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SUNNY SIDE UP; COURTNEY CAPTURES NIGHT 2 OF “SMACKDOWN” AT KOKOMO
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The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray - USAC Media / richie@usacracing.com
SUNNY SIDE UP; COURTNEY CAPTURES NIGHT 2 OF "SMACKDOWN" AT KOKOMO
By: Richie Murray - USAC Media
Kokomo, Indiana.....August 25, 2017 - Sprint Car racing is chock full of ups and downs. Sometimes you're in victory lane and sometimes you end up on your head.
Tyler Courtney experienced both of these extremes Friday at Kokomo Speedway, recovering from a hard flip during qualifying before returning to action after several other teams pitched in to make repairs. With a lap 10 pass of Hunter Schuerenberg, Courtney persevered to win "Sprint Car Smackdown VI" Night 2 at the very track where it all began for the Indianapolis, Indiana driver affectionately known as "Sunshine."
"My first USAC start was the first Smackdown," Courtney reminisces. "To watch it come full circle is pretty cool. I know it's not my first USAC win, but to get my first Kokomo sprint car win tonight is pretty dang special. This place is tough to tame and the guys who've won here are some of the best to ever do it. This one ranks right up there with a lot of the big ones I've had. Plus, if you would've told me I'd win four USAC races in one year, I would've said you're crazy. I would've been happy just winning another one!"
Courtney's ProSource Qualifying incident came a lap after nailing down second-quick time in his TOPP Motorsports/TOPP Performance Race Parts - Custom Pump & Controls/Maxim/Claxton. Track position is critical at every circuit on the schedule and each position gained through time trials is essential to making the task just a little easier with less cars to pass come feature time.
"I was really frustrated with qualifying 16th last night," Courtney admitted. "I knew I had a pretty decent lap on the first one. You have to hang it out in qualifying to be up there in the top-six where you want to be. I just got in there too straight, biked 'er up and set her down. That shot me right into the fence and it was over after that. It's part of the deal. You just have to persevere through it. With help from half the pit area, we got it back together and almost transferred out of the heat race. Running the B-Main helped us tonight. My guys never give up on me and I never give up on them."
Courtney's fifth-place run in the heat put him one spot out of a transfer position, relegating him to the semi-feature and a second-place finish there. Courtney felt the car was a continuous "work in progress" throughout the night following the crash and that it was making a couple unfamiliar noises it wasn't used to making. However, his qualifying efforts did procure him a spot inside the fourth-row for the feature where he quickly went to work.
Initially, it appeared as if the 30-lapper was going to be a carbon-copy of the night before when fourth-starting C.J. Leary ripped the cushion to the lead exiting turn two at the start. The rocket ship would quickly be grounded, though, when, on the second time around, Leary snagged the turn one curb before contacting the concrete and nosing over, ending the race for the previous night's winner after only one lap.
The tumultuous start would continue one lap following the restart when two-time USAC Silver Crown champ seventh-place running Kody Swanson got sideways at the exit of turn four, then nailed the infield tire, sending him into a series of flips that he would walk away from unscathed.
Schuerenberg took a hold of the lead when racing resumed as a wild scramble for position ensued behind him between Justin Grant and Tyler Thomas. On lap eight, Thomas aimed for the race lead with a slider between turns one and two on Schuerenberg. Exiting the second turn, the two made contact, pitting Thomas sideways halfway down the back straightaway, yet was able to maintain control and hold onto the second position for the time being.
The little bit of contact was Courtney's gain as he ate up ground on the bottom while running fourth and, a lap later, used a surge down the back straight to whip past both Grant, then Thomas in quick succession to get to second. On the tenth lap, Courtney continued to crawl the bottom to move past Schuerenberg for the race lead exiting turn four, holding the spot by a car-length at the line at the conclusion of the lap.
With ten to go, Schuerenberg found his second wind through the middle and began to pulley himself back to within range of Courtney. Schuerenberg showed a nose to the outside of Courtney off turn two and, as Courtney noticed the bottom beginning to fade, he slid up to the middle lane entering the first turn on the 24th lap just in the nick of time to shield his position and deter the Schuerenberg charge.
Following a yellow for the turned around car of Shane Cottle with six laps remaining, Courtney ventured to the top with Kevin Thomas, Jr., Brady Bacon, Tyler Thomas and Schuerenberg duking it out for the runner-up spot. T. Thomas rung it out on the topside on lap 26, crossing over from high to low off turn four, then splitting between Bacon and Thomas on the front straight entering turn one to take second. K. Thomas countered under T. Thomas through the middle as Bacon lay low to make it three-wide off two.
A half-lap later, T. Thomas swung wide off turn four, nearly making contact with the outside wall. K. Thomas then ramped his right rear over the left front of the sideways T. Thomas, stifling his trek to the front and sending him back to fourth. Bacon capitalized and ripped the second spot away from K. Thomas on the bottom in response and began to track down Courtney instantaneously.
On the final lap, Bacon clocked in with his fastest time of the race and got a nose underneath Courtney entering turn three. One more lap might have been all Bacon needed, but it was not to be as Courtney secured USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car feature win number four on the year ahead of Bacon, K. Thomas, T. Thomas and Schuerenberg.
In a 30-lap span, Courtney continuously searched for the right line at the right moment, venturing from the bottom to the middle to the high side throughout the event, then used a diamond maneuver during the final laps to keep all challengers at bay for his fifth career win in the series.
"My car was pretty good on the bottom in the B-Main," Courtney recalls. "I was set up to run there most of the feature. The bottom went away and it got slick down there toward the end. Hunter showed me a nose with seven or eight to go, so I made the jump up. I knew I was going to have to make her wide and make it tough for those guys to get by me on the final restart. Doing this for a living, you got to know when to go where. Luckily, we made all the right moves tonight."
Consecutive runner-up finishes have earned Broken Arrow, Oklahoma's Brady Bacon the most points throughout the two nights of "Smackdown," locking him into Saturday night's $10,000 to win A-Main and a spot in B & W Auto Mart's King of the Hill Qualifying along with K. Thomas, Schuerenberg, Kyle Cummins, Robert Ballou, Courtney, Leary and Scotty Weir.
Bacon's run from 18th to 2nd on Friday night netted him KSE Racing Products Hard Charger award in his Dooling-Hayward/B & H Contractors - Dooling Machine/Spike/Stanton Mopar. Every lap counts when the competition is as tough as it is and, on Saturday night, Bacon will start no worse than eighth. That puts him in a better position on paper, but as the two-time series champ puts it, that isn't necessarily a harbinger for success.
"On Thursday night, we thought we had a pretty good shot starting up front and we were just a little too tight," Bacon remembers. Tonight, we started in the back and almost won. We were actually closer to winning tonight than we were last night even though we've run second both nights. I had only a lap or two where I could run the line I needed to run without someone beside me. We reeled Sunshine in pretty close at the end, but it's only 30 laps, so it doesn't really matter."
Defending "Smackdown" winner Kevin Thomas, Jr. of Cullman, Alabama once again finished up front at Kokomo, wrapping up a third-place finish in his KT Motorsports/Jeff's Jam-It-In Storage - Abreu Vineyards/DRC/Speedway Chevy.
"I didn't do very well at the start of the night," Thomas admits. "I was pretty terrible in the heat race and we got way behind the eight-ball and had to run the B. Jeff Walker helped us figure a few things out and the car was a tick better. We've just been struggling with being tight. I knew we were going to have to run the top, but I just didn't know if it was going to work. We set it up for that. With Sunshine running the bottom, there was a lane open around the top and I had to take it. Brady (Bacon) got by us there at the end, but second or third is the same to me. If it's not a win, it really doesn't matter."
