The Santa Maria Speedway will rattle with the thunder of 410-cubic inch sprint cars on Saturday night when the Lucas Oil CRA Sprints make their first of two visits to the 1/3-mile clay oval for the third annual Ron Otto Memorial. This time, though, the front-runners will have some local interest.

Santa Maria native Danny Sheridan currently sits third in driver points in the West's premier non-winged sprint series with 894 markers, only 12 behind No. 2 man Mike Spencer of Temecula and 144 back of leader Tony Jones of Corona, son of West Coast legend Bubby Jones.

Sheridan scored his maiden CRA victory last season in mid-October, then followed it up with a win at Perris on April 14th. In all, Sheridan has 10 top-five finishes this season, including a recent run of third-place efforts.

Despite running a limited schedule with the CRA this year, Ventura's Cory Kruseman became the first driver this year to win three feature races with last Saturday's win at Perris. Kruseman currently sits seventh in points (657), only 13 behind sixth-place Rip Williams of Yorba Linda. Williams and Kruseman won the main events during the CRA's two stops to SMS last season.

Joining the CRA from the open-wheel ranks will be the NMRA TQ Midgets, currently led in points by Bruce Hiroshima of Torrance. Hiroshima holds a scant one-point lead over Chuck West of Clovis (340-339), while Kenny Wiley sits third with 333 points.

West comes off the last NMRA race, held June 2nd at Bakersfield, with a 30-lap win over West Evans of Moorpark and Hiroshima.

Rounding out the card will be the local Factory Stock division, back after a week's hiatus. Kirk Morgan of Santa Maria currently leads the overall points with 212, seven ahead of No. 2 entry Tom Renner of Nipomo. However, Santa Maria's Dave Thompson has come on strong of late, winning the last two main events.

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SM Little League

Northside wins in Valley title opener

The Santa Maria Northside Dodgers advanced to the City Final in the Majors Division of the Santa Maria Elks Valley Little League Championship on Wednesday evening with a 3-2 victory over the Southside Angels.

Dodgers pitchers Matt Gauna and Chris Curiel combined for 14 strikeouts in the win, 12 of which were from starter Gauna. Curiel picked up the win in relief.

Thomas Mender drove in the winning runs with a two-run double in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Northside will play the Westside Majors champion on Saturday for the City title at 2 p.m. at Westside.

The Orcutt champions will face off at 10 a.m. on Saturday at Orcutt American's field at Joe Nightingale School. The winners of Saturday's games will face off at 5:30 p.m. on Monday at Orcutt American for the Valley title.

In the City Minors final, the Northside Phillies beat the Southside Indians 15-5 behind a homer by Drew Gonzales and a three-run Austin McKenzie triple.

Prep Football

PVHS frosh football summer workouts

All incoming freshmen who are interested in being part of the Pioneer Valley High Panthers football program should attend summer workouts beginning next Monday, June 18 from 4 to 6 p.m. at PVHS.

Players are asked to be dressed and ready to go promptly at 4 p.m. - wearing athletic shorts, T-shirt, tennis shoes and have cleats on hand.

If you have any questions, please call coach Jeffres at 922-1305, ext. 5575.

June 15, 2007