Sprint, Midget showdown at RMR Saturday

WEST VALLEY CITY — Twenty-plus Sprint Cars and Ford Focus Midgets will face off Saturday at the Rocky Mountain Raceway.

The national race features Lucas Oil USAC Western Sprint Car points leaders Ryan Kaplan and Tony Hunt, who are only separated by two points in the overall standings. Kaplan leads Hunt by a slim 327-325 margin.

Ryan Burdett, the only driver to repeat as a feature winner this year at RMR, will try to protect his lead in the USAC/SLVRA Young Automotive Rocky Mountain Sprint Car division. He leads second-place Jim Campbell by 39 points entering Saturday's race.

One of the major storylines for the race at RMR will be the five women who plan to compete.

Why is that significant?

Because even though it's 2007, you don't find too many women involved in racing. Mark Pittman, the public relations director at RMR, said that during the 11 years he raced, only two or three times did he compete against a woman.

Shauna Hogg and Audra Sasselli are slated to compete in the Sprint cars; . Jamie Wysong, Lindy Burdette and Caitlin Shaw in the Auto Trader Ford Focuses.

Shaw is only 17 and experienced a horrific crash 3-4 weeks ago, but the tough youngster has no quit in her. Sasselli isn't your typical second grade teacher, at least not when she's zipping around the track at 100 mph.

Pittman said he cannot remember a racing event that featured five women, which should make Saturday at RMR that much more interesting.

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E-mail: nstorey@desnews.com