FF: National title entries announced

DRIVERS FROM 14 STATES WILL VIE FOR NATIONAL FOCUS TITLE
6 POINT LEADERS, 51 VICTORIES REPRESENTED IN 41 ENTRIES

Tate Martz, Robbie Ray, Ryan Smith, Alex Harris and Chase Barber have a leg up on the field entering next weekend's (Sept. 17-18) inaugural USAC Ford Focus National Championships at Lima, Ohio and Anderson, Ind.

Those five drivers are the only ones in the 41-driver field who have won on both pavement and dirt tracks this season, although 18 of the entered drivers have accounted for a total of 51 feature victories.

Martz, of Rushville, Ind., leads the Midwest standings and has five wins on pavement and one on dirt. Alex Harris of Simi Valley, Calif., who leads the California Pavement standings, has four pavement and three dirt triumphs, while Chase Barber of Morgan Hill, Calif., who leads the California Dirt standings, has three wins on each surface. Robbie Ray of Davenport, Iowa, runner-up in the Carolina/Virginia points, has three dirt wins and two on pavement, while Ryan Smith of Kunkeltown, Pa., fifth in the Northeast standings, has one win on each surface.

Martz, Harris and Barber are joined in the field by 2005 USAC Oklahoma Champion Jasiel Randolph of Tulsa and point leaders Chase Scott of Concord, N.C. (Carolina/Virginia Series) and Michael Sboro of Watertown, N.Y. (Northeast Series).

Indiana leads the driver parade with 12 participants, while California sends seven. States with three representatives each are New York, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania, while North Carolina and Ohio are sending two each. Other states represented in the 41-driver field are Virginia, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan and Nevada.

Harris leads the list of 2005 feature winners, with seven victories so far. Martz and Barber have six, while Ray has five, Clemons and Scott four each.

The field also includes four female drivers. In all, females have recorded 22 total USAC feature wins, including five this year.

The Sept. 17 and 18 races at Limaland Motorsports Park and Anderson respectively comprise the first-ever National Championship for the Ford Focus Midgets, which debuted under USAC sanction in 2002 and recently celebrated their 200th event. Fifty lap feature events are on tap at Lima's 1/4-mile dirt oval and Anderson's 1/4-mile paved oval.

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