From Dick Jordan
Alex Bowman of Tucson, Ariz. led the final 20 laps of Friday’s 40-lap USAC Ford Focus special event at Tucson Raceway Park, opening the 2010 USAC racing season.
Bowman, USAC’s 2008 National and California Dirt Ford Focus Champion, took the lead at the lap 20 restart and led the rest of the way in his Gene Haas Foundation/Simpson Race Products machine to beat Cody Gerhardt, Michael J. Lewis, Connor Kassik and Austin Luttmer. Lewis posted the fastest qualifying time at 16.028.
The race was run in two 20-lap segments, with Gregg Fuette leading the first lap and Lewis leading the next 19.
Friday’s race was only third in USAC history to be held on New Year’s Day. Henry Pens won an indoor Midget race at the Cincinnati (Ohio) Gardens in 1965 and Josh Pelkey won a Southwest Sprint race at USA Race Park in Tuscon in 2005.
The 2010 USAC National racing season opens February 8-10 at East Bay Raceway Park in Tampa, Fla. with the Sprint Cars competing on the 1/3-mile in the “Dirt Drift Bubba Army Sprint Nationals,” part of the track’s exciting 34th Winternationals.