USAC contingency award winners Friday night at Kokomo included Tyler Thomas (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Shane Cottle (Simpson Race Products Heat 1 Winner), Tom Harris (Competition Suspension, Inc. Heat 2 Winner), Dave Darland (Chalk Stix Heat 3 Winner), Chase Stockon (Indy Race Parts Heat 4 Winner), Brady Bacon (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Josh Hodges (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: August 25, 2017 - Kokomo, Indiana - Kokomo Speedway - "Sprint Car Smackdown VI"
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Tyler Thomas, 17GP, Dutcher-12.754; 2. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-12.891; 3. Kody Swanson, 2E, Epperson-13.088; 4. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-13.100; 5. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-13.123; 6. Justin Grant, 11, McGhee-13.129; 7. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 9K, KT-13.187; 8. Tony DiMattia, 50, TDM-13.194; 9. Tyler Hewitt, 97x, One More Time-13.197; 10. Scotty Weir, 17G, On The Gass-13.229; 11. Hunter Schuerenberg, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-13.242; 12. Chad Boespflug, 69, Dynamics-13.258; 13. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-13.266; 14. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-13.280; 15. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-13.282; 16. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-13.300; 17. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-13.324; 18. Tom Harris, 5E, Harris-13.345; 19. Dave Darland, 40, Hery-13.361; 20. Brady Bacon, 63, Dooling/Hayward-13.364; 21. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-13.379; 22. Brady Short, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-13.407; 23. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR/Chapple-13.426; 24. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-13.445; 25. Cole Ketcham, 41, Ketcham-13.550; 26. Mario Clouser, 6, MCM-13.572; 27. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-13.610; 28. Colten Cottle, 1RL, Lambertson-13.732; 29. Brian Karraker, 23, Karraker-13.804; 30. Josh Spencer, 66J, Spencer-13.819; 31. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-13.940; 32. Jamie Frederickson, 58, Frederickson-13.956; 33. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-14.027; 34. Chet Williams, 38, Williams-14.100; 35. Travis Hery, 21H, Hery-14.282; 36. Parker Frederickson, 34, Frederickson-14.548; 37. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-14.703; 38. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-15.816.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. S. Cottle, 2. T. Thomas, 3. Leary, 4. Hewitt, 5. Robbins, 6. Farney, 7. Karraker, 8. Mattox, 9. Jarrett, 10. Ketcham. NT
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Harris, 2. Cummins, 3. Short, 4. Grant, 5. Courtney, 6. Weir, 7. Clouser, 8. Spencer, 9. Williams, 10. Bell. 2:15.94
CHALK STIX THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Darland, 2. Windom, 3. Schuerenberg, 4. Chapple, 5. Hodges, 6. Swanson, 7. K. Thomas, 8. Goodnight, 9. Hery. 2:14.52
INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Stockon, 2. Bacon, 3. Ballou, 4. Andretti, 5. Boespflug, 6. DiMattia, 7. C. Cottle, 8. P. Frederickson, 9. J. Frederickson. 2:16.32
C-MAIN: (10 laps) 1. Goodnight, 2. Hery, 3. Jarrett, 4. Mattox, 5. J. Frederickson, 6. Williams, 7. P. Frederickson, 8. Bell. NT
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. K. Thomas, 2. Courtney, 3. Swanson, 4. Farney, 5. Weir, 6. Hodges, 7. Karraker, 8. DiMattia, 9. C. Cottle, 10. Boespflug, 11. Hery, 12. Goodnight, 13. Jarrett, 14. Mattox, 15. Spencer, 16. Ketcham, 17. Robbins, 18. Clouser. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Tyler Courtney, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 4. Tyler Thomas, 5. Hunter Schuerenberg, 6. Robert Ballou, 7. Kyle Cummins, 8. Justin Grant, 9. Scotty Weir, 10. Chris Windom, 11. Jarett Andretti, 12. Brady Short, 13. Josh Hodges, 14. Dave Darland, 15. Chase Stockon, 16. Chad Boespflug, 17. Aaron Farney, 18. Shane Cottle, 19. Tom Harris, 20. Isaac Chapple, 21. Tyler Hewitt, 22. Kody Swanson, 23. C.J. Leary. NT
**Courtney flipped during qualifying. Bell flipped during the C-Main. Leary flipped on lap 2 of the feature. Swanson flipped on lap 2 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Leary, Laps 2-9 Schuerenberg, Laps 10-30 Courtney.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Brady Bacon (18th to 2nd)
WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Josh Hodges
NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1-Grant-1607, 2-Windom-1542, 3-K. Thomas-1459, 4-Boespflug-1432. 5-Courtney-1423; 6-Stockon-1376; 7-Leary-1236, 8-Bacon-1220, 9-Ballou-1102, 10-Andretti-1053.
NEW "SPRINT CAR SMACKDOWN VI" STANDINGS: 1-Bacon-311, 2-K. Thomas-308, 3-Schuerenberg-305, 4-Cummins-298, 5-Ballou-291, 6-Courtney-287, 7-Leary-281, 8-Weir-277, 9-Andretti-277, 10-Windom-276.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: August 26 - Kokomo, Indiana - Kokomo Speedway - "Sprint Car Smackdown VI"
LEARY LOGS SMACKDOWN NIGHT 1 VICTORY AT KOKOMO!
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray - USAC Media / richie@usacracing.com
LEARY LOGS SMACKDOWN NIGHT 1 VICTORY AT KOKOMO!
By: Richie Murray - USAC Media
Kokomo, Indiana.....August 24, 2017 - Nearly one year to the day since his breakthrough USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car victory in late August of last year, C.J. Leary once again found "Sprint Car Smackdown" gold on the very same spot after capturing Thursday's "Sprint Car Smackdown VI" opener at Kokomo Speedway.
In 2016, "Smackdown" weekend was owned by Leary and Kevin Thomas, Jr., who alternated victories throughout the three nights. The trend continued Thursday night when it became Leary's turn to plant the figurative flag for the Leary Racing/Leary Construction - Highsmith Guns/DRC/1-Way Chevy at the quarter-mile dirt oval.
Earlier in the night, things didn't appear to be as rosy for Leary as he struggled to snare a transfer spot in his heat race until misfortune found another competitor in front of him, thus moving him into position to earn a spot in the feature event. After a fortuitous series of events, Leary wound up with a starting position from the pole. From there, the Greenfield, Indiana driver knew there were no excuses for not getting the job done.
"In the heat race, we were junk," Leary assessed. "We probably shouldn't have transferred, but we were fortunate, which allowed us to start on the front row for the feature. By starting up front, I felt like it was my race to lose. If something was going to go wrong, it was probably going to be my fault."
Leary set course for the lead at the drop of the green, sliding up to the top of turn one to take the spot. Outside front row starter Hunter Schuerenberg quickly countered using a high/low move off turn two to pull even with Leary on the back straightaway. However, Leary was too strong on the top and secured the position off turn four to lead lap one.
Meanwhile, Wednesday's "#GYATK Night" winner Thomas sliced through the field from 8th to 5th on the opening lap, then became involved a tussle with series point leader Justin Grant for 4th on lap four when the left rear of Thomas and the right front of Grant greeted each other at the flag stand. The contact damaged Grant's steering as he drove straight up the track in turn one where he came to a complete stop. Thomas continued while Grant was relegated to a last-place result of 22nd.
On the ensuing restart, as he did time-and-time again throughout the feature, Leary shot out of the starting blocks to pull away from the rest of the field. Brady Bacon used the restart to get past Schuerenberg with an inside move between turns three and four to put himself in the second position.
Leary's lead began to dwindle through the middle stages as Bacon closed the gap to just a few car lengths when the leaders encountered visions of lapped traffic within plain sight. Simultaneously, Shane Cottle appeared backwards against the turn three wall with his front wheel disconnected and bouncing through the infield grass to bring out the yellow, therefore removing the role of the lapped cars in the contest down the stretch.
"Lapped traffic was going to be hairy for sure," Leary believed. "They were all running side-by-side. Luckily, the cautions kept me out of lapped traffic, which was a blessing I think because it let the field bunch up and made it more interesting, I'd say."
A pair of restarts in the second half of the 30-lapper didn't rattle Leary's nerves a bit as he pulled away each time. Bacon ran the middle in pursuit of Leary, pulling alongside multiple times to no avail while Leary ripped the top - a place in which he had no intentions of leaving.
"We set the car up looser than it had been during the last couple of times here," Leary explains. "I knew if I departed from the cushion, we'd probably end up losing the race with how free we had the racecar. The top's my go-to place and, when we had the lead, I felt we wouldn't be beat in open ground. (Crew Chief) Donnie Gentry had this car on rails. This thing was ripping around the top, which is my specialty here. It made my job easy tonight."
Leary loosened it up to finish off the nearly-flawless performance by two seconds to capture the victory over Bacon, Robert Ballou, K. Thomas and Schuerenberg.
"Donnie and I argued over the setup a little bit right before the feature," Leary recalls. "These past eight weeks, we've been running up here in the weekly shows. Even in the Indiana Sprint Week race, we were tight in the feature. We've just been tight, tight and tight. We figured if we lost tonight, it would be because we were too loose. We got it freed up and I ran it hard. I felt like I could run it as hard as I wanted to up there."
Broken Arrow, Oklahoma's Bacon took second in his Dooling-Hayward/B & H Contractors - Dooling Machine/Spike/Stanton Mopar, his third consecutive top-two finish in USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car point races. It was also the third time this season he and Leary have run first and second with the series.
Following a third-place result the night before at Kokomo's prelude to "Smackdown" - the non-points "GYATK Night" - Rocklin, California's Robert Ballou ran third again in his Robert Ballou Motorsports/Deaton's Waterfront Services - Dickinson Farms/Boss/Ott.
Contingency award winners Thursday night at Kokomo included Justin Grant (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Aaron Farney (Simpson Race Products Heat 1 Winner & Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher), Jarett Andretti (Competition Suspension, Inc. Heat 2 Winner), Dave Darland (Chalk Stix Heat 3 Winner), Josh Hodges (Indy Race Parts Heat 4 Winner) and Brady Short (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger).
