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WINDOM BESTS BOESPFLUG IN BREATHTAKING “HURTUBISE CLASSIC” AT TERRE HAUTE
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The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com
WINDOM BESTS BOESPFLUG IN BREATHTAKING "HURTUBISE CLASSIC" AT TERRE HAUTE
Terre Haute, Indiana October 15, 2016 - Over the last three-months, the red-hot Chris Windom has been on a tear.
However, the Canton, Illinois veteran driver may have saved his best performance of the year for Saturday night's "Jim Hurtubise Classic" USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car feature at the famed Terre Haute Action Track.
Windom battled back-and-forth, lap-after-lap, in a "hold your breath" 30-lap boxing match with Chad Boespflug that saw an astonishing 26 unofficial lead changes - four officially at the start/finish line!
The last lead change occurred with just three laps remaining when Windom made a turn three slider stick, then held Boespflug at bay off the fourth corner to claim the spot for good before going on to victory lane after one of the most memorable races witnessed in the long, storied history of the Wabash Valley Fairgrounds' half-mile.
During this stretch since mid-July, Windom has been victorious in the "Ted Horn 100" at Du Quoin and the "4-Crown Nationals" at Eldora on his way to the USAC Silver Crown title and, one night after his midget victory in the "Kokomo Klash," Windom picked up his second career "Jim Hurtubise Classic" trophy, joining Jack Hewitt as the only multiple-time winner of the race that debuted in 1990.
Plus, Windom's impressive streak of top-six finishes in USAC National races continues, a stretch that dates back to July 17th's "Indiana Sprint Week" feature at Terre Haute.
It was the second USAC National Sprint Car victory of the year for the team after the return of Windom to the Baldwin Brothers Racing/Fox Paving - AMSOIL/Maxim/Claxton Mopar, the same core group that captured the "Hurtubise Classic" back in 2011.
"You can race Chad (Boespflug) clean like that and you don't have to worry about anything," Windom said. "We had a hell of a race going on there. He found the top and got around me in the middle part of the race. Once I moved up and got in his line, we were a little better than him. We just kept slicing and dicing in (turns) three and four and, finally, I got a slide job to stick and got back in front of him. I thought once we got there, we'd be good."
"I knew at the start, it was really good on the bottom and, as we were going, it felt a little slower and slower," Windom added. "You're kind of a sitting duck when you're leading the race and you just don't know. I kept watching and watching and saw him rip by me. He ran a really good turn four, so we had to get in line behind him and chase him back down."
Unseasonably comfortable weather brought a sizable crowd for the USAC National Sprint Car Midwest season finale and, right from the get-go, the drivers up front put on a show that none of the fans in attendance would forget over the long Indiana winter.
On the start, pole sitter Justin Grant slid up in front of outside front row starter Thomas Meseraull to take the lead into turn one.
Meanwhile, Boespflug ducked down to the low side, briefly sticking his nose in front of Grant in turn two. The two continued their side-by-side battle throughout the first lap with Grant able to inch ahead at the stripe by two car lengths.
The two were stuck together as if they were racing side-by-side on a slot car track throughout the second circuit with Grant able to hold onto the top spot by the skin of his teeth at the line. Boespflug immediately pulled the bow and shot like an arrow down to the bottom of turn one, sliding up in front of Grant to grab the lead by the time the pair reached turn two.
One lap later, as Boespflug and Grant ran one-two, seventh-starting Windom seemingly came out of nowhere, rocketing from third to first in one-fell-swoop using a monster run off of turn two.
Windom's initial bid for the lead was short-lived as Boespflug was able to recapture the point on lap three, but the signs were there that Windom would play a lead role on tonight's stage.
On the ensuing lap, Windom once again used the bottom of turn two to power past Boespflug, instantaneously manufacturing a seven-car-length advantage as he appeared to be on the verge of a runaway.
Not so fast, my friend.
Little-by-little, lap-after-lap, Boespflug began to reel in Windom near the midway point as he altered his plan of attack by hitting the bottom of turns one and two and then formed his own groove up near the outside wall between turns three and four, running a line that would've made five-time Action Track winner Jim Hurtubise proud.
With 13 laps to go, the high line would pay off as Boespflug raced out of turn four with a full head of steam to slip by Windom for the lead on the outside, then cutting down to take away Windom's line as the two entered turn one. Windom responded with an unsuccessful turn three slider, falling in line behind Boespflug as he reloaded the chamber for his next shot at the lead.
Windom took his next run at Boespflug into turn three with 11 laps to go, blasting across the front of Boespflug's nose as they both drifted up to the red, white and blue-striped concrete. Boespflug countered, turning underneath Windom and nearly making contact when sliding across Windom's front bumper as the two raced mere inches apart off turn four.
The two drag-raced side-by-side down the front stretch, never giving an inch to each other through the first and second turns. With Windom whispering into the inside guardrail with his left front wheel and Boespflug just to his outside, the pair aimed for the same spot on the bottom of turn two where something had to give. Windom ran out of room, cracking the throttle just enough to allow Boespflug to assume the point for the time-being.
