Tucson, Arizona……..Josh Hodges overcame a massive flip in his National/CRA heat race earlier in the night to win wire-to-wire in the night’s Southwest/West Coast 360 Sprint Car “Western World Championships” preliminary feature.
“We caught some luck to get ourselves the front row, and I knew the bottom was gonna stay pretty good throughout the race. I had to go up high to get a few lapped cars, and I knew it didn’t feel as fast. We were pretty tight, so I could get in through the slick a little bit and pin it down to the bottom to get off the corner. It was good to get a win there and hopefully we can come back and keep it rolling tomorrow,” Hodges said.
The race’s main challengers were wiped out in a ten-car tangle down the frontstretch with six laps to go. There were also two earlier red flags, including one for a massive flip down the backstretch by Josh Shipley on lap three. He was uninjured.
R.J. Johnson and Andy Reinbold rounded out the podium, while Brody Roa and Bryan Clauson recovered from being swept up in the lap-25 crash to finish inside the top-five.
USAC SOUTHWEST & WEST COAST SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: November 20, 2015 – Tucson, Arizona – USA Raceway - 48th “Western World Championships”
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Josh Hodges (#74x Hodges), 2. Dennis Gile (#13 Gile), 3. Chris Bonneau (#78 Bonneau), 4. R.J. Johnson (#77M Michael), 5. D.J. Johnson (#33 Johnson), 6. Brady Bacon (#73x Ford), 7. Gary Taylor (#14 Burkhart/White), 8. Chris Windom (#22B Weber), 9. Kevin Thomas Jr. (#17RW Dutcher). NT
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Charles Davis Jr. (#50 Massey), 2. Trey Marcham (#73 Ford), 3. Larry Gibson (#2x Gibson), 4. Bryan Clauson (#16B Martin), 5. Jeff Sibley (#42N Sibley), 6. Matt Rossi (#02 Rossi), 7. Terry Schank, Jr. (#1 Gleeson), 8. Matt Lundy (#98 Lundy), 9. Rick Ziehl (#20z Ziehl). NT
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Justin Grant (#5 Baldwin), 2. Tristan Guardino (#80 Watt), 3. Josh Shipley (#2 Bishop), 4. Danny Faria, Jr. (#17v Bowman), 5. Brian Hosford (#32B Weber), 6. Jace Vander Weerd (#88 Vander Weerd), 7. Tye Mihocko (#5x Mihocko), 8. Jordan Stetson (#8AZ Stetson). NT
FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Andy Reinbold (#19 Underwood), 2. Brody Roa (#91R BR), 3. Stevie Sussex (#21AZ Burkhart), 4. C.J. Leary (#30 Leary), 5. Ronnie Clark (#6 Clark), 6. Nick Aiuto (#27 Aiuto), 7. Kyle Smith (#55 Smith), 8. Mike Martin (#16 Martin). NT
FIRST SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. D.J. Johnson, 3. Windom, 4. Faria, 5. Taylor, 6. Sibley, 7. Smith, 8. Stetson. NT
SECOND SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Vander Weerd, 2. Clark, 3. Aiuto, 4. Hosford, 5. Mihocko, 6. Ziehl, 7. Schank, 8. Lundy. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Josh Hodges, 2. R.J. Johnson, 3. Andy Reinbold, 4. Brody Roa, 5. Bryan Clauson, 6. Brady Bacon, 7. Charles Davis, Jr., 8. Chris Bonneau, 9. Ronnie Clark, 10. Trey Marcham, 11. Chris Windom, 12. Dennis Gile, 13. C.J. Leary, 14. Justin Grant, 15. Stevie Sussex, 16. Tristan Guardino, 17. Matt Rossi, 18. D.J. Johnson, 19. Jace Vander Weerd, 20. Larry Gibson, 21. Nick Aiuto, 22. Josh Shipley. NT
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**Shipley, Aiuto, D.J. Johnson, and Guardino flipped during the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Hodges
NEW USAC SOUTHWEST SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1-R.J. Johnson-1,148, 2-Davis-1,092, 3-Rossi-953, 4-Sussex-934, 5-Martin-886, 6-Josh Pelkey-844, 7-Hosford-724, 8-Reinbold-689, 9-Aiuto-659, 10-Gile-543.
NEW USAC WEST COAST SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1-Faria-928, 2-Richard Vander Weerd-775, 3-Marcham-767, 4-J.Vander Weerd-744, 5-D.J. Johnson-733, 6-Guardino-596, 7-Ryan Bernal-532, 8-Bud Kaeding-507, 9-Roa-476, 10-Landon Hurst-442.
NEW GRUDGE SERIES POINTS: 1. Davis-207, 2. Sussex-186, 3. R.J.Johnson-173, 4. Reinbold-151, 5. Roa-132, 6. Aiuto-126, 7. Martin-122, 8. Windom-121, 9. Bacon-117, 10. Rossi-114.
NEXT USAC SOUTHWEST & USAC WEST COAST SPRINT CAR RACE: November 21 – Tucson, Arizona
- USA Raceway – 48th “Western World Championships”