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: August 24, 2017 - Kokomo, Indiana - Kokomo Speedway - "Sprint Car Smackdown VI"
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 11, McGhee-12.685; 2. Tyler Thomas, 17GP, Dutcher-12.713; 3. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-12.724; 4. Brady Bacon, 63, Dooling/Hayward-12.740; 5. Scotty Weir, 17G, On The Gass-12.752; 6. Hunter Schuerenberg, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-12.785; 7. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-12.801; 8. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 9K, KT-12.831; 9. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-12.832; 10. Chad Boespflug, 69, Dynamics-12.874; 11. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-12.928; 12. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-12.953; 13. Kody Swanson, 2E, Epperson-12.968; 14. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-12.970; 15. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-12.979; 16. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-13.008; 17. Mario Clouser, 6, MCM-13.015; 18. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-13.054; 19. Dave Darland, 40, Hery-13.084; 20. Brady Short, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-13.089; 21. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-13.116; 22. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-13.200; 23. Colten Cottle, 1RL, Lambertson-13.228; 24. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-13.278; 25. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR/Chapple-13.299; 26. Brian Karraker, 23, Karraker-13.449; 27. Cole Ketcham, 41, Ketcham-13.474; 28. Travis Hery, 21H, Hery-13.477; 29. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.554; 30. Jamie Frederickson, 58, Frederickson-13.625; 31. Josh Spencer, 66J, Spencer-13.787; 32. Tyler Hewitt, 97x, One More Time-13.826; 33. Chet Williams, 38, Williams-13.876; 34. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-14.120; 35. Tom Harris, 5E, Harris-14.145; 36. Parker Frederickson, 34, Frederickson-14.173; 37. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-14.843; 38. Thomas Meseraull, 5B, Briscoe-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Farney, 2. Weir, 3. Ballou, 4. Grant, 5. Swanson, 6. Clouser, 7. Chapple, 8. Mattox, 9. Williams, 10. Bell. 2:15.38
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Andretti, 2. Stockon, 3. Schuerenberg, 4. Boespflug, 5. Jarrett, 6. Karraker, 7. Goodnight, 8. J. Frederickson, 9. T. Thomas. 2:13.40
CHALK STIX THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Darland, 2. Windom, 3. Cummins, 4. Leary, 5. S. Cottle, 6. Ketcham, 7. Harris, 8. C. Cottle, 9. Spencer. NT
INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Hodges, 2. Courtney, 3. Bacon, 4. K. Thomas, 5. Short, 6. Hewitt, 7. Robbins, 8. Hery, 9. P. Frederickson. 2:13.21
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. T. Thomas, 2. S. Cottle, 3. Clouser, 4. Short, 5. Swanson, 6. Karraker, 7. C. Cottle, 8. Mattox, 9. Ketcham, 10. Hewitt, 11. Williams, 12. Spencer, 13. Goodnight, 14. Harris, 15. Hery, 16. Robbins, 17. J. Frederickson, 18. P. Frederickson, 19. Bell, 20. Jarrett, 21. Chapple. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Robert Ballou, 4. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 5. Hunter Schuerenberg, 6. Chad Boespflug, 7. Kyle Cummins, 8. Kody Swanson, 9. Chris Windom, 10. Josh Hodges, 11. Jarett Andretti, 12. Brady Short, 13. Aaron Farney, 14. Tyler Thomas, 15. Scotty Weir, 16. Chase Stockon, 17. Tyler Courtney, 18. Dave Darland, 19. Brian Karraker, 20. Mario Clouser, 21. Shane Cottle, 22. Justin Grant. NT
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**Meseraull flipped during qualifying. Jarrett & Chapple flipped at the finish of the semi.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: 1-30 Leary.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Brady Short (20th to 12th)
WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Aaron Farney
NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1-Grant-1552, 2-Windom-1492, 3-Boespflug-1401. 4-K. Thomas-1391, 5-Courtney-1345; 6-Stockon-1335; 7-Leary-1205, 8-Bacon-1146, 9-Ballou-1041, 10-Andretti-1004.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: August 25-26 - Kokomo Speedway - Kokomo, Indiana - "Sprint Car Smackdown VI"
THOMAS STEAMROLLS KOKOMO FIELD ON #GYATK NIGHT!
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray - USAC Media / richie@usacracing.com
THOMAS STEAMROLLS KOKOMO FIELD ON #GYATK NIGHT!
By: Richie Murray - USAC Media
Kokomo, Indiana.....August 23, 2017 - Kokomo Speedway has been the stage and Kevin Thomas, Jr. has been the show during late August USAC appearances over the past two seasons.
After winning three of four features during last year's "Sprint Car Smackdown" week, Thomas continued the roll Wednesday night to capture yet another victory at USAC's AMSOIL National Sprint Car "GYATK Night."
Cullman, Alabama's Thomas began the race from the outside of row two and quickly worked his way to the front past Jarett Andretti inside turn three for the second position on a lap four restart, then began his pursuit of Chris Windom for the race lead.
Thomas showed a nose underneath Windom on both ends of the racetrack on the sixth lap. In response, Windom protected the bottom, thus opening up the topside for Thomas who blasted around the outside of Windom on the back straightaway on the following lap. Windom fought back to inch ahead on the bottom, but Thomas had the momentum up top to squeeze his way past Windom by a car length at the start/finish line.
"Once we got to Windom, I think he was searching a little bit," Thomas recalls. "Whenever you're leading like that, you're not real sure where to go. I know he gets around this place well, but tonight, there wasn't necessarily a defined line. I snookered him just a little bit when I showed him a nose on the bottom, but I knew my stuff was pretty good around the top too. Once I got him to go back down to the bottom, I was able to get my momentum and go around him on the top."
Meanwhile, Dave Darland launched his way past Windom for second on lap 10 and began to reel in Thomas, initiating a duel between one of Kokomo's all-time kings versus one of the quarter-mile's new generation of masters.
Darland's run in second would be fairly brief, however, as Windom found traction to propel himself back past Darland with a turn one slider on lap 19, yet Darland was able to counter underneath to pull side-by-side with Windom down the back straight entering turn three, but it wasn't quite enough to put him completely back in front of Windom who motored around the outside to secure second off turn four.
Despite Thomas being in the throes of lapped traffic, the second-place schism between Windom and Darland set Thomas off on an open course for victory as he opened the interval to more than three-plus seconds by race's end to capture his second-straight Kokomo USAC Special Event victory in as many years over Windom, Robert Ballou, Darland and Tyler Courtney.
Kevin Thomas, Jr. was victorious in Wednesday night's
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car #GYATK Night at Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway. (Ryan Sellers Photo)
"This is a good start to the weekend," a confident Thomas remarked. "When tomorrow starts, we're going to try our same things. It'll be a bit different format tomorrow, so we'll have to find a bit more speed sooner. We had a really good racecar in the feature, but I didn't really drive it to its potential early in the night. I'm going to have to do a little better at that, but all-in-all, it was a good night for us. (My crew) gave me a nice, solid racecar. I can't really say enough about that. It was nice and stable and it would go anywhere I wanted it to go in lapped traffic. I could run the top to keep my speed up and it was good, nice and tight around the bottom and would still rotate. These guys do a great job. They'll be here all week. They bust their butts and make my job easy. We're going to celebrate a little bit, but it's another day tomorrow and we'll be ready."
Since the event carried no points toward the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship standings, Thomas and his crew used the opportunity to work outside the box to an extent, which paid off in large dividends as the series heads into three-straight nights at Kokomo on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, August 24-25-26.
"There's always little things you can change to make these things just a tick better," Thomas admits. "Honestly, nights like this are fun for me because I get to try something and it doesn't really have any consequences. We tried something just a little bit different tonight. We got the car a little more to my liking and it worked. Tomorrow, the track may not be as juiced up. There may be a more treacherous curb or it may be a little slicker. You just never know, so you have to have a lot of tricks in your bag to throw at it when the time comes. Tonight's set up worked, but it might not tomorrow."
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR "Special Event" RACE RESULTS: August 23, 2017 - Kokomo, Indiana - Kokomo Speedway - "#GYATK Night"
QUALIFYING: 1. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-12.727; 2. Thomas Meseraull, 5B, Briscoe-12.838; 3. Dave Darland, 40, Hery-12.864; 4. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-12.922; 5. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-12.951; 6. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-12.962; 7. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-12.983; 8. Hunter Schuerenberg, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-12.991; 9. Tyler Thomas, 17GP, Dutcher-13.067; 10. Chad Boespflug, 69, Dynamics-13.081; 11. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-13.164; 12. Clinton Boyles, 98, Boyles-13.194; 13. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 9K, KT-13.247; 14. Brady Short, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-13.275; 15. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR/Chapple-13.294; 16. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-13.305; 17. Justin Grant, 11, McGhee-13.332; 18. Brady Bacon, 63, Dooling/Hayward-13.347; 19. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-13.405; 20. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-13.490; 21. Tyler Hewitt, 97x, One More Time-13.512; 22. Brian Karraker, 23, Karraker-13.763; 23. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-13.770; 24. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-13.841; 25. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.861; 26. Josh Cunningham, 3, Cunningham-13.988; 27. Travis Welpott, 18w, Welpott-14.033; 28. Jake Scott, 4s, Scott-14.056; 29. Jamie Frederickson, 58, Frederickson-14.122; 30. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-14.132; 31. Colten Cottle, 1RL, Lambertson-14.200; 32. Josh Spencer, 66J, Spencer-14.281; 33. Paul Dues, 87, Dues-14.475; 34. Chet Williams, 38, Williams-14.632; 35. Colin Parker, 4H, Scott-14.643; 36. Mario Clouser, 6, MCM-14.760; 37. Scotty Weir, 17G, On The Gass-14.786; 38. David Hair, 44, Hair-14.868; 39. Corey Smith, 66s, CS-14.959; 40. Ben Phillips, 4, Phillips-14.967; 41. Kody Swanson, 2E, Epperson-15.315; 42. Parker Frederickson, 34, Frederickson-15.613; 43. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-17.270; 44. Steve Hair, 51, Hair-22.874.
