2010 Western Focus Schedule info

12/26/2009

Memo

To: USAC Utah and California Ford Focus Owners and Drivers
From: Mike McCluney, USAC Western Developmental Series Coordinator

Re: 2010 Western Ford Focus Racing Schedule

The complete USAC Western and Utah Region Ford Focus schedules are targeted for release by the first week in January. We are currently finalizing a few dates with a couple of key venues and hope to have this work done by next week. This has been a long process that involves a lot of people and a lot of compromising and it never seems to go as smoothly or quickly as we would like. I do think when all is said and done that you will like the end results. In the mean time, here is a general overview of where we are headed.

Counting the California and Utah regions together we are looking at approximately 55 separate race dates, many of which will also include the USAC Young Guns. 22 to 25 of these dates will be California/Nevada Pavement events, 12+ will be Utah pavement events, and 16 will be California Dirt events. In order to maximize media and race fan exposure for our drivers and teams we have whenever possible scheduled the Focus/Young Guns races in conjunction with high profile Sprint Car and Midget events. We currently have nine paved tracks and six dirt tracks in four states committed to our schedule.

In an effort to both reduce competitors operating and travel expenses and maximize their opportunities to compete for a championship we have broken the 21 race California Pavement Series into a Southern Series (SoCal) and a Northern Series (NorCal). These will be about 12 races each and we will recognize them as separate championships. The Young Guns will also compete along side the full Focus cars for their own California, Norcal and SoCal series championships. The Utah pavement series will stay pretty much unchanged with 10 or so races at Rocky Mountain Raceway and 3 or so hosted by Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the Lake Havasu 95 Speedway.

In addition to their traditional March dates, The Havasu 95 Speedway and the Lucas Oil I-10 Speedway in Blythe have added one additional race each in February so we may package all these dates into a separate Winter Heat Series. More to follow on this in a week or so.

Also, please be aware that as a cost saving measure the California and Utah pavement Focus owners voted by overwhelming majority to go back to the original, and somewhat harder, Hoosier Focus "A" right rear tire compound. We do not expect to have this tire available until mid March so the winter races will be run on the "B" tire. The "B" tire remains the spec tire in the Mid-West and the Carolinas and will be required at all National races.

For 2010 the California Dirt Focus Series will remain a single statewide tour for both the full Focus and the Young Guns. We currently have 16 races scheduled and will repeat the well-received California Ford Focus Week Championship mini series during the last week in July and first week in August.

Our goal this year was to design a schedule that will cater to a wider spectrum of competitor's time and financial commitment levels. We will be offering separate points accruing series opportunities that range from a three-race dirt "mini-series" to an all inclusive, and very prestigious, thirty-five race dirt and pavement Western States Championship. They are as follows:

1. USAC Utah Focus Pavement
2. USAC California Focus Pavement
3. USAC NorCal Focus Pavement
4. USAC SoCal Focus Pavement
5. USAC NorCal Young Guns Pavement
6. USAC SoCal Young Guns Pavement
7. USAC California Focus Dirt
8. USAC California Young Guns Dirt
9. USAC 2010 Winter Heat Series
10. USAC California Ford Focus Week Championship
11. USAC Western States Young Guns Championship (Dirt and Pavement)
12. USAC Western States Ford Focus Championship. (Dirt and Pavement)

Ventura Raceway will also be offering their own VRA Junior Focus/Young Guns Championship that will include the six already scheduled USAC events plus two or three more races that will not conflict with the USAC schedule.

So that's where we are right now and I do know that you are hungry for exact dates and I assure you that we're doing all we can to get them to you as soon as we can. In closing I'd like to say again how much I enjoyed working, hanging out, and racing with all of you this past year. I'm looking forward to more of the same in 2010. On behalf of all of us at USAC I'd like to wish all of you a very happy holiday season.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me, or James in Indianapolis, or Tommy in Sacramento.

Mike McCluney James Spink Tommy Hunt
mike@usacracing.com james@usacracing.com wsusac@sbcglobal.net