Santa Maria, CA……..Ronnie Gardner of Norco, Calif. wheeled his Baldozier Racing/Esslinger Engineering Stewart/Esslinger to victory in Friday night’s 25-lap “Doug Fort Memorial” Honda USAC Western Midget feature at Santa Maria Raceway. He passed Richard Vander Weerd on lap three and led the rest of the way to beat Shannon McQueen, Vanderweerd, Trey Marcham and series point leader Cody Swanson.
HONDA USAC WESTERN MIDGET RACE RESULTS: July 3, 2015 – Santa Maria, California – Santa Maria Raceway – “Doug Fort Memorial”
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Ronnie Gardner, 68, Six8-14.898; 2. Randi Pankratz, 8, Pankratz-14.949; 3. Cody Swanson, 71S, Swanson-14.957; 4. Cory Kruseman, 21K, Kruseman-15.075; 5. Shannon McQueen, 7, McQueen-15.109; 6. Richard Vander Weerd, 19, Sala-15.139; 7. Trey Marcham, 73, Ford-15.314; 8. Terry Nichols, 1P, Nichols-15.465; 9. Cory Elliott, 11E, Elliott-15.520; 10. Doug Hunting, 2, Hunting-15.901; 11. Chris Dyson, 12K, Kruseman-16.113.
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Elliott, 2. Swanson, 3. McQueen, 4. Gardner, 5. Dyson, 6. Marcham. NT
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Nichols, 2. Kruseman, 3. Vander Weerd, 4. Pankratz, 5. Hunting. NT
FEATURE: (25 laps) 1. Ronnie Gardner, 2. Shannon McQueen, 3. Richard Vander Weerd, 4. Trey Marcham, 5. Cody Swanson, 6. Terry Nichols, 7. Cory Elliott, 8. Chris Dyson, 9. Doug Hunting, 10. Cory Kruseman, 11. Randi Pankratz. NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-2 Vander Weerd, Laps 3-25 Gardner.
NEW HONDA USAC WESTERN MIDGET POINTS: 1-Swanson-227, 2-Gardner-225, 3-McQueen-218, 4-Marcham-203, 5-Nichols-201, 6-Scott Pierovich-144, 7-Nick Chivello-115, 8-Brian Gard-114, 9-Steve Davis-114, 10-Michael Faccinto-99.
NEXT HONDA USAC WESTERN MIDGET RACE: July 18 – Petaluma (CA) Speedway – “John Soares Classic”