McCaul leads points chase at two tracks

Thursday, August 02, 2007
By Scott Brandenburg
Chronicle correspondent

For 15 years, John McCaul has devoted part of the week and nearly all of the summer weekends to auto racing.

Judging by his resume the last four years at Winston Motor Speedway and Thunderbird Race Park, the Montague resident has gotten it all figured out in that time.

The No. 27 car has been nearly unstoppable over the course of a full season on the two local circle tracks, charging to two season points titles apiece in the modified division.

McCaul appears to be well on his way to a third points title on both tracks as he leads at both Winston and Thunderbird heading into August.

"A lot of it is just experience," said the 32-year-old McCaul. "We've got good equipment and we do our homework.

"There's quite a bit that goes into getting the cars set up to making them go."

McCaul owns a 100-point lead over second-place Andy Sprague in the UMP Mods standings at Thunderbird.

Over at Winston, it's a lot closer as McCaul leads Sprague by 29 points.

In addition to watching the points race at the local tracks closely, McCaul is keeping tabs on his standing in the regional and national UMP standings. In the region, he's top five and in the nation he's top 20 with plenty of racing to go.

"If I race well for my 35 races I can make a push," said McCaul. "I know that some of the drivers up there have more races than me right now."

McCaul owns his own business, called Tutak Trucking and Excavating, in Whitehall.

He thanked wife Becky and their two kids for being so supportive of giving up a lot of weekends during the year to racing. McCaul also gives a lot of credit to John Stuberg, who owns some of the cars McCaul drives and makes sure everything's in good shape.

Since the two formed a partnership five years ago, they have racked up the wins and the points.

The two-time defending champion at Thunderbird is looking forward to more wins and battles for the checkered flag for the rest of the year.

"I just love racing," said McCaul. "I love being up front with those competitive racers. Andy Sprague and Greg Smith and Mike Wilburn and those guys, they love to compete and it's just fun driving up there against them."