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MESERAULL ALL FIRED UP IN LAKESIDE SPRINT VICTORY
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The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com
MESERAULL ALL FIRED UP IN LAKESIDE SPRINT VICTORY
Kansas City, Kansas June 26, 2016 ......... In a battle between the two most consistent drivers throughout the 2016 USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car season, Thomas Meseraull prevailed through the early rain and a brief fire on his car during a red flag period in the feature, sneaking underneath Brady Bacon on the bottom of turn four as the two raced to the white flag and holding on to take his second series victory of the year.
Heavy showers just prior to the original starting time delayed the proceedings for more than an hour. When the cars hit the track for the first time at a quarter after seven, it was evident the track was going to be heavy and hammer down.
Thomas Meseraull drove home the point in ProSource Qualifying, breaking Chase Stockon's one-day old USAC Sprint Car track record at the 4/10-mile dirt oval by more than three-tenths of a second. That would position the San Jose, California driver outside of the third row for the start of the 30-lap feature.
On the start, Dave Darland darted out front from the pole position to lead the opening lap with Brady Bacon in tow.
By the fifth lap, Bacon was challenging for the top spot as he worked the bottom and Darland held court up top. The next five circuits all appeared as mirror images of each other with Bacon edging ahead entering turn four and Darland using the momentum off the top to race past Bacon to reach the flagstand first each time.
On lap 10, Darland and Bacon encountered the lapped car of Terry Richards as the two entered turn three. With the line up on the cushion occupied by Richards, Darland switched lanes to the middle of the track between three and four. Bacon seized the opportunity, slipping by Darland on the bottom to take the point with 21 to go.
On the ensuing restart after a caution for the stopped car of Riley Kreisel, Bacon stretched his lead over Darland by a half-straight margin. But, by lap 20, Bacon had gained new company.
With 11 to go, Meseraull motored by Darland for second off the fourth turn and now had his radar locked on the distant Bacon.
In the midst of Bacon putting Clinton Boyles a lap down on the 22nd lap, Boyles vaulted over Bacon's right rear tire with his own left rear, sending Boyles hard into the turn two outside wall with the right rear wheel first before helicoptering around 360 degrees in mid-air, landing and flopping over to the right side, and then coming to a rest on all fours. Boyles was uninjured.
Under the red flag period that brought a stoppage to the action, flames began to shoot out of the left side of second-running Meseraull's machine. The safety crew was able to extinguish the fire, but not before the flames singed the left side body work of the Amati Racing number 66.
Though it appeared as a somewhat serious situation at first, Meseraull was able to restart without an issue from the second position, right on Bacon's tail for the lap 22 restart.
Bacon got a nice jump on the field on the restart, putting a little breathing room between himself and Meseraull up front.
Two laps later, Meseraull was able to close in a flash, amazingly laying down some of his fastest laps of the race during the late stretch of laps.
Like one of the ghosts in a game of Pac-Man, Meseraull tracked Bacon down, rapidly erasing the distance between himself and Bacon as the final handful of laps ticked away.
On lap 26, Meseraull was two car lengths back; on lap 27, one length back. On lap 28, Meseraull had Bacon in his crosshairs and was ready to fire.
Meseraull was able to pull even with Bacon midway down the back straightaway with two to go and, with the white flag in the air, Meseeraull pounced to the front to pull ahead of Bacon exiting turn four.
Meseraull finished out the night in the same manner he started it in qualifying: with his number 66 listed at the top of the scoreboard after taking the checkered flag in front of Bacon, Chris Windom, Chase Stockon and Chad Boespflug.
The familiar refrain "I've seen fire and I've seen rain" is a tune that played out to reality in Sunday night's event at Lakeside Speedway with competitors and fans able to withstand the rain early on as well as witness Meseraull's resilience, coming back from a burning car near the midway point of the feature to standing in victory lane at night's end after picking up his fourth career series win in his Amati Racing/Marion Underground Construction - Zeller Construction/DRC/Dynotech.
"I was chasing Brady (Bacon) and I finally decided I was maybe good enough to do something with him," Meseraull said. "I saw (Dave) Darland moving around people pretty good on the outside earlier, so I just got it in a little higher and got myself diamonded off of (turn) two. On that lap, Brady moved up just enough and I got underneath him. I love racing Brady. He gave me room and he raced me clean."
Broken Arrow, Oklahoma's Bacon grabbed second in his Dynamics, Inc./Mean Green - Lykins Oil/Triple X/Williams Mopar. Despite the disappointment of seeing the win slip through his fingers in the final laps, Bacon lost minimal ground - two points to be exact - in the championship race to Meseraull, his nearest challenger, after earning his seventh consecutive top-4 finish. He now holds a 59-point advantage heading into the 2nd annual "Bill Gardner Sprintacular" at Putnamville, Indiana's Lincoln Park Speedway on July 1.
"I had an extremely successful Midwest swing," Bacon noted. "I'm disappointed to come up short at the end here at Lakeside, but I can't complain too much about second-place. My tires went away a little after that red and I lost just enough grip that enabled (Meseraull) to get by."
Windom, of Canton, Illinois, drove his Baldwin Brothers Racing/Fox Paving - AMSOIL/Maxim/Claxton Mopar to a third-place finish Sunday night.
"Track position was a big key tonight," Windom acknowledged. "We qualified well and it put us up front. We anticipated to stay on the top, so we tightened the car up a little too much. We did a few things that hurt us when (the groove) moved to the bottom, but (the car) was actually really good around the bottom. We held on. We weren't a winning car tonight, but we'll take a top-three to finish off this weekend."
Fifth-place finisher Boespflug pocketed the Weld Racing $1000 bonus.