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Weir, 2. Clouser, 3. Courtney, 4. Swanson, 5. P. Frederickson, 6. Bell, 7. S. Hair. 1:48.44
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Andretti, 2. Meseraull, 3. Schuerenberg, 4. Bacon, 5. Stockon, 6. Jarrett, 7. Parker, 8. Grant. NT
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Darland, 2. Ballou, 3. Mattox, 4. Robbins, 5. Hewitt, 6. Spencer, 7. Short. 1:47.75
FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Windom, 2. Leary, 3. Cummins, 4. Boespflug, 5. Chapple, 6. S. Cottle, 7. Boyles. NT
FIFTH HEAT: (8 laps) 1. K. Thomas, 2. T. Thomas, 3. Cunningham, 4. Goodnight, 5. J. Frederickson, 6. D. Hair, 7. Phillips. 1:46.56
SIXTH HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Welpott, 2. Farney, 3. Karraker, 4. C. Cottle, 5. Scott, 6. Williams, 7. Dues. 1:51.59
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Boespflug, 2. Bacon, 3. Cottle, 4. Stockon, 5. Swanson, 6. Robbins, 7. Chapple, 8. Hewitt, 9. Williams, 10. Goodnight, 11. Jarrett, 12. Spencer, 13. Short, 14. P. Frederickson, 15. J. Frederickson, 16. Parker, 17. Phillips, 18. Hair, 19. Dues, 20. Scott, 21. S. Hair, 22. Bell. 2:46.19
FEATURE: (27 laps) 1. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 2. Chris Windom, 3. Robert Ballou, 4. Dave Darland, 5. Tyler Courtney, 6. C.J. Leary, 7. Jarett Andretti, 8. Kyle Cummins, 9. Aaron Farney, 10. Thomas Meseraull, 11. Tyler Thomas, 12. Colten Cottle, 13. Hunter Schuerenberg, 14. Chase Stockon, 15. Brian Karraker, 16. Brandon Mattox, 17. Mario Clouser, 18. Scotty Weir, 19. Josh Cunningham, 20. Travis Welpott, 21. Chad Boespflug, 22. Brady Bacon. NT
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**Boyles flipped during the fourth heat.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-6 Windom, Laps 7-27 K. Thomas.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: August 24-25-26 - Kokomo, Indiana - Kokomo Speedway - "Sprint Car Smackdown VI"
GRANT GETS IT; WINS BETTENHAUSEN 100 FOR FIRST SILVER CROWN WIN
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray - USAC Media / richie@usacracing.com
Justin Grant enjoys the spoils of victory with wife Ashley and their twins after winning Saturday's 'Bettenhausen 100' at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield. (Brendon Bauman Photo)
GRANT GETS IT; WINS BETTENHAUSEN 100 FOR FIRST SILVER CROWN WIN
By: Richie Murray - USAC Media
Springfield, Illinois....August 19, 2017 - Justin Grant was fully aware of the situation at hand on the final restart of Saturday's "Bettenhausen 100" at the Illinois State Fairgrounds.
The Ione, California native had the nose of the white No. 63 driven by the two-time USAC Silver Crown champ and winner of the last two "Bettenhausen 100" races right on his tail for the final 25 laps after Swanson had put on one of his patented late-race clinics down the stretch.
Intimidation was not in Grant's vocabulary on this day as he was able to stave off Swanson's charges in the final laps, including a green-white-checkered finish to capture his first career USAC Silver Crown Champ Car Series presented by TRAXXAS victory in his Carli-Hemelgarn Racing/Carli Motorsports - Hemelgarn Enterprises/DRC/Speedway Ford. In the process, he became the first driver to get his first series win at the Springfield Mile since fellow Californian Cole Whitt in 2009.
"With Kody behind you, you want to start running the thing harder because you know he's so good," Grant explained. "At the same time, that's what he's so good at. He gets you to run your car harder, miss your marks and burn your stuff up. I just knew we had to keep doing what we were doing without making a mistake. I couldn't leave anything out there. I had to run it hard, but I still had to hit my marks. The guys on the radio were telling me to just keep doing what I was doing and I'd be fine."
Grant began his race from the outside of the front row, using a big run on the outside to snare the lead from ProSource pole winner Jerry Coons, Jr. on the opening lap heading into turn one, instantly building a four-car-length lead by the time the field hit the back straight.
Meanwhile, three-time "Bettenhausen 100" winner Brian Tyler had clicked his way from 10th to 5th by the opening lap. Notorious for his steadfast movement through the field throughout his career, Tyler's three Springfield wins had come from starting positions of 21st, 16th and 14th!
On the lap 20 restart, third-running Chris Windom's car didn't get up to speed when the green flag fell. As the rest of the field scrambled to avoid him, Keith Burch, making his Silver Crown debut, made hard contact with the outside turn one wall. He was able to climb out of the car under his own power, but was done for the day.
By lap 36, Tyler had climbed to second and sized up Grant to make his move for the lead to the outside entering turn three where he took charge and instantly pulled away to a 10-car-length advantage.
Grant had settled into his groove in second and used the strategy of following Tyler instead of engaging in a cat and mouse game that could wear out his tires. Even though that was the plan and he was going to stick to it, Grant admits his relative lack of experience in Silver Crown compared to Tyler (most starts in series history at 192) didn't give him complete confidence until he saw the condition of the right rear rubber on Tyler's car past the halfway mark.
"I haven't done this long enough to say there's no question that I'd get back by him," Grant said. "That was the thought. It's a long race and my crew said Tyler was running pretty hard to get by us. We just had to let him do his thing. From my view, it looked like his tire was flapping around like it was blistered. That made me a little more confident and I knew I just had to keep the thing straight and not try to catch him. I just needed to run behind him and let him use his stuff up."
Opportunities to gain positions are abundant on restarts, and on the lap 57 edition, a scramble assumed in the middle of the pack, sending Zach Daum helicoptering down the front straightaway upside down before coming to a rest up against the turn one wall. He would walk away from the frightening accident unscathed.
Under the open red flag, several teams made adjustments to their cars, but not Grant's crew. However, it gave the team a chance to inspect their car, mainly the tires, where they determined that changes were unnecessary. They liked what they saw and had full intentions to ride it out to the finish.
"We didn't make any changes during the red. We just left it alone," Grant said. "It was nice for confidence because our guys got to look at the tires and saw we had a ton of tire left. Starting up front sure helps that a lot because you don't have to race your way through. You can go into conservation mode earlier and keep the tires under it. The plan for the last 44 laps was to keep conserving. At around 40 laps, it's basically a sprint car race - a long, abrasive sprint car race."
On the lap 57 restart (part deux), it was déjà vu for Grant who mimicked the same move used on the original start to blast around the outside of Tyler to take the lead. Lurking in the shadows, though, was Swanson after methodically picking his way from ninth.
Swanson peered around the outside of Coons for third entering turn one on lap 69. A lap later, he used a run down the front straight, swapping to the inside of Coons to beat him to the inner rail for the position in turn one with 30 to go. Five laps later, Tyler was within Swanson's range. Swanson pulled the trigger and fired off around the outside of the two-time USAC National Sprint Car champ in turn one for second with only a quarter of the race remaining.
From there, Swanson gnashed the loudpedal with his right foot, erasing three-tenths of a second per lap as he put the chase on Grant for the lead. By lap 80, though, Grant gapped Swanson slightly, rebuilding his lead to just a tick over a second with just 20 laps remaining, almost as if it were by design.
"Once we get inside 20 to go, that's when we turn it loose," Grant explained. "That's about the same time Swanson started to turn his loose too. Once we get inside 10 to go, you got to hustle it for all she's worth."
With 17 laps to go, third-running Tyler's magnificent run came to an end as he slowed to a stop on the high side of turn four to bring out the yellow, ending his bid for a fourth "Bettenhausen" win. He finished 21st.
On the restart with 14 laps to go, it became a two-horse race as the two jockeys - Grant and Swanson - separated themselves from the rest of the pack by a half-straightaway. Grant maintained a three to four-car length lead over Swanson when Leary's day came to end while running fourth, slowing to a stop at the entrance of turn one, thus necessitating a yellow. That set up a green-white-checkered finish, providing Swanson one last shot at Grant.
"You have to use the racetrack to make your car better if you're going to try to win," Swanson said. "I found something with the racetrack to try to help put us up there. I felt like we gained on him a lot in those two laps before the caution from where I had been. When the caution came out, I thought, if I do it right, I have a chance. I can't say I thought I was going to win. The best I could hope for was a chance. These restarts in Silver Crown are tough. If you're struggling taking off, you're a sitting duck. That's something that's been tough for us at times."
And, that's exactly what happened. When the green flag fell, Grant scooted away while Swanson's car didn't get up to speed right away. That gave fourth-running Jeff Swindell exactly what he needed and he jumped at the chance, roaring to the outside of both Swanson and Coons to move from fourth to second. Swanson maintained his composure and used a drive on the bottom of turn two to get back by Swindell for the runner-up spot.
Justin Grant leads Kody Swanson to the finish line to win Saturday's 'Bettenhausen 100' at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield. (Brendon Bauman Photo)
However, Grant was too far gone at that point as he flashed out front to an eight-car-length lead where he'd finish off his masterful drive to win by just under seven tenths of a second over Swanson, Swindell, Coons and Dave Darland.
After an arduous season that began with high expectations, Grant's team has been plagued with a myriad of issues that produced zero top-five finishes in seven series starts this season. It's enough to shake one's confidence, but the effort and the speed were there. Lady luck just needed to fall on their side.
"For a while, I thought this win was coming," Grant believed. "Then, I started wondering if I was ever going to win one. This year has been tough. We've had a lot of gremlins through nobody's fault. I've made some mistakes and we've just had some weird things going on with the car, just stuff that you wouldn't expect to go wrong. We had speed all year. It just felt like everything was working against us. To finally get a win for (car owners) Chris Carli and Ron Hemelgarn means a lot. Those guys have put a lot of effort and money into this deal and it feels great to get them one."
