“COTTON CLASSIC” TO R.VANDER WEERD; TITLE IS FARIA’S

Hanford, CA……..Richard Vander Weerd did everything he could Saturday at Kings Speedway but was unable to overhaul Danny Faria Jr., who ended up claiming the 2013 USAC West Coast Sprint Car championship by 27 points. Vander Weerd emerged from a late-race battle with fast qualifier Markus Niemela and Kyle Hirst to take the 30-lap “Cotton Classic” series finale, while Niemela took second ahead of Hirst, Bud Kaedeing and Matt Mitchell. Faria was eighth at the checkered flag. Vander Weerd, of Visalia, Calif., led the final two laps of the race in his Vander Weerd Construction/Battery Worx Maxim/Shark after Niemela and Hisrt had traded the lead for the previous 27 laps. A special “non-points” event for series participants is scheduled October 31 as the opening event of this year’s “Budweiser Oval Nationals” at Perris (Calif.) Auto Speedway.

USAC WEST COAST SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: October 12, 2013 – Hanford, California – Kinga Speedway – 28th Annual “Cotton Classic”

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Markus Niemela, 81, Watt-15.663; 2. Richard Vander Weerd, 10, Vander Weerd-15.883; 3. D.J. Netto, 88N, Netto-16.031; 4. Dennis Howell, 62, Howell-16.056; 5. Kyle Hirst, 51T, Roth-16.113; 6. Bud Kaeding, 29, Bowman-16.174; 7. Austin Liggett, 83, Liggett-16.181; 8. Danny Faria Jr., 17V, Faria-16.183; 9. Landon Hurst, 179, Hurst-16.301; 10. Jace Vander Weerd, 88, Vander Weerd-16.360; 11. Rusty Carlile, 51, Carlile-16.380; 12. Koen Shaw, 92JR, Shaw-16.520; 13. Max Adams, 5X, Adams-16.587; 14. Austin Stone, 29X, Coffman-16.625; 15. Chris Ennis, 86, Ennis-16.652; 16. Jeff Sibley, 18, Watt-16.669; 17. Kevin Barnes, 36B, Barnes-16.16.673; 18. Gary Paulson, 51P, Paulson-16.706; 19. Matt Day, 97, Day-17.211; 20. Trent Carter, 13, Carter-17.223; 21. Jim Richardson, 8, Richardson-17.233; 22. Steve Hix, 57, Hix-17.291; 23. Seth Hancock, 51S, Hancock-17.329; 24. Hobie Conway, 3K, Kruseman-17.935; 25. Robert Nuckles, 27, Nuckles-18.320; 26. Matt Mitchell, 73, Ford-NT; 27. Quintin Crye, 5, Fowzer-NT.

FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Adams, 2. Niemela, 3. Liggett, 4. J.Vander Weerd, 5. Howell, 6. Day, 7. Hix, 8. Sibley, 9. Nuckles. NT

SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. R.Vander Weerd, 2. Hirst, 3. Mitchell, 4. Stone, 5. Carter, 6. Barnes, 7. Carlile, 8. Hancock, 9. Faria. NT

THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Hurst, 2. Paulson, 3. Kaeding, 4. Ennis, 5. Netto, 6. Shaw, 7. Crye, 8. Richardson. NT

DASH: (6 laps) 1. Netto, 2. Niemela, 3. Howell, 4. Hirst, 5. R.Vander Weerd, 6. Liggett, 7. Hurst, 8. Kaeding. NT

SEMI: (10 laps) 1. Faria, 2. Carlile, 3. Sibley, 4. Shaw, 5. Crye, 6. Barnes, 7. Richardson, 8. Hix, 9. Nuckles, 10. Hancock, 11. Day. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Richard  Vander Weerd, 2. Markus Niemela, 3. Kyle Hirst, 4. Bud Kaeding, 5. Matt Mitchell, 6. Landon Hurst, 7. Max Adams, 8. Danny Faria Jr., 9. Rusty Carlile, 10. Austin Stone, 11. Jace Vander Weerd, 12. Gary Paulson, 13. Chris Ennis, 14. Quintin Crye, 15. Koen Shaw, 16. Jeff Sibley, 17. Austin Liggett, 18. Kevin Barnes, 19. Trent Carter, 20. Jim Richardson, 21. D.J. Netto, 22. Dennis Howell. NT

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**Day and Hancock flipped during the semi. Liggett flipped during the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Netto, Laps 2-3 Niemela, Lap 4 Hirst, Laps 5-8 Niemela, Laps 9-28 Hirst, Laps 29-30 R.Vander Weerd

FINAL USAC WEST COAST SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1-Faria-930, 2-R.Vander Weerd-903, 3-Kaeding-862, 4-Niemela-677, 5-Carlile-665, 6-Ryan Bernal-661, 7-J.Vander Weerd-609, 8-Liggett-545, 9-Hurst-492, 10-Barnes-440.

UPCOMING USAC WEST COAST “Special Event” SPRINT RACE: October 31 – Perris (CA) Auto Speedway – 18th “Budweiser Oval Nationals”