Contingency award winners at Lakeside included Thomas Meseraull (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Chris Windom (Simpson Race Products First Heat Race Winner), Chase Stockon (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Race Winner), Robert Ballou (Benic Enterprises/Indy Race Parts Third Heat Race Winner), Isaac Chapple (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Rob Caho, Jr. (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 26, 2016 - Kansas City, Kansas - Lakeside Speedway
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-16.712 (New Track Record); 2. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-16.871; 3. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-16.908; 4. Chris Windom 5, Baldwin-17.117; 5. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-17.139; 6. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-17.148; 7. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-17.212; 8. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-17.231; 9. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-17.291; 10. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-17.293; 11. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-17.297; 12. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-17.348; 13. Chris Parkinson, 65, Parkinson-17.507; 14. Joe Bares, 19, TEST-17.549; 15. Rob Caho, Jr., 78, Caho-17.592; 16. Riley Kreisel, 90, Smith-17.605; 17. Danny Thoman, 27, Thoman-17.787; 18. Clinton Boyles, 77, Hockett-17.844; 19. Wyatt Burks, 11R, Rumsey/Clausen-18.285; 20. Kenny Potter, 55, Potter-18.449; 21. Terry Richards, 18, TR's Tool Service-18.469; 22. Warren Johnson, 42, Johnson-NT, 23. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-NT; 24. Cody Baker, 9, Hall-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Windom, 2. Boespflug, 3. Farney, 4. Parkinson, 5. Meseraull, 6. Kreisel, 7. Burks, 8. Johnson. 2:22.40
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Stockon, 2. Simon, 3. Mellenberndt, 4. McGhee, 5. Chapple, 6. Potter, 7. Thoman, 8. Bares. NT
BENIC ENTERPRISES/INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Bacon, 3. Caho, 4. Darland, 5. Leary, 6. Boyles, 7. Richards. 2:20.21 (New Track Record)
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Thomas Meseraull, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Chris Windom, 4. Chase Stockon, 5. Chad Boespflug, 6. Dave Darland, 7. Isaac Chapple, 8. C.J. Leary, 9. Aaron Farney, 10. Landon Simon, 11. Robert Ballou, 12. Bret Mellenberndt, 13. Rob Caho, Jr., 14. Max McGhee, 15. Chris Parkinson, 16. Wyatt Burks, 17. Terry Richards, 18. Clinton Boyles, 19. Riley Kreisel, 20. Danny Thoman, 21. Kenny Potter, 22. Warren Johnson. NT
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**Bares flipped during the second heat.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-9 Darland, Laps 10-28 Bacon, Laps 29-30 Meseraull.
KSE HARD CHARGER: Isaac Chapple (22nd to 7th)
WELD RACING "MOVE OF THE NIGHT: Chad Boespflug
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,417, 2-Meseraull-1,358. 3-Stockon-1,277, 4-Ballou-1,252, 5-Darland-1,224, 6-Leary-1,174, 7-Boespflug-1,116, 8-McGhee-1,014, 9-Windom-978, 10-Farney-845.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: July 1 - Putnamville, Indiana - Lincoln Park Speedway - 2nd Annual "Bill Gardner Sprintacular"
BALLOU CRUISES TO SECOND STRAIGHT LAKESIDE SCORE
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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com
BALLOU CRUISES TO SECOND STRAIGHT LAKESIDE SCORE
Kansas City, Kansas- June 25, 2016 ......Lakeside Speedway has been very kind to Robert Ballou over the past two seasons and on Saturday night, the Rocklin, California driver returned to victory lane for the second consecutive time at the 4/10-mile track, leading all 30 laps from his pole-starting position.
On the initial lap of the main event, Ballou shot to the front for the advantage into turn one. Inside second row starter Thomas Meseraull followed suit and was able to pull even with Ballou at the stripe on the opening lap.
Lap three, Dave Darland, who's shown consistency of late, put his machine up on the cushion, using a highside flyer to dispose of Meseraull for the second spot and now had his sights set on the defending series champion and last year's Lakeside winner Ballou.
Ballou was masterful through lapped traffic in his dominant run above the cushion at the Kansas City dirt oval one season ago and, this time, he would meet the tail of the field on the ninth lap as the frontrunners set a torrid pace in the opening laps.
Quickly, Ballou, Darland and now Brady Bacon successfully weaved their way through a conglomeration of lapped cars, diving low and high to maintain momentum and stay in front of their nearest challenger.
As Ballou opened up a three-quarters of a straightaway length by the midway point, the battle intensified for the second position. Bacon and Darland ran side-by-side - Bacon low, Darland high - with Bacon able to get a run off of turn four to take second at the line.
With 13 laps to go, the feature's only yellow flew when the right rear of Isaac Chapple's came apart right in front of race leader Ballou. Ballou was able to dive to the inside to safety as shards of rubber scattered through the air between turns one and two.
On the ensuing restart, Bacon was able to pull even with Ballou as the two entered the second corner, but Ballou was able to jet off the top to reclaim the point down the back straightaway.
On lap 21, Darland used the outside line to swing past Bacon for second, but almost immediately, Bacon clawed back, retaking the position from Darland for good at the entrance to turn one.
Meanwhile, Ballou had stretched his lead out and, with five laps to go, the only thing that stood in his way of claiming another Lakeside triumph was the Kansas City rush hour traffic.
Ballou sliced, diced, minced and chopped his way through the back of the field, making it look easy as he cruised to victory by 1.395 seconds over Bacon, Darland, Meseraull and Chris Windom.
Ballou led the event wire-to-wire in his Ballou Motorsports/Blakesley Auto - Rossie Feed & Grain/Maxim/Ott for his third victory USAC National Sprint Car victory of the 2016 season.
"Starting on the front row, especially after the track rework, I was worried about whether the top or bottom would be better," Ballou said. I ran the bottom early, but almost stayed down too long before I got back up. I got back up and got my momentum going. By the end, I was attacking traffic hard because I knew those guys were right there. I hurt my tires by the end. They were pretty well used up and I was sliding around. I just tried to stay high and keep my momentum up and that was probably the key there."
Brady Bacon's consistency of late has put him squarely in the driver's seat of the series point standings. His second place finish at Lakeside in his Dynamics, Inc./Mean Green - Lykins Oil/Triple X/Williams Mopar netted him his sixth straight top-four finish and, thus, provided him a 61-point advantage - his largest lead of the season - as the series heads into night two of back-to-back nights at Lakeside on Sunday.
"Robert (Ballou) got through traffic pretty aggressively and got through there good and I didn't quite clear a couple lap cars soon enough to get where I needed to be," Bacon said. It just cost me a little bit of time. "I got close to him on a restart, but it's hard to beat Ballou from the pole. He's not really going to mess up too bad. The bottom just didn't stick around at the end long enough to be able to run very hard. It was a fun race, though, and hopefully we get a good track again tomorrow."
Lincoln, Indiana's Dave Darland has had a successful week, earning a 5th in Jackson, Minn. on Thursday and a pair of third-place finishes Friday night in Eagle, Neb. and Saturday night at Lakeside in his Jeff Walker-Curb-Agajanian Racing/Jam-It-In Storage - Hoosier Tire/Maxim/Claxton.
"We had a good car early," Darland acknowledged. "Robert (Ballou) was running the bottom and I was sneaking up on him. If he had run the bottom maybe one more lap, we could've got him, maybe, maybe not, but we were coming. He apparently heard me. I told (team owner Jeff Walker) I was going to be quiet coming up there and I don't know if he heard me or what, but he did move up at just the right time. We were great early, but with ten laps to go, we got way too tight. I couldn't really run the cushion with authority. Every time I caught lapped traffic, I didn't seem to catch them at the right time. But we're still happy to get out of here with a podium finish. We're sneaking up on getting some wins; we're getting better and we're looking forward to the future."