After two-straight "Bettenhausen 100" wins in 2014 and 2015, Kingsburg, California's Swanson had to settle for second in his DePalma Motorsports/Radio Hospital - Hampshire Racing Engines/Maxim/Hampshire Chevy. With that said, it was a hard-fought, honorable effort. It was a day that began with one issue after another on the car, but the team stuck with it and, as they do more often than not, they ended up in a position to win at the end of a 100-mile race.
"The only thing I could do is drive in harder and make sure Justin had to earn it," Swanson said. "I couldn't roll the center or get off the corner as good as he could. I pressured him to make a mistake and he didn't. He earned it today."
"I knew early our only chance to win was if we could save better than everyone," Swanson explains. "A lot of good cars were starting in front of us. We had issues in practice and qualifying. Afterward, we changed the steering gear and the pump hoping to help it. Unfortunately, that wasn't it. But, that's why I love these 100-mile races. It gives you time to figure it out. I was trying to save my tires as best as I could and when it came time to go, we had to make some pretty bold moves to get up through there. We did everything we could to put us in a position to win. We don't quit. That's what makes us strong in these long races.
Swanson makes due with what he has and what he has is a great combination that has worked highly-successfully over the past four years and, this year, has allowed him to extend his series point lead to 96 heading into the "Ted Horn 100" at the Du Quoin (Ill.) State Fairgrounds on Sept. 3.
"A lot of guys will have cockpit adjustable shocks, weight jackers and all of that," Swanson begins. "Of all the races I've driven the No. 63 dirt car, all I've had is a brake, a throttle and a steering wheel. You drive it, you use the racetrack and figure it out. The track will change. Maybe the rubber will lay a little differently. Maybe you use the brake a little differently. Maybe you do something with your steering and your timing with how you use the pedals to make the car work for you. They set it up and I drive it to try to get the most I can out of it. Sometimes you have to drive smarter than those guys to put yourself in a position to win. Sometimes you just want it more. You just drive it into the corner harder than the other guy. We made up a lot of ground that way today."
"I feel like racing's a relay," Swanson continued. "It's a team sport. Everyone on the crew does a great job, but then the baton is handed to the driver last. When the green drops, it's up to me to figure it out, good bad or indifferent. Whether it's minimizing mistakes or trying to make something happen, it's your job to go out there and give everything you have to win for your team. today. Today, we just came up one short."
Another Swanson who had a solid day is car owner Mark Swanson whose driver, Jeff Swindell of Germantown, Tennessee, drove to his second-straight podium finish with the Silver Crown Series after finishing runner-up at Du Quoin in September of 2016 in his Swanson Racing/Jet Star - Rosewood Machine & Tool - Jeff Freel/Maxim/Toyota. Swindell, the longtime, versatile racing veteran, has Indiana State Fairgrounds and Du Quoin State Fairgrounds victories on his great resume, but will have to wait another year to pick up a first Springfield victory following an incredible charge from 28th to 3rd to pick up KSE Racing Products Hard Charger honors for the afternoon. Swindell explains the process of running a successful 100-lap on a dirt mile.
"Here at Springfield, it's really a tire burner," Swindell said. "You have to pace yourself for the first half of the thing and just put yourself in a position to take a spot when somebody messes up in front of you. You try to get a feel on the starts before falling into line and waiting on somebody to give you the spot. You don't want to press it too much. When you see a hole open, you got to jump in it. You just don't want to lean on the power too much because you have to make it last. I kind of overdid it and that made the tire worse than what I wanted it to be at the end. It went down on us a little bit. I think it had a little hole in it, which had some effect on it.
"On the restarts, the little Toyota took off pretty good," Swindell credits. "It stutters for about 30 feet, then it cleans up and really drives on. We passed cars on the restarts all day. I really didn't think we'd be able to do that once we got into fourth. I thought all those guys would take off on me. That thing jumped up and took off every time. I thought we were going to have a shot at them on the last laps. I ran up close to him going into three, made up a little ground and figured what the hell, I jumped into a podium. I can give it away or try going for the win. I drove it in a little too hard, but it was a good comeback from 28th to 3rd."
Contingency awards Saturday at the Illinois State Fairgrounds included Jerry Coons, Jr. (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Jeff Swindell (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and David Shain (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).
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USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES (presented by TRAXXAS) RACE RESULTS: August 19, 2017 - Springfield, Illinois - Illinois State Fairgrounds - "Bettenhausen 100"
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Jerry Coons Jr., 20, Nolen-29.988; 2. Justin Grant, 91, Carli/Hemelgarn-30.220; 3. J.C. Bland, 5, BBE-30.375; 4. Keith Burch, 24, Burch-30.464; 5. Chris Windom, 92, Kazmark-30.501; 6. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-30.539; 7. Dakota Jackson, 201, Nolen-30.540; 8. Joey Moughan, 29, Moughan-30.542; 9. David Shain, 7, Hardy-30.619; 10. Tyler Courtney, 97, Lein-30.704; 11. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-30.706; 12. Brian Tyler, 12, Galas-30.789; 13. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-30.824; 14. Dave Darland, 27, Phillips-30.846; 15. Shane Cottle, 81, Williams-30.849; 16. Steve Buckwalter, 53, SET-30.911; 17. Zach Daum, 14, McQuinn-30.975; 18. Damion Gardner, 6, Klatt-31.004; 19. Patrick Bruns, 95, Full Throttle-31.010; 20. Casey Shuman, 55, Bateman-31.064; 21. Terry Babb, 42, Babb-31.141; 22. Russ Gamester, 51, Gamester-31.148; 23. Joss Moffatt, 32, Williams & Wright-31.311; 24. Patrick Lawson, 2, Lawson-31.489; 25. Korey Weyant, 99, Weyant-31.503; 26. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-31.530; 27. Chris Urish, 77, Urish-31.575; 28. Jeff Swindell, 21, Swanson-31.771; 29. Joe Liguori, 4, Liguori-31.852; 30. Danny Long, 44, Long-31.976; 31. Jacob Wilson, 07, WBR-31.991; 32. Chris Fetter, 88, Fetter-32.659; 33. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-33.510; 34. Hunter Schuerenberg, 120, Nolen-NT; 35. Kenny Gentry, 18, Gentry-NT; 36. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-NT; 37. Brady Bacon, 48, Martens-NT; 38. Shane Cockrum, 71, Hardy-NT; 39. A.J. Fike, 3, RFMS-NT; 40. Austin Nemire, 16, Lesko-NT.
FEATURE: (100 laps) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Kody Swanson, 3. Jeff Swindell, 4. Jerry Coons Jr., 5. Dave Darland, 6. Shane Cottle, 7. Aaron Pierce, 8. David Byrne, 9. Joe Liguori, 10. Steve Buckwalter, 11. Jacob Wilson, 12. Patrick Lawson, 13. David Shain, 14. Matt Goodnight, 15. Joss Moffatt, 16. Chris Fetter, 17. Damion Gardner, 18. Chris Urish, 19. C.J. Leary, 20. Tyler Courtney, 21. Brian Tyler, 22. Korey Weyant, 23. Casey Shuman, 24. J.C. Bland, 25. Chris Windom, 26. Zach Daum, 27. Austin Nemire, 28. Joey Moughan, 29. Keith Burch, 30. Dakota Jackson, 31. Terry Babb, 32. Patrick Bruns, 33. Russ Gamester, 34. Danny Long. NT
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**Daum flipped on lap 57 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-35 Grant, Laps 36-56 Tyler, Laps 57-100 Grant.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER AWARD: Jeff Swindell (28th to 3rd)
WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: David Shain
NEW USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP (presented by TRAXXAS) POINTS: 1-K.Swanson-554, 2-Coons-458, 3-Windom-439, 4-Byrne-372, 5-Grant-360, 6-Bobby Santos-350, 7-Pierce-349, 8-Liguori-258, 9-Gardner-248, 10-Moffatt-242.
NEXT USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR RACE (presented by TRAXXAS): September 3 - Du Quoin, IL - Du Quoin State Fairgrounds - "Ted Horn 100"
BOAT SINKS PA MIDGET WEEK VICTORY NO. 2 IN LINDA’S USAC MIDGET DEBUT
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray - USAC Media / richie@usacracing.com
BOAT SINKS PA MIDGET WEEK VICTORY NO. 2 IN LINDA'S USAC MIDGET DEBUT
By: Richie Murray - USAC Media
Jonestown, Pennsylvania..... August 17, 2017 - The Keystone state suited Chad Boat like a glove during "Pennsylvania Midget Week" as the Phoenix, Arizona native capped the four-race series with his second victory of the week in the USAC Midget National Championship's debut at Linda's Speedway.
Like last year, Boat got into the flow when the calendar flipped to the month of August. In 2016, he won three of four to begin the month while this year, it was three of six with a "Belleville Midget Nationals" prelim win serving as a prelude to his two wins in Pennsylvania.
Chad Boat won Thursday night's USAC National & ARDC Midget event at Linda's Speedway in Jonestown, PA, his second victory of the week.(Steve Koletar Photo)
Boat's ownership of the month of August over the past two seasons may seem like a strange, coincidental anomaly, but to him, it makes perfect sense considering their racing schedule.
"Obviously, you'd like to start the season out faster," Boat acknowledges. "We were trying some different things at the beginning of the year, but now we've figured out what we like. I think a lot of it is because we run so few times a year. A lot of these guys will race 60 times this year while this is only our 21st race. That puts us at a little bit of a disadvantage and it takes us a little while to catch up."
