PORTLAND, Oregon — 16 year-old Keegan Walmer won his third USAC Ford Focus main event of the season, and his first since May, after snaking through a last-lap crash to win the feature at Madera Speedway. The victory moves his Ron Sutton’s Winner’s Circle team closer to 500 victories as an organization.
"Keegan did a great job handling the adversity of the weekend to pick up the win."— Ron Sutton
Walmer is a member of the Ron Sutton’s Winner’s Circle career development program which trains and prepares drivers for a career in motorsports. The third year member of the program won seven times in 2010 with USAC and has competed in both USAC Ford Focus and NASCAR Modified races in 2011.
Walmer missed much of practice on Saturday afternoon with mechanical problems. But Walmer rebounded to qualify sixth. Teammate Paul Graham led the RSWC entourage with a second place qualifying run. Fellow RSWC teammate Jessica Clark won the eight lap heat race before things got going with the 25 lap feature.
Madera Speedway is a historic one-third mile asphalt oval, with a lot of surface character, that challenged the drivers with loose conditions. Walmer led the first five laps before slipping back to third place. Walmer ran a smart race as he tried to keep pace with the leaders while also defending third from Graham.
Coming to the white flag the race changed hands as the top-two cars tangled into turn one. Walmer narrowly missed the incident and led Graham back to the finish line with Clark rounding out the RSWC 1-2-3.
Despite not having the best car on the night Walmer proved the notion “to finish first you must first finish” rings true.
“Keegan did a great job handling the adversity of the weekend to pick up the win,” Driver Coach Ron Sutton said. “This win puts him in a great spot to win the NorCal championship!”
With the victory, Walmer leads the USAC Ford Focus NorCal points by a 16 point margin with just a handful of races left to go. The series continues this Saturday night at All American Speedway during the All American Vintage Classic.
Keegan Walmer Racing and Ron Sutton’s Winner’s Circle thank partners: K&N Filters, Reser’s Fine Foods, Stoney Inn, Robinson Construction, K&K Motorsports, Scribner Plastics, Allstar Performance, Sunoco Race Fuels and Star Racing Supply.
Keegan Walmer Racing can be found at www.keeganwalmer.com
For more information on Ron Sutton’s Winner’s Circle, log on to www.winners-circle-racing.com
About Ron Sutton’s Winner’s Circle:
Ron Sutton's Winner's Circle is an established talent scout and development program, providing long term, comprehensive racing and career development for up and coming drivers focused on professional Stock Car careers. RSWC drivers are raced, coached, groomed, trained and molded, within a professional racing environment, into what top teams look for when hiring drivers. Drivers involved in the program race in a variety of cars, including USAC Young Guns Focus Midgets, USAC Ford Focus Midgets, NASCAR Grand American Modifieds, NASCAR Late Model stock cars and NASCAR K&N Pro Series stock cars.
