WEST VALLEY CITY — Hometown defending champion Jimmy Wysong received quite a birthday gift Saturday at the Rocky Mountain Raceways when he won the Sprint Cars race with fellow Utahn Ryan Burdett finishing close behind.
"We couldn't have asked for anything better. It will be great to build on the points lead," Wysong said.
Wysong had a 12-point lead over former titlist Jim Waters in the Rocky Mountain points before the United States Auto Club (USAC) race began. Wysong had a four-race winning streak snapped in mid-June by two races that he couldn't finish.
"There are uphills and downhills. And we have to keep moving, I guess," he said. Wysong led from the first lap of the 50 lap-race.
"I am not the guy to lead from the front. But the heat set us up and I went for it," the 46-year-old said. "The car runs great. We got a new engine and a new back end for the car and have top line equipment."
"However, it wasn"t worth spending $ 20,000 to win the $2,500 prize money," Wysong quipped.
Earlier, Lynn Hardy won the snap-on modifieds, beating three-time champion Nick Parker. Hardy burned up his tires in celebration of the victory. At the last outing here, Hardy broke the track record and burned up a $15,000 clutch. "No the victory wasn't worth the cost," Hardy said.
So far this season, Parker has won four main event races, finished runner-up three times and has racked up three other top five finishes. Parker leads the Modified standings at RMR with 1,316 points with Hardy, his closest competitor, trailing by 90 points before this race. Mark Ith came in second in the race.
"It was tough moving up from the back of the pack. I thought I better be patient — try and let the race develop a bit and then charge," Hardy said. "Nick is always a hard guy to beat. I got lucky."
In the USAC Western and Young Automobile Rocky Mountain series meet, racers from all over the West came to compete with local Sprint car racers. USAC Eastern and Rocky Mountain Sprint Car point leaders Tony Hunt finished far behind Wysong.
In the other races, Tim Savage of Herminie won the 10-lap Ford Focus, Tracy Eaton the figure eight, and Mike McKendrick and Tim Powell won the train.
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