From the get-go, Boat was silky smooth through the middle in his Tucker-Boat Motorsports/PristineAuction.com - K & C Drywall/Spike/Speedway Toyota as he powered away to an eventual one-and-a-half second lead by the 11th lap over Shane Golobic and Tyler Courtney as the front of the field began to wade into lapped traffic. Every car on the track ahead of Boat seemed to be involved in a furious, side-by-side battle for position, making navigating inside, outside or between them a treacherous chore that allowed Golobic to get close enough to stick his foot in the door.
However, a substantial break came to Boat just prior to the halfway point in the form of two simultaneous spins involving teammates Alex Bright and Andrew Layser at opposite ends of the racetrack to bring out the yellow. That instantly cleared out the traffic for Boat to provide him clear sailing ahead.
"Traffic was tricky," Boat admits. "I got to traffic and I wasn't that much better than them. They were kind of holding me up, so when that caution came, it fell at the right time."
Cautions inherently bring restarts and nobody was in the same zip code as Boat when it came to that category. Time-and-time again, Boat used a monstrous surge when the green flag dropped to capture a healthy advantage.
"It goes back to our engines that make us take off so well," Boat praised. "I definitely wanted to find the grip and I knew if I put my car where the grip was, I'd have a great restart. Usually, you can tell if you're having a good restart or not. I also tried to change it up as much as I could to keep Shane guessing on what I was going to do. I felt comfortable with Shane behind me. He's one of the cleanest drivers in the field. If he was better than me, he'd get by me. If he wasn't better than me, we'd race it out to the end."
'Obviously, you'd like to start the season out faster. We were trying some different things at the beginning of the year, but now we've figured out what we like. I think a lot of it is because we run so few times a year. A lot of these guys will race 60 times this year while this is only our 21st race. That puts us at a little bit of a disadvantage and it takes us a little while to catch up.' - Chad Boat (Michael Fry Photo)
On a lap 20 restart following a yellow brought about for a flat left rear tire on the car of ninth-place-running/ARDC point leader Ryan Greth, Golobic was able to stay within shirt-tugging distance of Boat for the first lap. Gradually, Boat got away, this time to a seven-tenths of a second clip two laps following the restart until action relented again when Eric Heydenreich flipped on the back straight entering turn three. He would walk away.
On the final restart with nine to go, Golobic was able to stick a nose underneath and pull even with Boat entering turn one. Boat was unfazed and remained on his line through the middle to inch ahead by the time the pair exited the second turn.
"I knew I could run as hard as I possibly could for nine laps, just like a heat race," Boat relayed. "I felt really good, especially in the first two laps after a restart. I started getting a little bit loose on entry and then slid up. I didn't know exactly where I wanted to be. I just knew if I kept running it hard and he showed me a nose, I could move down. He showed me a little bit of nose, so I moved down slightly in (turns) one and two."
Yet, in the final three laps, Golobic found new life as Boat's line began to fade slightly. Golobic dug out two-tenths per lap on the interval between he and Boat and, on the final lap, entering turn three for the final time, was able pull side-by-side briefly with Boat through the middle of the corner. Boat had the momentum higher up on the surface to clear Golobic and win his third of the month over Golobic, Spencer Bayston, Courtney and Justin Grant.
While many of the ARDC regulars have extensive experience at Linda's with it being a regular stop on their season schedule, it was the first appearance by USAC's National Midget contingent. You often hear a driver explain the difficulties of leading, which creates a situation behind them where they are not fully aware of how their closest competition is running and how they are adapting to the changes in the track.
That becomes doubly complicated when competing on a track for the initial time, yet it also evens the playing field when the track is an unknown quantity to everyone, as was the case Thursday night at Linda's.
"I just tried to stay aggressive, run it as hard as I could and not let the car slip," Boat explained. "I knew if I was driving forward, I had good bite and I could keep running there. I tried to move around; there was a hole in turn three that made it a little bit tricky. Shane (Golobic) was running below it and I was running above it. My line started wearing out a little bit in the end. I could feel myself getting looser and sliding up more on entry, so I was definitely glad to see the race coming to an end."
Contingency award winners Thursday night at Linda's Speedway include Brady Bacon (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Adam Pierson (Simpson Race Products 1st Heat Winner), Tanner Carrick (Competition Suspension, Inc. 2nd Heat Winner), Tyler Courtney (Chalk Stix/Indy Race Parts 3rd Heat Winner), Landon Simon (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Trevor Kobylarz (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).
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USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP & EASTERN REGIONAL MIDGETS PRESENTED BY ARDC RACE RESULTS: August 17, 2017 - Linda's Speedway - Jonestown, Pennsylvania - "Pennsylvania Midget Week"
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Brady Bacon, 76m, FMR-12.084; 2. Justin Grant, 39BC, Clauson/Marshall-12.091; 3. Tyler Courtney, 7BC, Clauson/Marshall-12.114; 4. Spencer Bayston, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.117; 5. Shane Golobic, 17w, Clauson-Marshall/Wood-12.131; 6. Chad Boat, 84, Tucker/Boat-12.149; 7. Holly Shelton, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.219; 8. Tanner Carrick, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.252; 9. Ryan Greth, 4R, Lesher-12.255; 10. Brayton Lynch, 1K, RKR-12.290; 11. Tanner Thorson, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.420; 12. Tony DiMattia, 50, TDM-12.428; 13. Adam Pierson, 76E, Mancini-12.534; 14. Brett Arndt, 46, Arndt-12.550; 15. Timmy Buckwalter, 29s, Seymour-12.551; 16. Kenny Miller, III, 23m, Miller-12.626; 17. Andrew Layser, 77L, Bright-12.631; 18. Landon Simon, 29, Clover-12.677; 19. P.J. Gargiulo, 5, JHG-12.773; 20. Eric Heydenreich, 11, Heydenreich-12.792; 21. Rob Marhefka, 99, FM-13.437; 22. Trevor Kobylarz, 14, RT-16.916; 23. Josh Heckman, 12, Heckman-NT; 24. Alex Bright, 77, Bright-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Pierson, 2. Shelton, 3. Bayston, 4. Bacon, 5. Lynch, 6. Miller, 7. Kobylarz, 8. Gargiulo. 2:09.39
COMPETITION SUSPENSION, INC. (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Carrick, 2. Thorson, 3. Grant, 4. Golobic, 5. Layser, 6. Heydenreich, 7. Arndt. 2:05.13
CHALK STIX/INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Courtney, 2. Boat, 3. Buckwalter, 4. Simon, 5. Greth, 6. DiMattia, 7. Marhefka. 2:07.38
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Chad Boat, 2. Shane Golobic, 3. Spencer Bayston, 4. Tyler Courtney, 5. Justin Grant, 6. Tanner Thorson, 7. Brady Bacon, 8. Holly Shelton, 9. Tanner Carrick, 10. Landon Simon, 11. Brayton Lynch, 12. Adam Pierson, 13. Trevor Kobylarz, 14. Brett Arndt, 15. Alex Bright, 16. Ryan Greth, 17. Kenny Miller III, 18. P.J. Gargiulo, 19. Timmy Buckwalter, 20. Eric Heydenreich, 21. Tony DiMattia, 22. Andrew Layser. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Boat.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Landon Simon (18th to 10th)
WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Trevor Kobylarz
NEW USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bayston-1293, 2-Bacon-1233, 3-Golobic-1219, 4-Thorson-1198, 5-Courtney-1171, 6-Grant-1167, 7-Boat-1032, 8-Shelton-933, 9-Carrick-857, 10-Jerry Coons, Jr.-808.
NEXT USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 23 - Eldora Speedway - Rossburg, Ohio - "4-Crown Nationals"
THORSON REPEATS USAC MIDGET WIN AT LANCO!
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray - USAC Media / richie@usacracing.com
THORSON REPEATS USAC MIDGET WIN AT LANCO!
By: Richie Murray - USAC Media
Newmanstown, Pennsylvania.....August 15, 2017 - One year ago at Lanco's Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway, Tanner Thorson needed all the heroics he could muster to pull off a last-lap, last corner pass to take the victory.
In Tuesday night's third round of "Pennsylvania Midget Week" with the USAC Eastern Midgets presented by ARDC at the 1/8-mile bullring, it was a relative comfort cruise for Thorson as he led all 40 laps to take his second USAC National Midget victory of the year in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/JBL Audio - TRD/Bullet by Spike/Speedway Toyota.
Lanco winner Tanner Thorson (#67) leads Brady Bacon in Tuesday night's 'Pennsylvania Midget Week' feature at Lanco's Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway. (Michael Fry Photo)
After a tumultuous 48-hour period that saw him lose his lead on the final restart on Sunday at Susquehanna, then some, shall we say, fireworks on the final lap of Monday's feature at Path Valley Speedway Park, Thorson was champing at the bit to return to the seat after seeing near victories go by the wayside the last two nights.
"Very, very eager." Thorson exclaimed. "I've learned to put my past races behind me. If you keep worrying about the stuff that happened the last couple of nights, you lose focus and forget what you're doing here today. The best thing you can do is go out there and do what you do best and put it behind you."
Thorson was the beneficiary of an outside front row starting position after an opening lap tangle between Clauson/Marshall Racing teammates Tyler Courtney and Justin Grant. Exiting turn two, Grant ramped over the right rear tire of Courtney's car, sending him flipping wildly, ending his night. After winning the "PA Midget Week" opener on the last lap at Susquehanna, Grant has found himself upside down on consecutive nights.
A double-file complete restart would move Thorson up a row from the outside of row two to the outside of row one alongside Courtney. Immediately, Thorson was gone and quickly dove down the bottom in front of Courtney to secure the position. The bottom would prove to be the place to stay on a heavy surface that was doused with moisture from Mother Nature over the past several days that didn't require the use of a water truck at any point in the track's preparation.
