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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| RACING
SCENE by Tim Kennedy |
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USAC W/S 360 Sprint Cars |
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Irwindale, CA, Oct. 4 - Michael Lewis charged from sixth starting
position and won the 40-lap USAC 360 Western States Sprint Car
feature before 4,859 Saturday at Irwindale Speedway. It was the
concluding USAC feature in the "USAC Open Wheel Challenge"
held each October on the banked half-mile. USAC W/S Sprint Car point
leader Lewis, a Noblesville, IN veteran now racing out of Madera,
CA, drove the No. 40 Western Speed Equipment Beast chassis with
Wesmar power-plant. Lewis returned to one of his favorite tracks and set a new one-lap track record of 16.378. His qualifying run eclipsed the former mark of 16.469 (109.296 mph) set two years ago at this race. Lewis, winner of the 2002 USAC Thanksgiving Night Midget Grand Prix at IS and one of the two 25-lap Midget features on April 26, also set the fastest qualifying time Saturday for the USAC W/S Midget Series event. Josh Wise, the second fastest qualifier in his second outing aboard Ted Finkenbinder's Chevy, started fifth and led laps two-five. He raced Lewis for the lead closely until mid-race. Wise was 40-yards in back of Lewis at the checkered flag. It was his first feature ride in the same car NASCAR Winston Cup champion Tony Stewart drove to a USAC W/S victory at Altamont Raceway Park last year before his W/C race in Sonoma. Tony Hunt started fourth and finished third, with Indianan Jason McCord and pole-starter Chad Nichols, the lap one leader, fifth. Fourteen of the 19 starters finished, with seven drivers on the lead lap in a 20-minute race interrupted by two brief cautions for spins on the second and 14th laps. Rounding out the top ten were Salt Lake City driver Jimmy Waters, Brian McClish, Chad Ede, Jeff Gardner and first-time track visitor Michael Trimble. Greg Taylor, from Ventura, won the ten-lap semi-main. Lewis (from sixth), Rick Hendrix (from third) and Nichols (from fourth) won the three eight-lap, caution-free heat races. Winner Lewis told the crowd, "This Western Speed Racing Team puts everything into this car. No. 3 (Wise) gave me a battle. Once we got by, we were OK. In Midgets the top groove is fast. In sprint cars the bottom and top are fast." The Summary: (pickup agate) Fast Time - Michael Lewis, 16.378 - NTR (old TR - 16.469 by Tony Hunt on 10/27/01) Heat 1 - Lewis, Jason McCord, Jimmy Waters, Scott Hansen, Greg Taylor, Chad Ede, Daniel Hood. - 2:17.590. Heat 2 - Rick Hendrix, Shauna Hogg, Brad Bumgarner, Josh Wise, Michael Trimble, J. J. Ercse. 2:18.708. Heat 3 - Chad Nichols, Tony Hunt, Jeff Gardner, Chris Peterson, Brian McClish, Randy Mello. 2:16.809. Semi - Taylor, McClish, Trimble, Chad Ede, Randy Mello, J. J. Ercse, Daniel Hood. 2:53.808. Main - Lewis, Wise, Hunt, McCord, Nichols, Waters, McClish, Ede, Gardner, Trimble, Bumgarner, Hendrix, Hogg, Mello, Peterson, Taylor, Hansen, Ercse, Hood. 20:14.531. |
