By Dick Jordan
The USAC West Coast Sprint Car Series is now scheduled to open its 2012 season this Saturday at Bakersfield (Calif.) Speedway after rains forced cancellation of last Saturday’s scheduled races at the Tulare (Calif.) Thunderbowl Raceway.
Richard Vander Weerd of Visalia, Calif. is the defending series champion but Saturday’s race will be the first for the USAC Sprints at the one-third mile dirt oval since 2010.
Bud Kaeding won the non-points “special event” staged at the Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway dirt track a couple of weeks ago.
Davey Pombo, Craig Stidham and Ricky Kirkbride won the 2010 series events at Bakersfield.