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WINDOM TRUMPS COMPETITION AT SUSKY; CLAUSON CROWNED EASTERN STORM CHAMP
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The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com
York Haven, PA. June 12, 2016........ After a four-year sabbatical from victory lane in USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car competition, Canton, Illinois driver Chris Windom made the Baldwin number 5 great again after picking up Sunday night's "Eastern Storm" finale at Susquehanna Speedway.
Meanwhile, it was Noblesville, Indiana's Bryan Clauson who, despite dropping out after only six laps and finishing 21st, had enough of a points cushion between himself, Windom and Ballou to clinch his third career "Eastern Storm" title as soon as he pushed off for the feature event. Clauson joined Levi Jones to become the second driver to add a third "Eastern Storm" title to the résumé.
Coming into the night, Robert Ballou and Windom needed all the stars to align and for a little bad luck to befall Clauson in order to come out on top of the "Eastern Storm" standings. Clauson quickly put that notion to rest early in the night, setting a new one-lap track record in ProSource Qualifying to take fast time honors and the six essential bonus points that come along with it. With the six points earned via his third place finish in the first heat race, Clauson had essentially sewn up the "Eastern Storm" title, needing only to push off for the feature to secure the crown.
With the title all said and done, pride was on the line for both Ballou and pole-sitter Windom, who took the lead entering turn one on the opening lap.
Coming out of turn four and heading for one on the second go-around, Stockon bolted to the inside of Windom on the bottom of the racetrack as Boespflug stuck his nose in between the two briefly while Windom was able to hold on to the advantage.
Clauson quickly moved to the front from his outside row three starting position, pulling ahead of Boespflug for third after a two-lap wheel-to-wheel tussle on laps five and six.
As soon as the hint of yet another patented Clauson charge came to fruition, the ride was over. Clauson rolled to a stop on the front straightaway on the seventh lap and exited the racecar, ending his night with a 21st place finish.
On lap 10, third-running Boespflug drifted high in turn one, slapping the wall with his right rear tire, bouncing off and slowly rolling to a stop in the middle of the track. C.J. Leary made slight contact as he maneuvered around the backside of Boespflug, but was able to keep moving along no worse for the wear.
Up front, Windom's ride was undaunted, holding a near half-straightaway lead at the halfway mark, with Stockon and Bacon battling for second behind him in the distance.
Windom utilized the topside for most of the 30-lapper, but began diamonding through turn two as the pair of Stockon and Bacon began to close the gap while the frontrunners encountered the tail-end of the field.
On lap 24, the interval between Windom and Stockon/Bacon was minimized to less than a few car lengths as the trio approached backmarker Carmen Perigo, but the savvy Windom was able to sneak by Perigo to gain some much-needed breathing room as the leaders exited turn two.
Windom left the top to give the bottom a try in turn one with three to go as he sought the quickest line around the 4/10-mile dirt surface in the late stages. But, with two to go, Stockon was right on his tail, ready to pounce at any given opportunity.
As the two took the white flag, Windom entered high as Stockon dove low on entry into turn one. Stockon slid even with Windom between turns one and two for a brief moment, but was unable to keep his momentum going as Windom skirted the brim off of turn two, distancing himself from Stockon on the final trip down the Susquehanna back straight.
Windom went unwavered on his way to his first USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car victory since August of 2015 during the "Sprint Car Smackdown" at Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway, defeating Stockon, Bacon, Thomas Meseraull, Ballou, Leary, Max McGhee, Dave Darland, Shane Golobic and Jerry Coons, Jr.
Windom finished off a splendid weekend that also included a victory in Friday night's "Horn/Schindler Memorial" USAC Silver Crown race at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, PA. But on this night, the story was the culmination of the reunification between Windom and the Baldwin Brothers Racing team that re-joined forces just one month ago. Windom was able to take the West Lafayette, Indiana-based team's Fox Paving - AMSOIL/Maxim/Claxton Mopar to their first series victory nearly four years to the day after its most recent: an "Eastern Storm" win at Big Diamond Speedway in Minersville, PA with Windom at the controls.
"This is pretty sweet," Windom proclaimed. "Winning Williams Grove was a feather in my cap, but I couldn't be happier to get Kenny (Baldwin), Margo (Baldwin) and Derek (Claxton) back in victory lane. They worked their butts off all week. Derek has been wanting one all week because we've been right there, but Bryan (Clauson) has obviously been really tough out here. It felt like the top was getting so slow coming off of turn two that I needed to move around. I started diamonding it off. It was tough to figure this place out tonight, but we came out with a win and that's all that matters."
On the other hand, Clauson's race wound up less-than-stellar after a strong start. He became the first driver to finish outside of the top-ten and record a "DNF" in an "Eastern Storm" race, yet still hold on to win the title, primarily due to his outstanding performances in the first four races of the mini-series, which included three wins and a third-place run. Cole Whitt's 10th place run at Grandview Speedway in 2009 was the previous lowest finish for an "Eastern Storm" champion during the series.
It's been a glorious two-week stretch for Clauson. First, leading three laps in the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500, then winning "Indiana Midget Week" and now adding an "Eastern Storm" title to his mantle, plus tying the legendary Gary Bettenhausen for seventh on the all-time USAC National Sprint Car win list with his 40th series win Saturday at Port Royal and, in the process, winning an astonishing eight non-wing sprint car features in his Dooling-Hayward/B & H Contractors - Cancer Treatment Centers of America/Spike/Stanton Mopar.
"I'm so proud of this whole team," Clauson exclaimed. "It was a pretty good week if you can fall out of the last race and still win the whole deal. I felt like we were strong again tonight, so I hated to not finish off strong. But we'll take the championship back home with us and keep digging."
It's been a trying week for Fort Branch, Indiana's Chase Stockon, whose week included mechanical issues and finishes 14th, 6th, 16th and 16th in the first four races, but the hard-luck team persevered for a solid second-place run in his 32-TBI Racing/Superior Tank & Trailer - Crescent Electric Supply/DRC/Fisher.
"Chris (Windom) was really good," Stockon admitted. "We could get close, but once we got into lapped traffic, I felt like we'd have a shot if he made a mistake, but he never did. We're just happy to bring it home tonight. It's been a rough week and we've had a few problems, but we finally got the car to run all night, so we're happy."
Brady Bacon's third place finish in his Dynamics, Inc./Mean Green - Lykins Oil/Triple X/Williams Mopar extended his point lead ever so slightly over Thomas Meseraull to 29 markers as the team, and the series, head into the crucial summer stretch that could make or break a championship season.
"We've struggled on tracks like this all year, but we finished this week strong," Bacon said. "We struggled the first few nights, but got back to where we needed to be the last couple of nights. We've had some breaks each night too, but our car has been good enough that we've been in a position to capitalize. We'll take this momentum back to Indiana with us and keep our heads up as we get into the bulk of the schedule."
Contingency award winners at Susquehanna Speedway included Bryan Clauson (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Thomas Meseraull (Simpson Race Products First Heat Race Winner), Brady Bacon (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Race Winner), Robert Ballou (Benic Enterprises Third Heat Race Winner) Landon Simon (Indy Race Parts Semi Winner), C.J. Leary (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Tom Harris (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).
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AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: June 12, 2016 - York Haven, Pennsylvania - Susquehanna Speedway - "Eastern Storm"
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Bryan Clauson, 63, Dooling/Hayward-16.753 (New Track Record); 2. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-16.840; 3. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-16.910; 4. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-17.087; 5. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-17.300; 6. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-17.356; 7. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-17.358; 8. Jerry Coons, Jr., 39, TWH-17.373; 9. Shane Golobic, 60, Ely-17.387; 10. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-17.389; 11. Mark Smith, 3R, Rock Steady-17.457; 12. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-17.539; 13. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-17.572; 14. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-17.626; 15. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-17.630; 16. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-17.655; 17. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-17.662; 18. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-17.728; 19. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-17.840; 20. Dustin Smith, 77, Smith-17.948; 21. Tom Harris, 5E, East-17.950; 22. J.R. Berry, 74JR, Berry-18.125; 23. Kyle Moody, 99m, Moody-18.179; 24. Carmen Perigo, 21, Stehman-18.271; 25. Harris Kohen, 0, Kohen-19.280; 26. Dick Mahoney, 79, Mahoney-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Meseraull, 2. Windom, 3. Clauson, 4. McGhee, 5. Chapple, 6. Mellenberndt, 7. Berry, 8. Kohen. 2:27.93 (New Track Record)
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. M. Smith, 3. Farney, 4. Thomas, 5. Coons, 6. Moody, 7. DiMattia, 8. D.Smith. NT
BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Leary, 3. Boespflug, 4. Stockon, 5. Darland, 6. Golobic, 7. Perigo, 8. Harris. 2:28.33
INDY RACE PARTS SEMI: (8 laps) 1. Simon, 2. Golobic, 3. D. Smith, 4. Mellenberndt, 5. Harris, 6. Moody, 7. Perigo, 8. Kohen, 9. Berry, 10. Mahoney. 2:35.67
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Chris Windom, 2. Chase Stockon, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Thomas Meseraull, 5. Robert Ballou, 6. C.J. Leary, 7. Max McGhee, 8. Dave Darland, 9. Shane Golobic, 10. Jerry Coons, Jr., 11. Mark Smith, 12. Aaron Farney, 13. Tom Harris, 14. Isaac Chapple, 15. Kyle Moody, 16. Carmen Perigo, 17. Dustin Smith, 18. Landon Simon, 19. Bret Mellenberndt, 20. Chad Boespflug, 21. Bryan Clauson, 22. Harris Kohen. NT
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**DiMattia flipped during the second heat.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Windom.