Contingency award winners at Lakeside included Chase Stockon (ProSource Fast Qualifier & Simpson Race Products First Heat Race Winner), Brady Bacon (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Race Winner), Chad Boespflug (Benic Enterprises/Indy Race Parts Third Heat Race Winner) and Bret Mellenberndt (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger & Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 25, 2016 - Kansas City, Kansas - Lakeside Speedway
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-17.015 (New Track Record), 2. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-17.199; 3. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-17.305; 4. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-17.423; 5. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-17.512; 6. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-17.513; 7. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-17.529; 8. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-17.557; 9. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-17.564; 10. Chris Windom 5, Baldwin-17.663; 11. Joe Bares, 19, TEST-17.728; 12. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-17.804; 13. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-17.896; 14. Riley Kreisel, 90, Smith-18.024; 15. Chris Parkinson, 65, Parkinson-18.192; 16. Rob Caho, Jr., 78, Caho-18.502; 17. Mike Ell, 99, Ell-18.759; 18. Clinton Boyles, 77, Hockett-18.984; 19. Kenny Potter, 55, Potter-19.230; 20. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-NT; 21. Warren Johnson, 42, Johnson-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Stockon, 2. Windom, 3. Meseraull, 4. Leary, 5. Caho, 6. Potter. 2:23.55
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. Farney, 3. McGhee, 4. Bares, 5. Ell, 6. Mellenberndt, 7. Kreisel. NT
BENIC ENTERPRISES/INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Boespflug, 2. Ballou, 3. Darland, 4. Boyles, 5. Parkinson, 6. Simon, 7. Johnson. 2:26.93
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Dave Darland, 4. Thomas Meseraull, 5. Chris Windom, 6. Chase Stockon, 7. Chad Boespflug, 8. Aaron Farney, 9. C.J. Leary, 10. Max McGhee, 11. Riley Kreisel, 12. Clinton Boyles, 13. Bret Mellenberndt, 14. Joe Bares, 15. Chris Parkinson, 16. Rob Caho, Jr., 17. Kenny Potter, 18. Landon Simon, 19. Isaac Chapple, 20. Mike Ell, 21. Warren Johnson. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Ballou.
KSE HARD CHARGER: Bret Mellenberndt (20th to 13th)
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,339, 2-Meseraull-1,278, 3-Ballou-1,203, 4-Stockon-1,203, 5-Darland-1,163, 6-Leary-1,121, 7-Boespflug-1,051, 8-McGhee-972, 9-Windom-903, 10-Farney-793.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: June 26 - Kansas City, Kansas - Lakeside Speedway
- The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com
TANNER SWANSON BEATS THE RAIN,
THE LIGHTNING AND THE WINDOM
IN GATEWAY SILVER CROWN SHOWDOWN
Madison, Illinois June 25, 2016 ... Tanner Swanson maintained his dominance of the paved ovals on the USAC Silver Crown series schedule, winning his fourth race in his last five appearances on the hardtop, warding off threatening skies and an old-fashioned Midwestern thunderstorm in Saturday afternoon's Vatterott College "Silver Crown Showdown" at the series largest venue, the 1.25-mile Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Illinois.
Tanner began the race from the pole position after taking ProSource Fast Qualifier honors earlier in the day, slotting him to start alongside his older brother, two-time defending series champ Kody Swanson.
Kody out-drag-raced Tanner into the first turn on the opening lap, but a substantial factor on the longer paved circuits is drafting and both Tanner and Chris Windom would demonstrate that fact as the top-three exited turn four at the conclusion of lap one.
Tanner was able to line up behind Kody's tail tank and quickly erase the gap, slipstreaming by on the inside with Windom in tow to take the top-two spots as Kody dropped to third.
However, dropping two positions early in a 75-mile race was the least of Kody's worries. On the ninth lap, Kody's engine began to sound sour as he took a dramatic drop in speed while he lumbered down the front straightaway.
One lap later, as Kody entered turn one, one of the worst nightmares a driver can face - a stuck throttle - became his reality.
Just before the turn, Kody was hard on the brakes, veering hard left as he mowed through the infield grass and rumble strips before careening up the track and making near head-on contact with the SAFER Barrier.
Dark, heavy skid marks left by the four tires of Kody's machine were highly visible on the pavement surface from the moment of realization of the stuck throttle until the moment of contact with the wall. Kody was uninjured.
During the lengthy yellow flag for the cleanup, lightning could be seen within the vicinity of the speedway. Fans were directed to exit the grandstands as a precaution, but since the track was dry, the racing resumed on lap 21.
With storms imminent, the urge to get to the front in a timely manner weighed heavily on each competitor as their race could be interrupted at the drop of a hat, and the drop of precipitation.
Just one lap after the restart, on lap 22, Tanner made a bid for the lead, chattering his teeth as he rode his left side wheels over the rigid turn one rumble strips to get by Windom, to no avail.
On the 27th circuit, Tanner used the draft to his advantage, running down leader Windom on the inside of turn three. Tanner ran his line a little wide as he entered the corner side-by-side, forcing Windom just a tad out of the groove at the bottom of the corner. It was just enough to slow Windom down and allow Tanner to slip by for the lead just three laps shy of the halfway point.
Meanwhile, young Austin Nemire was putting in his best performance in his year-and-a-half of Silver Crown series experience. Nemire had reeled in the two leaders, coming within roughly five car-lengths of Windom in second as the trio separated themselves from the rest of the field.
As flagman Tom Hansing threw up the crossed sticks indicating the halfway point, the temps had cooled considerably and the winds flared up as the sun-drenched St. Louis afternoon quickly became a distant memory and the main race now became the sprint to defeat the rain before the checkered.
In the second half of the race, Tanner, little-by little, was able to open up his lead over Windom as Nemire began to fade somewhat in the third spot.
With 10 to go, Tanner's lead was three-plus seconds over Windom and his time up front went undaunted the rest of the way, except for a little precipitation on the white flag lap.
Tanner grabbed his first career victory at Gateway, leading the final 34 laps to defeat a distant Windom, who led 25 in the first half of the 60-lap event while Nemire, David Byrne and Joe Liguori rounded out the top-five.
During Tanner's victory lane celebration, the skies finally relented, opening up a deluge of rain upon fans and competitors alike. But, it was not enough to throw a damper on the Kingsburg, California native's celebration after racking up his second series victory of the season in his Bowman Racing/Bowman Properties - Bowman-Elmore Racing/Beast/Kistler Chevy.
"That was an exciting race," Tanner exclaimed. "We were worried about the rain the entire time, but I feel like I wore my car out trying to get by Chris (Windom). We started picking up a vibration, but I don't know if that's just me being worried or what, but I think we were on seven cylinders there at the end. It's just a testament to how good the Bowman guys got this car to cut the corners and give us a chance to win."
St. Louis resident and Canton, Illinois native Windom, took over the series point lead from Kody Swanson with his second-place finish in his RPM-Fred Gormly/RPM Auto Enterprise - Seals-It/Beast/J & D Mopar. He now leads the points by 11 over the two-time defending series champion. The 60-lap Gateway race was just one of the many adventures Windom was taking part in during a 24-hour period from Friday night to Saturday night.
