Ventura Raceway will be dark on Saturday night.

Racing returns on Aug. 23 with the Bandit/Ventura Racing Association Grand Slam Final at the Ventura County Fairgrounds track. The VRA Dwarf Cars, Junior Midgets and Mini Dwarfs will be on the schedule.

The USAC/CRA Sprint Cars featuring Ventura's Cory Kruseman will visit Ventura on Aug. 23. Kruseman is wrapping up his Midwest Tour this weekend.

During July, Kruseman suffered injuries to his ribs from a crash on the opening race of Indiana Sprint Week. After a night off and then jumping into his car, Kruseman said he managed to get out of the car and went to a hospital for a second exam and learned the extent of his woes after the first hospital visit missed the rib problems.

There will be four Saturday nights of Ventura racing in September and four more dates in October. Following a dark Nov. 1, the 31st season of racing will feature the final two Saturdays (Nov. 8 and Nov. 15) with the season championships in all divisions on the line.

Historic night: Hanford's Justyne Hamblin, a 17-year-old Bandit Sprint Car racer, became the first woman to win a major division feature at Santa Maria Speedway in the track's 45-year history. Hamblin raced past standouts Peter Murphy, Albert Pombo and Dave Pombo to celebrate in style.

Hamblin and the Bandit stars will be in Ventura next weekend.

Port Hueneme's Ed Niedzwiecki won the VRA Dwarf Car Senior feature last weekend at Santa Maria. Bill Martinez of Salinas passed Gene Hook of Port Hueneme for second on the final turn.

Ryan Diatte of Salinas won the Pro Dwarf Car feature. VRA drivers Ray Estrada and Jeff Shelton rounded out the top three.

Mike Spencer of Temecula will take his points lead to Santa Maria as the USAC/CRA racers return to action after a three-week layoff. Spencer has 875 points and former VRA champion Blake Miller of Yorba Linda is second with 812 points. Santa Maria's Danny Sheridan is third with 783 points. Garrett Hansen is in fourth with 778 and Kruseman is fifth at 691. Oxnard's Josh Ford is eighth with 450 points.

Hansen, of Manhattan Beach, won the last race on July 19 at Perris.

Irwindale races: Toyota Speedway of Irwindale will host the 200-lap NASCAR Camping World Series event, plus the Auto club Late Models and the King Taco Super Trucks series.

There was plenty of excitement last weekend as Lil Al Simpson of Los Angeles won the D&D Construction Bandoleros race for young drivers.

Points leader Rich Garver was victorious in the Justice Brothers Mini Stocks. Jacob Rogers was second.

Bryan Harrell of Riverside captured the Vista Paint Super Stocks feature. Rich DeLong III of Santa Clarita was third.

Auggie Vidovich won opening AC Delco Super Late Models race in his first start this season. Nick Joanides was second. Andy Allen of Tustin was third.

Joanides of Woodland Hills won the second race for his ninth win in Late Models. David Beat of Blossom Valley was second. Matthew Hicks of Santee finished ahead of Vidovich for third.

Vidovich of Lakeside is a former NASCAR Southwest Tour Elite Division champion, a series no longer offered by NASCAR.

Bloomington's Billy Zieman ended Steve Stewart's five-race Pick Your Parts Figure 8s winning streak, Stewart, the series leader, finished second.