KSE HARD CHARGER: C.J. Leary (16th to 6th)
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,105, 2-Meseraull-1,076, 3-Stockon-1,014, 4-Ballou-980, 5-Darland-953, 6-Leary-953, 7-Boespflug-860, 8-McGhee-841, 9-Clauson-774, 10-Windom-730.
FINAL EASTERN STORM POINTS: 1-Clauson-346, 2-Windom-332, 3-Ballou-325, 4-Stockon-312, 5-Bacon-301, 6-Meseraull-289, 7-McGhee-282, 8-Leary-280, 9-Darland-269, 10-Golobic-251.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: June 23 - Jackson (MN) Motorplex
CLAUSON TIES BETTENHAUSEN WITH 40TH USAC SPRINT WIN AT PORT ROYAL
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com
Port Royal, Pennsylvania - June 11, 2016 - Sometimes good fortune falls your way. Sometimes the dominoes fall where they may. Not that the red-hot Bryan Clauson needed any luck with how successful he's been throughout the 2016 season, but any little bit helps.
After falling to 15th on the opening lap, and mired back in 10th at the halfway point, Clauson steadily worked his way through the field, using timely cautions and the misfortune of several frontrunners that played into his favor and put him in position to make the winning move on Brady Bacon on lap 24 and put the finishing touches on his 40th career USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car victory, tying USAC Hall of Famer Gary Bettenhausen for seventh on the all-time series win list.
Clauson would start on the inside of row six at the start, but it was the winningest USAC Sprint Car driver of all-time, pole sitter Dave Darland, who bolted out to the early lead.
On lap three, Chase Stockon was able to take the third spot from Thomas Meseraull, but the side-by-side battle continued one lap later when the two banged wheels at the start/finish line, narrowly avoiding catastrophe.
On the sixth circuit, Meseraull pressed Stockon for the spot, but got the car completely sideways on the high side at the exit of turn four, slamming the right rear tire and right side of the tail tank against the guardrail with enormous force, sending Meseraull into a series of mid-air spirals before landing cage-first into the clay. Meseraull gingerly got out of the car under his own power, but was otherwise okay.
Brady Bacon entered the fray up front, battling with Darland for the lead on lap seven and eventually securing the spot one lap later.
Robert Ballou became the next driver to throw his helmet into the ring of frontrunners on lap 11, overtaking Chase Stockon for third on the outside of the second turn, and then running down Darland between turns three and four, speeding past the USAC Triple Crown champion at the exit of four for the second position.
Ballou made quick work erasing Bacon's ever-decreasing gap, as the defending USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car champion squared up the 2014 champion he dethroned one year ago, in a run for his money at the halfway mark.
Lap 15, with Bacon down low and Ballou up high, Bacon drifted up in front of Ballou at the exit of two, slamming the door on him to slow his momentum, allowing Bacon to remain out front.
Two laps after a lap 16 yellow stopped the action, Ballou threw his number one deep into turn three in front of Bacon for the lead, but Bacon countered the move, slicing down to the inside guardrail at the exit of turn four, but to no avail. Ballou, last year's Port Royal winner and defending "Eastern Storm" champion, staked his claim at the top and appeared to be the one that everyone would be chasing.
Attrition started to wear on several of the top contenders down the stretch. Thursday's New Egypt winner Chad Boespflug was the first to fall by the wayside, slowing with mechanical trouble on lap 19. After a contentious, see-saw battle between Stockon and Bacon for second, the expensive sounds of a misfiring engine began to emanate from underneath the hood of Stockon's machine, sending him to the infield with seven laps to go.
Simultaneously, fourth-running Aaron Farney jumped the cushion and banged the guardrail between turns one and two before coming to a rest backwards against the Armco.
Under the yellow, race leader Ballou pulled into the work area in the infield with an apparent loose power steering line. He would restart, but was relegated to the tail of the field with just a handful of laps remaining.
The reshuffled starting order left Bacon out front with new neighbors Clauson and Max McGhee in his shadow running second and third.
Immediately, Clauson went to work on Bacon and, on lap 24, dove low at the entrance of turn three, throwing a massive slider on Bacon to pull ahead and put the race to bed. As Clauson peeled off lap-after-lap of perfection, evidenced by posting his fastest lap of the race just four laps from the end, he began to distance himself from Bacon in the remaining laps and drive into the history books with his milestone 40th USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car victory, something only seven other men have been able to accomplish. Clauson was followed to the checkered flag by Bacon, McGhee, Darland, C.J. Leary, Jerry Coons, Jr., KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Shane Golobic, Ballou, Carmen Perigo and Isaac Chapple.
After winning his third USAC National Sprint Car race this week, Clauson extended his commanding point lead in the "Eastern Storm" standings to 52 over Chris Windom heading into Sunday night's finale at Susquehanna Speedway in York Haven, Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, Clauson continues to add more accolades to his world-class racing profile, earning his 40th series win at the age of 26 years, 11 months. The man he tied, Gary Bettenhausen, was just shy of his 39 birthday when he won his 40th and final at Winchester (Ind.) Speedway in 1980.
"I struggle to run in the top-five every time we come to this place, but we kind of sold out on this thing knowing we were starting 11th," Clauson said. "Watching the first 10 laps of the race, nobody would've guessed we'd be in victory lane. We decided to leave it alone under that open red and let the car come to us. We caught some breaks with some yellows and those guys falling out. When I restarted behind Brady, I was committed to doing whatever he didn't. I got my momentum up through turns one and two and pulled the trigger. This thing was flawless."
In Clauson's three "Eastern Storm" wins this week in his Dooling-Hayward/B & H Contractors - Cancer Treatment Centers of America/Spike/Stanton Mopar, the Noblesville, Indiana driver has taken the lead for good on lap 24 (Grandview & Port Royal) and lap 25 (Lincoln), exemplifying that Clauson knows when it's "go-time."
"I got by Farney for fourth and hadn't really had an opportunity to size myself up to those guys up front. We'd driven up to them, but they were so far out that I couldn't gauge how good we were compared to them. Robert and Brady get going really well on these big, sweeping tracks so we were happy to just run with them, but when you get that close, you don't want to let them slip away and you want to close them out. Last night, I didn't get it done, but we stole one tonight."
Brady Bacon's second place finish, coupled with Meseraull's misfortune, allowed Bacon, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, to re-emerge as the series point leader by 21 points in his Dynamics, Inc./Mean Green - Lykins Oil/Triple X/Williams Mopar.
"I hadn't realized Chase pulled off and you race according to who you're racing with," Bacon described. Chase isn't normally somebody who is going to rip the top, so I went to the bottom to protect and it turned out that Bryan was actually behind me. He got a good enough start to slide me into three and then I just couldn't get back by him. Then, I was trying stuff to catch him and ended up having to race back into second and, by then, Bryan was already gone."
"We got back to square one tonight," a relieved Bacon said. "We changed some things on the car and got it back to normal and had a really good points night. Wish we could've gotten the win though; this is one of my favorite tracks."
Camby, Indiana's Max McGhee earned a career best third-place result in his Sam McGhee Motorsports/Brown & Miller Racing Solutions - Mike McGhee & Associates/Maxim/Foxco.
"We've been working really hard this week and haven't gotten the finishes we wanted to," McGhee lamented. "The car has been really good; it's just been on me to step up a little bit. Racing with Bryan and Brady is a big confidence booster. Just to be able to hang with them is great. We worked on some stuff tonight and got better, so from here on out, I think we'll be in good shape."
