a spin but eliminating the space between the Thunderbird and the #69 car of Tyson Talkington and Dillon Lewis. “The 69 car got by us, and we couldn’t get by him in the last couple of laps,” Ramsey noted.

Ramsey and Allen were keeping up with Talkington and Lewis. “We chased them for a couple of laps,” Allen remarked.

Ramsey and Allen maintained second place. “We had a pretty good run,” Ramsey said.

“We had a tough night early on, but the grand finale was good,” Ramsey remarked. “The track was pretty bumpy, but we handled it real well.”

The two consecutive second-place finishes follow a fourth-place finish Ramsey and Allen achieved in the March 12 opener. “So far this season we’re real happy,” Ramsey said. “That’s a good start for three races.”

That consistency gives the Fallbrook drivers a strong shot at the 2005 season points championship. “If you can be consistent all year, run second, third like that, you’ve really got a shot at getting the points lead,” Allen noted. “We’ve got a real shot at it.”

Ramsey and Allen are sponsored by Costello’s Auto Repair, Fallbrook Muffler, Mahr’s Texaco, Master Tech Auto Specialists, Quality Clutch and Transmission, and Village News, Inc. (which in addition to the Fallbrook/Bonsall Village News also publishes the Valley News for southern Riverside County).

Martin and Hill finished ninth in the main event while the third Brooktown Racing car, driven by Scott Urquhart and Max Vezza, finished 11th.