USAC Midget/Sprint Car

TORRANCE, Calif. (September 21 , 2008) – Western Speed Racing’s Nic Faas won the Western Midget Car Series race at Ventura Raceway, while Tony Hunt was victorious in the Western Sprint Car Series race at the All-American Speedway in Roseville as Toyota-powered cars swept the two USAC western series on Saturday night.

The win was the fourth of the season for Faas and takes him one step closer to becoming the first Toyota-powered driver to win a USAC championship. The 18-year-old Huntington Beach, Calif., native took the lead on Lap 20 of 30 and never relinquished the top spot as he extended his championship lead to 150 points. The win is the sixth for Toyota in Western Midget competition this season.

Up in northern California, Hunt registered a dominating victory to give Toyota its first Western Sprint Car Series victory of the season and second overall. After registering the fastest qualifying time, Hunt started eighth due to the top-eight inversion. He worked his way into the lead on Lap 57 and led the final 44 laps of the 100-lap event. Western Speed’s Paul Zimmerly qualified sixth (started second) and finished fourth, while teammate Tim Skoglund qualified 11th and finished sixth.

Both of Toyota’s national USAC programs were also in action this weekend at the Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.

In Silver Crown competition, Brian Tyler finished just shy of his third consecutive victory with a second-place finish. Right behind Tyler was the Toyota-powered series points leader Jerry Coons, Jr. in third place. Coons was the fastest qualifier and led the first 17 laps of the 50-lap event on the one-mile dirt track. Coons can wrap up the series championship in the season finale at Phoenix.

Tyler’s Team Six-R teammate Kody Swanson qualified seventh, but got caught up in a crash on the second lap, knocking his car out of the race to place 22nd. Coons’ teammate from the RW Motorsports squad, Mat Neely, started 10th and finished 12th.

In the USAC National Midget Car Series portion of the event, Toyota-powered Darren Hagen, of Nine Racing, qualified 20th and finished 10th, while teammate Kody Swanson had the 17th quickest qualifying time, but was hit in Turn 1 in his heat race damaging his rear axle. He continued on, but hit the wall in Turn 3 and tumbled when fellow Toyota driver Kevin Swindell, of Cruz Pedregon Racing, made contact with him. Each suffered too much damage to their cars to compete in the feature race. It was particularly unfortunate for Swindell, who had been second quickest in qualifying.

Toyota USAC Series Round-Up:

USAC Western Midget Midget Car Series

Western Midget Points: 1. Faas-895; 2-Pierovich-745; 3-Josett-644; 4-Sarna-576; 5-Bartley-471; 6-Shannon McQueen-470; 7-Pankratz-408; 8-Paul Zimmerly-328; 9-Daniel Bedford-284; 10-Josh Ford-280.

Toyota Western Midget Series Wins: Altamonte (Zimmerly); Madera (Wease); Santa Maria (Faas); Hanford (Faas), Bakersfield (Faas); Ventura (Faas)

Next USAC Western Midget Race: Sept. 27 – Altamont Motorsports Park (Tracy, CA)

USAC Western Sprint Car Series

USAC Western Sprint Car Series Points: 1-Swanson-812; 2-Helberg-680; 3-Humphries-673; 4-Smith-669; 5-Rescino-654; 6-Hunt-456; 7-Skoglund-400; 8-Brian McClish-357; 9-Livernash-352; 10-Greg Anderson-326.

Toyota USAC Western Sprint Car Series Wins: Roseville (Hunt)

Next USAC Western Sprint Car Series Race: Sept. 27 – Altamont Motorsports Park (Tracy, CA)

USAC National Midget Car Series

USAC National Midget Car Series Points – -Hines-1,060; 2-Whitt-982; 3-Sweet-922; 4-Jones-916; 5-Bacon-911; 6- East-898; 7-Hagen-829; 8-Darland-717; 9-Coons-710; 10-Kuhn-665.

Toyota USAC National Midget Car Series Wins: Kenly, NC (Swanson); West Salem, WI (Darland)

Next USAC National Midget Car Series Race: October 9-10-11 –Tri-City Speedway (Granite City, Ill.)

USAC Silver Crown Series

USAC Silver Crown Points: 1-Coons-392; 2-Darland-372; 3-Tyler-335; 4-Cottle-303; 5-Jones-292; 6-Hines-280; 7-Fike-245; 8-Hollingsworth-242; 9-Neely-224; 10-Kaeding-199.

Toyota USAC Silver Crown Wins: Springfield (Tyler); DuQuoin (Tyler)

Next USAC Silver Crown Series Race: Nov. 6 – Phoenix International Raceway