Contingency award winners at Port Royal Speedway included Chase Stockon (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Robert Ballou (Simpson Race Products First Heat Race Winner), C.J. Leary (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Race Winner Max McGhee (Benic Enterprises Third Heat Race Winner) Aaron Farney (Indy Race Parts Semi Winner), Shane Golobic (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Dustin Smith (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 11, 2016 - Port Royal, Pennsylvania - Port Royal Speedway - "Eastern Storm"
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-19.148; 2. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-19.385; 3. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-19.428; 4. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-19.434; 5. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-19.503; 6. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-19.521; 7. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-19.627; 8. Jerry Coons, Jr., 39, TWH-19.635; 9. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-19.776; 10. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-19.876; 11. Bryan Clauson, 63, Dooling/Hayward-19.972; 12. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-19.973; 13. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-20.008; 14. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-20.073; 15. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-20.074; 16. Shane Cottle, 65, Franckowiak-20.076; 17. Dustin Smith, 77, Smith-20.110; 18. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-20.199; 19. Mark Smith, 3R, Rock Steady-20.360; 20. Kyle Moody, 99m, Moody-20.383; 21. Tom Harris, 5E, East-20.385; 22. Carmen Perigo, 21, Stehman-20.387; 23. Shane Golobic, 60, Ely-20.761; 24. J.R. Berry, 74, Berry-20.951; 25. Dick Mahoney, 79, Mahoney-21.176; 26. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-21.540.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Stockon, 3. Simon, 4. Darland, 5. Chapple, 6. M.Smith, 7. Perigo, 8. Cottle, 9. Mahoney. NT
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Leary, 2. Clauson, 3. Coons, 4. D.Smith, 5. Boespflug, 6. Golobic, 7. Farney, 8. Moody, 9. Thomas. 2:40.92
BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. McGhee, 2. Bacon, 3. Windom, 4. Meseraull, 5. DiMattia, 6. Mellenberndt, 7. Harris, 8. Berry. 2:43.28
INDY RACE PARTS SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Farney, 2. M.Smith, 3. Mellenberndt, 4. Golobic,
5. Moody, 6. Thomas, 7. Perigo, 8. -Harris, 9. Berry, 10. Mahoney. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Bryan Clauson, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Max McGhee, 4. Dave Darland, 5. C.J. Leary, 6. Jerry Coons, Jr., 7. Shane Golobic, 8. Robert Ballou, 9. Carmen Perigo, 10. Isaac Chapple, 11. Kyle Moody, 12. Chris Windom, 13. Dustin Smith, 14. Bret Mellenberndt, 15. Tony DiMattia, 16. Chase Stockon, 17. Aaron Farney, 18. Chad Boespflug, 19. Landon Simon, 20. Mark Smith, 21. Thomas Meseraull, 22. Kevin Thomas, Jr. NT
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**Cottle flipped over the guardrail during the first heat. Meseraull flipped on lap 6 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-7 Darland, Laps 8-17 Bacon, Laps 18-23 Ballou, Laps 24-30 Clauson.
KSE HARD CHARGER: Shane Golobic (21st to 7th)
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,028, 2-Meseraull-1,007, 3-Stockon-938, 4-Ballou-914, 5-Darland-900, 6-Leary-891, 7-Boespflug-830, 8-McGhee-781, 9-Clauson-739, 10-Kyle Cummins-658.
NEW EASTERN STORM POINTS: 1-Clauson-311, 2-Ballou-259, 3-Windom-255, 4-Stockon-236, 5-Bacon-224, 6-McGhee-222, 7-Meseraull-220, 8-Leary-218, 8-Darland-216, 10-Boespflug-212.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: June 12 - York Haven, PA - Susquehanna Speedway - "Eastern Storm"
WINDOM WITHSTANDS CLAUSON’S CHARGE IN HORN/SCHINDLER MEMORIAL AT THE GROVE
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com
Mechanicsburg, PA. June 10, 2016 -.......Chris Windom was able to fend off a furious late-race rally by Bryan Clauson to win in the return of champ car racing to Williams Grove Speedway after a 35-year hiatus in Friday night's "Horn/Schindler Memorial" 100-lap USAC Silver Crown race.
C.J. Leary was the first car to hit the track for ProSource Qualifying and the first to break Steve Kinser's long-standing one-lap track record from 1981 by three and a half seconds. None of the remaining drivers were able to reach the bar that the Greenfield, Indiana driver set, which placed him on the pole for the main event.
Leary and outside front row starter Justin Grant engaged in a side-by-side battle for the top spot on the opening lap with Leary assuming and maintaining control throughout the early stages. However, turn four proved to be a Bermuda Triangle of sorts in the first quarter of the race, plaguing a bevy of drivers that halted the action on four separate instances involving three different drivers.
Race leader Leary had seen nothing but daylight in front of him during the first several laps, but on the lap 29 restart, all Leary had was smoke in his eyes as a continuous plume billowed from the headers of the number 30. Leary began to slow dramatically, eventually coming to a stop in the first turn one lap later before being towed off to the pit area. The night for April's "Sumar Classic" winner at the Terre Haute Action Track was finished after such a strong performance in his first visit to the Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania track.
Justin Grant inherited the lead for the lap 35 restart, but, by lap 37, Windom had sliced into Grant's lead, setting Windom up for an outside turn four pass to take the top spot.
Meanwhile, Clauson was picking cars off at a rapid pace from his 16th starting position, crossing over from the topside to the inside of Mark Smith for fourth out of turn 4 on lap 39.
Windom sailed away on a comfort cruise after the race's final caution flew for the stopped car of Austin Nemire on lap 40. The Canton, llinois driver built his lead to a full-straightaway advantage with 35 laps to go.
Yet, Clauson was determined not to give in yet, taking third from Grant on lap 65 and sliding up in front of Brady Bacon for second on lap 69. However, Clauson still had a long row ahead of him to catch Windom who was on cruise control up front.
With 10 laps to go, some fans were seen leaving the grandstands with the feeling that the conclusion would be inevitable with Windom rolling to an easy victory. It appeared that Clauson would need a caution to close the gap on Windom's seemingly insurmountable lead, but with the pedigree that Clauson has attained over the last decade plus in the United States Auto Club, nothing was outside the realm of possibility.
Shot out of a cannon, Clauson continued to chop and slash the interval between him and leader Windom little-by-little, driving on the edge, appearing as if he was on a single-car qualifying run in the final laps.
With two laps to go, Windom jumped the skyscraper-high turn three cushion, allowing Clauson to close in right behind the tail tank of Windom's machine as the two exited turn four.
As the two sprinted down the front straightaway, Clauson got the bite off the bottom and was able to pull ahead by a car length inside of Windom at the exit of two on lap 99. Yet, Windom was able to find each and every morsel of horsepower to muscle his car back in front into turn three.
As Clauson and Windom ran Hoosier-to-Hoosier between turns three and four, the duo had to contend with the lapped car of David Byrne immediately after passing under the white flag indicating one more lap to go. The two split Byrne with Windom aiming for the topside and Clauson cutting to the low side. Clauson attempted to slide job Windom at the entrance to one by drifting up to the top line in front of Windom, but came up just shy, getting his car too far sideways and killing his momentum between turns one and two.
But, like Michael Myers in the "Halloween" movie series, Clauson would not go away, re-emerging yet again to make one last run at Windom into the final two turns. However, it was simply not enough as Windom led the final 63 laps to claim his third career USAC Silver Crown Series victory over Clauson, Kody Swanson, Bacon, Grant, Smith, Casey Shuman, Jerry Coons, Jr., Steve Buckwalter and Shane Cottle.
Like Kody Swanson's stranglehold on the dirt miles over the past few seasons, Windom appears to have taken a shine to the half-mile dirt tracks, previously taking victories at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg Ohio in 2013 and the Belleville (Kans.) High Banks in 2015. In those two races, Windom led a combined 97 of 100 laps. Friday night at Williams Grove, Windom led the final 63 laps of the contest, but putting his RPM-Fred Gormly/RPM Auto Enterprise/Maxim/J & D was no cinch as he had to hold off the hottest open-wheel driver in the nation, Bryan Clauson, in the closing laps.
"Holy cow," Windom exclaimed. "My guys came on the radio with about 10 (laps) to go and screamed at me to go. I saw that (number) 6 car down there and I knew Clauson was coming. What a hell of a race for these fans at the end!"
"I don't think it's really sunk in yet," Windom stated. "With all the history here, I can't believe we're here! This track was awesome. These guys did a great job of prepping it. It was superfast early on in practice and qualifying. It's probably my new favorite Silver Crown track. In the feature, it slicked off there. You just had to be very easy on the top because it built a big curb and it was very easy to jump over. I did it a few times and thought I was going to lose the lead there. At the end, it was just the lap cars that were running side-by-side in front of me and I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to completely come off the top and go to the bottom and have someone drive around me, so I just tried to use them as a pick, and then I saw the 6 car down there, so I had to start sliding, going as quickly as I could."
Noblesville, Indiana's Bryan Clauson hoped to become the first driver since Rodger Ward in 1959 to lead a lap at the Indianapolis 500 and win in a champ car at Williams Grove Speedway in the same season. Clauson came up just short despite a valiant effort after his car experienced mechanical problems during qualifying, finishing second while earning KSE Racing Products/Martens Machine Shop Hard Charger honors in his Klatt Enterprises/Cancer Treatment Centers of America - Jonathan Byrd's Hospitality & Restaurant Group/Beast/Ford.