He competed in Friday night's USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car feature at Eagle (Neb.) Raceway before heading straight to Gateway via truck-ride on minimal sleep to be at the track in time for a 8:20am drivers' meeting. After his runner-up finish at Gateway, Windom hurried to the airport so he could hop on a flight to Kansas City, Kansas to participate in Saturday night's USAC Sprint event at Lakeside Speedway, where he arrived just in time for qualifying.
"I just need to thank all my guys who withstood the heat all day and gave me a great racecar," said a pleased Windom. "Evan (Avart) gave me a car to win with today and I think I just pressed too hard early trying to hold Tanner off. Congrats to him and his team; they are definitely the guys to beat right now on the pavement side. I'm very happy to come out with a second place run and be able to move into the points lead. I know it would mean a lot to (car owners) Fred & Gloria (Gormly) to be able to win a championship as it would to me. Hopefully we can keep this streak of momentum rolling and click off a few more wins and the points will come with that."
Sylvania, Ohio's Austin Nemire looked strong in a career-best third place finish in his Ron Hemelgarn/Hemelgarn Enterprises/Beast/Speedway Ford.
"It was definitely an experience for being my first time there," Nemire admitted. "The track was fast all day long and we kept gaining on it. A few things went our way and we ended up with my best finish in a Crown car, so we're all pretty happy!"
Contingency award winners at Gateway Motorsports Park included Tanner Swanson (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Joe Liguori (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Tad Roach (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).
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USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 25, 2016 - Madison, Illinois - Gateway Motorsports Park - Vatterott College "Silver Crown Showdown"
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Tanner Swanson, 02, Bowman-31.462; 2. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-31.714; 3. Jerry Coons, Jr., 20, Nolen-31.979; 4. Austin Nemire, 91, Hemelgarn-32.305; 5. Chris Windom, 98, RPM/Gormly-32.325; 6. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-32.336; 7. Justin Grant, 8, Carli-33.285; 8. Casey Shuman, 55, Bateman-33.374; 9. Joe Liguori, 99, RPM/Gormly-33.442; 10. Patrick Lawson, 2, Lawson-34.291; 11. Shane Cottle, 81, Williams-34.786; 12. Hunter Schuerenberg, 120, Nolen-35.835; 13. Tad Roach, 16, Logan-NT.
FEATURE: (60 laps) 1. Tanner Swanson, 2. Chris Windom, 3. Austin Nemire, 4. David Byrne, 5. Joe Liguori, 6. Justin Grant, 7. Casey Shuman, 8. Hunter Schuerenberg, 9. Jerry Coons, Jr., 10. Shane Cottle, 11. Kody Swanson, 12. Patrick Lawson, 13. Tad Roach. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 T. Swanson, Laps 2-26 Windom, Laps 27-60 T. Swanson
KSE HARD CHARGER: Joe Liguori (9th to 5th)
NEW SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Windom-320, 2-K. Swanson-309, 3-Grant-272, 4-Byrne-239, 5-Coons-236, 6-Cottle-235, 7-Shuman-221, 8-Nemire-212, 9-Bryan Clauson-177, 10-Shane Cockrum-154.
NEXT SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: July 21 - Brownsburg, Indiana - Lucas Oil Raceway - "Rich Vogler/Hall of Fame Classic"
BOESPFLUG BREAKS OUT FOR 3RD WIN OF SEASON AT EAGLE
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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com
BOESPFLUG BREAKS OUT FOR 3RD WIN OF SEASON AT EAGLE
Eagle, Nebraska -June 24, 2016 - Coming into the 2016 season, it had been three seasons since Chad Boespflug visited USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car victory lane. Now, as the calendar nears the edge of the month of June, the Hanford, California native found the perfect balance on both ends of the racetrack, running the bottom in turns one and two and the topside of turns three and four to perfection to grab his third series win of the year in Friday night's "Rumble in the Bullring" at Eagle (Neb.) Raceway.
On the start, Boespflug shot to the lead from the pole position, sliding up in front of fellow front row starter Isaac Chapple at the flag stand, occupying the high line into turn one. Chapple, the top-rookie in series points, fought back on the bottom of the back straightaway to take the lead from Boespflug.
As the frontrunners came out of turn four, Chapple was in the middle of a three-wide sandwich, just barely nipping Mellenberndt (inside) and Boespflug (outside) to lead the initial lap of the 30-lap feature. The lead was short-lived, however, as Boespflug would carry the momentum from the outside to retake the top spot on the second lap.
On the third circuit, third-running Stockon got squirrely through turn two, sliding sideways down the back straightaway as he wrestled to regain control of his machine. Max McGhee, with no place to go, plowed into the left side of Stockon's car. The two came to a stop, bringing out the race's first yellow. While both would require a visit to the work area in the pits, both would return to action.
Shortly after the restart, two drivers in a position to solidify their best result of their respective seasons - Chapple and Mellenberndt - waged war for second on lap six. Mellenberndt snuck his nose underneath Chapple at the exit of turn four, but Chapple's left rear tire ramped over the right front tire of Mellenberndt, send Mellenberndt with a collapsed front end straight up to the outside wall as C.J. Leary nailed the front end of Mellenberndt's stopped car.
Meanwhile, Robert Ballou, while trying to avoid getting caught in the incident, veered left to steer away from contact. Just behind Ballou was Landon Simon, who ramped over the left side wheels of Ballou, sending him into a wild series of flips down the front straightaway. He was uninjured.
By lap seven, seventh-place starter and previous night's feature winner Brady Bacon had become a player, soaring around the outside of Chapple for second in turn two. Thirteenth place starter Dave Darland also got by the fading Chapple for third on the topside a half-lap later.
Three laps later, Darland, a two-time USAC Sprint Car winner at Eagle, made a bid for second on the bottom of turn two past Bacon, securing the post down the back stretch.
Bacon would remain within arm's length of Darland as the two closed the gap on leader Boespflug throughout the middle-stages of the race. An intense three-car clash between the three ensued, but was put to rest after the red flag was displayed for a Brandon Stevenson tumble on lap 15.
On the restart, Boespflug was able to put his car anywhere he pleased, maintaining his unique line lap-after-lap, running the bottom of turns one and two and up on the cushion in turns three and four.
On lap 17, Chris Windom and Thomas Meseraull became entangled coming off the fourth turn. Meseraull vaulted over Windom's left side wheels and landed on the sidewalls of his own left side tires while Windom was sent into a 360 degree spin. Though Windom continued on without coming to a stop, by rule, he had to restart from the tail of the field.
With Bacon glued to the bottom side of the racetrack and Darland up top, Bacon was able to grab the second spot for good with ten to go. However, Boespflug rode off into the distance, leading with a half-straight advantage with two-thirds of the race's story already written.
A lap 24 caution for McGhee's meeting with a turn three infield tire set up a six-lap shootout between Boespflug, Bacon and Darland. The Hoffman 69 came alive with Bacon at the controls in the final laps as he ran the short way around while Boespflug rode the fence.
