By Dick Jordan
Five different speedways host USAC Ford Focus or Focus Young Guns events this coming week.
Wednesday night’s “Elite 8 Series” presented by IUPUI includes the Midwest Ford Focus and Focus Young Guns, in addition to the Mopar D1 Midgets. The Eastern Ford Focuses and Focus Young Guns are at Ace Speedway in Altamahaw, N.C. Friday and Franklin County Speedway in Callaway, Virginia Saturday. Saturday’s Western/Utah Ford Focus race is at Rocky Mountain Raceways in Salt Lake City. The Midwest Ford Focuses are also competing at Grundy County Speedway in Morris, Ill. Saturday night.
Nick Carlson of Norwalk, Calif. and Parker Colston of Lake Elsinore, Calif. grabbed feature wins at Ventura Raceway Saturday night in USAC Ford Focus and Focus Young Guns competition. Carlson led all 20 laps to take the Ford Focus feature over Wally Pankratz, Casey Martinez, Tyler Dolacki and Jet Davison, while Colston led the final nine laps of the Focus Young Guns race after passing Zach Bogner on lap 12. Katlynn Leer, Cole Custer, Christine Breckenridge and Bogner rounded out the “top-five.”
John Heydenreich of Bloomsburg, Pa. and Cooper Clouse of Ohio City, Ohio earned USAC feature wins Saturday night at Montpelier Motor Speedway. Heydenreich piloted John Givens’ Ford Focus to victory in a 25-lap race which saw him gain the advantage by passing Patrick Bruns on lap 13. Ross Rankine took second ahead of Bruns, Brunson Behning and Toby Alfrey. Clouse led all 12 laps of the Focus Young Guns race to beat Sam McGhee.
USAC TRAXXAS Silver Crown Series and Mopar National Midget Series veteran Patrick Bruns of Champaign, Ill. surprised the USAC Midwest Ford Focus series regulars Friday night by winning the 20-lap feature at Gas City (Ind.) I-69 Speedway. Bruns passed Toby Alfrey on lap five and led the rest of the way to beat Ross Rankine, Tyler Shullick, Jessica Bean and Joey Greening.
Nick Drake of Mooresville, N.C. and Sam McGhee of Camby, Ind. posted feature victories in Wednesday night’s “Elite 8 Series” USAC Ford Focus and Focus Young Guns features at the Bryant Heating & Cooling Indianapolis Speedrome. Drake passed Jessica Bean on lap 11 and led the final 40 laps of the Ford Focus feature in the Haas Automation Beast, while McGhee led the first lap and the last three to take the Focus Young Guns race in his Stoops Freightliner/CPM Machine Spike. Trailing Drake were Ross Rankine, Austin Prock, Nick Hamilton and Jarett Andretti. Cooper Clouse took second behind McGhee, followed by Mikell McGee, Adam Thomason and Stevie Kuhn
USAC NATIONAL FORD FOCUS POINT STANDINGS
1-Jarett Andretti-489, 2-Jessica Clark-468, 3-Nick Drake-462, 4-Jarid Blondel-405, 5-Tyler Dolacki-378, 6-Ross Rankine-375, 7-Daniel Williams-348, 8-Wally Pankratz-339, 9-Alex Jacobsen-324, 10-Jet Davison-306.
USAC NATIONAL FOCUS YOUNG GUNS POINT STANDINGS:
1-Trevor Hunt-462, 2-Cole Custer-411, 3-Brody Kostecki-351, 4-Parker Colston-342, 5-Christine Breckenridge-303, 6-Sam -McGhee-231, 7-Brandon White-225, 8-Ricky Bowers-207, 9-Katlynn Leer-204, 10-Cooper Clouse-174.
USAC MIDWESTERN FORD FOCUS POINT STANDINGS
1-Ross Rankine-289; 2-Jarett Andretti-234; 3-Toby Alfrey-227; 4-Jessica Bean-213; 5-Tyler Shullick-205; 6-Nick Drake-203; 7-Joey Greening-200; 8-James Robertson-184; 9-Bill Kriegbaum-149; 10-Brunson Behning-147.
USAC MIDWESTERN FOCUS YOUNG GUNS POINT STANDINGS
1-Sam McGhee-267; 2-Copper Clouse-196; 3-Stevie Kuhn-179; 4-Tyler Shullick-137; 5-Mikell McGee-113; 6-Justen Garmenn-105; 7-Ty Rose-58; 8-Adam Thomason-58; 9-Emmy Gray-54; 10-Michael Fanelli-51.
USAC EASTERN FORD FOCUS POINT STANDINGS
1-Jarett Andretti-379, 2-Nick Drake-320, 3-Scott Hunter-250, 4-Orry Hunte-224, 5-Austin Prock-222, 6-Steven Intravaia-281, 7-Chris Lamb-271, 8-Tyler Corriher-136, 9-Nic Davidson-181, 10-Billy Gaule-83.
USAC EASTERN FOCUS YOUNG GUNS POINT STANDINGS
1-Sam McGhee-73, 2-Tyler Shullick-70, 3-Jared Irvan-68, 4-Brendon Bock-64, 5-Stevie Kuhn-64, 6-Trey Hutchens-59, 7-Ty Rose-58, 8-Mikell McGee-57, 9-Justen Garmenn-55.
USAC WESTERN FORD FOCUS POINT STANDINGS
1-Jessica Clark-524; 2-Jarid Blondel-448; 3-Tyler Dolacki-414; 4-Daniel Williams-374; 5-Wally Pankratz-372; 6-Alex Jacobsen-351; 7-Nic Davison-340; 8-Brandon White-330; 9-Paul Graham-329; 10-Jim Waters-327.
USAC WESTERN FOCUS YOUNG GUNS POINT STANDINGS
1-Trevor Hunt-548; 2-Cole Custer-461; 3-Brodie Kostecki-419; 4-Parker Colston-383; 5-Christine Breckenridge-329; 6-Brandon White-264; 7-Ricky Bowers-245; 8-Katylnn Leer-222; 9-James Eden-122; 10-Zach Bogner-117.
USAC UTAH FORD FOCUS POINT STANDINGS
1-Jim Waters-327; 2-Austin Luttmer-295; 3-Gregg Fuette-275; 4-Chuck Groat-275; 5-Jessica Clark-246; 6-Jeff Kelley-232; 7-Brandon White-231; 8-Paul Graham-213; 9-Michael Daniels-206; 10-Cheyenne Torgerson-186.