"We had a tough night all the way around until the feature," Clauson reflected. "But these guys worked hard to get this car good for the feature. We were really strong, especially late. I got to him there and really wanted to run the bottom in (turns) one and two, but I kind of had a lapper pinning me down. I just decided to try and clear him and get up in front of him, but didn't get it done. We made up a lot of ground there late by just driving my butt off to try and get there; I just needed 105 (laps) or so. We dug out of a big hole there and it was a spectacular run there for sure."
Kody Swanson, of Kingsburg, California came home third in his DePalma Motorsports/Radio Hospital - Champion Oil/Maxim/Hampshire Chevy while maintaining his series point lead by 15 over Windom heading into the June 25 "St. Louis Silver Crown Showdown" at Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Illinois.
"What an honor it is to be here at Williams Grove and it's great to drive this DePalma family 63," Swanson said. "They're a great family to race for and a great group of people to work on it. They put a great racecar on the track for us every time. I always hate it when I can't win for them, but we gave it everything we had tonight. We struggled a little early, but as the track got a little wider and a little trickier, we were able to find something there late and battle our way up to third."
Contingency award winners at Williams Grove Speedway included C.J. Leary (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Bryan Clauson (KSE Racing Products/Martens Machine Shop Hard Charger) and David Byrne (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).
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USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 10, 2016 - Williams Grove, Pennsylvania - Williams Grove Speedway - "Horn-Schindler Memorial"
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary/6R-20.379; 2. Justin Grant, 8, Carli-20.459; 3. Chris Windom, 98, RPM/Gormly-20.602; 4. Brady Bacon, 48, Martens-20.757; 5. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-20.776; 6. Mark Smith, 99, RPM/Gormly-20.933; 7. Austin Nemire, 91, Hemelgarn-20.999; 8. Jerry Coons Jr., 20, Nolen-21.202; 9. Billy Puterbaugh, Jr., 27, Phillips-21.254; 10. Joe Liguori, 58, Liguori-21.305; 11. Shane Cottle, 81, Williams-21.400; 12. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-21.451; 13. Steve Buckwalter, 53, SET-21.526; 14. Casey Shuman, 55, Bateman-21.759; 15. Billy Pauch, Jr., 52, Lesko-21.830; 16. Bryan Clauson, 6, Klatt-22.844; 17. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-23.472; 18. Chris Fetter, 89, Fetter-27.303; 19. Dave Darland, 17, Dutcher-37.954; 20. John Heydenreich, 90, BBH-NT; 21. Neil Shepherd, 107, Shepherd-NT; 22. Shane Cockrum, 71, Hardy-NT.
FEATURE: (100 laps) 1. Chris Windom, 2. Bryan Clauson, 3. Kody Swanson, 4. Brady Bacon, 5. Justin Grant, 6. Mark Smith, 7. Casey Shuman, 8. Jerry Coons, Jr., 9. Steve Buckwalter, 10. Shane Cottle, 11. Austin Nemire, 12. Billy Puterbaugh, Jr., 13. David Byrne, 14. Dave Darland, 15. Shane Cockrum, 16. Chris Fetter, 17. Dave Berkheimer, 18. John Heydenreich, 19. Joe Liguori, 20. C.J. Leary, 21. Billy Pauch, Jr. 49:29.81
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**Shepherd flipped during qualifying.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-29 Leary, Laps 30-37 Grant, Laps 38-100 Windom.
NEW USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Swanson-268, 2-Windom-253, 3-Grant-217, 4-Cottle-192, 5-Coons-190, 6-Byrne-178, 7-Clauson-177, 8-Shuman-169, 9-Cockrum-154, 10-Bacon-152.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS/MARTENS MACHINE SHOP HARD CHARGER: Bryan Clauson (16th to 2nd)
NEXT USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 25 - Madison, IL - Gateway Motorsports Park
CHAD HANGS TOUGH AT NEW EGYPT; BOESPFLUG BAGS NIGHT 3 OF EASTERN STORM
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com
New Egypt, N.J. June 9, 2016.....Chad Boespflug was able to withstand the pressure from the two most successful drivers in "Eastern Storm" over the past two seasons, Robert Ballou and Bryan Clauson, to take his third career USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car victory during night three of "Eastern Storm" Thursday night at New Egypt (N.J.) Speedway.
On the start, pole sitter C.J. Leary slid up in front of Boespflug into turn one to take lead. Boespflug ran the top as Leary used the low line to beat Boespflug back to the line by half a car length at the conclusion of the opening lap.
After a yellow on the third lap, Boespflug stepped up the pressure on leader Leary. Coming down the front straightaway at the end of lap three, Boespflug pulled the front wheels off the ground in spectacular style as he pulled even with Leary for a dead heat at the start/finish line.
Leary was able to hold off Boespflug's pressure for only one more lap. Boespflug got the bite off of the turn two Jersey clay, running down Leary to get to the front of the pack on lap five.
One lap later, Bacon devoured Leary for the second spot and, on lap seven, Ballou bolted from the outside of turn one, cutting across the nose of Leary's machine and stealing his line away to slot into third.
After a lap eight caution, Boespflug wasted no time re-building his interval on the restart, opening up a sizable advantage as the field stormed into turn one.
On lap 12, Ballou swung low by Bacon in turn one for the second position, but still had an enormous amount of ground to overcome as he trailed Boespflug by a half-straightaway at the midway point of the 30-lap feature.
Meanwhile, Clauson had suddenly come alive as Bacon swung wide at the exit of turn two on the 16th lap, leaving the door open for Clauson to grab the third spot.
With 12 to go, leader Boespflug hit heavy, lapped traffic. That allowed Ballou to begin reeling in Boespflug as Clauson went into catch-up mode as he looked to take the upper hand while the Boespflug and Ballou navigated through the backmarkers.
With eight to go, Ballou was right within striking distance, trailing Boesplfug by just two car lengths. One slip-up by Boespflug was all the defending series champ needed to taste victory for the third time in 2016.
Ballou shot to the turn one inside guardrail for an attempted slider on Boespflug with seven laps remaining, but it was to no avail as he got stacked up by the lapped car of Kyle Moody. Boespflug, who was utilizing the middle of the racetrack was able to maintain his momentum to slip around Moody and Ballou to remain at the front.
Ballou put the gold number 1 right on the rear bumper of leader Boespflug while Clauson, in third, rapidly closed on the pair as a four-lap "trophy dash" to the finish ensued.
Ballou hounded Boespflug repeatedly, but couldn't inch his way closer to the confident Boespflug, who didn't flinch down the stretch, withstanding each and every jab Ballou threw his way to take his second USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car victory of the year over Ballou, Clauson, Bacon, Leary, Chase Stockon, Chris Windom, Max McGhee, Thomas Meseraull and Dave Darland.
Entering the 2016 season, Hanford, California's Boespflug had seen three years pass since his last USAC victory. After forming a new team in the offseason set on traveling the USAC National Sprint Car tour in its entirety, the odds were stacked against him. However, with himself, crew chief Davey Jones and car owners Chuck Eberhardt and Fred Zirzow, the team has stepped up to the plate, winning two races thus far in this young season in his NineEight Motorsports-EZR/Capitol Renegade - Capitol Custom Trailers/Maxim/Claxton.
"When we caught those lapped cars, it was really difficult with them running the bottom in front of me, but I saw Robert's nose there and knew it was go time," Chad recounted. "I was trying to minimize my mistakes. I knew Robert and Bryan were going to be right there; they were tough all week. To put an end to Bryan's run is pretty special for this team. It's a brand new racecar and a pretty fresh motor, so it's definitely working the way we wanted it to."
Defending "Eastern Storm" champion Robert Ballou of Rocklin, California came mighty close to returning to victory lane in the 2016 edition of the five-race series despite losing an engine just after taking the checkered flag, but remains optimistic after finishing second behind Boespflug in his Ballou Motorsports/Weikel Sunglasses - Sunglass Central/Maxim/Ott.
"The engine started letting go on us with about 10 to go," Ballou said. "We blew up this thing pretty bad. Don Ott will have it fixed in the morning and we'll get this thing in victory lane at Port Royal. We fell just one spot short tonight, but we got our ducks in a row. We've got everything figured out that we've had problems with. They're going be in trouble on Saturday!"
After winning first two races at Grandview and Lincoln Speedways, Noblesville, Indiana's Bryan Clauson was aiming at joining Levi Jones and Ballou as the only driver in the 10-year history of the event to win three straight "Eastern Storm" features in his Dooling-Hayward/B & H Contractors - Cancer Treatment Centers of America/Spike/Stanton Mopar. Clauson was able to manage a solid third and, in the process, extended his grasp of the "Eastern Storm" title by 24 points over Chris Windom heading into a night off on Friday before the series returns for the final two-race Pennsylvania stretch at Port Royal Speedway on Saturday and Susquehanna Speedway in York Haven on Sunday.
