VANDER WEERD TAKES SANTA MARIA MIDGET

Santa Maria, CA……..Sprint car veteran Richard Vander Weerd of Visalia, Calif. raced to victory in Saturday night’s 30-lap Honda USAC Western Midget race at Santa Maria Speedway. He passed Terry Nichols on lap 11 of the Party at the Beach/”Doug Fort Memorial” and led the final 20 laps in the Sala Racing Vander Weerd Construction/Battery Worx Spike/Chevy. Ronnie Gardner finished second ahead of Shannon McQueen, Heath Duinkerken, and Randi Pankratz.

HONDA USAC WESTERN MIDGET DIRT RACE RESULTS: July 5, 2014 – Santa Maria, California – Santa Maria Speedway – Party at the Coast / “Doug Fort Memorial”

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Scott Pierovich, 35, Pierovich-15.463; 2. Shannon McQueen, 7, McQueen-15.707; 3. Trey Marcham, 73, Ford-15.740; 4. Ronnie Gardner, 68, Six8- 15.796; 5. Brian Gard, 88, Arata-15.937; 6. Heath Duinkerken, 81, Watt-16.004; 7. Tyler Dolacki, 99, Hokanson-16.042; 8. Terry Nichols, 45, Nichols-16.055; 9. Bruce Douglass, 31, Douglass-16.123; 10. Richard Vander Weerd, 19, Sala-16.248; 11. Kyle Smith, 55, Smith-16.258; 12. Johnathon Henry, 17, Nichols-16.420; 13. Danny Ebberts, 5, Van Dyne-16.446; 14. Terre Rothweiler, 10, Walker-16.460; 15. Jesse Denome, 6, Denome-16.511; 16. Michelle Decker, 7D, McQueen-16.550; 17. Randi Pankratz, 8, Pankratz-16.754; 18. Chris Ennis, 86, Ennis-17.355; 19, Ricky Shelton, 71, Full Circle-17.507; 20. Jarid Blondel, 98, Blondel-19.980.

FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Vander Weerd, 2. Ebberts, 3. Pierovich, 4. Decker, 5. Shelton, 6. Dolacki, 7. Gardner. NT

SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Pankratz, 2. McQueen, 3. Smith, 4. Nichols, 5. Rothweiler, 6. Blondel, 7. Gard. NT

THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Ennis, 2. Douglass, 3. Duinkerken, 4. Marcham, 5. Denome, 6. Henry. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Richard Vander Weerd, 2. Ronnie Gardner, 3. Shannon McQueen, 4. Heath Duinkerken, 5. Randi Pankratz, 6. Brian Gard, 7. Trey Marcham, 8. Jarid Blondel, 9. Jesse Denome, 10. Terry Nichols, 11. Michelle Decker, 12. Ricky Shelton, 13. Chris Ennis, 14. Johnathon Henry, 15. Tyler Dolacki, 16. Terre Rothweiler, 17. Bruce Douglass, 18. Scott Pierovich, 19. Kyle Smith, 20. Danny Ebberts. NT

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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-10 Nichols, Laps 11-30 Vander Weerd.

NEW HONDA USAC WESTERN MIDGET DIRT POINTS: 1-Marcham-254, 2-R.Gardner-236, 3-Blondel-158, 4-Alex Schutte-157, 5-McQueen-154, 6-Ennis-127, 7-Sean Dodenhoff-109, 8-Dolacki-106, 9-Pierovich-101, 10-Shelton-101.

NEW HONDA USAC WESTERN MIDGET POINTS: 1-Blondel-267, 2-Marcham-254, 3-R.Gardner-236, 4-Alex Schutte-210, 5-Chad Nichols-202, 6-Nick Chivello-164, 7-McQueen-154, 8-Jake Swanson-140, 9-Pierovich-140, 10-Ennis-127.

NEXT HONDA USAC WESTERN MIDGET DIRT RACE: July 26 – Lemoore (CA) Raceway