WM: Madera II: Sleepy Tripp preview

Tripp Hoping to add to USAC records at Madera Saturday.

Sleepy Tripp of Costa Mesa, Calif. will make his initial 2002 USAC racing appearance in Saturday night's USAC Western Midget Car race at the Madera (Calif.) Speedway.

Tripp holds most of USAC's all-time Midget Car records, notwithstanding the 111 National career wins posted by Mel Kenyon. Sleepy's 160 total victories in four different USAC series are the all-time record, as are his 104 wins in the Western Midget Car Series. He needs just 11 more total wins to surpass the all-time USAC record (for all series combined) established by the late Rich Vogler.

Tripp's last USAC feature victory came in July of 1999 at Bakersfield, Calif. but he nearly won a race at Bakersfield last season. His three Madera feature wins came in 1976, 1985 and 1998.

Tripp will be challenged in Saturday night's races by Western Midget Car point leader Shane Scully of Encino, Calif. and a host of other top pilots. John Starks of Puyallup, Wash. won the main event at Madera's 1/3-mile paved oval when USAC competed there April 6.

Saturday night's program includes complete preliminaries and a 30-lap feature event.

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