"We needed a 40-lapper," Clauson exclaimed. "We just got going a little too late there. We started running down those guys at the end, we just didn't have quite enough to get there in 30 laps. There at the end, we needed a yellow or something to fall our way. Tonight, it didn't happen. It's been a pretty good run here of late, so I can't complain."
Contingency award winners at New Egypt Speedway included Bryan Clauson (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Mark Smith (Simpson Race Products First Heat Race Winner), Dave Darland (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Race Winner), Chris Windom (Benic Enterprises Third Heat Race Winner) Brady Bacon (Indy Race Parts Semi Winner), Jerry Coons, Jr. (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Shane Golobic (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 9, 2016 - New Egypt, New Jersey - New Egypt Speedway - "Eastern Storm"
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Bryan Clauson, 63, Dooling/Hayward-16.362; 2. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-16.524; 3. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-16.542; 4. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-16.608; 5. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-16.643; 6. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-16.689; 7. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-16.708; 8. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-16.770; 9. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-16.820; 10. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-16.855; 11. Shane Cottle, 65, Franckowiak-16.896; 12. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-16.922; 13. Mark Smith, 3R, Rock Steady-16.947; 14. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-16.963; 15. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-17.006; 16. Shane Golobic, 60, Ely-17.023; 17. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-17.025; 18. Kyle Moody, 99m, Moody-17.042; 19. Jerry Coons, Jr., 39, TWH-17.152; 20. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-17.159; 21. Dustin Smith, 77, Smith-17.336; 22. Tom Harris, 5E, East-17.365; 23. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-17.411; 24. Joey Biasi, B1, Biasi-17.480; 25. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-17.533; 26. J.R. Berry, 74, Berry-17.763; 27. Dick Mahoney, 79, Mahoney-18.133; 28. Harris Kohen, 0, Kohen-18.881.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. M. Smith, 2. Leary, 3. Stockon, 4. Clauson, 5. McGhee, 6. Golobic, 7. Coons, 8. Mellenberndt, 9. Kohen. NT
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Darland, 2. Cottle, 3. Boespflug, 4. Ballou, 5. Simon, 6. Bacon, 7. Chapple, 8. Farney, 9. Berry. 2:21.40
BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Windom, 2. Meseraull, 3. Thomas, 4. Moody, 5. Andretti, 6. Biasi, 7. Mahoney, 8. D. Smith, 9. DiMattia. NT
INDY RACE PARTS SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. Chapple, 3. Golobic, 4. Coons, 5. Farney, 6. Biasi, 7. Mellenberndt, 8. Berry, 9. Kohen, 10. Mahoney. 3:33.82
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Chad Boespflug, 2. Robert Ballou, 3. Bryan Clauson, 4. Brady Bacon, 5. C.J. Leary, 6. Chase Stockon, 7. Chris Windom, 8. Max McGhee, 9. Thomas Meseraull, 10. Dave Darland, 11. Jerry Coons, Jr., 12. Shane Cottle, 13. Shane Golobic, 14. Mark Smith, 15. Aaron Farney, 16. Kyle Moody, 17. Bret Mellenberndt, 18. Landon Simon, 19. Joey Biasi, 20. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 21. Isaac Chapple, 22. Jarett Andretti. NT
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**D. Smith flipped during the third heat.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-4 Leary, Laps 5-30 Boespflug.
KSE HARD CHARGER: Jerry Coons, Jr. (18th to 11th)
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Meseraull-975, 2-Bacon-953, 3-Stockon-894, 4-Ballou-854, 5-Darland-834, 6-Leary-825, 7-Boespflug-797, 8-McGhee-709, 9-Clauson-662, 10-Kyle Cummins-658.
NEW EASTERN STORM POINTS: 1-Clauson-234, 2-Windom-210, 3-Ballou-199, 4-Meseraull-188, 5-Stockon-182, 6-Boespflug-179, 7-Thomas-161, 8-Leary-152, 9-McGhee-150, 10-Darland-150.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: June 11 - Port Royal, PA - Port Royal Speedway - "Eastern Storm"
CLAUSON CORRALS WILD GRANDVIEW EASTERN STORM OPENER
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com
CLAUSON CORRALS WILD GRANDVIEW EASTERN STORM OPENER
Bryan Clauson (WoS photo)
Bechtelsville, PA June 7, 2016..... Since starting his third Indianapolis 500-mile race a little over a week ago, Bryan Clauson has been on an absolute tear. Along with picking up the recent "Indiana Midget Week" championship, the Noblesville, Indiana driver had won five of his last six non-wing sprint car starts coming into Tuesday night's "Jesse Hockett Classic" - "Eastern Storm" opener at Grandview Speedway in Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania.
On Tuesday night, Clauson chalked up his series-leading fourth USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car victory in 2016, as well as tallying his 10th overall USAC-sanctioned win, leading the last 17 laps after a torrid battle up front that saw four different leaders and a bevy of others battle tooth and nail in a see-saw war of supremacy.
Pleasant surprises and front row starters Tony DiMattia and Jarett Andretti led the field to the green at the start of the 40-lap event - the longest race on the USAC National Sprint calendar this season.
Andretti got the jump from the outside as the 22-car pack headed for turn one, but it was DiMattia who found the grip to pull ahead into the lead exiting turn two.
By the end of the opening lap, fourth-starting Kevin Thomas, Jr. used the outside groove to motor past Andretti for the second spot.
DiMattia was able to hold off continuous pressure from Thomas until the sixth lap when Thomas outdueled DiMattia up top in the second turn for the lead.
After a yellow for Bret Mellenberndt, on the ensuing restart, Andretti made quick work of DiMattia for second, sliding up in front of DiMattia to secure the position in turn two.
Andretti, whose best career finish coming into the night was a seventh at Lawrenceburg (Ind.) Speedway one year ago, was having the race of his life as he rapidly reeled in Thomas, blasting by him on the backstretch on lap 12. Thomas reared back as he took a shot at him in turn three, but Andretti was able to ward him off for the time being.
As the barrage of sliders between the two continued, Andretti and Thomas stuck like glue as the two ran side-by-side through turns one and two on the 13th circuit, but Thomas was able to assume control to regain his lead.
A yellow on lap 16 halted the action and bunched the field up, but it didn't slow down the clash between Thomas and Andretti up front as Andretti immediately took to the high line on the restart. As the two drag raced down the back straightaway, Thomas pinched Andretti toward the wall, forcing Andretti to crossover at the entrance of turn three. As the two hit the start/finish line on lap 17, it was a dead heat.
A five-car race for the lead ensued with Thomas heading a tight-knit slew of drivers that included himself, Andretti, Chris Windom, Clauson and Robert Ballou. Windom catfished the bottom to take second from Andretti on the 18th lap, but one lap later, Andretti used the middle-road to slingshot around both Windom and Thomas for the lead at the exit of the second turn.
Andretti flew into turn three, nearly knocking down the wall as he sprayed the ecstatic Pennsylvania crowd with Grandview Speedway soil, emerging through the fourth corner four-wide with Thomas, Clauson and Windom underneath him heading for the stripe on lap 19.
All the while, Clauson's car seemingly got stronger on the bottom as Andretti blitzed the cushion lap-after-lap. Clauson disposed of both Windom and Thomas to move from fourth to second in one fell swoop off of turn two on the 21st lap.
By lap 24, the bottom/middle of the track was the place to be as the top began to go away, causing Andretti to begin to fade and Clauson to have it made, as he flipped the figurative switch and cruised by Andretti for the lead and began to pull away.
Despite a caution with 12 to go, a result of contact between Shane Golobic and Shane Cottle, that erased the lead he'd built, no one could match Clauson after the last restart. Clauson was able to seal the deal, winning by a full straightaway and taking his second "Eastern Storm" victory at Grandview, backing up his win in 2012. He was followed to the line by Thomas, Windom, Thomas Meseraull, Andretti, Ballou, Max McGhee, Brady Bacon, DiMattia and Dave Darland.
Clauson's victory was the fourth of his career in "Eastern Storm." The 2011 and 2012 "Eastern Storm" champion now moves into sole possession of eighth on the all-time USAC National Sprint Car win list, surpassing Sheldon Kinser with his 38th career series win in his Dooling-Hayward/B & H Contractors - Cancer Treatment Centers of America/Spike/Stanton Mopar.
"When everybody was all over each other there through the middle part of the race, I just needed to find a clean lane," Clauson explained. "We got moving around and I didn't even really know until the very end, when the bottom got cleaned off, where exactly I needed to run. On the restarts, I just tried to keep my momentum up so I could react more than anything. I kept looking over my shoulder and didn't see anybody, but this place changes so much over 40 laps, you always have to be on your toes. These last eight or nine days have been special. My guys are giving me fantastic cars to drive right now and it's making my job easy."
Cullman, Alabama's Kevin Thomas, Jr. led 12 laps on his way to a second place finish in his 4J Motorsports/Franklin Equipment - CEP Concrete/DRC/Chevy, his third top-three finish in his last four USAC National Sprint Car appearances.
