Tucson, Arizona……….Justin Grant opened the Southwest/West Coast 360 Sprint Car portion of the “Western World Championships” on Thursday night at USA Raceway with his first-career win with the two collaborating series. The Ione, California driver capitalized on the misfortune of early runaway leader Stevie Sussex, racing past Gary Taylor for the lead on lap 21 en route to the victory aboard the Baldwin Brothers Racing – Fox Paving #5 DRC/Claxton Mopar.

“The Baldwin #5 car was bad fast tonight. I’m not sure what we ever could have done with Sussex, as good as he looked as he was driving away, but I felt like we were good enough to get by Taylor. We were just a little tight; we haven’t done much 360 racing, so we didn’t quite know what to do. This helped things a bit after having problems with the 410 car. Dave Baumgartner loaned us a great engine, and Jeff Claxton did a great job putting it together,” Grant said.

Sussex jumped from the front row to a huge lead early in the race, but he slowed down the backstretch on lap 13, handing the lead to Taylor. With Taylor and Grant battling, Nick Aiuto jumped to the high side and roared to the lead, poised for a huge win in his home state. He jumped the cushion just after leading lap 18, handing the point back to Taylor.

That was short-lived, however, as Grant tracked him down and then walked away from the field.

Brady Bacon came on late in the 30-lapper to take second ahead of Taylor.

13th-starting Bryan Clauson came home fourth, and Brody Roa came from 15th to round out the top-five.

USAC WEST COAST & SOUTHWEST SPRINT CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: November 19, 2015 – Tucson, Arizona – USA Raceway – 48th “Western World Championships”

FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Brian Hosford (#32B Weber), 2. C.J. Leary (#30 Leary), 3. D.J. Johnson (#33 Johnson), 4. Rick Ziehl (#20z Ziehl), 5. Mike Martin (#16 Martin), 6. Matt Lundy (#98 Lundy), 7. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (#17RW Dutcher), 8. Trey Marcham (#73 Ford), 9. Jace Vander Weerd (#88 Vander Weerd). NT

SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Justin Grant (#5 Baldwin), 2. Josh Shipley (#2 Bishop), 3. Charles Davis Jr. (#50 Massey), 4. Brody Roa (#91R BR), 5. Jordan Stetson (#8AZ Stetson), 6. Larry Gibson (#2x Gibson), 7. Tristan Guardino (#15T Guardino), 8. Danny Faria Jr. (#17v Faria). 9. Josh Hodges (#74x Hodges), NT

THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Stevie Sussex (#21AZ Burkhart), 2. Nick Aiuto (#27 Aiuto), 3. Andy Reinbold (#19 Underwood), 4. Bryan Clauson (#16B Martin), 5. R.J. Johnson (#77m Michael), 6. Dennis Gile (#13 Gile), 7. Ronnie Clark (#6 Clark), 8. Chris Bonneau (#78 Bonneau), 9. Tye Mihocko  (#5x Mihocko). NT

FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Gary Taylor (#14 Burkhart/White), 2. Chris Windom (#22B Weber), 3. Brady Bacon (#73x Ford), 4. Kyle Smith (#55 Smith), 5. Matt Rossi (#02 Rossi), 6. Chad Boespflug (#12 Allen), 7. Terry Schank, Jr. (#1 Gleeson), 8. Jeff Sibley (#42N Sibley). NT

FIRST SEMI: (12 laps) 1. R.J. Johnson, 2. Boespflug, 3. Faria, 4. Clark, 5. Sibley, 6. Smith, 7. Mihocko, 8. C. Bonneau, 9. Guardino (Watt #80). NT

SECOND SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Martin, 2. Schank, 3. Marcham, 4. Hodges, 5. Vander Weerd, 6. Gile, 7. Stetson, 8. Lundy, 9. Thomas. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Gary Taylor, 4. Bryan Clauson, 5. Brody Roa, 6. Nick Aiuto, 7. Charles Davis Jr., 8. C.J. Leary, 9. D.J. Johnson, 10. Chris Windom, 11. R.J. Johnson, 12. Danny Faria, Jr., 13. Rick Ziehl, 14. Matt Rossi, 15. Trey Marcham, 16. Chad Boespflug, 17. Mike Martin, 18. Terry Schank, Jr., 19. Stevie Sussex, 20. Brian Hosford, 21. Andy Reinbold, 22. Josh Shipley. NT

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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-12 Sussex, Laps 13-17 Taylor, Lap 18 Aiuto, Laps 19-20 Taylor, Laps 21-30 Grant.

NEW USAC WEST COAST SPRINT POINTS: 1-Faria-923, 2-Richard Vander Weerd-775, 3-Marcham-727, 4-J. Vander Weerd-725, 5-D.J. Johnson-713, 6-Guardino-568, 7-Ryan Bernal-532, 8-Bud Kaeding-507, 9-Landon Hurst-442,10-Roa-415.

NEW USAC SOUTHWEST SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1- Johnson-1,086, 2-Davis-1,037, 3-Rossi-931, 4-Sussex-903, 5-Martin-885, 6-Josh Pelkey-844, 7-Hosford-723, 8-Aiuto-644, 9-Reinbold-623, 10-Mihocko-524.

NEXT USAC WEST COAST & SOUTHWEST SPRINT CAR RACE: November 20 – Tucson, AZ – USA Raceway – 48th “Western World Championships”