Lonnie Wheatley, PEORIA, Ariz. (November 10, 2012) – Kyle Larson and R.C. Whitwell both reached victory lane in Saturday night’s Western Classic feature events atop the 1/3-mile Canyon Speedway Park clay oval.
Larson topped a series’ best fifth USAC Mopar National event while Whitwell notched his second West Coast Late Model feature event in a row.
While Zach Daum jumped into the early lead in the USAC Midget main event, Elk Grove, CA, native Larson slipped by on the sixth round and never looked back en route to victory lane aboard the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian No. 71 entry.
Larson raced through traffic over the final portion of the race to take the checkered flag with a 0.906-second advantage over current points leader Darren Hagen.
“Whoever could get the lead early was gonna be pretty tough to beat. I just had to hit my marks and get through traffic tonight,” Larson explained. “We’ve had a really good year in this car, and we’re trying to get Keith and Pete (Willoughby) the owner’s championship, so hopefully I can help get that done at Perris in a couple weeks at Turkey Night.”
Hagen chased Larson to the stripe, with Rico Abreu, Tracy Hines and Bryan Clauson rounding out the top five.
In West Coast Late Model action, Whitwell raced from the second starting position to take the checkered flag in front of fellow front row starter Lonnie Parker, Jr., with Clay Daly, Joey Moriarty and Jason Papich rounding out the top five.
The 2012 racing season at Canyon Speedway Park comes to a conclusion with the 45th Annual FVP Western World Championships presented by Sands Chevrolet featuring the winged Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Car National series and the wingless ASCS Canyon Region Sprint Cars this coming week, November 15-17.
Canyon Speedway Park Western Classic Results:
USAC Mopar National Midgets:
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Darren Hagen, 3, RFMS-14.090; 2. Rico Abreu, 67K, Kunz-14.145; 3. Kyle Larson, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.178; 4. Ryan Bernal, 73, Ford-14.194; 5. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-14.227; 6. Dave Darland, 72, Ford-14.269; 7. Tracy Hines, 24, Parker-14.349; 8. Bryan Clauson, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.398; 9. Brad Sweet, 56, Hmiel-14.419; 10. Scott Pierovich, 35, Pierovich-14.460; 11. Ronnie Gardner, 68, Johnson-14.479; 12. R.J. Johnson, 51, Martin-14.565; 13. Caleb Armstrong, 7c, C&A-14.567; 14. Shane Golobic, 5, Wilke-14.599; 15. Taylor Ferns, 55, Ferns-14.601; 16. Dalton Armstrong, 7A, C&A-14.708; 17. Dillon Welch, 39, Tucker/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-14.709; 18. Josh Pelkey, 12JR, Allen-14.764; 19. Connor Kassik,115, Neverlift-14.773; 20. Jerry Coons, Jr., 63, Dooling-14.811; 21. J.J. Yeley, 12, Allen-14.871; 22. Levi Roberts, 2, Roberts-14.928; 23. Terry Goodwin, 2G, Goodwin-14.977; 24. Bob Harr, 2H, Halarr-15.141; 25. Riley Emmel, 12EH, RayPro-15.193; 26. Kyle Edwards, 39K, Edwards-15.347; 27. Robert Marfia, 38, McGerigle-15.478; 28. Kenny Warren, 78, Warren-15.532; 29. Brad Kuhn, 11, Wilke-NT.
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Hagen, 2. Welch, 3. C.Armstrong, 4. Daum, 5. Emmel, 6. Yeley, 7. Sweet. NT
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Roberts, 2. Golobic, 3. Abreu, 4. Darland, 5. Pelkey, 6. Pierovich, 7. Edwards. 1:55.22
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Larson, 2. Ferns, 3. Kassik, 4. Hines, 5. Gardner, 6. Goodwin, 7. Marfia. 1:53.67
FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Coons, 2. Bernal, 3. Clauson, 4. Johnson, 5. D.Armstrong, 6. Haar, 7. Warren. 1:55.07
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Sweet, 2. Gardner, 3. Pierovich, 4. Yeley, 5. D.Armstrong, 6. Emmel, 7. Goodwin, 8. Pelkey, 9. Haar, 10. Kuhn, 11. Edwards, 12. Warrren, 13. Marfia. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Kyle Larson, 2. Darren Hagen, 3. Rico Abreu, 4. Tracy Hines, 5. Bryan Clauson, 6. Ryan Bernal, 7. Ronnie Gardner, 8. Scott Pierovich, 9. R.J. Johnson, 10. Jerry Coons, Jr., 11. J.J. Yeley, 12. Shane Golobic, 13. Caleb Armstrong, 14. Dalton Armstrong, 15. Levi Roberts, 16. Brad Kuhn, 17. Riley Emmel, 18. Connor Kassik, 19. Zach Daum, 20. Brad Sweet, 21. Dillon Welch, 22. Taylor Ferns, 23. Dave Darland. NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-5 Daum, Laps 6-30 Larson.
West Coast Late Models:
First Heat: 1. 32b-Clay Daly, 2. 75-Tommy Malcom, 3. 22b-Bruce Duckett, 4. 42s-Don Shaw, 5. 28-John Cornell, 6. 12-Steve Deatz, 7. 5x-Dino Naper, 8. 91w-Kenny Wallace.
Second Heat: 1. 51-Joey Moriarty, 2. 27-Nick Bartels, 3. 5m-Anthony Madrid, 4. 91t-Tony Torte, 5. 36-Garrett Alberson, 6. 77-Bill Bartels, 7. C9-Chad Reichenbach, 8. 35-Wes Hall.
Third Heat: 1. 24az-R.C. Whitwell, 2. 8p-Lonnie Parker, Jr., 3. 91p-Jason Papich, 4. 20rt-Ricky Thornton, Jr., 5. 23-Brad Williams, 6. 81b-Bud Grossenbacher, 7. 22t-Karl Tipton.
“A” Feature: 1. 24az-R.C. Whitwell, 2. 8p-Lonnie Parker, Jr., 3. 32b-Clay Daly, 4. 51-Joey Moriarty, 5. 91p-Jason Papich, 6. 91t-Tony Torte, 7. C9-Chad Reichenbach, 8. 75-Tommy Malcom, 9. 28-John Cornell, 10. 12-Dave Deatz, 11. 5m-Anthony Madrid, 12. 22-Bruce Duckett, 13. 27-Nick Bartels, 14. 81b-Bud Grossenbacher, 15. 91w-Kenny Wallace, 16. 23-Brad Williams, 17. 77-Bill Bartels, 18. 42s-Don Shaw, 19. 35-Wes Hall, 20. 20rt-Ricky Thornton, Jr., 21. 36-Garrett Alberson, 22. 5x-Dino Naper, 23. 22t-Karl Tipton.