"That battle with Andretti was fun," Thomas exclaimed. "He stepped it up tonight and kept everything clean. I was kind of out to lunch, though, honestly. I missed the setup pretty bad and, when it laid rubber at the end, that helped me. I felt like we had about a sixth place car, but we held on and got a good run out of it."
Chris Windom of Canton, Illinois won KSE Racing Products Hard Charger honors for his run from the 14th starting position to third, running as high as second just before the midway point in his Baldwin Brothers Racing/Fox Paving - AMSOIL/Maxim/Claxton Mopar.
"I was all over the place when I was moving forward," Windom said. "I picked up a lot of ground diamonding turns three and four when guys would slide up and I could get them on the bottom. But, we got to the lead battle and, just because the track is so narrow going into turn one, I ran out of room and jumped Thomas' right rear and fell back to sixth or seven. Derek (Claxton) gave me a great car, though, and we could drive back to a podium run."
Contingency award winners at Grandview Speedway included Bryan Clauson (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Chad Boespflug (Simpson Race Products First Heat Race Winner), Dave Darland (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Race Winner), Chris Windom (Benic Enterprises Third Heat Race Winner & KSE Racing Products Hard Charger), Robert Ballou (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Race Winner), and C.J. Leary (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 7, 2016 - Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania - Grandview Speedway - "Eastern Storm" - "Jesse Hockett Classic"
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Bryan Clauson, 63, Dooling/Hayward-13.664; 2. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-13.778; 3. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-13.876; 4. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-13.900; 5. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-13.934; 6. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-13.937; 7. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-13.952; 8. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-14.015; 9. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-14.032; 10. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-14.039; 11. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-14.099; 12. Shane Golobic, 60, Ely-14.107; 13. Shane Cottle, 3, Franckowiak-14.126; 14. Trevor Kobylarz, 14, Becker-14.141; 15. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-14.219; 16. Mark Smith, 3R, Rock Steady-14.289; 17. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-14.294; 18. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-14.313; 19. Jerry Coons, Jr., 39, TWH-14.326; 20. Kyle Moody, 99m, Moody-14.341; 21. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-14.341; 22. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-14.489; 23. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-14.559; 24. Joey Biasi, B1, Biasi-14.628; 25. Carmen Perigo, 21, Stehman-14.711; 26. Dustin Smith, 77, Smith-14.860; 27. J.R. Berry, 74JR, Berry-15.222; 28. Dick Mahoney, 79, Mahoney-15.358; 29. Michael Hamer, 47, Hamer-15.527; 30. Harris Kohen, 0, Kohen-16.329.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Boespflug, 2. Chapple, 3. Cottle, 4. Meseraull, 5. Bacon, 6. Clauson, 7. Perigo, 8. Hamer. 1:56.30
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Darland, 2. Mellenberndt, 3. Andretti, 4. Thomas, 5. Kobylarz, 6. D.Smith, 7. Stockon, 8. Kohen. NT
BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Windom, 2. Simon, 3. Coons, 4. McGhee, 5. Farney, 6. Berry, 7. Leary. NT
INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Biasi, 3. DiMattia, 4. Golobic, 5. M.Smith, 6. Moody, 7. Mahoney. NT
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Clauson, 2. Stockon, 3. Bacon, 4. Leary, 5. M.Smith, 6. Farney, 7. D.Smith, 8. Kobylarz, 9. Hamer, 10. Perigo, 11. Moody, 12. Berry, 13. Kohen. NT
FEATURE: (40 laps) 1. Bryan Clauson, 2. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 3. Chris Windom, 4. Thomas Meseraull, 5. Jarett Andretti, 6. Robert Ballou, 7. Max McGhee, 8. Brady Bacon, 9. Tony DiMattia, 10. Dave Darland, 11. Shane Golobic, 12. Chad Boespflug, 13. C.J. Leary, 14. Chase Stockon, 15. Aaron Farney, 16. Jerry Coons, Jr., 17. Landon Simon, 18. Mark Smith, 19. Bret Mellenberndt, 20. Isaac Chapple, 21. Shane Cottle, 22. Joey Biasi. NT
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**Berry flipped during the semi.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-5 DiMattia, Laps 6-11 Thomas, Lap 12 Andretti, Laps 13-18 Thomas, Laps 19-23 Andretti, Laps 24-40 Clauson.
KSE HARD CHARGER: Chris Windom (14th to 3rd)
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Bacon-855, 2-Meseraull-855, 3-Stockon-755, 4-Darland-735, 5-Ballou-721, 6-Leary-715, 7-Boespflug-665, 8-Kyle Cummins-658, 9-McGhee-616, 10-Clauson-508.
NEW EASTERN STORM POINTS: 1-Clauson-80, 2-Thomas-73, 3-Windom-72, 4-Meseraull-68, 5-Ballou-66, 6-Andretti-64, 7-McGhee-57, 8-DiMattia-52, 9-Bacon and Darland-51.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: June 8 - Abbottstown, PA - Lincoln Speedway - "Eastern Storm"
RICO REIGNS AT KOKOMO, CLAUSON CAPTURES MIDGET WEEK TITLE
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com
RICO REIGNS AT KOKOMO; CLAUSON CAPTURES MIDGET WEEK TITLE
Kokomo, Indiana June 5, 2016 - Rico Abreu finished off a stretch of Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports domination Sunday night at Kokomo Speedway, becoming the fifth driver from the team's stable to win during the five nights of "Indiana Midget Week." However, a string of consistent finishes by RKR/Dooling Racing pilot Bryan Clauson throughout the week was enough to earn the Noblesville, Indiana driver his third "Indiana Midget Week" title.
Coming into the night, Clauson held a 40-point advantage over Spencer Bayston in the "Indiana Midget Week" standings. By feature time, Clauson had bumped up his lead over Bayston to 43, meaning that Clauson would merely have to finish 18th or better to clinch the title.
Clauson's cause was benefited by his outside front row starting position, while Bayston rolled off from the eighth spot. However, it was Phoenix, Arizona's Chad Boat who took control at the start of the 30-lap feature.
Two laps in, Tyler Nelson, Gage Walker and Dave Darland tangled in a turn two tussle that put both Walker and Darland on the sidelines for the remainder of the event. Nelson would restart from the tail.
On the lap three restart, third-running Christopher Bell and Abreu in fifth were the only two frontrunners to put their right rears up on the cushion while the majority clung to the middle of the racetrack.
Abreu continuously worked the high line, reeling in Clauson for fourth, and by lap ten, put four wheels in the fluff to ring around the outside of Clauson in turn two to take the spot.
On lap 12, the action came to a stop when Tyler Nelson barrel-rolled down the back straightaway. He was uninjured.
After the restart, it was a Keith Kunz triumvirate of Bayston, Bell and Abreu running nose-to-tail in second, third and fourth as Boat sailed out front. Bayston was able to catch Boat just before the halfway point, making an attempt for the lead to no avail as he bounced through the third turn, settling back into second.
On the 19th lap, Abreu rocketed past Bell in turn three for third, but a red flag for a flip by Holly Shelton on the main straightaway ceased the action momentarily as the track crews had to make minor repairs to the catch fence.
As the leaders shot into the third turn just after the ensuing restart, Abreu slid Bell for second simultaneously as second-running Bayston got sideways between turns three and four. Abreu banged wheels with Bayston, ricocheting in front of Bayston and into second-place with ten laps to go.
A yellow for debris in turns three and four closed the gap between first and second, providing Abreu a lifeline and a chance by placing him right on Boat's tail tank for the restart.
At the drop of the green, Abreu rode the razor's edge up against the wall as Boat matriculated the middle groove. Abreu continued to grind and grind as he applied pressure to Boat, ultimately pulling alongside Boat in a drag race that resulted in a dead-heat at the start/finish line on lap 22. Abreu was seemingly shot out of a cannon at the exit of turns two and four, distancing himself from Boat in the waning laps. Meanwhile, Bayston made his bid for second, banging wheels at the flag stand with Boat before ultimately emerging with the spot.
But, in the end, it was Rico Abreu who would not be denied, taking the victory in his Keith Kunz - Curb-Agajanian/DC Solar - Abreu Vineyards/Bullet/Speedway Toyota by a half-second over Bayston, Boat, Brady Bacon, Bell, Clauson, Tanner Thorson, Carson Macedo, Davey Ray and Ryan Robinson.
Abreu's 14th career USAC National Midget win puts him 46th on the all-time series list alongside Chuck Arnold, Jack Turner and Leroy Warriner. The victory also allowed the St. Helena, California native to become the fifth different Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports driver to stand in victory lane in the past five series races, joining teammates Kyle Larson (Montpelier), Bayston (Gas City), Thorson (Lincoln Park) and Bell (Bloomington) as USAC National Midget feature winners in the last week.
