By Dick Jordan
Nic Faas of Huntington Beach, Calif., who finished as runner-up to Mike Spencer in the 2011 AMSOIL USAC/CRA Sprint Car standings, has the early lead in the 2012 points after his victory in Saturday night’s 30-lap “Sokola Shootout” at Perris (Calif.) Auto Speedway.
The series resumes March 31 at Perris with “The Power of Purple” Relay for Life fundraiser benefitting the American Cancer Society.
Faas erased a nine-year-old track qualifying record during time trials with his lap of 15.833 seconds, then caught Ryan Bernal on lap 23 of the feature. Faas paced the final eight laps for the win in his Mark Alexander Scott Sales Company/VP Racing Fuels entry, completing a rare clean sweep after also winning his heat race.
Trailing the 2008 AMSOIL USAC/CRA Sprint Car “Rookie of the Year” to the flag were Bernal, Matt Mitchell, 4-time defending series champion Mike Spencer and pole starter Cory Kruseman.
Faas’ lead over Mitchell in the 2012 standings stands at eight points going into the March 31 race.
2012 AMSOIL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR POINT STANDINGS
1-Nic Faas-74; 2-Matt Mitchell-66; 3-Ryan Bernal-62; 4-Mike Spencer-60; 5-Cory Kruseman-53; 6-David Cardey-52; 7-Brody Roa-51; 8-Rip Williams-42; 9-R.J. Johnson-41; 10-Richard VanderWeerd-39.