HUNT TAKES IRWINDALE SPRINT RACE, LOCKS UP TITLE

Tony Hunt put the whipped cream on top of the pumpkin pie with a 30-lap wire-to-wire win in the Western Sprint car portion of Turkey Night at Irwindale Speedway Thursday night.

Aboard Alan Kaiser's championship-winning Paul Oil/Thompson Toyota/Redline Oil/Justice Brothers 4, Hunt ran away on the half-mile paved oval. Hunt had previously clinched the 2006 USAC Western Sprint Car driving championship.

The battle behind Hunt was entertaining as teammates Mike Murgoitio and Bradley Galedrige fought with Tracy Hines for the runner-up spot. Murgoitio ultimately earned the position with Hines settling for third.

Jason Meyers, the winged dirt Sprint car ace from Clovis, made a good account of himself by taking tenth in his first USAC start since 2003.

A frightening moment occurred on lap 21 when Kody Swanson flipped and skidded upside down from halfway down the backchute to the entrance of turn three. Swanson was running third in deep traffic trying to keep pace with second place running Murgoitio when he rode a wheel which started the crash. Swanson emerged from his DRC Framing/Keith Williams/DDS 75 under his own power after a brief delay to extricate him from the wreckage.

Murgoitio was the event’s ‘hard-charger’ advancing from seventh to second. NASCAR star Casey Mears drove Ted Finkenbinder’s National Guard sprinter to a 16th place finish.

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