"Running the top the way we did tonight is tough because you have to keep the tires spinning and not let the motor get bogged down," Abreu explained. "Midget racing is all about momentum and I felt like, running the bottom, you could get to the middle really quick, but then it would kill your exit because you are so sideways. So, I just tried to keep it straight up top and keep the wheels spinning, so it didn't start bouncing. It means a lot to win another one of these races because this midget deal is so competitive right now with Clauson and guys like Brady Bacon, Tyler Thomas, plus eight Keith Kunz cars now. So, instead of just four or five competitive cars, there's more like ten. Track position and qualifying are even more important now. It was a great week for us, but we would've liked to have had a better start to the week. But, big congratulations to Bryan because I know how tough it is to win this whole deal. I want to run it next year and get a third one."
Although Bryan Clauson was unable to pick up a win in his RKR-Dooling Racing/Cancer Treatment Centers of America - B & H Contractors/Spike/Stanton SR-11 during "Indiana Midget Week," his finishes of 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd and 6th showed remarkable consistency that corralled him the title by a 31-point margin. He joins Shane Cottle (2005) and Tracy Hines (2008) as the only drivers to win the title without winning a single feature.
"We were strong all week long," Clauson exclaimed. "We knew tonight, seeing how rough and heavy the track was, that it wasn't really our cup of tea, so we were just trying to make sure we did our job and finish this thing off. We ran strong all week; we just came up a little short the first few nights to get a win, but a few years from now, the only thing people will remember is who won 'Indiana Midget Week.' I'm proud of these guys, so we'll just keep plugging along and see if we can get into victory lane."
With his solid third-place effort in the Keith Kunz - Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/TRD - Mobil 1/Bullet/Speedway Toyota, Lebanon, Indiana's Spencer Bayston vaulted himself into the point lead in the latest USAC National Midget standings by a single point over Clauson.
"I was running the top, just not running it right," Bayston admitted. "When Rico went by me, he kind of showed me a little different line. I'd run it deep into three, but turn off too early and start bouncing. So, when he went by, it showed me I could run in deeper and come across a little smoother. I think if I'd gotten up there before he got to me, we would've been alright."
Chad Boat scored a third-place finish after leading 21 laps in his Tucker-Boat Motorsports/PristineAuction.com - K & C Drywall/Spike/Esslinger, his best finish since a third at the Perris (Calif.) Auto Speedway on February 28, 2010.
"It's a little disappointing to lead that much and run third, but it was still a great run for us," Boat said. "We had a solid week and I was excited to get back here to the Indiana bullrings and to come here to Kokomo, which is my favorite track. We obviously wanted to cap off the week with a win, but we'll take the third and try to keep the momentum up for Arkansas."
Contingency award winners at Kokomo Speedway included Rico Abreu (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Bryan Clauson (Simpson Race Products First Heat Race Winner), Carson Macedo (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Race Winner), Ryan Greth (Benic Enterprises Third Heat Race Winner), Davey Ray (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Race Winner), Dayne Kingshott (KSE Racing Products/B & W Auto Mart Hard Charger) and Chase Johnson (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).
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USAC NATIONAL MIDGET CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 5, 2016 - Kokomo, Indiana - Kokomo Speedway - 12th "Indiana Midget Week"
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Rico Abreu, 97K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.332; 2. Christopher Bell, 71w, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.454; 3. Brady Bacon, 76m, FMR-13.579; 4. Ryan Robinson, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.580; 5. Bryan Clauson, 63, RKR/Dooling-13.690; 6. Chad Boat, 84, Tucker/Boat-13.747; 7. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-13.747; 8. Spencer Bayston, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.763; 9. Steve Buckwalter, 25, Buckwalter-13.786; 10. Holly Shelton, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.840; 11. Tanner Thorson, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.881; 12. Shane Golobic, 17w, Wood-13.950; 13. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-13.970; 14. Jimi Quin, 8, Quin-13.982; 15. Tyler Thomas, 91T, Thomas-13.985; 16. Davey Ray, 33, RAYPRO-14.011; 17. Chase Johnson, 17m, Wood-14.033; 18. Carson Macedo, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.061; 19. Gage Walker, 7, Walker-14.107; 20. Logan Jarrett, 29, Doak-14.186; 21. Dayne Kingshott, 24, Kingshott-14.223; 22. Tyler Nelson, 88, Robinson-14.227; 23. Ryan Greth, 4, Lesher-14.275; 24. Dave Darland, 11AG, Gray-14.410; 25. Austin Nemire, 91, Nemire/Yager-14.501; 26. David Budres, 31, Manic-14.506; 27. Anton Julian, 7R, Dickerson-14.832; 28. Gary Gipson, 5x, Byers-14.885; 29. Kade Morton, 8m, Morton-15.030; 30. Justin Dickerson, 21D, Dickerson-15.069; 31. Logan Arnold, 43, Arnold-(Time of 14.776 disallowed); 32. Jerry Coons, Jr., 56, Hmiel-NT; 33. Brandon Gray, 22, Gray-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Clauson, 2. Johnson, 3. Buckwalter, 4. Abreu, 5. DiMattia, 6. Kingshott, 7. Nemire, 8. Morton. NT
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Macedo, 2. Nelson, 3. Boat, 4. Bell, 5. Quin, 6. Shelton, 7. Dickerson, 8. Budres. 2:24.77
BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Greth, 2. Daum, 3. Bacon, 4. Thorson, 5. Walker, 6. Thomas, 7. Julian, 8. Arnold. 2:26.65
INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Ray, 2. Bayston, 3. Robinson, 4. Darland, 5. Jarrett, 6. Golobic, 7. Gipson. NT
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Shelton, 2. Golobic, 3. Thomas, 4. Walker, 5. Quin, 6. Kingshott, 7. DiMattia, 8. Jarrett, 9. Morton, 10. Dickerson, 11. Gipson, 12. Arnold, 13. Nemire, 14. Budres, 15. Julian, 16. Coons. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Rico Abreu, 2. Spencer Bayston, 3. Chad Boat, 4. Brady Bacon, 5. Christopher Bell, 6. Bryan Clauson, 7. Tanner Thorson, 8. Carson Macedo, 9. Davey Ray, 10. Ryan Robinson, 11. Shane Golobic, 12. Dayne Kingshott, 13. Chase Johnson, 14. Tyler Thomas, 15. Jimi Quin, 16. Ryan Greth, 17. David Budres, 18. Zach Daum, 19. Holly Shelton, 20. Tyler Nelson, 21. Gage Walker, 22. Dave Darland, 23. Steve Buckwalter. NT
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**Gray flipped during practice. Nelson flipped on lap 12 of the feature. Shelton flipped on lap 19 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-21 Boat, laps 22-30 Abreu.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS/B & W AUTO MART HARD CHARGER: Dayne Kingshott (19th to 12th)
NEW USAC NATIONAL MIDGET CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bayston-386, 2-Clauson-385, 3-Bacon-356, 4-Boat-311, 5-Thorson-310, 6-Golobic-291, 7-Thomas-275, 8-Daum-248, 9-Macedo-236, 10-Darland-221.
FINAL USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK POINTS: 1-Clauson-362, 2-Bayston-331, 3-Abreu-312, 4-Bell-288, 5-Bacon-275, 6-Boat-274, 7-Thorson-258, 8-Thomas-240, 9-Macedo-226, 10-Golobic-221.
NEXT USAC NATIONAL MIDGET CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 17 - West Memphis, Arkansas - Riverside International Speedway
BELL BOLTS TO 3RD STRAIGHT BLOOMINGTON “MIDGET WEEK” VICTORY
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com
Bloomington, Indiana June 3, 2016 ..... Just like clockwork, each June when "Indiana Midget Week" rolls around, one has been able to witness what has become a yearly tradition: Christopher Bell standing in Bloomington Speedway's victory lane.
For the third straight year, Bell's mastery of Bloomington's red clay was on full display Friday night at the southern Indiana track as he picked up USAC National Midget victory number 17, tying him with Jay Drake and J.J. Yeley for 36th on the all-time list.
Norman, Oklahoma's Bell also extended the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports dominance of the past week by becoming the fourth consecutive (and fourth different) pilot on the team to earn a victory in the first four races of the six-race series.
At the start, pole sitter Dave Darland stepped out in front of the field and, despite contact from behind by Carson Macedo between turns one and two, was able to take the advantage in the early going, leading his first laps in the series since the "Belleville Nationals" in July of 2014.
Meanwhile, seventh-place starter and ProSource Fast Qualifier Bell was steadfast in his charge to the front, moving into fifth by the second lap and fourth by lap three. On the fifth circuit, Bell surged from fourth to second with a three-wide pass on the outside of Shane Golobic and teammate Spencer Bayston coming off the second turn.
On lap seven, Bell continued to use the cushion to reel in race leader Darland, powering off of turns three and four to nip Darland at the stripe. Darland continued to fight back, but was beat back to the line by Bell out of turn four to lead the eighth lap.
