By Dick Jordan
The USAC Eastern and Western Ford Focus series continue this weekend with races at Ace Speedway in Altamahaw, N.C. (Eastern) and Shasta Raceway Park in Anderson, Calif. (Western).
The Eastern Ford Focuses conclude their 2011 campaign at Altamahaw Saturday, while the Western Ford Focuses and Focus Young Guns will compete at Shasta Saturday.
Patrick Bruns, Ross Rankine, Cooper Clouse and Mikell McGhee walked off with feature wins in Saturday’s USAC Midwest Ford Focus and Focus Young Guns racing program at Montpelier (Ind.) Motor Speedway. Bruns, of Champaign, Ill., passed Toby Alfrey on lap 15 and led the last six laps to win the first 20-lap Ford Focus race over John Heydenreich, Bradley Galedrige, Alfrey and Ross Rankine. In the 15-lap Ford Focus nightcap, Rankine, of Willard, Ohio, passed Dillon Welch on lap 11 and led the last five laps to win over Heydenreich, Bruns, Welch and Austin Prock. Clouse, of Ohio City, Ohio, led all 12 laps to beat Mikell McGhee, Sam McGee and Adam Thomason in the Focus Young Guns opener. Mikell McGhee of Spring Run, Pa. passed Sam McGee on lap four and led the final nine laps of the second 12-lapper to beat Clouse, McGee and Thomason.
Garett Peterson, Nick Drake, Trevor Hunt and Cole Custer all took home feature winner trophies Saturday night as the USAC Western and Utah Ford Focuses and Western Focus Young Guns invaded the Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway Bullring. Peterson, of West Sacramento, Calif. and Drake, of Mooresville, N.C., took the two 30-lap Ford Focus features, while Hunt, of Liberty, Mo. and Custer, of Kannapolis, N.C., were the Focus Young Guns victors. Peterson led all 30 laps to win the Ford Focus opener over fast qualifier Keegan Walmer, Jim Waters, Jessica Clark and Tanner Long. Drake passed Paul Graham on lap 14 and led the last 17 laps to beat Peterson, Long, Walmer and Graham in race #2. Hunt caught Custer on lap three and led the last 10 laps of the Focus Young Guns opener to beat Brodie Kostecki, Custer, Edens and Daniel Williams. Custer led the first 15 and last two laps of the 20-lap Focus Young Guns finale to beat Edens, Williams, Kostecki and Marina Turner.
Rains forced cancellation of Friday night’s USAC Ford Focus race at the Gas City (Ind.) I-69 Speedway.
USAC NATIONAL FORD FOCUS POINT STANDINGS
1-Nick Drake-720; 2-Ross Rankine-708; 3-Brodie Kostecki-696; 4-Garett Peterson-676; 5-Jim Waters-675; 6-Scott Hunter-672; 7-Keegan Walmer-672; 8-Jarett Andretti-657; 9-Jessica Clark-657; 10-Tyler Dolacki-648.
USAC NATIONAL FOCUS YOUNG GUNS POINT STANDINGS:
1-Cole Custer-480; 2-Brodie Kostecki-480; 3-Sam McGhee-477; 4-Trevor Hunt-477; 5-Jared Irvan-465; 6-Cooper Clouse-465; 7-Parker Colston-456; 8-Stevie Kuhn-453; 9-Mikell McGee-441; 10-James Edens-429.
USAC MIDWEST FORD FOCUS POINT STANDINGS
1-Ross Rankine-771; 2-James Robertson-694; 3-Nick Drake-624; 4-Jarett Andretti-612; 5-Toby Alfrey-609; 6-Nick Hamilton-573; 7-Jessica Bean-553; 8-Tyler Shullick-515; 9-Joey Greening-476; 10-Kent Kriegbaum-434.
USAC MIDWEST FOCUS YOUNG GUNS POINT STANDINGS
1-Sam McGee-551; 2-Cooper Clouse-513; 3-Stevie Kuhn-502; 4-Mikell McGhee-445; 5-Michael Fanelli-370; 6-Emmy Gray-333; 7-Adam Thomason-216; 8-Cole Custer-168; 9-Cordy Horn-153; 10-Tyler Shullick-137.
USAC EASTERN FORD FOCUS POINT STANDINGS
1-Nick Drake-840; 2-Scott Hunter-787; 3-Jarett Andretti-768; 4-Chris Lamb-673; 5-Nic Davidson-633; 6-Tyler Corriher-577; 7-Austin Prock-502; 8-Ross Rankine-445; 9-Cole Custer-339; 10-Steven Intravaia-329.
USAC EASTERN FOCUS YOUNG GUNS POINT STANDINGS
1-Jared Irvan-572; 2-Cole Custer-435; 3-Sam McGhee-392; 4-Trey Hutchens-337; 5-Mikell McGee-305; 6-Cooper Clouse-188; 7-Michael Fanelli-166; 8-Stevie Kuhn-122; 9-Tyler Shullick-70; 10-Brendon Bock-64.
USAC WESTERN FORD FOCUS POINT STANDINGS
1-Brodie Kostecki-815; 2-Jim Waters-807; 3-Chuck Groat-760; 4-Garett Peterson-756; 5-Jessica Clark-743; 6-Keegan Walmer-727; 7-Wally Pankratz-726; 8-Austin Luttmer-708; 9-Jarid Blondel-691; 10-Gregg Fuette-645.
USAC WESTERN FOCUS YOUNG GUNS POINT STANDINGS
1-Brodie Kostecki-575; 2-Trevor Hunt-574; 3-Cole Custer-528; 4-Parker Colston-519; 5-James Edens-483; 6-Christine Breckenridge-453; 7-Katlynn Leer-442; 8-Keegan Walmer-382; 9-Ricky Bowers-361; 10-Marina Turner-310.
FINAL USAC UTAH FORD FOCUS POINT STANDINGS
1-Jim Waters-966; 2-Chuck Groat-806; 3-Austin Luttmer-708; 4-Gregg Fuette-643; 5-Ron Duncombe-603; 6-J.R. Williams-539; 7-Jeff Kelley-520; 8-Guy Sainsbury-462; 9-Jessica Clark-446; 10-Brandon White-384.