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JRCS: Sears Point Triple Crown Qualifying

Sonoma, CA -- In his final lap of qualifying, Silicon Valley software executive Frank Dancs captured the pole with a fast time of 1:13.175, beating Nathan Smith by .559 seconds in the first of a series of three races of the Russell/USAC Triple Crown ...

Edited: Mar 6, 2009, 7:36 PM

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Sonoma, CA -- In his final lap of qualifying, Silicon Valley software executive Frank Dancs captured the pole with a fast time of 1:13.175, beating Nathan Smith by .559 seconds in the first of a series of three races of the Russell/USAC Triple Crown Pro Series, presented by Yokohama.

"Nathan was the fastest driver at the half way mark, but we came in and made an adjustment, which helped the car a lot," said Dancs. "I didn't know we had the pole until the end of the session, and as it turns out, my last three laps were all good enough to beat him."

Smith, who is competing in this year's Triple Crown for free as part of a prize package he won in last year's Russell amateur series, was the fastest driver early in the session. "My plan was to warm the car up, and shoot a couple of hot laps. I came in to check where we were on times, and I was ahead by a couple of tenths," he said. "We waited to see if my times would stand. But in the last five minutes, Dancs ripped off a couple of really quick laps."

Smith returned to the track to warm up his car again, and on his final lap turned in a 1:13.734, which was not enough to beat Dancs.

The youngest racer in the series, Timothy Barber, from San Francisco, qualified third, beating out fourth place qualifier Brian Snyder by two tenths of a second. In a very tight field, Leonardo Maia, Jeff Oppenheim, Camilo Zurcher and Cory Turner were separated by only by three tenths of a second.

This year's Russell/USAC Triple Crown Pro Series attracted drivers from as far as Bogotá, Columbia and as near as Sonoma, California. The race will be immediately proceeding the final NASCAR Winston Cup qualifying session on Saturday.

<pre> 2000 RUSSELL/USAC TRIPLE CROWN PRO SERIES QUALIFYING RESULTS Pos Car # Driver Sponsor Hometown Results 1 11 Frank Dancs Buyacom Computer Corp Hillsborough, CA 1:13.175 2 7 Nathan Smith Sierra West Airlines/ Escalon, CA 1:13.734 Cogdill/Giomi Real Est. 3 8 Timothy Barber San Francisco, CA 1:14.176 4 18 Brian Snyder ETDC Oil Pumps/FF Santa Barbara, CA 1:14.376 5 20 Leonardo Maia TPF Software Oakland, CA 1:14.447 6 10 Jeff Oppenheim Sonoma, CA 1:14.451 7 16 Camilo Zurcher Bogotá, Columbia 1:14.485 8 6 Cory Turner Bakersfield, CA 1:14.692 9 4 Bob Hagerty Beaumont, TX 1:16.281 10 12 Max Toy B6 Prod/Miracle Auto Body Danville, CA 1:16.406 11 17 Kirk Morrison Ultranectar.com San Francisco, CA 1:16.631

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