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ljennings
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September 26, 2012 at 11:40:21 PM

Joined:	11/22/2004
Posts:	27816

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
USAC West Coast Sprint Car Series

#8 Justyne Hamblin. Photo by Lance Jennings

SANTA MARIA HOSTS JOHN JEWETT MEMORIAL BILLET CUP THIS SATURDAY
$2,500-TO-WIN MAIN EVENT AND EXTRA $10,000 POINT FUND UP FOR GRABS
by Lance Jennings

SANTA MARIA, CA – SEPTEMBER 26, 2012... This Saturday night, September 29th, the USAC West Coast Sprint Car Series will return to Chris Kearns' Santa Maria Speedway for the "John Jewett Memorial Billet Cup" presented by Southwest Contractors. The final series appearance of 2012 at Santa Maria will feature a passing points format with a fully inverted main event paying $2,500-to-win, $300-to-start, and $100-to-non-transfers. In addition, the 40-lap main event will have an extra $10,000 point fund, making this the richest night in series history. Joining the action packed card will be the Toste Construction Mini Stocks and Super Modifieds. The front gates will open at 4:30pm, time trials will start at 5:00pm, and racing at "The West Coast's Best Short Track" will begin at 6:00pm.

Showcasing a format similar to the popular "Trophy Cup," Promoter Chris Kearns has put together nearly $25,000 in total payout for this one day event. With the extra point fund, the high point driver entering the main event could take home $5,000 if they win from the rear of the field. The "John Jewett Memorial Billet Cup" winner will also get a one-of-a-kind custom billet aluminum cup trophy. For placing last in the feature, that driver will get a minimum bonus of $200, bringing their payday to $500. The entry fee is $75 and both the main event purse and point fund are listed at the end of this release.

Heading into Saturday's non-point "Billet Cup," Campbell's Bud Kaeding leads the standings and has a lock on the championship. Driving Junior Bowman's #29 Buster & Ziggy Enterprises / Kaeding Performance Bullet, the 3-time USAC Silver Crown Champion has four main event wins, six heat race victories, two Ringers Gloves / Kaeding Performance Hard Charger Awards, ten top-5 finishes, and 47 feature laps led. With the extra money up for grabs, Kaeding will be looking to score his first series win at Santa Maria.

Ryan Bernal of Hollister is second in the point chase. Piloting Keith Ford's #73 King Racing Products / A&A Precision Machine Spike, the 2-time Santa Maria track champion has three feature wins, two Sander Engineering / Rod End Supply Fast Time Awards, three heat race victories, two Competition Suspension Inc. / Diversified Machine Inc. Semi-Main wins, two Ringers Gloves / Kaeding Performance Hard Charger Awards, eight top-5 finishes, and 81 feature laps led. Bernal won the $5,000 USAC vs. ASCS Grudge Series Championship last week at Canyon and will be looking for another big payday on Saturday.

Sitting third in the point standings is Rauma, Finland's Markus Niemela. Competing in his first season with the USAC West Coast Sprints, the pilot of Steve Watt's #81 Lost Reality / Steve Watt Enterprises Maxim has yet to win feature. To date, the hard charging driver has one Sander Engineering / Rod End Supply Fast Time Award, three heat race victories, four top-5 finishes, and 17 feature laps led. Niemela will be among the favorites to score the Billet Cup main event win.

Tipton's "Hollywood" Danny Faria Jr. is fourth in the championship points. Driving his #17V Johnston Calf Pens / Buster & Ziggy Enterprises Bullet, Faria is another fast driver that has yet to score a series win in 2012. "Hollywood" has one Sander Engineering / Rod End Supply Fast Time Award, four heat race victories, one Ringers Gloves / Kaeding Performance Hard Charger Award, and four top-5 finishes. Danny has had a tough season and will have his sights on the extra money up for grabs at Santa Maria.

"Showtime" Danny Sheridan of Santa Maria is currently fifth in points. Last Saturday, the pilot of Keith Ford's #73X King Racing Products / A&A Precision Machine Spike ran fifth at Canyon, placing him second in the Grudge Series. To date, the former Bandit Sprint Car Champion has yet to claim a series feature in 2012, but has one Sander Engineering / Rod End Supply Fast Time Award, four heat race victories, one Ringers Gloves / Kaeding Performance Hard Charger Award, six top-5 finishes, and 10 feature laps led. Sheridan won the August 11th USAC/CRA feature at his hometown track and will be looking to win the John Jewett Memorial Billet Cup.

Among the other top contenders expected to be in action are 2011 Champion Richard Vander Weerd, "The Rickster" Ricky Kirkbride, "The Bakersfield Bullet" Rusty Carlile, 2009 Champion Justyne Hamblin, Austin Liggett, Chris Gansen, Don Gansen, 4-Time USAC/CRA Champion Mike Spencer, 2004 SCRA Champion "Super" Rickie Gaunt, and many more.

