From Dick Jordan
Defending AMSOIL USAC National Sprint Car Champion Bryan Clauson of Noblesville, Ind. leads the series to its 2013 debut this week, with races Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Fla.
Clauson is the two-time defending USAC National Drivers Champion and has won at least one USAC National race every year since his debut in 2005. His 45 USAC National feature wins in just eight years already rank him 24th all-time in USAC’s 57-year history. Four more wins will vault him into the “top-20> all-time!
In 2011 Clauson won one of USAC’s three Ocala features but this year brings a change for last year’s seven-time winner. He will pilot a Tony Stewart Racing/Curb-Agajanian entry in 2013.
Clauson will face a formidable field in this week’s Ocala races, including Indiana drivers Tracy Hines, C.J. Leary, Chase Stockon and Dave Darland, Illinois drivers Chris Windom and Levi Jones, Ohio driver Jac Haudenschild, Oklahoma driver Brady Bacon, New York driver Coleman Gulick, Alabama driver Kevin Thomas Jr., Missouri driver Hunter Schuerenberg and North Carolina driver Nick Drake.
Stockon was USAC’s Most Improved 2012 driver, while Leary was the 2012 USAC National Sprint Car “Rookie of the Year.” Drake is a former National Ford Focus Champion.
Hines and Clauson are both former Florida winners, Clauson winning the aforementioned Ocala Sprint race and Hines winning a 2007 Silver Crown race at Homestead-Miami.
All three nights at Ocala will be streamed live via usacracing.tv for the price of $9.95 per night. The stream is offered as part of paid subscriptions to usacracing.tv.