Cory Kruseman and Josh Ford will run in Saturday's sprint car series at Ventura Raceway. Kruseman and Ford will have a night off from the USAC/CRA series to challenge the best Ventura Racing Association drivers from Jonathan Henry, 16, last week's winner, to all-time Ventura Raceway winner Greg Taylor and veteran points leader Kevin Kierce.

Taylor has roared to 36 wins at the Ventura County Fairgrounds oval, and has won a race at Bakersfield and Perris for 38 total. Ventura Raceway officials recounted Taylor's wins since he took over his dad's (Rick) sprint car in 1998 when he turned 16 on June 9. Taylor is 24 and has won a pair of races this season.

Kruseman has a win under his belt at Ventura and has won a number of championships in his stellar career from Indiana Sprint Week to the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in Tulsa, Okla.

The IMCA modifieds resume their exciting series as points leader Steve Smith and defending champion Jack Parker face a strong field from the region. Ventura's Joe Weaver and Rick Rodarte are crowd favorites. Joel Chavez is the leader of the sport compact series. Nic Faas heads the VRA/USAC Ford Focus midget division. The VRA Junior Focus midgets return with Austin Smith (April 7 winner) over Justin Kierce and the other 13-16-year-old racers.

Pit gates open at noon and front gates open at 3:30 p.m. Racing starts at 5:30 p.m. Information: 985-5433 or http://www.venturaraceway.com.

Cutler finishes third: Ventura's Ed Cutler finished third in the Pro Truck Series at Blythe. It was his first podium finish. He was second in a heat race behind Ronnie Davis. A week earlier, Cutler debuted in his new Toyota Tundra body racer and was involved in a first-lap pileup. Despite some front-end damage, he was able to continue racing, but a flash fire forced him to the infield and he was credited with a ninth-place finish at Irwindale.

Special race: Santa Rosa Valley's Cruz Pedregon was in Las Vegas last weekend for the NHRA races. He participated in a special race at the Bullrings, an asphalt oval. Pedregon competed against other drag racers, including Ron Capps (the winner), Gary Scelzi and Tommy Johnson Jr., as they raced Thunder Roadsters, an open-wheel class.

Unpredictable series: Santa Maria's Danny Sheridan became the 11th different driver on Saturday night to win the USAC/CRA sprint car feature at Perris Auto Speedway,

The 1994 USAC modified series featured 11 different race winners.

Sheridan wasn't expecting to win.

"We were sitting around fifth or sixth and I looked up and saw that Cory (Kruseman) was leading and thought the chances for a record were going away and that he was going to be the first two-time winner. But my car kept getting better and I kept digging."

Kruseman passed Tyler Brown on Lap 17.

Brown flipped on Lap 21 and a red flag stopped the race. Brown was not hurt, but a 30-minute relay delay changed the race. Kruseman ran out of fuel before the green flag fell on the restart. Kruseman refueled under a yellow flag and returned for a ninth-place finish. Ojai's Troy Rutherford was 15th and Camarillo's Josh Ford was 23rd.

With three laps left, a yellow flag turned to red to allow all the racers to refuel.

Sheridan won the race, David Cardey was second and points leader Tony Jones was third. Jones has 63 points. Mike Spencer is second with 543 points and Sheridan is third with 495. Kruseman is 10th win 343 points.

The series will resume on April 28 at Perris.

Kruseman was the winner at Kings Speedway in Hanford on March 31. Scotty Weir won at Phoenix on April 7. Darren Hagen started the streak by winning Feb. 3 at Perris. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won Feb. 10 at Phoenix. Garrett Hansen won at Perris on Feb. 17. Mike Spencer won March 3 at Perris. Tony Jones won March 8 at Las Vegas and Josh Wise won the next night at Las Vegas. Charles Davis Jr. won March 17 at Phoenix.

Irwindale racing: The AC Delco Super Late Models, King Taco Super Trucks, Legend Cars, BG Products Pure Stocks and Bandoleros will highlight Saturday's program.

Last week's winners included Scott Dodd (Super Late Models), Andrew Anderson (Bandoleros), Connor Cantrell (Legend Cars), Steve Stewart (Pick Your Part Outlaw Figure 8) and Brian Harrell (Vista Paint Super Stocks). Andrew Phipps of Simi Valley was third in the Super Late Models feature.

Information: http://www.irwindalespeedway.com.