By Lonnie Wheatley
TULSA, Okla. (September 26, 2011) – With the 44th Annual Western World Championships looming on the horizon, the winged Sprint Cars of the Sunoco Fuel ASCS Southwest Region take to Tucson’s 3/8-mile USA Raceway clay oval on Saturday night.
It marks the final stop of the season for the winged forces at USA Raceway before the season-ending Western World on November 17-19.
Leading the way into Saturday’s card is Las Cruces’ Rick Ziehl, who reeled off three consecutive wins at USA before Johnny Herrera finally put a halt to his streak in the most recent Tucson event on September 17.
Gunning for a fourth consecutive Southwest championship on the strength of a series’ best five wins in 13 events, Ziehl holds a 182-point advantage over Calvin Landis with 18-year-old Dalten Gabbard, Alamogordo’s Kyle McCutcheon and Joshua Williams rounding out the current top five in points.
The rest of the current top ten includes Lance Norick, Steve Stone, Jordan Stetson, Joey Chester and Joshua Hodges.
Since the season-opening Copper on Dirt in which Herrera and Shane Stewart topped combined National and Southwest features, Herrera and Ziehl have both posted three ASCS Southwest wins at USA with Landis also notching one win.
Saturday’s Sunoco Fuel ASCS Southwest Region action at USA Raceway is slated to go green at 6:45 p.m.
The 3/8-mile USA Raceway clay oval is located east of Tucson off I-10 Exit 268, then 1.6 mile south on Craycroft Road, which turns into Los Reales. For more information, contact the track at 520-574-8515.
The Sunoco Fuel ASCS Southwest Region is currently slated for 20 overall nights of competition in 2011.
The 2011 season marks the 20th year of sanctioning Sprint Car racing for the American Sprint Car Series, with approximately 200 nights of competition at tracks throughout the nation and into Canada. Anchored by the Lucas Oil Sprint Car Series presented by K&N Filters, ASCS also consists of ten different Regions throughout the nation.
Additional information regarding the American Sprint Car Series is available at www.ascsracing.com.