In most cases, you'd hear a driver describe the benefits of starting up front, but Thorson has a unique perspective contrary to the norm regarding where he prefers to begin his races. But after watching the prelims leading up to the 40-lap main event, Thorson changed his perspective, at least for this night.
"I was kind of glad I got to start on the outside of the front row," Thorson admits. "I had a feeling the track was going to stay on the bottom based on watching the micro sprint heats and B-mains. I'm not one who usually likes to start on the front row. I seem to lose more races starting on the front row than I do starting in the second or third row on back."
'I'm not here to race for points,' Thorson (middle) said. 'I'm going to take each race by itself as it comes. If I win, I win. If I don't, I want to run the best that I possibly can. I'm not going to dwell over worrying about points. Last year, I didn't do it one bit until the last couple of races. That's the plan this year and we'll see how it plays out. We come here to win and Keith (Kunz) has a lot of expectations for us because of his past success and the equipment that we're in. I'm really fortunate to be with the group of people I'm with.' (Rich Forman Photo)
"Last night, Brady (Bacon) ran a little different line than I was and that made me a sitting duck, not knowing what was going on behind me," Thorson expounds. "I like to be in that 2nd or 3rd row spot so I can have room to move around and find out which line is faster. I was kind of upset at first having to move up to the front row until we started and I saw that the track was moving down toward the bottom."
On the fourth lap, Brady Bacon got to the inside of Spencer Bayston entering turn three and was able to stick it on the bottom to claim second. Bacon led a combined 18 laps over the first two nights of "PA Midget Week" and put himself in position to make a bid for the lead if opportunity knocked.
Thorson would have to endure restart after restart, the last of which came after Holly Shelton and Kenny Miller, III got together on the back straightaway on lap 21, sending Shelton flipping multiple times. She walked away.
Consistency is the key when track position is so substantial. One slip up is all it takes and all could be lost as a freight train of cars drive by for the position. Thorson wasn't keen on letting that happen to him tonight.
"When the track's that heavy, the biggest thing is hitting your marks," Thorson notes. "The closer you could get to the infield tires, the better and not let anybody get underneath you. The way you could see the track forming up, nobody was running up there at all. It was rough and crumbly up there. It helps your mindset coming back from a yellow knowing that nobody's going to blow around you. I think that's a huge part of knowing the track and looking at it as you're rolling around there under the yellow."
With 19 to go, Thorson, Bacon and Courtney ran nose-to-tail, but gradually, Thorson kicked open the lead ever so slightly to leave Bacon and Courtney no chance down the stretch as Thorson drove away to his 12th career USAC National Midget win, tying him with a list of drivers that includes Danny Caruthers, Gene Force, Russ Gamester, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Grim and Ron Shuman. Bacon, Courtney, Bayston and Shane Golobic rounded out the top-five.
It was the second year in a row for Thorson to claim victory at Lanco, a place that he took to right from the get-go due to the similarities it shares with a track he grew up competing on regularly.
"It kind of reminds me of a go-kart track I raced at back home called Cycleland Speedway," Thorson explains. The track layout itself is the same, just a little bigger car and a little bigger track this time around."
Coming into August, Thorson stood 6th in the USAC Midget National Championship standings, 132 points out of the lead. After rattling finishes of 1st, 4th, 3rd, 2nd and 2nd in his first five starts of the month, and now another victory, Thorson finds himself 4th and 84 points back as he steadily makes a charge to become a back-to-back series champ, yet the Minden, Nevada native admits that hasn't played on his mind just yet.
"I'm not here to race for points," Thorson said. "I'm going to take each race by itself as it comes. If I win, I win. If I don't, I want to run the best that I possibly can. I'm not going to dwell over worrying about points. Last year, I didn't do it one bit until the last couple of races. That's the plan this year and we'll see how it plays out. We come here to win and Keith (Kunz) has a lot of expectations for us because of his past success and the equipment that we're in. I'm really fortunate to be with the group of people I'm with."
Contingency award winners Tuesday night at Lanco's Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway include Shane Golobic (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Justin Grant (Simpson Race Products 1st Heat Winner), Tim Buckwalter (Competition Suspension, Inc. 2nd Heat Winner), Alex Bright (Chalk Stix/Indy Race Parts 3rd Heat Winner), Landon Simon (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Andrew Layser (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).
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USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP & EASTERN REGIONAL MIDGETS PRESENTED BY ARDC RACE RESULTS: August 15, 2017 - Lanco's Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway - Spring Run, Pennsylvania - "Pennsylvania Midget Week"
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Shane Golobic, 17w, Clauson-Marshall/Wood-10.554; 2. Brady Bacon, 76m, FMR-10.672; 3. Tony DiMattia, 50, TDM-10.678; 4. Spencer Bayston, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.687; 5. Tanner Thorson, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.715; 6. Brayton Lynch, 1K, RKR-10.740; 7. Justin Grant, 39BC, Clauson/Marshall-10.751; 8. Tyler Courtney, 7BC, Clauson/Marshall-10.752; 9. Alex Bright, 77, Bright-10.858; 10. Chad Boat, 84, Tucker/Boat-10.871; 11. Timmy Buckwalter, 29s, Seymour-10.963; 12. Andrew Layser, 77L, Bright-11.005; 13. Ryan Greth, 4R, Lesher-11.020; 14. Tanner Carrick, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.047; 15. Holly Shelton, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.073; 16. Kenny Miller, III, 23m, Miller-11.175; 17. Landon Simon, 29, Clover-11.195; 18. Adam Pierson, 76E, Mancini-11.275; 19. Eric Heydenreich, 11, Heydenreich-11.437; 20. Shawn Jackson, 7J, Jackson-11.483; 21. Jimmy Glenn, 07, Glenn-11.672; 22. Tommy Kunsman, Jr., 21, Kunsman-11.859; 23. Kenney Johnson, 46x, Johnson-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Grant, 2. Golobic, 3. Bayston, 4. Miller, 5. Boat, 6. Heydenreich, 7. Greth. NT
COMPETITION SUSPENSION, INC. (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Buckwalter, 2. Carrick, 3. Thorson, 4. Simon, 5. Courtney, 6. Bacon, 7. Johnson, 8. Jackson. 1:51.30
CHALK STIX/INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Bright, 2. Pierson, 3. Layser, 4. Lynch, 5. Shelton, 6. DiMattia, 7. Glenn. NT
FEATURE: (40 laps) 1. Tanner Thorson, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Tyler Courtney, 4. Spencer Bayston, 5. Shane Golobic, 6. Chad Boat, 7. Timmy Buckwalter, 8. Tanner Carrick, 9. Tony DiMattia, 10. Landon Simon, 11. Kenny Miller, III, 12. Ryan Greth, 13. Andrew Layser, 14. Eric Heydenreich, 15. Holly Shelton, 16. Adam Pierson, 17. Brayton Lynch, 18. Alex Bright, 19. Tommy Kunsman, Jr., 20. Shawn Jackson, 21. Kenney Johnson, 22. Justin Grant. NT
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**Greth flipped during the first heat. Grant flipped on the opening lap of the feature. Shelton flipped on lap 21 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-40 Thorson.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Landon Simon (17th to 10th)
WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Andrew Layser
NEW USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bayston-1220, 2-Bacon-1170, 3-Golobic-1145, 4-Thorson-1136, 5-Grant-1098, 6-Courtney-1098, 7-Boat-954, 8-Shelton-877, 9-Jerry Coons, Jr.-808, 10-Carrick-803.
NEW USAC EASTERN REGIONAL MIDGETS PRESENTED BY ARDC POINTS: 1-Greth-1317, 2-Bright-1174, 3-Miller-1102, 4-Pierson-1044, 5-Jackson-1019, 6-Layser-810, 7-Trevor Kobylarz-764, 8-Brett Arndt-754, 9-Josh Heckman-705, 10-Kunsman, Jr.-678.
NEXT USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: August 17 - Linda's Speedway - Jonestown, Pennsylvania - "Pennsylvania Midget Week"
SUPERSIZED SILVER CROWN CAR COUNT EXPECTED AT SPRINGFIELD SATURDAY
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray - USAC Media / richie@usacracing.com
SUPERSIZED SILVER CROWN CAR COUNT EXPECTED AT SPRINGFIELD SATURDAY
By: Richie Murray - USAC Media
Five past "Bettenhausen 100" winners headline the expected list of entrants for this Saturday's 81st appearance of champ car racing at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield.
#3 A.J. Fike and #81 Shane Cottle battle at Springfield in 2015.
Kody Swanson leads the USAC Silver Crown Champ Car Series presented by TRAXXAS standings coming into the Springfield Mile August 19. Swanson arrives as the winner of the two most recent editions of the "Bettenhausen 100" in 2014 and 2015. Swanson picked up his third win of the season last Saturday night on the Salem (Ind.) Speedway high-banked paved oval. His 18th win moved the Kingsburg, Calif. native into sole possession of second on the series' all-time win list ahead of Brian Tyler.
Four of Tyler's 17 career Silver Crown victories came at the "Bettenhausen 100" in 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2011. The Pleasant Garden, North Carolina resident will wheel a car for Illinois owner Robert Galas.
Three-time "Bettenhausen 100" winner Dave Darland is sixth on USAC's Silver Crown win list with 14 wins, three of which came at Springfield in 1997, 1999 and 2003 for car owner Galen Fox. This Saturday, he and Phillips Motorsports, who've scored 17 USAC National Sprint Car wins together, shoot for their first Silver Crown victory as a team.
