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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| Western
States Sprint Car Notes by Kerry Fasig |
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April 21, 2005...Meridian Speedway welcomed both the
Valvoline USAC Western State Sprint Car Series and the USAC SLVRA
Rocky Mountain Sprint Car Series to the start of their 2005 seasons
respectively. Friday night had 32 cars timing in with 27 returning
on saturday.
The buzz in the pits area was "Where was the defending Championship team of Western Speed Racing?". Last years champion, Tony Hunt, 2nd place driver Michael Lewis and 4th place driver Brian McClish were all in attendance, but all 3 were in different rides then the team orange 60, 40 & 80 cars they drove last year. With the direction of their sponsorship pointing to the midwest and east coast Western Speed Racing will now be focusing on the USAC National divisions, (midgets, sprint cars and silver crown cars). Now the Western States Sprint Car Series will have a different look to it with not so much orange gracing victory lane, but you can bet when Team Orange does show up they will always be a threat to win. The 2005 season will face many challenges at every venue as the price of fuel haunts every team plus the race fan now has many more ways to spend their hard earned money, thus said everyone must do everything possible to take this great series to the next level. The absentee list was short as the two guys that I thought would be there, weren't those two being Greg Anderson who won here last year and young Nick Green the son of dirt sprint car great Tim Green, hopefully they will be at the next stop. Brian McClish returned to the McClish Family #04 and put the hammer down setting fast time on friday and 2nd quick saturday, Brian finished 10th on friday and 5th saturday. Mike Murgoitio had Larry Triegro turning wreches on his #19 being 2nd fast friday and 7th quick saturday, Mike got tied up twice friday finishing 11th then rebounded to 7th saturday. Brad Bumgarner returns for his 3rd full season aboard the Bumgarner Family #88 timing in 3rd and 5th. Brad rebounded from a heat race crash on saturday and had a great weekend with a 3rd on friday and a 2nd saturday. Tim Barber returns for season #2 in the Ken & Sharon Pierson #14, with a new Baliey Brothers engine under the hood. If these guys get to leave the hood on ( as they did all weekend) everyone is in a whole lot of trouble as they will have more time to dial in the chassis.Tim qualified 4th and 10th but he really shined on friday picking up the win and coming home 6th on saturday. An 11th hour deal came together for Tony Hunt as he teamed up with owner driver Alan Kaiser. Alan's Eagle chassis debuted at Irwindale on Turkey Night 2003 with Greg Decaires behind the wheel, after that Alan purchased the car and raced numerous times in 2004 driving himself. The quality of race car and preparation really shined as the weekend progressed, Tony qualified 10th friday then finished 4th in the main, and on saturday he set fats time and matched fridays run with another 4th. Randy Dubois and team picked up a new engine from Cory Riley (Built by D) and boy did it rip as Randy qualified 5th and 9th, then had problems both nights keeping him out of the hunt. Rookie Kody Swanson looked like a vetern as he wheeled the former Laurie & Bob Scott Eagle to 6th quick friday on the coveted pole position for the main event , if you can make the trasfer to the feature.And that he did leading the main until a late race caution allowed Barber to slip by dropping Kody to 2nd. Saturday he timed in 4th quick and followed it up with a 3rd in the feature. With their new house built in Washington it was time for the Scott's ( Laurie & Bob) along with dog "Max" to go racing, Chad Nichols returned behind the wheel. Michael Lewis stepped into Ted Finkenbinder's 3F giving it one of it's best runs in a long time. Amy Barnes weekend ended early as she lost the lower shaft in the rearend friday. Shauna Hogg had a half new look as approximently half the orange #5 is now silver. The Hogg's were very appreciatiative of the help from their sponsors especially Mike Coy, we all hope he gets to feeling better. Chuck Maddox was fast both nights with Chuck giving the nod to Rick Hunphers for helping him out so much. Rocky Mountain Champion Jim Waters was 8th quick both nights then got the pinball treatment as he got bumped from all sides both nights, but he soldiered on bringing home a 5th and a 12th. One of the highlights of the weekend was Robert Beck's drive in fridays semi, Beck masterfully used the high groove to pass 3 cars to make the transfer to the main event. But all good things come to an end as the newly aquired former Jeff Gardner#51 now wearing #03 was pretty much a write off as Beck climbed Chad Nichol's right rear and headed out of the ballpark taking out the track lighting pole in turn 1. The remainder of the main event had to have 2 pickup trucks in the infield to light the darkened racetrack. Late friday and early saturday the #3 Mel Andrus crew worked feverishly to repair the damage incurred in fridays main event. Supposedely this was the Brian McClish Western Speed #80 Eagle car from last year. Mel was also collected in a heat race crash on saturday but the crew had the car ready to go for the main, Saturday started out good then went from bad to ugly as patience was not a virtue as some driver's tried to do things that just weren't going to happen, Chad Nichols, Brad Bumgarner and Mel Andrus all ended up on the hook and needed their cars to be massaged before further competition. After 2 days of racing Bumgarner stands atop the Western States division and Tony Hunt leads the Rocky Mountain division. The 2005 season looks to be the most competitive yet and I'll try to give you as much insight as possible. |