After a yellow on lap 12, sixth-running Clauson was the only frontrunner running the high line as the top-five continued to utilize the bottom groove. But Clauson found the topside to his liking, taking the fifth spot away from Macedo at the halfway mark and then running down Shane Golobic for fourth and Gas City winner Spencer Bayston for third with 13 to go.
Clauson then set sail toward Darland for second, who was working the low line as Clauson skated the rail up top with 10 laps remaining.
A caution for a Dayne Kingshott blown right rear tire closed the gap at the front of the field with just six laps to go. Immediately, Bell left his challengers in the distance as Darland (inside) and Clauson (outside) continued to battle for the runner-up spot. Each time Clauson was able to inch ahead of Darland, the wily racing veteran refused to relent, regaining the second position on lap 29 after the two champions waged war in a see-saw battle throughout the final run to the checkered.
But, once again, nobody could match the sheer speed of Christopher Bell at the end, taking a nearly one and a half second victory over Darland, who edged out Clauson by a mere 27-hundreths of a second and a half-car length to take second, while Golobic and Bayston grabbed fourth and fifth.
In an era of domination at Bloomington in both the USAC National Midget and AMSOIL National Sprint Car divisions, Bell's three consecutive victories at the track are just one shy of Clauson's current string of four straight USAC Sprint Car victories. Bell, though, has found that sweet spot on the red clay that has suited his strengths at the wheel of his Keith Kunz - Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/TRD - DC Solar/Bullet/Speedway Toyota.
"This place is really technical and that plays to my advantage," Bell assured. "Tonight, there was a big ledge up top and I didn't spend a lot of time up there, but when I did, I could use it to my advantage and pass guys. The bottom here is really tough to run; you have to make sure you have enough angle in your car, but not too much so you miss the moisture. It's tough, but very fun too, and, obviously, Keith's (Kunz) cars are always good so that helps."
With his second place result in the Gray Auto - Petry Excavating/Spike/Esslinger, Darland, of Lincoln, Indiana, earned his best series finish since collecting the win in the "Indiana Midget Week" round at Lincoln Park Speedway in Putnamville, Indiana in June of 2014. Furthermore, he rewarded the Gray team with its best ever series finish, besting the 14th place finish earned by C.J. Leary for the team at Bloomington one season ago.
"I could hit the bottom of (turns) three and four really well, but in (turns) one and two, it was a lot harder," Darland explained. "When Bryan (Clauson) got up next to me, I might've bobbled down there and let him get around me. But I just had to get into turn one easy and not get out into the slick. I did that a couple of times early on, but, luckily, it didn't cost me anything. Tonight is a great confidence builder. It feels good for the team. These guys are still new to the midget scene, so it feels really good to reward their effort."
Noblesville, Indiana's Clauson had his night go sour during heat race action after encountering mechanical trouble. Clauson and the team rolled the backup machine out of the trailer to start at the tail-end of the semi, a race in which Clauson drove from the rear of the 19-car field to earn a coveted transfer spot. During the feature, Clauson started in the eighth position before racing through to grab third at the checkered in the RKR-Dooling Racing/Cancer Treatment Centers of America - B & H Contractors/Spike/Stanton SR-11 to extend his "Indiana Midget Week" point lead to 40 markers over Spencer Bayston heading into Saturday's penultimate "Midget Week" event at Lawrenceburg Speedway.
"The middle was never really the fastest, but on restarts, I could use it to pick some guys off," Clauson said. "It made the guys on the bottom overdrive the corner a little bit and let me sneak by and that was really the only option I had. It was a herculean effort tonight to get back into contention with having to pull out the backup car and it kept our 'Midget Week' hopes alive."
Contingency award winners at Bloomington Speedway included Christopher Bell (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Rico Abreu (Simpson Race Products First Heat Race Winner), Tanner Thorson (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Race Winner), Austin Brown (Benic Enterprises Third Heat Race Winner), Tucker Klaasmeyer (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Race Winner), Tyler Thomas (KSE Racing Products/B & W Auto Mart Hard Charger) and Garrett Aitken (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).
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USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 3, 2016 - Bloomington, Indiana - Bloomington Speedway - 12th "Indiana Midget Week"
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Christopher Bell, 71w, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.301; 2. Bryan Clauson, 63, RKR/Dooling-11.383; 3. Ryan Robinson, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.450; 4. Holly Shelton, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.516; 5. Chad Boat, 84, Tucker/Boat-11.544; 6. Brady Bacon, 76m, FMR-11.577; 7. Spencer Bayston, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.600; 8. Jerry Coons, Jr., 56, Hmiel-11.607; 9. Carson Macedo, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.612; 10. Shane Golobic, 17w, Wood-11.635; 11. Dave Darland, 11AG, Gray-11.636; 12. Dayne Kingshott, 24, Kingshott-11.664; 13. Rico Abreu, 97K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.672; 14. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-11.706; 15. Ryan Greth, 4, Lesher-11.712; 16. Tyler Nelson, 88, Robinson-11.719; 17. Jimi Quin, 8, Quin-11.738; 18. Tanner Thorson, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.744; 19. Austin Brown, 7B, Brown-11.759; 20. Tucker Klaasmeyer, 27, Klaasmeyer-11.781; 21. Davey Ray, 33, RAYPRO-11.802; 22. Garrett Aitken, 32, Aitken-11.809; 23. Steve Buckwalter, 25, Buckwalter-11.822; 24. Austin Prock, 41, Prock/Hayward-11.831; 25. Kellen Conover, 76, Conover-11.831; 26. Tyler Thomas, 91T, Thomas-11.840; 27. Justin Peck, 5x, Peck-11.847; 28. Gage Walker, 7, Walker-11.856; 29. Michael Koontz, 17, Koontz-11.894; 30. Jake Neuman, 3N, Neuman-11.897; 31. Logan Arnold, 43, Arnold-12.020; 32. Kade Morton, 8m, Morton-12.108; 33. Ryan Secrest, 17KT, Koontz-12.130; 34. David Budres, 31, Manic-12.142; 35. Brandon Gray, 22, Gray-12.168; 36. Anton Julian, 7R, Dickerson-12.229; 37. Justin Dickerson, 21D, Dickerson-12.637; 38. Scott Hatton, 1, Hatton-NT; 39. Cody Weisensel, 20, Weisensel-NT; 40. Harli White, 17H, White-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Abreu, 2. Quin, 3. Ray, 4. Macedo, 5. Bell, 6. Koontz, 7. Dickerson, 8. Secrest, 9. Boat, 10. Conover. NT
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Thorson, 2. Bacon, 3. Aitken, 4. Golobic, 5. Thomas, 6. Daum, 7. Neuman, 8. Clauson. 2:58.00
BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Brown, 2. Buckwalter, 3. Darland, 4. Bayston, 5. Peck, 6. Arnold, 7. Gray, 8. Greth, 9. Robinson. NT
INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Klaasmeyer, 2. Kingshott, 3. Coons, 4. Walker, 5. Nelson, 6. Shelton, 7. Morton, 8. Julian, 9. Prock. 2:30.00
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Bell, 2. Shelton, 3. Daum, 4. Boat, 5. Clauson, 6. Thomas, 7. Peck, 8. Greth, 9. Neuman, 10. Nelson, 11. Conover, 12. Morton, 13. Arnold, 14. Julian, 15. Dickerson, 16. Gray, 17. Budres, 18. Koontz, 19. Hatton. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Christopher Bell, 2. Dave Darland, 3. Bryan Clauson, 4. Shane Golobic, 5. Spencer Bayston, 6. Carson Macedo, 7. Brady Bacon, 8. Chad Boat, 9. Tyler Thomas, 10. Rico Abreu, 11. Tanner Thorson, 12. Steve Buckwalter, 13. Garrett Aitken, 14. Davey Ray, 15. Ryan Greth, 16. Gage Walker, 17. Austin Brown, 18. Jimi Quin, 19. Tucker Klaasmeyer, 20. David Budres, 21. Jerry Coons Jr., 22. Dayne Kingshott, 23. Zach Daum, 24. Holly Shelton. NT
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**Robinson flipped during the third heat. Shelton flipped on lap 10 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-6 Darland, Laps 7-30 Bell.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS/B & W AUTO MART (in memory of Dean Wever) HARD CHARGER: Tyler Thomas (21st to 9th)
NEW USAC NATIONAL MIDGET CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Clauson-320, 2-Bayston-312, 3-Bacon-285, 4-Thorson-253, 5-Golobic-247, 6-Boat-240, 7-Thomas-238, 8-Daum-214, 9-Coons-194, 10-Darland-193.
NEW USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK POINTS: 1-Clauson-297, 2-Bayston-257, 3-Abreu-231, 4-Bell-220, 5-Bacon-204, 6-Thomas & Boat-203, 8-Thorson-201, 9-Coons-194, 10-Darland-183.
NEXT USAC NATIONAL MIDGET CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 4 - Lawrenceburg (IN) Speedway - 12th "Indiana Midget Week"
