SACRAMENTO, California — USAC Amsoil Western Sprint Car Series points leader Tony Hunt secured his 29 series win in his illustrious career by winning the Monday night feature at Rocky Mountain Raceways in Salt Lake City, UT.
The 50 lap feature was a combination event with the USAC Young Automotive Rocky Mountain Sprint Car Series and that series’ points leader Jimmy Wysong put up a hard fight against the traveling racers in the Western division.
Wysong set the fast-time in time trials with a time of 13.818 seconds around the 3/8ths mile speedway.
Clovis’ Luis Ramos, after winning his first career feature just two weeks ago in Roseville, won heat race one. Mel Andrus was victorious in heat race two.
Andrus led the opening six laps while Wysong and Hunt raced through the field. Wysong leaped from sixth into in just the opening three laps and took over the lead on lap seven.
Hunt’s run through the field was more methodical, passing Audra Sasselli on lap seven and Andrus on lap 13. A long battle for second between Hunt and 2005 series champion Kody Swanson of Kingsburg, Calif. waged on until lap 27 when Hunt broke through.
On lap 36, Hunt took over the lead from Wysong but it wasn’t over yet. A pair of cautions on lap 44 and 47 gave Wysong two more shots at Hunt. Hunt, the five-time champion, prevailed and took a .111 second win at the checkered flag.
Rounding out the top-five were Jim Waters, Ryan Burdett, and Swanson.
The events at Rocky Mountain Raceways capped a busy month for some of the stars of the USAC Amsoil Western Sprint Car Series.
On Saturday night, Hunt finished third in the 62nd Annual “Little 500” at Anderson Speedway, while 2008 and 2009 series champion Tanner Swanson of Kingsburg, Calif. won the “Night Before the 500” USAC National Midget feature in Indianapolis. Old brother Kody finished third.
Rohnert Park’s JoJo Helberg and Alamo’s Scott Pierovich competed in both the “Little 500” and the “Casey’s General Stores Triple Crown” at Iowa Speedway. Helberg finished 33rd at Anderson and 12th at Iowa, while Pierovich was 18th at Iowa and 30th at Anderson.
Tony Hunt leads USAC Amsoil Western Sprint Car Series points standings by 63 points over Luis Ramos as the series prepares for a Southern California showdown at the tight and exciting Orange Show Speedway, Saturday June 12.
The United States Auto Club is online at www.usacracing.com USAC Western Sprint Car Series can be followed on Facebook as well.
