10/9/2011
Sprint Source
BARBER WINS JIMMY SILLS CLASSIC AFTER DUEL WITH GIESLER
BARBER WINS JIMMY SILLS CLASSIC AFTER DUEL WITH GIESLER
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA (October 9, 2011) – San Francisco’s Tim Barber defended a late race charge from Meridian, ID’s Johnny Giesler 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 Giesler ran fourth.
Fair Oaks’ Shauna Hogg gave Giesler 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 Giesler and Barber that brought fans to their feet.
Giesler 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 Giesler, Skoglund, Sasselli, and Ramos.
Giesler took quick-time on the night in his first Shasta Raceway Park 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 Giesler 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
Article Credit: Steven Blakesley / Blakesley Sports Media
Submitted By: Steven Blakesley
