Home › Sports › Racing
Ventura raceway: Rutherford's series streak continues
Download this story as a podcast!
STORY TOOLS 
More from RacingOjai's Troy Rutherford has been unbeatable since Sept. 1.
In the final race of the Bandit-Ventura Racing Association Grand Slam Sprint Car Challenge at Ventura Raceway, Rutherford was victorious Saturday night. It was his only start in the four-race series, but he's won five of the last six VRA sprint car features in Ventura.
Rutherford held off a strong field of drivers and looks ahead to this week's Budweiser Oval Nationals Thursday through Saturday at Perris Auto Speedway where he'd like to win the $30,000 feature and buy some more time to race.
Camarillo's Josh Ford was second and Ventura's Greg Taylor was third.
Taylor was elated because he won the Bandit Series championship with 438 points. Taylor won the opening round on April 7 at Bakersfield.
Ford, the July 28 winner at Santa Maria, finished second in points with 424.
Johnathon Henry, the 16-year-old rookie, finished fourth in the Ventura feature and third in points with 406. Henry has been driving a Cory Kruseman sprint car this season.
Ford tipped his cap to Rutherford.
"When you're racing someone as good as Troy, his car was just a little faster," said Ford.
Rutherford said his car broke down at the beginning of the season and then he missed a number of races before getting back behind the wheel.
"We made some adjustments to this car," he said. "Everybody is working together."
His crew has done a terrific job in making him so good during the stretch run of the season.
All his winnings help pay to keep him racing.
Rutherford is running on a family sponsorship with some other sponsors mixed in, but he doesn't have the big money behind him.
He's looking for sponsors to pave the way for 2008.
Ventura Raceway will be dark on Saturday. Rutherford, Ford and Luis Espinoza will be among the VRA drivers competing at the Oval Nationals in Perris.
(Requires free registration.)
Article discussions on this site are to support community debates of issues related to our stories and editorials.
Discussions should not stray from the subject of the story or editorial.
We do not allow the following:
We reserve the right to delete threads and/or ban users for these or other reasons we deem necessary.
Opinions are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.