USAC Midget/Sprint Car

Toyota Has Busy Weekend In Western USAC Action

Toyota-powered teams were busy during the Labor Day weekend in Western USAC competition, with both sprint cars and midgets in action.

The USAC Western Midget Car series made a historic visit to California’s Calistoga Speedway, marking their first visit to the track in many years. The two-night affair on Saturday and Sunday (Aug. 30-31) saw Nic Faas continue his impressive rookie season, coming away with a strong performance at the Sunday finale and continuing to hold a significant lead in the series point standings.

Faas was aboard an entry fielded by Western Speed Enterprises, using a 166-cid naturally aspirated in-line four-cylinder Toyota engine prepared by Ed Pink Racing Engines.

Faas qualified quickest on both nights, establishing a new Calistoga track record of 20.723 seconds on Sunday. He struggled with a cut rear tire, and soldiered home to finish 8th. On Sunday he was collected in another car’s spin early in the race, but fought back to post an impressive fourth-place finish.

“All in all it was a pretty good weekend,” Faas explained. “We qualified fastest both nights, and that was good. We struggled a little bit in the feature race on Saturday, we guessed on the wrong tire. Then we had an incident about three laps into the race when we were hit from behind, and our left-rear tire was slowly deflating. We were running fourth with 10 laps to go when it blew apart, and we ended up seventh.

“We started sixth in the feature on Sunday, and we adjusted the car based on what we had learned the night before. We were running fourth about three laps into the race when a car spun in front of me and I had nowhere to go and got collected, actually I hit him pretty hard. We had some suspension damage, but we restarted at the back and came back to finish fourth. I wish I hadn’t gotten caught up in the incident, because we felt like we had a car to win.

“It’s good to hold the point lead; now we have to concentrate on a good finish to the season. It would mean a lot to Toyota, to Western Speed, and to our sponsors to win the championship.”

The series moves to Bakersfield, Calif. next Saturday night (Sept. 6).

The USAC Western Sprint Car series visited Rocky Mountain Raceway in Salt Lake City, Utah on Saturday night (Aug. 30). Western Speed Enterprises fielded a two-car effort, with three-time series champion Tony Hunt and 20-year-old Tim Skoglund behind the wheel. The team uses 355-cid naturally aspirated V8 Toyota engines prepared by TRD.

Hunt timed 12th-quickest during time trials, and Skoglund was 17th. Skoglund finished sixth in the second heat race, while Hunt won the third and final heat race. The highly competitive 50-lap feature race saw Skoglund come home seventh and Hunt 14th.

“We were struggling with a loose racecar from the start of the night,” said Skoglund. “We tried some things from when we visited the track earlier this year, but they weren’t working real well. In the feature race I had to keep the car right down on the bottom to keep from slipping and sliding. We started 17th and worked our way forward to finish 7th, so we managed to salvage a decent finish.”

“We’re continuing to develop the package,” said Hunt. “We won our heat race, which was a positive. We were off just a little bit in the main event, we made some changes that proved weren’t where we need to go. The Toyota engines are good, we’ve just got to continue to improve the overall package each time we’re on the racetrack.”

The USAC Western Sprint Car series returns to Altamont Motorsports Park in Tracy, Calif. on Sept. 13.

USAC WESTERN MIDGET CAR SERIES – POINT STANDINGS

Pos	Driver / Hometown	Team	Points
1	Nic Faas / Huntington Beach, Calif.	Western Speed No. 40	+137

USAC WESTERN SPRINT CAR SERIES – POINT STANDINGS

Pos	Driver / Hometown	Team	Points
7	Tony Hunt / Lincoln, Calf.	Kaiser Racing No. 4	-330
9	Tim Skoglund / Fresno, Calif.	Western Speed No. 40	-379