USAC Midget/Sprint Car

Toyota horsepower carried two of the top five qualifiers during pre-race time-trials, the best showing for the brand thus far this season. Multi-time USAC champion Tony Hunt was second-quick in a Kaiser Motorsports entry, while Western Speed Enterprises fielded two Toyota entries, driven by Tim Skoglund -- who was fifth-quick -- and Chase Scott, who was 14th-fastest.

Toyota campaigns a 355-ci V8 engine prepared by TRD in the USAC Western sprint car series.

The night's program called for the 100-lap feature to be held without qualifying heat races, a departure from the normal USAC format. That cost Skoglund an opportunity to sort out a bent suspension suffered during practice.

The feature event saw Hunt start on the front row, with Skoglund fourth and Scott 14th. Skoglund fell back on the start but soon battled back, while Scott steadily worked his way forward.

By the middle stages Hunt was running second, Skoglund fifth, and Scott seventh, all within striking distance of the leader.

Things unraveled quickly in the latter stages of the race. On Lap 90 Hunt tangled with another car while fighting for position, ending his night. Skoglund and Scott moved to third and fifth, but soon began running out of fuel.

At the finish Scott and Skoglund managed to finish ninth and tenth, respectively.

"We were disappointed with our finish but it was really a great night of racing for Western Speed and Toyota," Skoglund said. "We ran very well in qualifying, but I wish we had run a heat race because we could have used the opportunity to get some shakedown laps after repairing our suspension. We fell back on the opening lap because the car was still not right, but during the first caution I made some adjustments in the cockpit and helped the car quite a bit."

"That's the first 100-lap race we've ran there, and we got into more caution laps than we anticipated and we just didn't have enough fuel to make it," continued Skoglund. "We'll learn from that. I'm excited right now because each time out we're getting better. I was still learning a lot earlier in the season, but we've reached a point where we're all communicating well on the team, and we're seeing these tracks multiple times. Our improvement is obvious each time out, because everything is beginning to come together for our entire team."

The series is off until June 28, when they travel to Altamont Raceway Park in California.

"I can't wait to get back to Altamont, we had a very good setup there last time, so now we have momentum. Each time we're there we figure out more about our car and pick up a tenth (of a second) or two. I'm excited about getting back in the car, I wish it was tomorrow!"

USAC WESTERN SPRINT CAR POINTS

7 Chase Scott, Concord, NC Western Speed No. 60 ( -147)
8 Tim Skoglund, Fresno, CA Western Speed No. 40 ( -158)
9 Tony Hunt, Lincoln, CA Kaiser Motorsports No. 4 ( -159)