Hansen drives smartly to USAC
Western Midget win at
Early in
the 30-lap feature, Hansen’s #70 Stealth /
“I kept
looking over my shoulder thinking ‘where the (heck) are they?’”, said the 21
year-old from
Robby
Flock, a four-time USAC Western Midget driving champion, led the first lap but
was passed by Hansen in turn four on lap two. Shortly thereafter, the first
caution period of the race occurred when Steven Williams flipped in turn three
in a four-car tangle also involving Alfred Galedrige, Matt Mitchell, and Ernie
Bartley III.
By lap
eight Hansen opened up a quarter-straightaway lead over 2005 series title
holder Jerome Rodela. The best racing on the speedway was for sixth at the
time. A fierce battle between Chris Rahe, and Rick Hendrix had the large crowd
buzzing. Josh Lakatos opened eyes with a low pass of Ryan Kaplan to snare
eighth place on lap 13.
At the
halfway point Hansen had stretched his advantage to three-quarters of a
straightaway. Rodela and Flock were trading the runner-up spot at each end of
the track by lap 20. Flock, riding the rim of the high-banked track, made a
spectacular move in traffic coming off turn four where he narrowly missed
hitting the wall to squeeze by a ‘lapper’.
With seven
laps to go the caution flag flew again for Galedrige who stopped in turn three.
On lap 26, Scott Pierovich passed Flock for third on the low groove. At the
checkered flag it was Hansen followed by Rodela, Pierovich, Flock, and Rahe.
Chase
Barber, the likely 2006 Rookie of the Year, set quick-time at 12.709 seconds.
Galedrige, Jimmy Christian, and Hansen won heat races. Flock won the semi-main.
The USAC
Western Midgets join the Western Sprint Cars for a big doubleheader at
USAC
WESTERN MIDGET CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS:
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Chase Barber, 91, Barber-12.709; 2. Ryan Kaplan, 21,
Kaplan-12.768; 3. Garrett Hansen, 70, Hansen-12.887; 4. Rick Hendrix, 12,
Hendrix-12.907; 5. Shannon McQueen, 7, McQueen-12.955; 6. Robby Flock, 19,
Sala-12.957; 7. Jerome Rodela, 25, Rodela-12.972; 8. Josh Lakatos, 4,
Lakatos-12.987; 9. Scott Pierovich, 35, Pierovich-12.996; 10. Chris Rahe, 3,
Rahe-12.997; 11. Alex Harris, 54, Martens-13.097; 12. Steven Williams, 47,
Dennett-13.188; 13. Alfred Galedrige, 26, Galedrige-13.300; 14. Jimmy
Christian, 16, Christian-13.014; 15. Bobby Boone, 10, Walker-13.431; 15. Ernie
Bartley III, 74, Bartley-13.583; 17. Randi Pankratz, 8, Pankratz-13,585; 18.
Michael Simpson, 59, Simpson-13.821; 19. Jack Walker, 10x, Walker-13.933; 20.
Doug Dewitt, 11D, Dewitt-NT; 21. Greg Bragg, 05, Walker-NT; 22. Matt Mitchell,
37, Mitchell-NT; 23. Kirk Kubik, 32, Kubik-NT; 24. Doug Hunting, 2, Hunting-NT;
25. Scott Hansen, 10H, Hansen-NT.
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. A.Galedrige, 2. Rahe, 3.
Rodela, 4. Bartley, 5. Barber, 6. Mitchell, 7. Hendrix, 8.
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Christian, 2. Lakatos,
3. Pankratz, 4. Kaplan, 5. McQueen, 6. Harris, 7. Dewitt, 8. Kubik. NT
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Hansen, 2. Pierovich, 3.
Williams, 4. Bragg, 5. Hansen, 6. Simpson, 7. Boone. NT
SEMI: (10 laps) 1. Flock, 2. Harris, 3. Hendrix,
4. Mitchell, 5. Simpson, 6. Dewitt, 7. Boone. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Garrett Hansen, 2. Jerome
Rodela, 3. Scott Pierovich, 4. Robby Flock, 5. Chris Rahe, 6. Josh Lakatos, 6.
Rick Hendrix, 8. Alex Harris, 9. Matt Mitchell, 10. Shannon McQueen, 11. Greg
Bragg, 12. Chase Barber, 13. Ryan Kaplan, 14. Michael Simpson, 15. Scott
Hansen, 16. Jimmy Christian, 17. Randi Pankratz, 8. Alfred Galedrige, 19.
Steven Williams, 20. Ernie Bartley III. NT
--------------
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Flock, Laps 2-30 Hansen.
NEW WESTERN
MIDGET CAR STANDINGS: 1-Rodela-828; 2-Barber-721; 3-Tyler Brown-708;
4-Hansen-508; 5-McQueen-488; 6-Kaplan-477; 7-Pierovich-465; 8-Rahe-461;
9-Bragg-448; 10-Mitchell-399.
NEXT WESTERN
MIDGET CAR RACE: September 23 – Anderson, CA –