USAC Midget/Sprint Car

Four different teams fielded a total of seven Toyotas. Western Speed (drivers Nic Faas, Billy Wease, Bobby Santos III), Nine Racing (Darren Hagen, Kody Swanson), Pedregon Racing (Josh Wise), and Leffler Racing (Jason Leffler) all utilized a 166-ci naturally-aspirated in-line four-cylinder Toyota engine.

Western Speed and Nine Racing engines are prepared by Ed Pink Racing Engines, while Pedregon Racing and Leffler Racing use engines prepared by TRD.

Jason Leffler led the Toyota brigade with a fifth-place finish in the 25-lap feature event, contested on the challenging one-mile PIR oval. However, Kody Swanson was racing in the top-three in the waning laps before being crashed from behind.

Darren Hagen finished seventh, with Billy Wease making an impressive drive from 27th to finish ninth. Bobby Santos III was 27th and Josh Wise was 35th.

Although disappointed with his 22nd-place finish, Faas took another step toward the USAC Western Midget Car championship, lengthening an already extensive point lead.

"We were a little bit tight, but our car was all right," said Leffler, a NASCAR veteran whose roots run deep in these open wheel cars. "The Toyota ran really well, and I'm looking forward to running this car again at the Turkey Night Grand Prix. This is fun racing, and I enjoy it."

"It was an interesting night," Swanson said. "We struggled a little bit in qualifying, and started 12th. We got pinned behind some slower cars at the start and faded back to 14th or so until we finally got it going. I got on the outside and passed quite a few cars, and was running three-wide for third place with two or three laps left. I got pushed to the outside and had to lift in the slippery stuff, and got clobbered from behind and that was that. We passed a lot of cars, but we didn't get the finish we wanted."

"After qualifying, we didn't have the car we wanted so we really got busy on the setup, throwing a lot of changes at the car," Hagen said. "We missed a little, and got awfully tight in the feature. That was frustrating, but we'll figure it out and keep digging. Next up is Turkey Night and we're looking forward to that."

"We had to use a provisional to get into the feature, and that was disappointing," said Faas, who was making his first start at Phoenix. "We worked our way forward from 37th, there were several cautions and that helped us. Overall I felt like we did okay for my first time there."

The next event for both series will be the famed Turkey Night Grand Prix at California's Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Nov. 27th. The event will once again be a combined effort, paying points in both series, and will be the season finale for both.

Toyota performance at 33rd Copper World Classic - Phoenix Intl. Raceway
5. Jason Leffler, Long Beach, Calif., Leffler Racing
7. Darren Hagen, Riverside, Calif., Nine Racing
9. Billy Wease, Noblesville, Ind., Western Speed
22. Nic Faas, Huntington Beach, Calif., Western Speed
27. Bobby Santos III, Franklin, Mass., Western Speed
29. Kody Swanson, Kingsburg, Calif., Nine Racing
35. Josh Wise, Riverside, Calif., Pedregon Racing