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BARBER WINS JIMMY SILLS CLASSIC
AFTER DUEL WITH GEISLER
SACRAMENTO,
CALIFORNIA (October 9, 2011) – San Francisco’s Tim Barber defended a late race charge
from Meridian, ID’s Johnny Geisler to win the $2000 “Jimmy Sills Classic” at
Shasta Raceway Park for the USAC Western Classic sprint cars.Barber, from pole, led all but one lap in
Saturday night’s 50 lap contest that marked the penultimate round of the series
championship.
Barber is a
teammate to series points leader Geoff Ensign out of the Ted Finkenbinder
Motorsports stable.Finkenbinder cars
were the highest USAC Western Classic finishers in all five USAC/CRA
combination events this year along with Ensign winning the feature outright at Placerville, making Barber’s win on Saturday
their seventh of the 15 events this year.
Barber led
the field to green alongside Fresno’s Tim Skoglund.Lincoln’s Tony Hunt, from fifth, fell back
to seventh on lap seven.The top-ten
cars ran under a blanket throughout the race with most of the jockeying from
third on back.
Luis Ramos
passed Audra Sasselli for third on lap 12 before the caution came out on lap 12
for Hunt spinning in turn three.On the
restart the racing continued to be hot and heavy for third and Hunt went to the
pits on lap 18 with a water leak to end his night.
Ramos
reeled in Skoglund for second but on lap 24 Ramos rode over the right rear of
Skoglund and fell back to sixth place.The incident moved Sasselli to third while new track record holder
Geisler ran fourth.
Fair Oaks’
Shauna Hogg gave Geisler a challenge on several occasions but was unable to
pass him when the caution came out on lap 35 for 18 year-old Cody Gerhard
spinning out in turn three.
Gerhardt
had been engaged in a battle with Ensign and Alamo’s Scott Pierovich for the sixth
spot throughout the race and Ensign had to get on the brakes hard to avoid
Gerhardt’s spin.
On the
restart Geiser jumped past both Sasselli and Skoglund to take over second while
Ensign dropped to the rear of the field with a minor fire around his rear
brakes.A late caution set up the duel
between Geisler and Barber that brought fans to their feet.
Geisler
dove underneath Barber several times including in turn one on lap 49 resulting
in contact and sparks flying off the cars.Barber held on to the finish ahead of Geisler, Skoglund, Sasselli, and
Ramos.
Geisler
took quick-time on the night in his first ShastaRacewayPark start with a 14.776 lap around the
speedway.Hunt qualified second to gain
five points on Ensign in the standings, but in heat race action Ensign finished
second while Hunt was sixth in his heat.Heat race wins went to Pierovich and Gerhardt.
Ensign
ended up tenth in the feature ahead of Hunt in 13th, giving Ensign
an 18 point advantage as the series heads to its final round at the Turkey
Night Grand Prix at TOYOTA Speedway in Irwindale, CA.The USAC Western Sprint Car Series also had a
change at the top as Audra Sasselli took over the lead by 20 points over Hunt
with Skoglund just 31 points out of first as well.
Kaeding
Performance Awards worth $50 went to Johnny Geisler and Luis Ramos.
More
information on the USAC Western Classic Racing Series is available on Facebook
at keywords “USAC Western Classic Racing Series”.The United States Auto Club is online at www.usacracing.com
www.stevenblakesley.com
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