April 4th, 2009 Race Results - Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring

GUNDERSON WINS AT LAS VEGAS, TAKES POINT LEAD

Las Vegas, NV…….Eric Gunderson of La Jolla, Calif. Is the new point leader in the USAC California Pavement and USAC Auto Trader Utah Ford Focus Series standings after winning Saturday night’s 30-lap race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring. Gunder son passed Cody Gerhardt on lap 11 and led the rest of the way to beat Cody Swanson, Gerhardt, fast qualifier Jim Waters and Michael J. Lewis. The race was slowed by two yellow flagged caution periods and one red flagged stoppage to clean up debris resulting from a 2 car crash involving Gregg Fuette and Jeff Kelley. Both cars were severely damaged.

Jim Waters was the fastest qualifier after struggling throughout the afternoon with fuel system problems. Waters eventually dicovered a collapsed fuel filter just prior to qualifying then went on to set a quick time of 15.267 in the Tom Ault owned, Croosroads Trucking, Kent chassis Focus.

Heat races were taken by Waters over Bob Brewer, Jeff Oleen over Gerhardt and Gunderson over Zach Stout.

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Jim Waters, 25, Ault-15.267; 2. Nick Romano, 42, Sutton-15.273; 3. Eric Gunderson, 98, Gunderson-15.277; 4. Bob Brewer, 5, Brewer-15.359; 5. Cody Gerhardt, 40, Western Speed-15.394; 6. Cody Swanson, 55, Bowman-15.431; 7. Chuck Groat, 24, Groat-15.436; 8. Michael J. Lewis, 60, Western Speed-15.467; 9. Kipp Posey, 37, Posey-15.510; 10. Luis Ramos III, 00, Christie-15.643; 11. Jeff Oleen, 8, Sutton-15.643; 12. Zach Stout, 95, Stout-15.669; 13. Jeff Kelley, 55x, Kelley-15.767; 14. Gregg Fuette, 15, Fuette-15.826; 15. Connor Kassik, 26, Kassik-15.973; 16. J.R. Williams, 74, Williams-16.121; 17. Michael Daniels, 87, Daniels-16.365; 18. Ron Duncombe, 4, Duncombe-16.603; 19. Christiana Remick, 13, Remick-NT.  

FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Waters, 2. Brewer, 3. Groat, 4. Ramos, 5. Kelley, 6. Williams. 2:15.42 

SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Oleen, 2. Gerhardt, 3. Romano, 4. Lewis, 5. Fuette, 6. Daniels. 2:05.54

THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Gunderson, 2. Stout, 3. Posey, 4. C.Swanson, 5. Kassik, 6. Duncombe. 2:14.44  

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Eric Gunderson, 2. Cody Swanson, 3. Cody Gerhardt, 4. Jim Waters, 5. Michael J. Lewis, 6. Kipp Posey, 7. Nick Romano, 8. Jeff Oleen, 9. Zach Stout, 10. Bob Brewer, 11. Chuck Groat, 12. Luis Ramos III, 13. Connor Kassik, 14. J.R. Williams, 15. Ron Duncombe, 16. Gregg Fuette, 17. Jeff Kelley, 18. Michael Daniels. NT