Santa Maria Speedway is located 1/4-mile north of the 101/166 interchange at 1900 Hutton Road in Nipomo, California. Adult tickets are $18, Senior, Military, and Student tickets (13-17) are $16, Kids tickets (6-12) are $6, and Children’s tickets (5 and under) are FREE. For more event information, visit the track’s website at www.racesantamariaspeedway.com or call (805) 922-2232.

The USAC West Coast Sprint Car Series would like to thank Southwest Contractors, Hoosier Tire, Amsoil, ButlerBuilt, Competition Suspension Inc., Cory Kruseman's Sprint Car & Midget Driving School, Crow Enterprizes, DJ Safety, Diversified Machine Inc., Extreme Mufflers, Hilborn Fuel Injection, Hinchman-Indy Racing Uniforms, Integra Shocks, Kaeding Performance, Keizer Wheels, LRB Inc. Race Products, ParkerStore of Phoenix, Ringers Gloves, Rod End Supply, SBI Fuel Systems, Saferacer.com, Saldana Racing Products, Sander Engineering, and Weld Racing for their support.

For more information on the USAC West Coast Sprint Car Series, visit www.westcoastsprintcars.com, www.usacracing.com, www.racesantamariaspeedway.com, or follow the series on Facebook (www.facebook.com/pages/USAC-WEST-COAST-360S/369549755817).
-----------------------------------------------
BILLET CUP MAIN EVENT PURSE:
1. $2,500; 2. $1,250; 3. $800; 4. $700; 5. $600; 6. $500; 7. $450; 8. $400; 9. $350; 10. $300; 11. $300; 12. $300; 13. $300; 14. $300; 15. $300; 16. $300; 17. $300; 18. $300; 19. $300; 20. $300; 21. $300; 22. $300. TOTAL=$11,450.

BILLET CUP POINT FUND:
1. $2,500; 2. $1,250; 3. $750; 4. $650; 5. $600; 6. $500; 7. $400; 8. $350, 9. $325; 10. $300; 11. $250; 12. $225; 13. $200; 14. $200; 15. $200; 16. $200; 17. $200; 18. $200; 19. $200; 20. $200; 21. $200; 22. $200. TOTAL=$10,000.

USAC WEST COAST SPRINT STANDINGS:
1. Bud Kaeding 615; 2. Ryan Bernal 489; 3. Markus Niemela 484; 4. Danny Faria Jr. 464; 5. Danny Sheridan 398; 6. Matt Mitchell 391; 7. Richard Vander Weerd 391; 8. Ricky Kirkbride 362; 9. Rusty Carlile 351; 10. Justyne Hamblin 317; 11. Austin Liggett 299; 12. Chris Gansen 279; 13. Kevin Barnes 272; 14. Chris Ennis 198; 15. Don Gansen 183; 16. Steve Conrad 181; 17. Jace Vander Weerd 176; 18. Tyler Dolacki 165; 19. Jared Little 158; 20. Jonathon Logan 154.

2012 USAC WEST COAST SPRINT CAR SERIES SCHEDULE
DATE - TRACK - LOCATION
September 29: Santa Maria Speedway - Santa Maria, CA (Billet Cup / John Jewett Memorial / Non-Points)
October 13: Kings Speedway - Hanford, CA (Cotton Classic)
-----------------------------------------------
This schedule is subject to change.

ljennings
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September 26, 2012 at 11:41:15 PM

Joined:	11/22/2004
Posts:	27816

SANTA MARIA'S BILLET CUP - JEWETT MEMORIAL - Sept. 29th

raj

September 28, 2012 at 01:49:38 AM

Joined:	12/22/2004
Posts:	1084

We've had a lot of overcast and fog up here the past several days and expect more of the same through Saturday before the heat returns on Sunday. The track set-up may be tricky as a result...... Does anyone know what other classes of cars are running? I haven't seen anything in any of the press releases...... Ventura's not running VRA sprints this Saturday, so we may get some pickup from that area considering the big point fund payouts (e.g.: Taylor, Rutherford, Conrad, Howell)...... Spencer and Gaunt from the LA area 410s; anyone else? Kruseman? (probably in a midget at Ventura) The Williams brothers? Faas? Gardner? Ercse? Cardey? Alexander? Roa? Sweeney?

raj

September 29, 2012 at 02:54:41 PM

Joined:	12/22/2004
Posts:	1084

On of Junkyard Jimmy Thompson's "entourage" called a bit ago to advise that they're expecting a car count of 35 for the 360 show tonight.

chriskearns

September 30, 2012 at 09:03:30 PM

Joined:	02/06/2009
Posts:	546

Unfortunetly we only had 20 cars. Vanderweerd walked away with $5,000 and dead last payed $500. Not sure what makes a racers come race, but obviously Great money, fast pay and racy track surface isnt the answer. This one has me scratching my head. It doesnt exactly make promoters want to step up and pay more, since our car counts are higher with smaller purses. That is a consistent fact.

Chris Kearns
www.ChrisKearnsPresents.com
805-714-8538
[email protected]

dirtface

September 30, 2012 at 09:43:08 PM

Joined:	01/03/2011
Posts:	1742

This message was edited on September 30, 2012 at 09:44:48 PM by dirtface
Put a progressive purse up for grabs . If car counts meet a certain car count the pay is this much and so on . And Ty Chris for the extra effort you put into the scheduling this year so as not to overlap any series . Ty again .

