By Dick Jordan
Lady driver Audra Sasselli and Tony Hunt hope to maintain their respective series point leads this Saturday when the AMSOIL Western Sprint/Western Classic Sprints headline the USAC “quadrupleheader” at Stockton (Calif.) 99 Speedway.
Sasselli has a 15-point lead over Luis Ramos III in the Western Sprints and Hunt is 63 points ahead of Geoff Ensign in the Western Classic points. The Mopar USAC Western Midgets, Western Ford Focuses and Western Focus Young Guns are also on the Stockton card. Hunt won last year’s July Sprint race at the quarter-mile paved oval.
Cody Gerhardt of Madera, Calif. snatched victory away from Johnny Geisler on the final lap of Saturday night’s 50-lap AMSOIL USAC Western/Young Automotive Rocky Mountain Sprint race at Rocky Mountain Raceways. Gerhardt led only the final lap in his Western Speed entry to beat Geisler, Sasselli, Tim Skoglund and Hunt. Ryan Burdett led the first 15 laps, Scott Pierovich then led for 24 and Geisler led for 10 before Gerhardt made his dramatic pass on the last circuit.
AMSOIL USAC WESTERN SPRINT CAR SERIES POINT STANDINGS
1-Audra Sasselli-237, 2-Luis Ramos III-222, 3-Tony Hunt-213, 4-Tim Skoglund-203, 5-Cody Gerhardt-197, 6-Scott Pierovich-171, 7-Brian McClish-160, 8-Geoff Ensign-142, 9-Shauna Hogg-126, 10-Gordon Rodgers-114.
USAC WESTERN CLASSIC SPRINT CAR SERIES POINT STANDINGS
1-Tony Hunt-353; 2-Geoff Ensign-290; 3-Shauna Hogg-288; 4-Tim Barber-274; 5-Scott Pierovich-264; 6-Jerry Kobza-242; 7-Audra Sasselli-182; 8-Luis Ramos III-160; 9-Brian McClish-160; 10-Tim Sherman-156.
USAC YOUNG AUTOMOTIVE ROCKY MOUNTAIN SPRINT CAR SERIES POINT STANDINGS
1-Ryan Burdett-269; 2-Jim Waters-253; 3-Mel Andrus-233; 4-Paul Marconi-229; 5-Eric Barlow-226; 6-Ray Bergener-175; 7-Johnny Geisler-166; 8-Mike Murgoitio-138; 9-Chuck Groat-104; 10-Tim Skoglund-66.