|
Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| FAAS FIRST IN USAC FORD FOCUS MIDGET MAIN THANKSGIVING NIGHT AT IRWINDALE - By Tim Kennedy |
|
|
|
Irwindale, Calif., Nov. 22 - Nic Faas, an 18-year old fourth generation driver from Huntington Beach, topped off his outstanding 2007 season in both the USAC California Dirt and Pavement Series by winning the 40-lap Ford Focus Midget Thanksgiving night at Irwindale Speedway. The first of three USAC series main events during the ninth Turkey Night Grand Prix at the eastern Los Angeles County track used the four-degree banked paved third-mile track. The race started a season-high 25-cars from seven states. An estimated 6,000 spectators were in the main grandstand and first turn grandstand. Faas started his Faas Racing Beast sixth as the fastest qualifier and raced into the lead on lap 16.He used an inside pass in the fourth turn of race-long leader Mike Maier in a K & N Engineering Beast. Faas led the balance of the 40-lap event, the longest FF Midget race of the season. He won by half a straight-away (2.659 seconds) in a 26-minute race slowed by four cautions flags for solo spinouts. Faas ran the fastest lap of the race at 14.298 (83.844 mph) on lap 3. His great-grandfather, Leonard Faas, Sr and great-uncle Len Faas, Jr., owned USAC race-cars, and his second cousin Cary Faas raced open-wheel cars in CRA and USAC. Nic intends to keep the family name active in USAC-CRA sprint cars next season by racing a former Harlan Willis sprint car and equipment. The victory by Faas at IS Thursday gave him second place in the 19-race California FF Midget paved track final point standings. Earlier he won the 11-race 2007 California FF Dirt Series. He won four features at dirt tracks and two on paved tracks this year. He became the fourth different FF Midget feature winner at the TNGP event. Ryan Pace won the inaugural FF Midget Thanksgiving Night main event at Irwindale in 2004. Bobby McGowan won the 2005 TNGP main and moved into ASA Speed Truck racing in 2006. Benny Moon won the 2006 TNGP FF main in one of Ron Sutton's four midgets. This season IS hosted four USAC FF Midget K & N Filters-sponsored events and Tim Skoglund won two of the usual 30 or 35-lap races. A pair of Sutton drivers-Beau DeBard (recuperating from an injury) and Ian Miille-won the other two FF midget mains at IS this season. Justin Hommel, an 18-year old FF Midget rookie and 2006 Legend Car racer on the IS third-mile, enjoyed his best result in USAC. With assistance from former CRA sprint car owner Ace Noffsinger and his race driver son Brad, Hommel started and finished second in his Bullet chassis. The Canyon Lake, Calif. resident finished ninth in California FF Midget paved track points. Caitlin Shaw, from Albuquerque, N.M, started 11th in her Stealth and finished third. Tom Dyer, a driving instructor at Infineon Eaceway in Sonoma, started and finished fourth in a K & N Engineering Beast. He was a teammate of early leader Maier, who pitted for repairs on lap 26 while in second place. Daniel Adler, from Columbia, Ill., started tenth and finished fifth in one of Ron Sutton's three 2007-built Winner's Circle chassis in the race. Rounding out the top ten finishers were Eric Fehrman, a first-time competitor at Irwindale in his Beast chassis from Greensburg, Ind.; 2006-07 Paved Series champion Tim Skoglund, from Fresno, drove a Western Speed &Fuel Gerhardt chassis back from a pair of early race tangles to take seventh; Mark Atkinson, from Kirkland, Wash, in a Sutton Winner's Circle car; Nick Carlson, from 20th in a Beast; and rookie Austin Williams, the second of 2004 USAC-CRA sprint car champion Rip Williams' three sons. The 17-year old Williams, from Yorba Linda, Calif., started 16th in one of two Edmunds Autoresearch chassis owned by 2000 USAC Western Midget Series champion Wally Pankratz. Early leader Maier pitted from second place on a lap 25 caution and returned to back of the field without losing a lap. He advanced to 11th position by the checkered flag with 19 of 25 starters still racing at the finish and 12 drivers on the lead lap. Time trials in three groups of eight or nine cars, began at 4:00 p.m as scheduled. However, a malfunction in the track electronic transponder scoring system prevented the recording of times. Repair attempts were unsuccessful initially, leading USAC officials to scrap FF Midget time trials. They used official times from the second of two early afternoon practice sessions at 2:00 p.m as the official qualifying times for all FF midgets and to set the main event lineup. All 25 cars qualified within 1.184 seconds. USAC officials also canceled a 10-lap last chance race for slower FF midgets and allowed all 25 cars to start the feature. Faas had the fastest practice lap in both practice sessions. His 12:45 p.m time was 14.272 (83.997 mph). His 2:00 session time also was the fastest of 25 drivers, but his best lap then was 14.355 (83.511mph), a bit slower than his first session time. Five of the six fastest drivers had the six fastest times in both sessions. Rookie Robby Josett, 16, was sixth fastest in practice session two and he replaced Shawn Buckley, who dropped to eight fastest in the second session used to set the field. USAC used a six-car inversion for the main event so Josett started from pole position. But he dropped out on the initial lap and finished last (25th). (Use race results agate and point standings from USAC HQ.) |
