ROSEMONT COPPER “COPPER ON DIRT” THIS WEEKEND

Nobody has yet been able to grab a second checkered flag in USAC Sprint racing at USA Raceway in Tucson, Ariz. That could change this weekend when the Rosemont Copper “Copper on Dirt” unfolds at the 3.8-mile dirt oval.


 


The six previous USAC Sprint races at the track have yielded six different winners. One of those was 2010 USAC Amsoil National Sprint Car point leader Damion Gardner of Concord, Calif. Gardner comes to Tucson with an unblemished 2010 record, leading all 60 laps of the two 30-lap series openers last week in Tampa, Fla.


 


The other USAC winners at USA Raceway have been Jesse Hockett in 2005, Josh Pelkey and Cory Kruseman in 2006 and Charles Davis Jr. and Scotty Weir in 2007.


 


Gardner has a 15-point lead over Brady Short in the 2010 standings and is a former USAC/CRA Sprint Car Champion (2005). He has 35 career USAC/CRA victories to lead the all-time standings over Kruseman, who has 28.


 


Kruseman, however, set the 1-lap USAC/CRA Sprint car track record of 15.582 seconds at USA Raceway in 2005.


 


The USAC Amsoil National and CRA Sprints join the USAC Silver Crown and USAC Mopar National and Western Midgets for this weekend’s “tripleheader” with preliminaries on Friday and semis and feature events on Saturday.


 


Former “Copper on Dirt” Sprint champions include Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Shane Cottle and Darren Hagen.


 


USAC AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT SERIES POINT STANDINGS


 


1-Damion Gardner-137; 2-Brady Short-122; 3-Bryan Clauson-118; 4-Levi Jones-104; 5-Dave Darland-101; 6-Jerry Coons Jr.-101; 7-Robert Ballou-92; 8-Shane Cottle-88; 9-Jon Stanbrough-84; 10-Henry Clarke-82.