We need more sprint car racing at our home track.

raj

September 30, 2012 at 11:10:50 PM

Joined:	12/22/2004
Posts:	1084

This message was edited on September 30, 2012 at 11:17:51 PM by raj
Reply to:

Posted By: chriskearns on September 30 2012 at 09:03:30 PM
Unfortunetly we only had 20 cars. Vanderweerd walked away with $5,000 and dead last payed $500. Not sure what makes a racers come race, but obviously Great money, fast pay and racy track surface isnt the answer. This one has me scratching my head. It doesnt exactly make promoters want to step up and pay more, since our car counts are higher with smaller purses. That is a consistent fact.

NASCAR crowds and TV viewing drops like a rock as soon as cawlij footbawl cranks up. The Farias seem to have figured out years ago that it made sense to wait until the bloom was off the football rose at Fresno State and local high schools instead of running shows at Tulare in September. KWS ends their season at the end of August. IndyCar draws 200K at Long Beach in April and 15K at Fontana in September. Don Kazarian's Sep. 15 show was pretty sparsely attended, but Perris will do a pretty good business at the front =and= back gates for the Oval Nationals... in early November. A friend who ran the Oswego Speedway in upstate New York for 40 years ran his last big show on Labor Day Weekend... and not because of the weather, which was usually okay right through September. I ran a 540-room resort with a waterpark in Palm Springs for eight years; we sold almost nothing in September but discount-price group business and shut the waterpark down on weekdays even though it was still 110 degrees every day. Virtually everyone in the hotel business everywhere counts on business & professional group and football-related business in September. Scott Woodhouse does "pretty good" on his Cotton Classic, and Steve Faria does fine and dandy on his Trophy Cup, in October because they're in... October. I think there's a message in here somewhere..... Nevertheless, Chris put on one of the better =shows= of the year last night with only 19 running sprint cars because he adopted that ASCS format. Everyone in the stands got their money's worth because everyone in the pits got to run their cars through hot laps, time trials, a heat race, a qualifying race =and= a main event that required the fastest people to start in row nine, not row four. The second B main and a 40-lap A main added maybe 20 minutes to the program. I was driving home well before 9:00 pm. Chris could have run another sanction in there to pump up his front and back gates, and we'd still have been driving out by about 10:00 or 10:15. Live and (hopefully) learn.

RAYO
MyWebsite

October 01, 2012 at 12:46:02 PM

Joined:	05/03/2009
Posts:	81

From some of the posts it appears that some of you are not aware that Chris is not renewing his lease and will not be back next year. He will be doing some work with USAC and there are rumors (as usual) that he might be promoting in Az. A new promoter has been named, but I will wait until he makes it public.

SBRacing

October 01, 2012 at 03:39:24 PM

Joined:	04/01/2011
Posts:	44

Reply to:

And the worst part is, if you did this same show amd purse for the modifieds, you probably would have had the same crowd in the stands, and 50-60 cars in the pits.

We all tell each other how much we love sprint cars, and how much the drivers need shows like this one to keep the cars on the track- so where was everybody? What's the incentive to offer these purses again to the sprint car guys? There was a great track to race on, and the weather was great.

Chris didn't even have to pay the purse to have 76 dwarf cars show up and run a 2 day show at Santa Maria Speedway. He could have run a regular sprint car show and purse, and put on a ""dwarf car nationals" type of show. He probably would not even have had to put out half the purse amount he did Saturday- he would have had the same amount of paying grandstand tickets, and had 100 cars in the pits. His only problems would have been where to park all the cars, and make sure he counted his earnings correctly at the end of the night.

We have all moaned about what is happening to non wing sprint car racing here in California? Here is exhibit A, plain as day. If people would rather stay home from a great sprint car show like that, so that they could watch high school or college football, or a NASCAR race for that matter- then sprint car racing is in much worse shape than any of us have feared.

CRA91

October 01, 2012 at 04:29:47 PM

Joined:	12/01/2004
Posts:	428

Not all teams own a 360 engine to be able to race in this event.

SBRacing

October 01, 2012 at 05:18:08 PM

Joined:	04/01/2011
Posts:	44

This message was edited on October 01, 2012 at 05:23:52 PM by SBRacing

Not too worried about the 410 teams that didn't show up for this one, but there are 20-30 360's out and about that should have used this as a tuneup (even though this paid much better!!!) for the trophy cup non wing night. Got to hand it to Mike Spencer though, that guy is willing to find or accept a ride and race- he deserves all of his success!

MikeyT

October 01, 2012 at 05:58:35 PM

Joined:	04/04/2011
Posts:	8

All things considered...I have been to all the sprint car races at SMS this year. Working on both 410's and 360's. The track this year has been very difficult to pass on. This weekend how ever was the best all year! Anyone bother to think about that? doubt it. How many cars showed up at the first trophy cup? Not as many as this year. If this race is put on again...most likely there will be a lot more cars

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