By Dick Jordan
The USAC Eastern, Western and Utah Ford Focus racing series continue this week with races at East Lincoln Speedway in Stanley, N.C. tonight, Concord (NC) Motor Speedway Wednesday night and Rocky Mountain Raceways in Salt Lake City, Utah and Santa Maria (Calif.) Speedway Saturday night.
Nick Drake of Mooresville, N.C. and Ross Rankine of Willard, Ohio were the winners in last Wednesday’s final USAC Midwest Ford Focus features of the 2011 Elite 8 Series presented by IUPUI at the Bryant Heating & Cooling Indianapolis Speedrome. Drake passed Toby Alfrey on lap seven of the first feature and led the final 24 laps of the first 30-lapper in his Haas Automation Beast to beat Nick Hamilton, James Robertson, Jarett Andretti and Rankine. In the second 30-lapper Rankine led all the way in his National Pride Beast to beat Andretti, Nick Hamilton, Robertson and Alfrey. Hamilton won the Elite 8 title by a single point over Rankine.
Jared Irvan of Midland, N.C. and Drake captured feature wins Sunday afternoon at Concord Motor Speedway. Irvan led all 35 laps to take the Eastern Focus Young Guns feature, while Drake led the final 62 laps to win the 75-lap Eastern Ford Focus race. Cole Custer, Sam McGhee, Cooper Clouse and Michael Fanelli trailed Irvan. Scott Hunter led the first 13 laps of the Ford Focus race and finished second ahead of David Levine, Ross Rankine and Nic Davidson.
Stevie Kuhn of Indianapolis, Ind. and Cooper Clouse of Ohio City, Ohio scored 20-lap USAC Focus Young Guns feature victories Wednesday night at the Bryant Heating & Cooling Indianapolis Speedrome on the final night of the Elite 8 Series presented by IUPUI. Kuhn led all 20 laps of the first feature in his Kuhn Racing Beast to beat Clouse, Sam McGhee, Cole Custer and Cordy Horn. McGhee led the first six laps of the second race but Clouse led the rest of the way in his Peterbilt of Northwest Ohio Hawk to beat Kuhn, Horn, Mikell McGee and McGhee. Sam McGhee ended up as the top Speedrome point earner in the Focus Young Guns.
USAC NATIONAL FORD FOCUS POINT STANDINGS
1-Nick Drake-702, 2-Ross Rankine-684, 3-Jarett Andretti-651, 4-Jessica Clark-570, 5-James Robertson-517, 6-Toby Alfrey-507, 7-Jim Waters-489, 8-Jessica Bean-472, 9-Joey Greening-450, 10-Austin Luttmer-441.
USAC NATIONAL FOCUS YOUNG GUNS POINT STANDINGS:
1-Cole Custer-474, 2-Trevor Hunt-468, 3-Sam McGhee-468, 4-Stevie Kuhn-453, 5-Brody Kostecki-408, 6-Cooper Clouse-396, 7-Christine Breckenridge-351, 8-Parker Colston-342, 9-Mikell McGee-294, 10-Michael Fanelli-279.
USAC MIDWESTERN FORD FOCUS POINT STANDINGS
1-Ross Rankine-726; 2-James Robertson-573; 3-Toby Alfrey-553; 4-Jarett Andretti-536; 5-Jessica Bean-517; 6-Nick Drake-488; 7-Nick Hamilton-455; 8-Joey Greening-394; 9-Tyler Shullick-346; 10-Kent Kriegbaum-290.
USAC MIDWESTERN FOCUS YOUNG GUNS POINT STANDINGS
1-Sam McGhee-542; 2-Stevie Kuhn-503; 3-Cooper Clouse-374; 4-Emmy Gray-285; 5-Mikell McGee-257; 6-Michael Fanelli-244; 7-Cole Custer-163; 8-Tyler Shullick-137; 9-Adam Thomason-114; 10-Justen Garmenn-105.
USAC EASTERN FORD FOCUS POINT STANDINGS
1-Nick Drake-579; 2-Jarett Andretti-556; 3-Scott Hunter-433; 4-Chris Lamb-338; 5-Steven Intravaia-329; 6-Austin Prock-329; 7-Nic Davidson-323; 8-Orry Hunte-274; 9-Tyler Corriher-248; 10-David Levine-142.
USAC EASTERN FOCUS YOUNG GUNS POINT STANDINGS
1-Jared Irvan-135; 2-Sam McGhee-134; 3-Trey Hutchens-110; 4-Tyler Shullick-70; 5-Cole Custer-65; 6-Brendon Bock-64; 7-Stevie Kuhn-64; 8-Cooper Clouse-59; 9-Ty Rose-58; 10-Mikell McGee-57.
USAC WESTERN FORD FOCUS POINT STANDINGS
1-Jessica Clark-642; 2-Jim Waters-589; 3-Chuck Groat-544; 4-Austin Luttmer-523; 5-J.R. Williams-453; 6-Jarid Blondel-448; 7-Jeff Kelley-415; 8-Tyler Dolacki-414; 9-Gregg Fuette-382; 10-Daniel Williams-374.
USAC WESTERN FOCUS YOUNG GUNS POINT STANDINGS
1-Trevor Hunt-555; 2-Brodie Kostecki-487; 3-Cole Custer-461; 4-Parker Colston-383; 5-Christine Breckenridge-382; 6-Brandon White-264; 7-Ricky Bowers-245; 8-Katlynn Leer-222; 9-James Eden-180; 10-Keegan Walmer-146.
USAC UTAH FORD FOCUS POINT STANDINGS
1-Jim Waters-588; 2-Chuck Groat-544; 3-Austin Luttmer-523; 4-Jeff Kelley-415; 5-Gregg Fuette-382; 6-Ron Duncombe-374; 7-Michael Daniels-341; 8-J.R. Williams-326; 9-Jessica Clark-296; 10-Cheyenne Torgerson-235.