HANFORD NEXT FOR STIDHAM & 360s

From Dick Jordan

Giant Speedway in Hanford, Calif. hosts the next event for the USAC West Coast 360 Sprint cars and point leader Craig Stidham will aim for his fifth victory of the season when the series takes to the 3/8-mile dirt oval.

The Hanford track is the only one of the four comprising this year’s 360 schedule which has eluded Stidham’s victory lane presence. Craig has won at Tulare, Santa Maria and Bakersfield but Danny Faria Jr. was the winner at Hanford in March, a race in which Stidham finished sixth.

Stidham, of Fresno, Calif., scored his fourth victory of the 2010 season Saturday night, wheeling his Brad Johnson Trucking/KRC Safety Maxim/Downing to a 30-lap triumph at Bakersfield (Calif.) Speedway. Ricky Kirkbride led the first 14 laps before yielding to Stidham and eventually finished second. Justyne Hamblin, Albert Pombo and Davey Pombo rounded out the “top-five.”

USAC WEST COAST 360 SPRINT SERIES POINT STANDINGS

1-Craig Stidham-527, 2-Davey Pombo-476, 3-Peter Murphy-439, 4-T.J. Smith-412, 5-Justyne Hamblin-398, 6-Rusty Carlile-389, 7-Danny Faria Jr.-342, 8-Jace VanderWeerd-331, 9-Chris Ennis-313, 10-Andy Ferris-297.