BERNAL WINS WEST COAST/CLASSIC SPRINT AT OCEAN

Watsonville, CA……..Defending USAC Western Classic Sprint Car Champion Ryan Bernal of Hollister, Calif. won Friday night’s 30-lap race at Ocean Speedway. He passed Austin Liggett on lap 14 and led the rest of the way in Mike Phulps’ Core Power/Metal Works ART/S&S. West Coast Sprint Car point leader Markus Niemela took second ahead of Liggett, Nic Faas and D.J. Johnson. Troy Rutherford led the first 10 laps before yielding to Liggett. The series continues Saturday night at Tulare.

USAC WEST COAST/WESTERN CLASSIC SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: May 16, 2014 – Watsonville, California – Ocean Speedway

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Markus Niemela, 73, Ford-12.979; 2. Nic Faas, 73X, Ford-13.015; 3. Richard Vander Weerd, 10, Vander Weerd-13.107; 4. Ryan Bernal, 56, Phulps-13.023; 5. Dennis Howell, 62, Howell-13.031; 6. D.J. Johnson, 33, Johnson-13.043; 7. Bud Kaeding, 29, Bowman-13.078; 8. Troy Rutherford, 81, Watt-13.156; 9. Austin Liggett, 83, Liggett-13.169; 10. Matt Mitchell, 37, Mitchell-13.178; 11. Michael Pickens, 81S, Watt-13.191; 12. Landon Hurst, 179, Hurst-13.238; 13. Danny Faria Jr., 2, Bowman-13.273; 14. Trevor Schmid, 2X, Schmid-13.306; 15. Jace Vander Weerd, 88, Vander Weerd-13.350; 16. Kevin Barnes, 36B, Barnes-13.566; 17. Colby Copeland, 74, Williams-13.566; 18. Marty Hawkins, 3M, Hawkins-13.582; 19. Scott Hall, 77J, Campanile-13.586, 20. Jeff Sibley, 42N, Sibley-13.681; 21. Scotty Dupont, 3X, Dupont-14.017; 22. Scott Clough, 60, Clough-15.779; 23. Chris Ennis, 86, Ennis-NT; 24. Richard Mitchell, 66, Mitchell-NT.

FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. M.Mitchell, 2. Faria, 3. Bernal, 4. Niemela, 5. Kaeding, 6. Hall, 7. Barnes. NT

SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Copeland, 2. Rutherford, 3. Howell, 4. Faas, 5. Sibley, 6. Schmid, 7. Pickens, 8. R.Mitchell. NT

THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Hawkins, 2. J.Vander Weerd, 3. Hurst, 4. Liggett, 5. R.Vander Weerd, 6. Johnson, 7. Dupont, 8. Clough. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Ryan Bernal, 2. Markus Niemela, 3. Austin Liggett, 4. Nic Faas, 5. D.J. Johnson, 6. Matt Mitchell, 7. Jace Vander Weerd, 8. Dennis Howell, 9. Troy Rutherford, 10. Landon Hurst, 11. Jeff Sibley, 12. Kevin Barnes, 13. Scott Clough, 14. Michael Pickens, 15. Danny Faria Jr., 16. Richard Vander Weerd, 17. Marty Hawkins, 18. Scott Hall, 19. Scotty Dupont, 20. Bud Kaeding, 21. Colby Copeland, 22. Richard Mitchell, 23. Trevor Schmid. NT

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**Ennis flipped during qualifications. Schmid and Pickens flipped during the second heat. R.Vander Weerd flipped during the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-10 Rutherford, Laps 11-13 Liggett, Laps 14-30 Bernal.

NEW WEST COAST SPRINT POINTS: 1-Niemela-295, 2-J.Vander Weerd-264, 3-Rutherford-255, 4-Faas-254, 5-Mitchell-243, 6-Faria-215, 7-R.Vander Weerd-197, 8-Hurst-196, 5-Howell-195, 10-Liggett-190.

NEW WESTERN CLASSIC SPRINT POINTS: 1-Bernal-194, 2-Faas-174, 3-M.Mitchell-145, 4-R.Vander Weerd-144, 5-J.Vander Weerd-133, 6-Geoff Ensign-130, 7-Hurst-128, 8-Johnson127, 9-Hawkins-119, 10-Schmid-118.

NEXT WEST COAST/WESTERN CLASSIC SPRINT RACE: May 17 – Tulare, CA – Thunderbowl Raceway – “Chris & Brian Faira Memorial”