With three to go, Bacon reached into his bag of tricks, briefly swapping lines to mimic Boespflug's tracks on the high-side of turns three and four before returning to the bottom one lap later.
Heading toward the final two turns on the final lap, Bacon appeared to edge slightly ahead of Boespflug between turns three and four, but Boespflug had the momentum, rocketing down the hill out of turn four toward the finish line to take the victory by 0.363 of a second for his third victory of the year, thereby quadrupling his USAC win total in the first four months of the 2016 season.
Rounding out the top-five behind Boespflug were Bacon, Darland, Meseraull and Ballou.
Boespflug's Eagle victory joins his "#LetsRaceTwo" Eldora Speedway victory back in May and his recent "Eastern Storm" triumph at New Egypt (N.J.) Speedway on his USAC resume this season. Boespflug led the final 29 laps in his NineEight Motorsports-EZR/Creative Finishing - Midwest Shades/Maxim/Claxton.
"I felt really comfortable ripping the top in (turns) three and four and I took my time up there on the last lap," Boespflug explained. "I could see Brady down there, but I knew I was getting a good run off of turn four. I tried to just start slowing down and making sure I hit my marks. We're kind of hit-and-miss right now, so we're working on a balance. These bigger, high-banked tracks seem to be to our liking right now, so if we can get the flatter tracks figured out we'll be good to go."
Broken Arrow, Oklahoma's Bacon earned his series-leading 13th top-five finish in 19 starts, taking second at the checkered in his Dynamics, Inc./Mean Green - Lykins Oil/Triple X/Williams Mopar and extending his point lead to 51 over Meseraull in the standings heading into back-to-back nights Saturday and Sunday at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas.
"The last five laps, somebody had hit the infield tire and knocked it out onto the track and that hurt me going into (turn) three because I couldn't stay on the bottom all the way around the other end," Bacon said. "I moved up the last few laps and started catching the crumbs and I wish I would've tried that a lap earlier because I almost got him at the checkered. Chad never messed up too bad, even though the track was tricky tonight. It was fun, though, to get to move around and get to run the top and bottom. We survived the bumper cars at the beginning and kept our momentum rolling."
Lincoln, Indiana's Dave Darland was the victor of the two most recent USAC Sprint races at Eagle in 2014 and 2015. On Friday night, Dave was in the hunt once again throughout the duration of the event, taking third at the finish in his Jeff Walker-Curb-Agajanian Racing/Jam-It-In Storage - Hoosier Tire/Maxim/Claxton.
"We were good early around the top and gained a lot of spots that way," Darland recalled. "The track was slick, so a lot of places you had to be easy on the throttle and try to hit the cushion at the right spot to carry enough speed. Those guys were getting off both corners really well, but we did what we could and we're happy with a podium."
C.J. Leary (ProSource Fast Qualifier & Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher), Brady Bacon (Simpson Race Products First Heat Race Winner), Ryan Kitchen (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Race Winner), Robert Ballou (Benic Enterprises/Indy Race Parts Third Heat Race Winner) and Dave Darland (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger).
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 24, 2016 - Eagle, Nebraska - Eagle Raceway - "Rumble in the Bullring"
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-13.247, 2. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-13.321; 3. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-13.417; 4. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-13.439; 5. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-13.503; 6. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-13.568; 7. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.571; 8. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-13.614; 9. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-13.626; 10. Rob Caho, Jr., 78, Caho-13.685; 11. Chris Windom 5, Baldwin-13.827; 12. Joe Bares, 19, TEST-13.828; 13. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-13.880; 14. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-13.902; 15. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-13.982; 16. Clinton Boyles, 77, Hockett-13.995; 17. Ryan Kitchen, 21, Kitchen-14.086; 18. Terry Richards, 18, TR's Tool Service-14.427; 19. Brandon Stevenson, 0, Stevenson-14.626; 20. Alex Schriever, 0x, Davis-14.677.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. Darland, 3. Leary, 4. Mellenberndt, 5. Caho, 6. Stevenson, 7. Boyles. NT-
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Kitchen, 2. Simon, 3. Farney, 4. Chapple, 5. Stockon, 6. Schriever, 7. Windom. 2:02.07
BENIC ENTERPRISES/INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Boespflug, 3. Meseraull, 4. McGhee, 5. Richards, 6. Bares. 1:59.60
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Chad Boespflug, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Dave Darland, 4. Thomas Meseraull, 5. Robert Ballou, 6. Rob Caho, Jr., 7. Ryan Kitchen, 8. Chris Windom, 9. Aaron Farney, 10. Joe Bares, 11. Isaac Chapple, 12. Alex Schriever, 13. C.J. Leary, 14. Chase Stockon, 15. Max McGhee, 16. Clinton Boyles, 17. Brandon Stevenson, 18. Terry Richards, 19. Bret Mellenberndt, 20. Landon Simon. NT
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**Simon flipped on lap 6 of the feature. Stevenson flipped on lap 14 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Chapple, Laps 2-30 Boespflug.
KSE HARD CHARGER: Dave Darland (13th to 3rd)
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,259, 2-Meseraull-1,208, 3-Stockon-1,134, 4-Ballou-1,125, 5-Darland-1,089, 6-Leary-1,070, 7-Boespflug-991, 8-McGhee-923, 9-Windom-838, 10-Bryan Clauson-774.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: June 25 - Kansas City, Kansas - Lakeside Speedway
- The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com
Jackson, Minnesota - June 23, 2016 - Brady Bacon held off a hard-charging Robert Ballou as the two sliced and diced their way through lapped traffic during the final laps to take the victory in the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Cars' first visit to the Jackson (Minn.) Motorplex in 28 years.
With the victory, the legendary Hoffman Auto Racing team crossed the century mark in total USAC Sprint Car feature victories (95 National, 2 Midwest, 3 Special Event).
Outside front-row starter Bacon, driving for the winningest team in USAC Sprint Car history - Hoffman Auto Racing - staged alongside the series' winningest driver, Dave Darland, at the start of the 30-lapper.
As the green flag dropped, it was Darland who jumped out front, sliding up in front of Bacon at the entrance of one, but Bacon was never out of reach as he shadowed Darland throughout much of the first half of the event.
On the tenth lap, Darland was beginning to feel the pressure from Bacon. Darland cut low into three, barely squeaking underneath the lapped car of Brandon Halverson, briefly gapping Bacon.
Meanwhile, third-running Ballou became a formidable player in this high-stakes game of speed, chomping at the bit as he ate away at the interval between himself and the two frontrunners.
On lap 14, backmarkers Brandon Stevenson and Joe Bares were running in close quarters with nary a car-length between the two heading into the third turn. With a small window of real estate available between the Stevenson and Bares, Darland shot the gap, splitting between the two while sliding from the bottom berm up to the cushion at the exit of turn four. That allowed Bacon, running the bottom, to maintain his momentum as he shot down the front straightaway and into turn one and rocketing off turn two with the race lead in his hands with 16 laps remaining.
