By Dick Jordan
Tracks in California, Utah and Ohio host USAC Ford Focus racing this week as the battle for championships intensifies. Saturday night sees the USAC Midwest and Eastern Ford Focuses and Focus Young Guns at the Columbus (Ohio) Motor Speedway, the California Dirt series at Ventura (Calif.,) Raceway, the California pavement series at Madera (Calif.) Speedway for the “Harvest Fall Classic” and the Utah series at Rocky Mountain Raceways in Salt Lake City.
Jim Waters of West Jordan, Utah extended his bulging lead in the USAC Utah Ford Focus series with Saturday night’s 25-lap feature victory at Rocky Mountain Raceways. Gregg Fuette led the first 14 laps and finished second, ahead of Ron Duncombe, Austin Luttmer and Jeff Kelley.
Brodie Kostecki of Roseville, Calif. scored a “clean sweep” of the USAC races at his home track, All American Speedway, on Saturday night. He took the lead on lap 35 in both of two USAC Western Ford Focus features and led the rest of the way, then passed Keegan Walmer for the lead on lap eight of the 20-lap Focus Young Guns race and went on to win that as well! In the first Ford Focus main he passed Walmer on lap 35 and finished ahead of Walmer, Garrett Peterson, James Eden and Tanner Long. In the second Ford Focus race Sheldon Didinger led for 10 laps, then Eden led for 24 before yielding to Kostecki. Peterson, Walmer, Long and Eden rounded out the “top-five.” In the Focus Young Guns feature Trevor Hunt finished second ahead of Eden, Walmer and Didinger. Oh yeah, Kostecki was the fastest qualifier for each series as well and won the Ford Focus heat and the Focus Young Guns Dash.
Rain halted the proceedings at Bakersfield (Calif.) Speedway Saturday night after practice and also washed out Saturday’s events at the Montpelier (Ind.) Motor Speedway. The Montpelier races will be part of a “double feature” program on October 1.
USAC NATIONAL FORD FOCUS POINT STANDINGS
1-Nick Drake-717, 2-Ross Rankine-699, 3-Brodie Kostecki-693, 4-Scott Hunter-672, 5-Jim Waters-654, 6-Jarett Andretti-651, 7-Jessica Clark-645, 8-Chris Lamb-639, 9-Jarid Blondel-612, 10-Austin Luttmer-600.
USAC NATIONAL FOCUS YOUNG GUNS POINT STANDINGS:
1-Cole Custer-480, 2-Brodie Kostecki-480; 3-Sam McGhee-474, 4-Trevor Hunt-474, 5-Jared Irvan-465; 6-Parker Colston-456, 7-Stevie Kuhn-453, 8-Cooper Clouse-453, 9-James Eden-420; 10-Mikell McGee-417.
USAC MIDWEST FORD FOCUS POINT STANDINGS
1-Ross Rankine-760, 2-Toby Alfrey-598, 3-Jessica Bean-524, 4-Jarett Andretti-585, 5-Joey Greening-470, 6-Nick Drake-577, 7-James Robertson-635, 8-Nick Hamilton-506, 9-Tyler Shullick-400, 10-Kent Kriegbaum-340.
USAC MIDWEST FOCUS YOUNG GUNS POINT STANDINGS
1-Sam McGhee-540, 2-Stevie Kuhn-501, 3-Cooper Clouse-446, 4-Michael Fanelli-308, 5-Mikell McGee-305, 6-Emmy Gray-285, 7-Cole Custer-168, 8-Tyler Schullick-137, 9-Adam Thomason-114, 10-Justen Garmenn-105.
USAC EASTERN FORD FOCUS POINT STANDINGS
1- Nick Drake-787, 2-Scott Hunter-747, 3-Jarett Andretti-703, 4-Chris Lamb-673, 5-Nic Davidson-612, 6-Tyler Corriher-541, 7-Austin Prock-502, 8-Ross Rankine-376, 9-Cole Custer-339, 10-Steven Intravaia-329.
USAC EASTERN FOCUS YOUNG GUNS POINT STANDINGS
1-Jared Irvan-572; 2-Cole Custer-435; 3-Trey Hutchens-337; 4-Sam McGhee-319; 5-Mikell McGee-243; 6-Cooper Clouse-117; 7-Michael Fanelli-104; 8-Tyler Shullick-70; 9-Brendon Bock-64; 10-Stevie Kuhn-64.
USAC WESTERN FORD FOCUS POINT STANDINGS
1-Brodie Kostecki-806, 2-Jim Waters-777, 3-Chuck Groat-739, 4-Jessica Clark-725, 5-Austin Luttmer-708, 6-Jarid Blondel-691, 7-Wally Pankratz-665, 8-Tyler Dolacki-655, 9-Daniel Williams-594, 10-Gregg Fuette-572.
USAC WESTERN FOCUS YOUNG GUNS POINT STANDINGS
1-Trevor Hunt-569, 2-Brody Kostecki-569, 3-Parker Colston-516, 4-Cole Custer-461, 5-James Eden-457, 6-Christine Breckenridge-453, 7-Katlynn Leer-380, 8-Keegan Walmer-376, 9-Ricky Bowers-300, 10-Brandon White-264,
USAC UTAH FORD FOCUS POINT STANDINGS
1-Jim Waters-833, 2-Chuck Groat-739, 3-Austin Luttmer-708, 4-Gregg Fuette-572, 5-Ron Duncombe-542, 6-Jeff Kelley-520, 7-J.R. Williams-472, 8-Jessica Clark-386, 9-Guy Sainsbury-365, 10-Brandon White-342.