Cameron Grabs Winston West Victory at Irwindale

Austin Cameron of El Cajon held off Eric Norris of Dana Point to win the NASCAR Winston West series feature, the Jani-King 200, Saturday night at Irwindale Speedway. The crowd of 6,500 was the second sellout of the season.

The race came down to the final 12 laps of the race, when Norris, who had fallen as far back as 10th, took four tires during a caution flag. Norris then moved up to the top five, and closed to within a tenth of a second of Cameron, but he could not catch him.

“The crew told me that he [Norris] had fresh tires, and they told me to just drive it off,” Cameron said.

Cameron first grabbed the lead from Kevin Richards on lap 91 and held on until he pitted on lap 134.

In the 50-lap Southern California Auto Club Late Model series feature, Scott Youngren proved his win last week was no fluke by leading for the final 40 laps of the race, holding off Mike Price and Todd Burns. Burns also increased his lead in points to 32 over Tim Huddleston, who finished sixth.

In the 35-lap Grand American Modified series feature, Roger Carufel Jr. needed only seven laps to take the lead and held off Travis Thirkettle for his fifth win of the season. In that race, Lloyd Mack III, brother of Indy Racing League rookie George Mack, made his season debut in the series, finishing fifth.

Tony Solorzano

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Hank Parker Jr. used fuel economy to win the NetZero 250, easily holding off Busch Series leader Greg Biffle at Pikes Peak International Raceway at Fountain, Colo.

Parker, who started 23rd in his Dodge, beat Biffle by 11.452 seconds after making only two pit stops in the 200-mile race. Parker also gambled on fuel to win last year at California Speedway, his only other Busch Series victory.

Biffle, who started 20th, and third-place finisher Jason Keller each made three stops in their Fords, with Biffle falling from first to eighth on his last stop on lap 189. Biffle, 77 points ahead of Keller in the season standings, fought overheating problems.

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After struggling with fuel pressure problems that left him near the back of the grid in the opening round of qualifying, Christiano da Matta, the CART series leader stormed back to win the pole for the Vancouver Molson-Indy at Vancouver, Canada.

He turned his quick lap of 1 minute 0.339 seconds and 106.260 mph on his fifth lap around the twisting 1.781-mile temporary street circuit, just nine minutes into the session.

Paul Tracy, who won the provisional pole Friday with a lap of 1:01.888, 103.600, knew going into Saturday he would start on the front row, regardless of his second-round performance. Tracy fell just short at 1:00.502, 105.973. That lap came with just 1:25 to go.

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Michael Schumacher held off younger brother Ralf in qualifying to claim the pole position for the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. Michael Schumacher, who won his record-tying fifth Formula One championship last week, clocked 1 minute 14.389 seconds on his last lap for his fourth pole of the season and the 47th of his career.

Ralf Schumacher, driving a BMW-Williams, finished in 1:14.570 on the redesigned, shortened 2.8-mile circuit.

The Schumachers last shared the front row at the U.S. Grand Prix in September.

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Tomas Scheckter, Buddy Rice and Eddie Cheever Jr. made Indy Racing League history finishing 1-2-3 in qualifying for Michigan Indy 400 at Brooklyn, Mich. Red Bull Cheever Racing became the first IRL team to put drivers in the first three positions.

IRL points leader Gil de Ferran will start 17th out of 25 drivers on the two-mile oval. Sam Hornish Jr., who is third in points, is in the fourth position and became the first IRL driver with 20 consecutive top-10 starts.

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Robert Pressley edged Jason Leffler by 0.102 seconds in the eighth-closest finish in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series history to win the Michigan 200 at Brooklyn, Mich. Pressley, driving a Dodge Ram pickup, led 74 of 100 laps and won for the second time this season. He averaged a series track-record 142.208 mph in the third-fastest race in series history.

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Kenny Bernstein led top fuel qualifying for the 65th time in his career in the NHRA Northwest Nationals with a 4.583-second run at a track-record 323.58 mph at Kent, Wash. Tony Pedregon led the funny car field (4.848 and 315.19) and Mark Whisnant led the pro stock (6.777 and 202.55).