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| USAC Western 360 Sprints - (TNGP-Irwindale
Spdwy) by Tim Kennedy |
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Irwindale, Calif., Nov. 23 - Tony Hunt crowned his third USAC
Western 360 Sprint Car Championship season with another dominant
performance Thursday night during the annual Thanksgiving Night
Grand Prix on the graduated banking, asphalt half-mile Irwindale
Speedway. The 34-year old 1998 Western Series co-rookie of the year
and series champion in 2001 and 2004 earned $2,500 from the $16,305
purse. The son of former sprint car driver Tommy Hunt, USAC Vice
President of Western Operations, won seven of the 14 Western Sprint
Series features this season and took the series championship by
105-points. With a six-car inversion based upon qualifying times,
sixth fastest qualifier Hunt started from the pole position in Alan
Kaiser's Eagle/Chevy and led all the way. He also won the series
40-lap all-green flag feature at IS August 26 by almost half a lap
(8.167 seconds). Officials reduced the scheduled "Turkey Night"40-lap race to 30-laps after a spectacular crash on lap 21 caused a 21-minute delay. Fastest qualifier Kody Swanson, 18, had started sixth in his family-owned Eagle/Chevy and was in third position as he tried to follow second place Idaho-driver Mike Murgoitio past the lapped car of Destiney Hays. "She moved over for second place and then moved back up the track and I ran over her back wheel," Swanson said in the pits. His car flipped near the end of the backstretch, slid along the crash-wall on its cage and stopped overturned in the middle of the third turn. "I was conscious the whole time. I reached up and turned off the fuel while still sliding. They (track emergency crew) wanted to cut my arm restraints. I told them not to do that because I had another race to run tonight and I didn't have any spare restraints," Swanson continued. He walked to the ambulance and road to the pits for medical evaluation. "My blood pressure was 190 and they said they wouldn't release me to race. (As fastest qualifier for the 100-lap Midget Grand Prix he had pole position.) They re-tested me a little later and my blood pressure was 180 so I was cleared to race," the talented driver from Kingsburg, Calif. revealed after his almost victorious second place run in the Midget GP. Hunt had a 35-yard lead after 20-laps. Following the red flag for Swanson's flip, Hunt again ran away from the field and finished 40-yards (1.274 seconds) ahead of his closest pursuer. Tracy Hines, in Andy Morales' "Tamale Wagon II" J & J/Chevy, took second place from Mike Murgoitio's Davey Hamilton Eagle/Chevy on lap 25. The two drivers and Bradley Galedrige, 19, in a second Eagle/Chevy owned by former IRL Indy 500 driver Hamilton, battled for second position. On the final lap Murgoitio dived to the of Hines' car entering turn three and fought back Hines' effort to re-pass him on the outside in the fourth turn. Murgoitio out-dragged Hines to starter Noel Dawson's checkered flag and nipped Hines by a couple of feet (0.037 officially). Murgoitio collected $1,500 and Hines $1,200. Galedrige finished fourth, worth $1,000. Jessica Helberg, a 19-year old former Santa Rosa, Calif. driver now racing local stock cars as a developmental driver in North Carolina, flew to California to race in the TNGP sprint car event as she did last season. She drove one of two Eagles owned by her father and her 16-year old brother Joe drove the other car. She was the first of 37drivers to face the timing clock and set the fourth quickest time overall. She started third and finished a competitive fifth, 2.036-seconds behind winner Hunt. Greg Anderson, 2002 series champion Rick Hendrix, second generation driver Nick Green (son of past NARC sprint car champion Tim Green of San Jose), Billy Wease and World of Outlaws winged sprint car veteran Jason Meyers (in his first USAC race since 2003) completed the top ten finishers. Twenty of the 23 starters finished and 19 ran all 30-laps. Actual running time was 19:13.748. The 14 fastest qualifiers in the 37-car field transferred directly to the feature. A qualifying race for all other drivers transferred the first eight finishers to the back rows of the main. Tim Barber, a Western Sprint and Silver Crown veteran from San Francisco, was the 15th quickest qualifier. He started Ken Pierson's Eagle/Chevy on the pole, led all 12 laps and won by 15-yards. Northern Californians Nick Rescino, Jr and Michael Trimble finished second and third respectively. Brian McClish, Robert Beck, Jeff Gardner, Destiney Hays and Shauna Hogg made the cut for the main in that order as 19-drivers finished. Swanson, the fourth driver to qualify, set quick time of 16.639 (108.180 mph), which fell short of the track record-16.378 (109.296 mph)-that Michael Lewis set on October 4, 2003. Hunt won the series championship over Murgoitio 902 to 797. |