With 20 laps in the books, Ballou cleared Darland with a mammoth turn one slider to take second. Now, it was just Ballou and Bacon, two of USAC's best when it comes to sprint cars on half-mile dirt tracks. However, the two were both bad fast and it would take a handful of obstacles to slow down Bacon's mission. Therein came lapped traffic.
Ballou laid down the fastest lap of his race on lap 23 as he lurked in the distance, inching closer to Bacon's rear bumper as he hustled his number one on the outside.
Mired in heavy lap traffic in the final five laps, Bacon and Ballou crept upon gridlock as a logjam of cars ran two and, at times, three-wide, making wading through the back of the field treacherous.
With three to go, Bacon was able to slash around the lapped car of Landon Simon, but Ballou got hung up behind Simon exiting the fourth turn. Ballou made contact with the rear bumper of Simon exiting the corner, sending Simon into a half-spin before regaining control as Ballou went on by. Subsequently, Ballou lost substantial ground to Bacon with just a couple to go, and was, thus, out of time.
Broken Arrow, Oklahoma's Bacon put a stamp on his second series win of the season, lapping up to eighth place in his Dynamics, Inc./Mean Green - Lykins Oil/Triple X/Williams Mopar, beating Ballou, Chase Stockon, C.J. Leary and Darland while also maintaining and increasing his lead in the standings to 47 points over sixth place finisher Thomas Meseraull.
"The pace slowed up so much on the top and bottom once we hit the lapped traffic," Bacon explained. "I knew I could sneak around them on the bottom in (turns) one and two, but I was nervous that he'd run the top and get a run on me. Thankfully, we were good enough off the bottom of turn two that we could still hold him off. I'm just glad to get a win for these Hoffman guys. We had a stretch where we were in a little slump, but we've gotten the ball rolling here lately and it feels good to get back on track. I love tracks like this; the big, fast, heavy tracks. Robert and I used to race like this a lot at the old "Ron Shuman Classic" at Lakeside, so it was fun to race with him again for a win."
After stumbling through a stretch of the season, Ballou, of Rocklin, California, seems to have righted the ship of late, securing his eighth straight top-10 finish with a fine second place effort at Jackson in his Ballou Motorsports/Blakesley Auto - Rossie Feed & Grain/Maxim/Ott.
"We were a tick too tight and the track didn't go away like we thought it would," Ballou said. "I think we had a better racecar, but I made a couple silly mistakes and the Hoffman guys had their car dialed. It's been a rough go for our team lately and we've torn a lot of stuff up, so it's good to have a solid run tonight."
ProSource Fast Qualifier Chase Stockon of Fort Branch, Indiana put the 32-TBI Racing/Superior Tank & Trailer - Crescent Electric Supply/DRC/Fisher atop the speed charts early in the evening and finished off the night by rounding out the podium with a solid 3rd place finish.
"Brady and Robert were really good in traffic and just in general," Stockon acknowledged. "I could catch them, but it was always at the wrong times. We're happy with a third. We're normally not the best on tracks like this, so we feel like we have the car pretty comfortable right now and I could put it about anywhere. We've worked really hard on this thing all year to get it to go and I feel like we're finally there."
Contingency award winners at Jackson Motorplex included Chase Stockon (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Chris Windom (Simpson Race Products First Heat Race Winner), Aaron Farney (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Race Winner), Robert Ballou (Benic Enterprises/Indy Race Parts Third Heat Race Winner), Thomas Meseraull (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Joe Bares (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 23, 2016 - Jackson, Minnesota - Jackson Motorplex - "Presented by the Minnesota Mafia"
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-18.222; 2. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-18.441, 3. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-18.462, 4. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-18.491, 5. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-18.601, 6. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-18.628, 7. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-18.657, 8. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-18.693, 9. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-18.699, 10. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-18.735, 11. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-18.820, 12. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-18.897, 13. Chris Windom 5, Baldwin-18.966, 14. Rob Caho, Jr., 78, Caho-19.012, 15. Brandon Stevenson, 0, Stevenson-19.200, 16. Joe Bares, 19, TEST-19.647, 17. Alex Schriever, 0x, Davis-19.876, 18. Brandon Halverson, 13MJ, Halverson-20.023, 19. Clinton Bruns, 7, Bruns-20.518, 20. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-NT, 21. Kyle Simon, 24x, LSR-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Windom, 2. Boespflug, 3. Stockon, 4. Chapple, 5. Leary, 6. Bares, 7. Bruns. 2:31.54
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Farney, 2. Bacon, 3. Meseraull, 4. Mellenberndt, 5. Schriever, 6. Caho. 2:34.83
BENIC ENTERPRISES/INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. L. Simon, 3. Darland, 4. McGhee, 5. Stevenson, 6. Halverson. 2:34.42
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Brady Bacon, 2. Robert Ballou, 3. Chase Stockon, 4. C.J. Leary, 5. Dave Darland, 6. Thomas Meseraull, 7. Aaron Farney, 8. Chris Windom, 9. Chad Boespflug, 10. Landon Simon, 11. Isaac Chapple, 12. Max McGhee, 13. Joe Bares, 14. Brandon Stevenson, 15. Alex Schriever, 16. Brandon Halverson, 17. Clinton Bruns, 18. Bret Mellenberndt, 19. Rob Caho, Jr., 20. Robert Bell, 21. Kyle Simon. 9:48.96
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-14 Darland, Laps 15-30 Bacon.
KSE HARD CHARGER: Thomas Meseraull (11th to 6th)
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,184, 2-Meseraull-1,137, 3-Stockon-1,090, 4-Ballou-1,059, 5-Leary-1,021, 6-Darland-1,018, 7-Boespflug-913, 8-McGhee-885, 9-Windom-787, 10-Bryan Clauson-774.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: June 24 - Eagle (NE) Raceway - "Rumble in the Bullring"
CLAUSON CONQUERS “40 FOR SHORTY” AT THE DITCH
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com
West Memphis, AR. June 18, 2016 ........Up to this point in the 2016 season, Bryan Clauson's journey had been mostly rosy and smooth as he's picked up win-after-win (22 to be exact) from coast-to-coast and everywhere in between. But, after losing an engine on Friday night and forced to go to the the backup powerplant, Clauson and the Dooling/Hayward team had to work feverishly with uncertainty lingering in their minds, unsure if they would even be able to make the call at all for Saturday night's event.
When all was said and done, Clauson overcame, once again finding himself in familiar territory, victory lane, after taking advantage of a late-race tire issue on the car of leader Tanner Thorson to nail down his first USAC National Midget win of the season in Saturday night's "40 for Shorty" at Riverside International Speedway in his Dooling-Hayward/Cancer Treatment Centers of America - B & H Contractors/Spike/Stanton SR-11.
