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| Western
States Sprint Car Notes by Kerry Fasig |
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June 19, 2004...
Western States Sprint Car Notes Race #4 of the 2004 USAC Valvoline
Western States Sprint Car Series was Saturday June 12th at Tucson
Raceway Park. After a 4 week layoff hopes were high that all of
the teams involved in a late race accident, last race at Anderson
Raceway Park would have their cars fixed or replaced and ready to
race at Tucson. Greg Taylor's team was the only team to get the
job done as both the Michael Newman team and Chad Nichol's in the
Scott #7 weren't able to complete repairs for the long tow to
Tucson.
During the layoff three of our regulars made the extremely long tow to Indiana to run the Little 500. Tony Hunt, Michael Lewis and Tim Barber placed 3rd. 6th and 11th. Hunt and Lewis then ran in a USAC National Sprint Car race at Cedar Rapids Iowa finishing 11th and 4th, while Tim Barber ran the Memorial day weekend Monday race with the USAC Rocky Mountain Port O Call Series at Salt Lake City and came home 5th. So it was quite disappointing at Tucson when only 12 cars timed in, with Michael Lewis setting fast time at 14.461 followed by Western Speed Racing teammate's Tony Hunt and Brian McClish rounding out the top 3, followed by a pair of Greg's, Taylor and Anderson with Michael Trimble completing the top 6 in qualifying. The biggest surprise in qualifying was series point leader Brad Bumgarner timing in 12th the slowest qualifier in the field, so the sleeves got rolled up and the wrenches were a turn'in in the 88 pit. The Sprint cars were asked to run a trophy dash and that they did with the 6 lap run won by McClish over Hunt, Lewis and Taylor. Heat races were won by McClish and Taylor. In heat #2 Tony Hunt gave everyone a scare when on the opening lap he had the throttle stick and he pounded the wall between turns 1 and 2. Tony escaped injury as the car absorbed the major impact but the car was done for the night. Tony attributed his escape from injury to his safety gear, Simpson belts and helmet, his Randy Lajoie seat and his Hans device, all did their job protecting him and keeping him safe. Greg Anderson claimed the win in the semi over Trimble, Barber and Mike Murguritio. The 40 lap main event started with Barber and Trimble bringing the field down to the green flag, Trimble had a bobble going into turn 1 that had half the field holding their breaths, but Michael collected it back up no worse for the wear and the race was on. Anderson made a move to the bottom to grab the lead, then headed back up top to run the high side. Greg started to get loose and McClish was getting better as he reeled in Greg on lap 12 for the lead. Brain made 3 or 4 slide jobs on Greg in turns 3 and 4 until he finally made the pass. Brian then took off and built up almost a full straight away lead on 2nd place teammate Lewis. The yellow flag flew around lap 24 bunching up the field, but once the green came out Brian checked out again, after a few laps he slowed if ever so slightly, at the same time 2nd place Lewis had the handle start to go away and Brad Bumgarner was now the man on the move. Starting 8th Brad worked his way forward using both the top and bottom grooves on the racetrack. With 3 laps to go Brad closed up on the rear bumper of McClish and boy was Brad hooked up. Using the bottom to his advantage Brad tried numerous times to make the pass, but it wasn't to be until the last corner of the last lap passing McClish coming out of turn 4 for the win. His 1st career USAC main event win, also the 1st USAC win for his car owner and Grandpa Roy. Congratulations Brad and everyone on the #88 team At the start of the season I picked both Brad and Brian as candidates to pick up their 1st wins this season and I'll stand behind the pick as Brian should prevail and pick up his 1st USAC win soon. Robert Beck finished 3rd his best finish to date, followed by Taylor, Murguritio, Lewis,Anderson, Barber, Trimble and Shauna Hogg. Picking up the win added to Brad's series point lead which was 7 point's over Tony Hunt going into the night to 42 point's over new 2nd place point man Michael Lewis at night's end. So I'll fill you in on what happens next in the Western States Sprint Car Series, |
