Imperial, California (October 19, 2024)………In a span of 24 hours, Ricky Lewis went from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs.
On Friday, Lewis (Camarillo, Calif.) flipped upside down during the semi, and subsequently, missed the feature. The hours to come were spent making extensive repairs and preparations until 5am Saturday morning to ensure he was ready to go for that night’s event.
Lewis is a testament to the fact that dedication and desire pay off.
While running second on the final green-white-checkered restart, Lewis (Camarillo, Calif.) dove to the bottom of turn one, got two wheels on the berm and two wheels off the ground, but managed to slide up and take the line away from R.J. Johnson to earn his second Avanti Windows & Doors USAC CRA Sprint Car win of the year, and the third of his career, during Saturday night’s 3rd Annual Heritage Fall Classic at California’s Imperial Valley Raceway.
Overall, it was Lewis’ 21st sprint car feature victory of the 2024 season across several different sanctioning bodies and tracks from coast to coast.
The fifth starting Lewis executed his winning move after both Logan Calderwood (Goodyear, Ariz.) and series point leader Johnson led the majority of the 30-lap main. Calderwood paced the field for the first three circuits before Johnson led laps 4-28 until a late-race caution halted the action.
Lewis earned a $500 cash bonus from Avanti Windows & Doors for his winning efforts in the Tom Dunkel-owned No. 17. He was followed to the line by runner-up Charles Davis Jr. (Buckeye, Ariz.) and third place finisher Tye Mihocko (Peoria, Ariz.). R.J. Johnson (Laveen, Ariz.), who led a race-high 25 laps, got shuffled out and fell to fourth at the finish line. Austin Williams (Yorba Linda, Calif.) rounded out the top-five.
Two incidents resulted in red flags during the feature event. Blake Bower (Brentwood, Calif.) flipped on the opening lap while Jonas Reynolds (Peoria, Ariz.) got upside down on lap 19 of the feature. Both drivers walked away.
Fresh off his first career USAC CRA victory on Friday night at Imperial, David Gasper (Goleta, Calif.) earned his first career Woodland Auto Display Fast Qualifier award on Saturday while also breaking R.J. Johnson’s one day old track record with a lap of 11.770 seconds.
Verne Sweeney (Lomita, Calif.) won the FlowDynamics Inc. / Sexton Fire Protection / In Honor of Wiley Miller Sr. and Wiley Miller II First Heat Race. Charles Davis Jr. scored the BillsJerky.net / Factory Wraps Second Heat Race victory. Tye Mihocko snagged top honors in the WC Friend Company / In Memory of Jim and Chet Gardner Third Heat Race.
AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS USAC CRA SPRINT CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: October 19, 2024 – Imperial Valley Raceway – Imperial, California – 3rd Annual Heritage Fall Classic
WOODLAND AUTO DISPLAY QUALIFYING: 1. David Gasper, 18, Kittle/Gasper-11.770 (New Track Record); 2. Ricky Lewis, 17, Dunkel-11.952; 3. R.J. Johnson, 51, Johnson-11.955; 4. Cody Williams, 44, Williams-12.018; 5, Logan Calderwood, 6, Calderwood-12.048; 6. Austin Williams, 17w, Dunkel-12.142; 7. Blake Bower, 17x, Dunkel-12.174; 8. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-12.191; 9. Shon Deskins, 20, Deskins-12.200; 10. Tommy Malcolm, 5x, Napier-12.248; 11. A.J. Bender, 21, Bender-12.286; 12. Tye Mihocko, 5, Mihocko-12.338; 13. Jeff Dyer, 39, Cal-Sun-12.349; 14. Austin Grabowski, 72, Grabowski-12.372; 15. Logan Williams, 5w, McCarthy-12.414; 16. Verne Sweeney, 98, Guerrero-12.443; 17. Grant Sexton, 22, Sexton-12.469; 18. Jonas Reynolds, 0, Reynolds-12.602; 19. Stevie Rogers, 11, Rogers-12.619; 20. Dayton Shelton, 9, Shelton-12.709; 21. Jon DeWees, 63D, DeWees-12.819; 22. Brent Sexton, 44s, Sexton-12.827; 23. Elexa Herrera, 5E, Herrera-12.977; 24. Blake Hendricks, 14, Hendricks-13.080; 25. Todd Pratt, 17T, Pratt-13.772.
FLOWDYNAMICS INC. / SEXTON FIRE PROTECTION / IN HONOR OF WILEY MILLER SR. & WILEY MILLER II FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Verne Sweeney, 2. Tommy Malcolm, 3. Cody Williams, 4. Blake Bower, 5. David Gasper, 6. Brent Sexton, 7. Stevie Rogers, 8. Jeff Dyer, 9. Todd Pratt. NT
BILLSJERKY.NET / FACTORY WRAPS SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Charles Davis Jr., 2. Grant Sexton, 3. Ricky Lewis, 4. A.J. Bender, 5. Logan Calderwood, 6. Elexa Herrera, 7. Dayton Shelton, 8. Austin Grabowski. NT
WC FRIEND COMPANY / IN MEMORY OF JIM & CHET GARDNER THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, Top 5 Transfer to Feature) 1. Tye Mihocko, 2. Logan Williams, 3. Austin Williams, 4. R.J. Johnson, 5. Jon DeWees, 6. Jonas Reynolds, 7. Blake Hendricks, 8. Shon Deskins. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Ricky Lewis (5), 2. Charles Davis Jr.(8), 3. Tye Mihocko (11), 4. R.J. Johnson (4), 5. Austin Williams (1), 6. A.J. Bender (10), 7. Logan Williams (13), 8. Tommy Malcolm (9), 9. David Gasper (6), 10. Verne Sweeney (14), 11. Grant Sexton (15), 12. Dayton Shelton (18), 13. Brent Sexton (20), 14. Austin Grabowski (12), 15. Elexa Herrera (21), 16. Jon DeWees (19), 17. Blake Hendricks (22), 18. Todd Pratt (23), 19. Stevie Rogers (17), 20. Logan Calderwood (2), 21. Jonas Reynolds (16), 22. Cody Williams (3), 23. Blake Bower (7). NT
**Blake Bower flipped on lap 1 of the feature. Jonas Reynolds flipped on lap 19 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-3 Logan Calderwood, Laps 4-28 R.J. Johnson, Laps 29-30 Ricky Lewis.
IN MEMORY OF JIM & CHET GARDNER HARD CHARGER: Tye Mihocko (11th to 3rd)
AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS USAC CRA SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1-R.J. Johnson-1296, 2-Tommy Malcolm-1199, 3-Austin Williams-1159, 4-A.J. Bender-1110, 5-David Gasper-1095, 6-Logan Williams-1050, 7-Cody Williams-1018, 8-Verne Sweeney-858, 9-Charles Davis Jr.-838, 10-Austin Grabowski-831.
NEXT AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS USAC CRA SPRINT CAR RACES: November 1-2, 2024 – Mohave Valley Raceway – Mohave Valley, Arizona – 57th Annual Western World Championships presented by Avanti Windows & Doors
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