On laps 23 and 24, Windom went to the well once again, using a run off of turn two to pull even with Boespflug as they entered the third turn, but to no avail, as the two now encountered lapped traffic.
On laps 25 and 26, Windom fell into line behind Boespflug, shadowing his rear bumper off turn two each time as he contemplated his next move.
With three laps left, leader Boespflug and Windom had lapped cars high and low across the racetrack to contend with. Boespflug followed Corey Smith while Windom stalked Isaac Chapple with the leaders separated by a half-car-length.
Boespflug moved up a couple lanes to split between Chapple and Smith while Windom briefly got hung up behind Chapple.
But, as was the case all night, turn two was Windom's personal ATM as he disposed of Chapple and once again rocketed off the second turn and down the back straightaway to beat Boespflug into turn three, sliding up to the outside wall as Boespflug crossed over, trying with all his might to fight his way back to Windom off of turn four. Windom had just enough bite to sprint off of turn four to beat Boespflug to the line by a single car length before he ripped Boespflug's line away going into turn one.
That action proved to be the winning move for Windom as he finished off the final two laps in style to take his second USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car feature victory of the year followed by Boespflug, Jerry Coons, Jr., Chase Stockon and Grant.
Hanford, California's Boespflug officially led at the start/finish line on two different occasions, running at the front for a total of 13 laps before settling for second-place in his NineEight Motorsports-EZR/PAC Racing Springs - Schroeder Torsion Bars/Maxim/Claxton.
"That was fun," Boespflug exclaimed. "That was a great battle between Chris and I. I was trying to think of how I was going to hold him off. He was so much better off of 2. I gained a lot of ground in 3 and 4. This car was awesome tonight. It was so stable. I had so much forward drive. Man, that was a lot of fun. It took the breath out of me!"
Third-place finisher Jerry Coons, Jr. of Tucson, Arizona, the 2013 "Jim Hurtubise Classic" winner, came home with his best USAC Sprint Car finish of the season in his Monte Edison/Crume-Evans Insurance - Lincoln Condos/Spike/Chevy in what may have been longtime team owner Edison's farewell race.
"I just want to thank Monte and all these guys," Coons praised. "It's been a lot of fun driving for these guys. They work very hard and they put a nice racecar together week in week out. It's been a blast. I'm looking forward to seeing what next year brings."
"You see them up there dicing it up and think, 'Hey, maybe we will win this thing," Coons said regarding Windom and Boespflug's battle for the lead. "These guys are great racers and, obviously, they respect each other. It looks like it was pretty exciting up there. We had a good racecar. I wish I could've been up there to spice it up a little bit."
Contingency award winners Saturday night at the Terre Haute Action Track included Chase Stockon (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Chris Windom (Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner), Tyler Courtney (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Winner), Jon Stanbrough (Benic Enterprises/Indy Race Parts Third Heat Winner), Brady Bacon (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Dave Darland (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: October 15, 2016 - Terre Haute, Indiana - Terre Haute Action Track - "Jim Hurtubise Classic"
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-20.424; 2. Aaron Farney, 17GP, Dutcher-20.628; 3. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-20.771; 4. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-20.779; 5. Thomas Meseraull, 9x, SC-20.834; 6. Justin Grant, 17, McGhee-20.857; 7. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-20.870; 8. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-20.893; 9. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-20.909; 10. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-20.961; 11. Kevin Thomas Jr., 1, Ballou-21.005; 12. Joe Bares, 19, TEST-21.049; 13. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-21.098; 14. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-21.208; 15. Carson Macedo, 21k, Krockenberger-21.229; 16. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-21.233; 17. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-21.243; 18. Corey Smith, 66, Smith-21.244; 19. J.J. Hughes, 76, Hughes-21.318; 20. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-21.511; 21. Nate McMillin, 24, McMillin-22.476; 22. Jeff Pritchett, 2J, Pritchett-25.954.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Windom, 2. Leary, 3. Boespflug, 4. Darland, 5. Stockon, 6. Robbins, 7. Hughes, 8. Pritchett. 2:48.94
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Courtney, 2. Bacon, 3. Farney, 4. Thomas, 5. Meseraull, 6. Chapple, 7. Mellenberndt. NT
BENIC ENTERPRISES/INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Stanbrough, 2. Smith, 3. Grant, 4. Coons, 5. Macedo, 6. Bares, 7. McMillin. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Chris Windom, 2. Chad Boespflug. 3. Jerry Coons Jr., 4. Chase Stockon, 5. Justin Grant, 6. Tyler Courtney, 7. Brady Bacon, 8. Jon Stanbrough, 9. C.J. Leary, 10. Aaron Farney, 11. Bret Mellenberndt, 12. Thomas Meseraull, 13. Dave Darland, 14. Kevin Thomas Jr., 15. Carson Macedo, 16. Corey Smith, 17. Isaac Chapple, 18. Kyle Robbins, 19. Joe Bares, 20. Nate McMillin, 21. J.J. Hughes, 22. Jeff Pritchett. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-2 Grant, Laps 3-4 Boespflug, Laps 5-16 Windom, Laps 17-27 Boespflug, Laps 28-30 Windom.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Brady Bacon (17th-7th)
NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bacon-2,327, 2-Stockon-2,094, 3-Darland-1,968, 4-Meseraull-1,955, 5-Robert Ballou-1,919, 6-Boespflug-1,885, 7-Leary & Windom-1,858, 9-Farney-1,287, 10-Max McGhee-1,264.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: November 4-5 - Queen Creek, AZ - Arizona Speedway - "49th Western World Championships"
- The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com
THORSON THWARTS MACEDO'S LATE-RACE CHARGE TO SWEEP 2ND STRAIGHT "GOLD CROWN" AT GRANITE CITY
Granite City, Illinois October 8, 2016 - For the second consecutive year, the "Gold Crown Midget Nationals" became the "Tanner Thorson Show" at Tri-City Speedway.