"Tonight was one of those nights where we'll look back on it after we finish all 200 (races) this year and just smile about," Clauson acknowledged. "We were at the point of just wanting to scrap it tonight because of our motor issues, but these guys kept busting their butts. Big Rick Stenhouse patched this motor back together and put the super tune on it; it was spectacular all night. My guys' effort and passion for the sport is unbelievable and it makes me want to win for them. Having dad on the wrenches is fun. As we've gotten older, we've learned how to deal with each other, but it's been fun this year to win with him again. We did a lot of that in the midget in 2009 and 2010 and it was a lot of fun again tonight."
On the initial start, things went awry for Oklahoma's Matt Sherrell as he tumbled down the back straightaway on the opening lap, bringing out the red flag. He would walk away uninjured, but unable to restart.
On the next attempt, pole-sitter Brady Bacon would run side-by-side with outside front row starter Zach Daum, but would hold court, fending off Daum to take the lead at the conclusion of lap one.
In a repeat performance of Friday night's opener at Riverside, Tanner Thorson was lightning quick during the early stages of the feature, picking his way to the front in no-time-flat from his fourth starting position.
On lap three, Thorson slid past Daum in turn three to seize the second spot and, three laps later, he had reeled in race-leader Bacon. On the seventh lap, Thorson would head to the bottom, setting up a turn three slider on Bacon for the lead. As Thorson drifted his right rear tread up to the guardrail, Bacon crossed over, pulling alongside Thorson as the two drag-raced to the line with the advantage going to Thorson by a mere .033 seconds.
Shortly thereafter, tenth-running Kyle Jones was unharmed after barrel-rolling his machine through turns one and two to bring out the feature's second red.
After the restart, Thorson was on a rail, appearing to put the field to bed as he continuously stretched his lead throughout the middle portion of the race.
Meanwhile, Clauson was hanging tough, running consistent, fast laps, but not able to significantly chop into Thorson's lead, but on lap 29, what looked like a foregone conclusion had vanished into the thick West Memphis atmosphere. Thorson's right rear tire had come apart, shredding pieces down the back straightaway as he crawled to a stop.
With the stage reset, Clauson was now in control at the front of the pack while Thorson, with fresh rubber, restarted at the tail, which was only 11th at that point in the race due to attrition. Thorson could not be counted out as a contender. For, it was just one season ago during the "Gold Crown Midget Nationals" at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Illinois that Thorson pitted to change a flat right rear tire just after the midway point, and then proceeded to slice his way through the pack to take the lead and secure the victory in the final two laps.
Thorson charged hard up against the outer edge during the final circuits, but was only able to manage a seventh at the finish.
But, up front, nobody had anything for Clauson who took his third 40-lap USAC National Midget feature win in his last four tries, completing a memorable performance with his 13th USAC-sanctioned victory of 2016 and 23rd overall triumph of the season.
Clauson collected his 37th career USAC National Midget win ahead of Bacon, Carson Macedo, Chad Boat, Shane Golobic, Ryan Robinson, Thorson, Spencer Bayston, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Holly Shelton.
Broken Arrow, Oklahoma's Bacon took home second in his FMR Racing/Beast/Toyota for his third straight top-five finish, placing himself in the thick of the championship race as the series takes a break before hitting the heartland hard during a four-race stretch in early August.
"Bryan found the bottom first and we were a little too tight to run as far down as he was," Bacon explained. "We just didn't have the grunt to race with them and we had to be more defensive than we should have. The car was really good and hooked up and it was cool to watch the track change as the line moved around. Second is our best run of the year, so we're knocking on the door and, hopefully, we can just keep picking up steam."
Macedo, the series rookie out of Lemoore, California, followed up Friday night's career-best second place performance with yet another strong run, taking third in his Keith Kunz - Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/TRD - Tarlton & Son/Bullet/Speedway Toyota.
"The track was really fast through the middle which made it a little hard to pass, but it was a great weekend for us," Macedo said. "I guess I jumped the start, which is too bad, obviously, but that's the way it goes sometimes. But we're running up front, so I think we can get one of these sometime soon. All in all, though, we're happy with how things went and we'll come out next time and just try to keep getting better."
Contingency award winners at Riverside International Speedway included Spencer Bayston (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Bryan Clauson (Simpson Race Products/Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) First Heat Race Winner/KSE Racing Products Hard Charger), Chad Boat (Benic Enterprises/Indy Race Parts Second Heat Race Winner), and Cody Brewer (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).
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USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 18, 2016 - West Memphis, Arkansas - Riverside International Speedway - "40 for Shorty"
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Spencer Bayston, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.373 (New Track Record); 2. Carson Macedo, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.389; 3. Tanner Thorson, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.416; 4. Ryan Robinson, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.501; 5. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-13.572; 6. Brady Bacon, 76m, FMR-13.610; 7. Shane Golobic, 17w, Wood-13.675; 8. Ryan Greth, 4, Lesher-13.785; 9. Bryan Clauson, 63, Dooling/Hayward-13.807; 10. Chad Boat, 84, Tucker/Boat-13.832; 11. Gage Walker, 7, Walker-13.897; 12. Kyle Jones, 54, Hefler-13.962; 13. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., 17, Clauson-14.020; 14. Holly Shelton, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.033; 15. Cody Brewer, 96, Central-14.092; 16. Matt Sherrell, 35, Sherrell-14.179; 17. Nick Bailey, 89, Bailey-16.200.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS/COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Clauson, 2. Daum, 3. Thorson, 4. Bayston, 5. Golobic, 6. Stenhouse, 7. Walker, 8. Brewer, 9. Bailey. 2:15.41
BENIC ENTERPRISES/INDY RACE PARTS SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Boat, 2. Bacon, 3. Macedo, 4. Jones, 5. Greth, 6. Robinson, 7. Sherrell, 8. Shelton. 2:15.25 (NTR)
FEATURE: (40 laps) 1. Bryan Clauson, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Carson Macedo, 4. Chad Boat, 5. Shane Golobic, 6. Ryan Robinson, 7. Tanner Thorson, 8. Spencer Bayston, 9. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., 10. Holly Shelton, 11. Gage Walker, 12. Zach Daum, 13. Cody Brewer, 14. Ryan Greth, 15. Kyle Jones, 16. Matt Sherrell, 17. Nick Bailey. NT
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**Sherrell flipped on the opening lap of the feature. Jones flipped on lap 8 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-6 Bacon, Laps 7-28 Thorson, Laps 29-40 Clauson.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Bryan Clauson (9th to 1st)
NEW USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bayston-515, 2-Clauson-505, 3-Bacon-492, 4-Thorson-455, 5-Boat-451, 6-Golobic-407, 7-Macedo-387, 8-Daum-349, 9-Robinson-327, 10-Walker-286.