Darland's potential three-race win streak at Springfield was denied in 1998 by Peru, Indiana's Russ Gamester who, at 190 Silver Crown starts, is second all-time - one behind leader Tyler and one ahead of Darland. The 1989 USAC National Midget champ owns victories in all three USAC national divisions throughout his decorated racing career as he guns for Springfield win number two in the familiar red No. 51.
Among the Illini contingent is two-time "Bettenhausen 100" winner A.J. Fike, who won in back-to-back years in 2012 and 2013. The Galesburg driver will be pulling double-duty this weekend at Springfield aboard the RFMS Racing No. 3 Silver Crown car on Saturday and his ARCA Stock Car ride on Sunday.
Fike is among 11 Illinois natives expected to compete Saturday on the Mile, including defending Silver Crown champion Chris Windom of Canton, Illinois and northern Illinois car owner Gene Kazmark, who are both looking for their first triumphs at Springfield. Windom won the last series race held in Illinois on Labor Day Weekend 2016 at the Du Quoin (Ill.) State Fairgrounds, but has yet to win at Springfield.
The same story goes for Elkhart's Chris Urish and Benton's Shane Cockrum as well. Urish (2013) and Cockrum (2014 & 2015) have both won at the one-mile neighbor to the south in Du Quoin, but seek their firsts at Springfield. Shane Cottle, originally from Illinois, but now residing in Kokomo, Ind., has a Du Quoin win on his resume, but Springfield has eluded him thus far.
Though, not hailing from Illinois, Germantown, Tennessee's Jeff Swindell has won on both the Indy and Du Quoin one-mile dirt ovals in his career. The third jewel of a Triple Crown of sorts awaits the veteran driver of Mark Swanson's No. 21.
Additional Illinois entries include series veterans Terry Babb (Decatur), J.C. Bland (Springfield), Patrick Bruns (Champaign), Zach Daum (Pocahontas), Patrick Lawson (Edwardsville), Joey Moughan (Springfield), David Shain (Sullivan) and Korey Weyant (Springfield).
USAC champions taking their shot at a first Springfield win this Saturday are Tucson, Arizona's Jerry Coons, Jr., a 2008 Silver Crown titlist; five-time USAC/CRA AMSOIL Sprint Car champ Damion Gardner of Concord, California and two-time USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car champion Brady Bacon.
Ione, California's Justin Grant very well could follow Bacon as the next USAC National Sprint Car champ this season, but the current points leader still eyes his first Silver Crown win of any kind on Saturday.
The "Bettenhausen 100" schedule begins at 7am when pit gates open. Grandstands open at 9am, drivers meeting at 9:30am, Silver Crown practice at 10am-11:10am, ProSource Qualifying at 11:30am, Silver Crown Qualifying Race at 12:30pm and the 100-lap main event at 2pm.
Advanced adult tickets are $25. Day of Race Adult 12 and older tickets are $30. Children 11 and under are $10. Pit passes are $35. Children pit passes (11 and under) are $20. Infield tickets for adults are $20.00. Children 6-11 are $5. Children under 5 are FREE!
Watch flag-to-flag coverage of the "Bettenhausen 100" beginning a day after the event on http://www.Loudpedal.TV/.
"BETTENHAUSEN 100" EXPECTED DRIVER ENTRANTS
CAR # DRIVER / HOMETOWN / ENTRANT / SPONSOR / CHASSIS / ENGINE
07 JACOB WILSON/Crawfordsville, IN
Wilson Brothers Racing/Wilson's Towing - D.D. Eyes/Beast/Claxton Toyota
2 PATRICK LAWSON/Edwardsville, IL
Patrick Lawson/Mittler Brothers - Rebel Smokers/DRC/Chevy
3 A.J. FIKE/Galesburg, IL
RFMS Racing/Liberty Village - Office Specialists/Beast/Foxco
4 JOE LIGUORI/Tampa, FL
Liguori Racing/Sunshine Trailer Park - Kercher Engines/DRC/Kercher Chevy
5 ®J.C. BLAND/Springfield, IL
Bland Brothers Enterprises/Sam's Speed Shop - Bland Brothers Enterprises/Drinan/BBE Chevy
6 ®DAMION GARDNER/Concord, CA
Klatt Enterprises/Beast - Klatt Enterprises/Beast/Ford
7 ®DAVID SHAIN/Sullivan, IL
Hardy Boys Motorsports/Financial Transportation Services - Central Roofing//Maxim/Brown Chevy
12 BRIAN TYLER/Mount Pleasant, NC
Galas Motorsports/Magnum Rotating & Pumps/Beast/Galas Chevy
14 ZACH DAUM/Pocahontas, IL
Dennis & Dave McQuinn/McQuinn Motorsports - Cashless Racing/JR-1/Brown Chevy
16 AUSTIN NEMIRE/Sylvania, OH
Bob Lesko/Wayne Subaru - Bell Helmets/Beast/Chevy
18 KENNY GENTRY/Henderson, KY
Kenny Gentry/Engler Machine & Tool - KVKK Racing/Beast/Chevy
20 JERRY COONS, JR./Tucson, AZ
Gene Nolen/KECO - Indy Race Parts/Maxim/Tranter Chevy
21 JEFF SWINDELL/Germantown, TN
Swanson Racing/Jet Star - Rosewood Machine & Tool/Beast/Chevy
24 ®KEITH BURCH/Farmington, MO
Keith Burch/Drain Buster Plumbing Service - Boen's Signs/Beast/Kistler
26 AARON PIERCE/Muncie, IN
Sam Pierce/Tom Cherry Mufflers - Midwest Matt/Beast/Chevy
27 DAVE DARLAND/Lincoln, IN
Carla & Steve Phillips/Frank Daigh - Lucas Oil/Phillips/Foxco Chevy
29 JOEY MOUGHAN/Springfield, IL
Joey Moughan/Modern Paving & Scrap - Conaway Handyman Service/Maxim/Claxton Mopar
30 C.J. LEARY/Greenfield, IN
Chuck & Tammi Leary/Leary Construction - Gray Auto/DRC/1-Way Toyota
31 ®DAVE BERKHEIMER/Mechanicsburg, PA
Dave Berkheimer/Subway Auto Body - Macri Concrete/Drinan/Chevy
32 ®JOSS MOFFATT/Columbus, IN
Williams & Wright Racing/E3 Sparkplugs - Lucas Oil/Maxim/Williams
39 ®MATT GOODNIGHT/Winchester, IN
Goodnight Racing/Lumber & Things - Beale Enterprises/Maxim/Claxton
40 DAVID BYRNE/Shullsburg, WI
Byrne Racing/Stoops Freightliner Truck Country- Bytec Resource Management/Maxim/J & D Chevy
42 TERRY BABB/Decatur, IL
Terry Babb/Illini Aerofab - APT Powder Coating/Beast/Babb Chevy
44 DANNY LONG/Bonne Terre, MO
Danny Long/Farmington Auto Plaza - DMR Motorsports/Beast/Chevy
48 BRADY BACON/Broken Arrow, OK
Paul Martens/Martens Machine Shop/Maxim/Kistler Chevy
51 RUSS GAMESTER/Peru, IN
Gamester Racing/Gamester Green Gable Village/GRP/Toyota
53 STEVE BUCKWALTER/Royersford, PA
SET Racing/Heroes West Sports Grill/Beast/Brown Chevy
55 CASEY SHUMAN/Tempe, AZ
Patty Bateman/Chance's Chassis Repair/Beast/Foxco Chevy
63 KODY SWANSON/Kingsburg, CA
DePalma Motorsports/Radio Hospital - Hampshire Racing Engines/Maxim/Hampshire Chevy
71 SHANE COCKRUM/Benton, IL
Hardy Boys Motorsports/Financial Transportation Services - Infinity Shocks/Maxim/Brown Chevy
75 BILL ROSE/Plainfield, IN
Bill Rose Racing/Reliable Laser Screeding/Beast/Chevy
77 CHRIS URISH/Elkhart, IL
Chris Urish/Elkhart Fertilizer - Pacesetter Solutions/Beast/Foxco Chevy
81 SHANE COTTLE/Kokomo, IN
Curtis Williams/Jack's Auto Body - Roger Williams Precision Engines/Maxim/Williams Chevy
88 CHRIS FETTER/Troy, MO
Chris Fetter/Fetter Tile - F & S Collision/Beast/Foxco
91 JUSTIN GRANT/Ione, CA
Carli-Hemelgarn Racing/Carli Motorsports - Hemelgarn Enterprises/DRC/Speedway Ford
92 CHRIS WINDOM/Canton, IL
Gene Kazmark/Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing - Remin Kart-A-Bag/Maxim/Wallace Mopar
95 PATRICK BRUNS/Champaign, IL
Full Throttle Racing/Mobil 1 - Cain's Marine Welding/Beast/Speedway Toyota
97 ®TYLER COURTNEY/Indianapolis, IN
Hans Lein/Lein Acres/DRC/Stanton Mopar
99 ®KOREY WEYANT/Springfield, IL
Scott Weyant/Weebles Bar & Grill - Ealey Transportation/Beast/Automotive Machine
120 ®HUNTER SCHUERENBERG/Sikeston, MO
Gene Nolen/Roof Bolt Xpress - Wesco Trailers/Maxim/Tranter Chevy
201 ®DAKOTA JACKSON/Elizabethtown, IN
Gene Nolen Racing/The Cure Starts Now Foundation - KECO Coatings/Twister/Tranter