NEXT USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: August 2 - Fairbury, Nebraska - Jefferson County Speedway - "Tuesday Night Thunder"
THORSON TURNS UP THE HEAT IN VICTORY AT THE DITCH
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com
THORSON TURNS UP THE HEAT IN VICTORY AT THE DITCH
West Memphis, AR. June 17, 2016 -........On a hot muggy night in West Memphis, Tanner Thorson became the first repeat winner of the 2016 USAC Midget National Championship season, using a sensational turn three slide job on lap 11 to scoot past Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports teammate Carson Macedo, which proved to be the winning move, taking the win in the series' first ever visit to the state of Arkansas Friday night at Riverside International Speedway.
At the start of the 30-lap main event, outside front row starter Chad Boat took the first step forward, sliding across the nose of pole-sitter Carson Macedo to the lead at the entry of turn one.
Series rookie Macedo would fight back, inciting a barrage of sliders with Boat throughout the first couple of circuits that each culminated with Macedo leading at the stripe.
On the third lap, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., running fourth, got an enormous run off the turn two banking. As he attempted to split the gap between the cars of Boat and Macedo, the gap quickly closed. Stenhouse ramped over the left rear tire of Boat, sending himself into a mid-air 180-degree spin, launching him off the gumbo surface like an over-inflated basketball before smacking the back of the rollcage against the track, bouncing completely over once, and then slapping the sidewalls of his right side tires off the ground which propped him up on all fours as he stayed on the gas and drove away.
The amazing, spectacular, highlight-reel save by Stenhouse resulted in a red flag. Despite Stenhouse's ability to initially drive the car away from the scene, Stenhouse's Bryan Clauson Racing mount received a myriad of mechanical issues that came about due to the incident including a broken shock, radius rod, and a bent axle. Stenhouse was unable to continue, ending his return to his home track located just 30 miles northwest across the Mississippi River from his native Olive Branch, Mississippi.
Fifth-running Bryan Clauson's trying night came to an abrupt end, pulling into the infield on the eighth lap and having to settle for a disappointing 15th place result. This came after Clauson's RKR/Dooling team thrashed to replace the rear-end of the number 63 just prior to the feature.
By the 11th lap, ProSource Fast Qualifier and fifth-place starter Thorson had reeled in race leader Macedo. With Macedo set up high at the entrance to turn three, Thorson throttled to the bottom in a daring move that allowed him to slide up in front of his teammate as Macedo got squirrelly and lost substantial ground to the flying Thorson.
Thorson was on a rail, on a one-way track and never looking back as he posted the fastest lap of the race one circuit later on the 12th lap. With less than ten to go, Thorson had extended his advantage to a full-straightaway over second-place Macedo.
At the checkered, Thorson had delivered a proverbial spanking to the rest of the field, winning by nearly five seconds and lapping all but the top-eight finishers: Macedo, Boat, Bayston, Brady Bacon, Ryan Greth, KSE Hard Charger Shane Golobic and Ryan Robinson.
It was Minden, Nevada native Thorson's sixth career USAC National Midget victory and his second in the series' first seven races of the 2016 season in his Keith Kunz - Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/TRD - JBL Audio/Bullet/Speedway Toyota.
"These guys work their butts off," Thorson praised. "That was breathtaking. The track was awesome. It was racy and you could move around. The slide jobs were a lot of fun and you could run the bottom down in turns one and two to sneak by some guys. I could put my car anywhere I wanted all night and it's just a testament to Keith, Pete (Willoughby), Big Al (Scroggins) and the rest of these guys for all their hard work."
Lemoore, California's Carson Macedo led the first 10 laps of his USAC National Midget career on his way to earning a series' career-best second place finish in his Keith Kunz - Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/TRD - Tarlton & Son/Bullet/Speedway Toyota
"This team puts great cars underneath all of us," Macedo said. "I felt like I was good enough to win; I just spent too much time up top. I didn't know Tanner was so good down on the bottom and then he got by me, so then I could see where he was running. Being a rookie in the midget, everywhere we go is new to me, so it's nice to come back and use what we learned tonight. We'll try to do that tomorrow. I know I'll have a good car under me, so it's up to me."
Chad Boat, of Phoenix, Arizona, had yet another solid run in his Tucker-Boat Motorsports/PristineAuction.com - K & C Drywall/Spike/Speedway Toyota, finishing in the third spot for the second straight series race.
"We'll take a third tonight," Boat contented. "Tanner was just a little better than us tonight, but it's two thirds in a row, so we're building momentum. It was a decent night for us; it just kind of felt like we were missing something all night. But we'll work on it and come back tomorrow and go for the dub."
Contingency award winners at Riverside International Speedway included Tanner Thorson (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Ryan Robinson (Simpson Race Products/Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) First Heat Race Winner), Carson Macedo (Benic Enterprises/Indy Race Parts Second Heat Race Winner), Shane Golobic (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Cody Brewer (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).
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USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 17, 2016 - West Memphis, Arkansas - Riverside International Speedway
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Tanner Thorson, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.508; 2. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., 17, Clauson-13.767; 3. Spencer Bayston, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.767; 4. Bryan Clauson, 63, RKR/Dooling-13.794; 5. Chad Boat, 84, Tucker/Boat-13.807; 6. Carson Macedo, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.831; 7. Brady Bacon, 76m, FMR-13.884; 8. Ryan Greth, 4, Lesher-13.893; 9. Ryan Robinson, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.914; 10. Holly Shelton, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.914; 11. Matt Sherrell, 35, Sherrell-14.110; 12. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-14.127; 13. Cody Brewer, 96, Central-14.195; 14. Kyle Jones, 54, Hefler-14.285; 15. Nick Bailey, 89, Bailey; 14.300; 16. Shane Golobic, 17w, Wood-14.319; 17. Gage Walker, 7, Walker-14.497.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS/COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) FIRST HEAT: (10
laps) 1. Robinson, 2. Thorson, 3. Sherrell, 4. Boat, 5. Bayston, 6. Bacon, 7. Brewer, 8. Walker, 9. Bailey. NT
BENIC ENTERPRISES/INDY RACE PARTS SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Macedo, 2. Daum, 3. Clauson, 4. Shelton, 5. Greth, 6. Stenhouse, 7. Golobic, 8. Jones. 2:23.15
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Tanner Thorson, 2. Carson Macedo, 3. Chad Boat, 4. Spencer Bayston, 5. Brady Bacon, 6. Ryan Greth, 7. Shane Golobic, 8. Ryan Robinson, 9. Zach Daum, 10. Gage Walker, 11. Holly Shelton, 12. Matt Sherrell, 13. Cody Brewer, 14. Kyle Jones, 15. Bryan Clauson, 16. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., 17. Nick Bailey. NT
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**Stenhouse flipped on lap 3 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-10 Macedo, Laps 11-30 Thorson.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Shane Golobic (16th to 7th)
NEW USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bayston-455, 2-Clauson-427, 3-Bacon-417, 4-Thorson-393, 5-Boat-382, 6-Golobic-343, 7-Macedo-312, 8-Daum-301, 9-Tyler Thomas-275, 10-Robinson-266.
NEXT USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 18 - West Memphis, Arkansas - Riverside International Speedway - "40 for Shorty"