The 20-year-old Minden, Nevada native held off hard-charging teammate Carson Macedo after a late-race restart to win his fifth "Gold Crown" feature in a row dating back to the 2015 event.
Thorson's unforgettable weekend also vaulted him to within arm's reach of the USAC Midget National Championship point lead behind teammate Spencer Bayston with two races remaining as he now stands in the shadows of Bayston just nine back by virtue of three consecutive victories in his Keith Kunz - Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/TRD - JBL Audio/Bullet/Speedway Toyota.
"I could see those guys on the restarts throwing sliders at each other, so I knew I just needed to hit my marks perfectly on the last one," Thorson said. "I knew it'd happen to me eventually, but thankfully, we had enough of a buffer over Carson when we got to turn one that we were able to hold on. I love this place, though; it's so much fun to race on. The "Gold Crown" is a marquee event and to sweep it two years in a row is awesome. Big Al (Scroggins) gave me an awesome setup tonight and that makes my job easy."
As high-point man for the night, Thorson began Saturday night's 40-lap finale from the pole and, from the outset, he immediately established himself as the driver to beat, constructing a lead of more than a second-and-a-half over his fellow championship contenders Bayston, Chad Boat and Brady Bacon who ran first through fourth in the early going.
But on lap nine, two of those contenders would see their nights take an unexpected turn for the worse.
Entering turn one side-by-side, Boat's right rear tire ramped over Bacon's left front, sending Bacon into a series of violent snap rolls into the catch fencing before coming to a rest on the track surface.
With the fence heavily damaged, extensive repairs had to be made before racing could continue. Uunder the lengthy red flag, Brady Bacon's FMR Racing crew thrashed feverishly to make repairs to their Beast/Toyota in time for the restart as did Boat who joined Bacon at the tail of the field when the race resumed.
With Bacon and Boat both out of the contention at the front for the meantime, it became a two-car race between Thorson and Bayston at the head of the pack.
Thorson found a comfort zone at the top of turns one and two and the bottom of turns three and four with Bayston in tow, hugging the low line all the way around the 3/8-mile dirt oval.
However, Bayston was only able to hang with Thorson for a couple of laps following the restart before Thorson began separating himself from the field once again as the race crossed the halfway point.
On the lap 24 restart following Kyle Jones' slide into the infield with a collapsed front end, the fiercest battle for position became the race for second as Macedo hit the bottom of turn one before sliding up in front of Bayston. Macedo took the position, albeit briefly, when Bayston countered and dove underneath to reclaim the spot exiting turn two.
One lap later, Macedo gave the all-out assault on Bayston one more try, but saw the same result once again as Bayston answered each successive challenge that was thrown at him.
Tanner Thorson won his 5th consecutive USAC National Midget feature at Granite City, Illinois' Tri-City Speedway Saturday night, breaking the record of four straight at the track that was set by Darren Hagen in 2010-2011.
(RICH FORMAN PHOTO)
With less than ten laps remaining, Brad Loyet was a man on a mission just laps after entering the top-five from the back half of the field in Ken Malpocker's No. 22. A furious battle between the two waged on and, on the 33rd circuit, Loyet raced high into turn one alongside Bright for fourth. Loyet ran out of racetrack and out of luck as he rode his right side wheels up the concrete perimeter, somersaulting nose-to-tail a couple of times before coming to a rest on his wheels.
The ensuing restart presented another opportunity for Macedo to set up a slide job on Bayston for second. This time was a success las Macedo blasted by his teammate in turn one. Bayston once again crossed-over, cutting beneath Macedo exiting turn two, then partaking in a side-by-side drag race into turn three that was won by Macedo.
Macedo could now set his laser-focus on running down Thorson, who hadn't yet faced much of a battle at the end of the feature during the first two nights of the "Gold Crown." But Macedo was only able to trim a miniscule amount of time between he and Thorson as the laps ticked away and the odds became slimmer.
With just two laps to go, Thorson had victory just within his grasp, but the hard-charging Zach Daum, who was running fourth, tagged the outside wall with quite a force between turns one and two before coming to a stop, necessitating a yellow flag.
With Macedo right on Thorson's tail for the green-white-checkered finish, Macedo shot to the bottom entering turn one on the restart, overtaking the top spot from Thorson momentarily, but Thorson anticipated the move and crossed over, using the downhill momentum off the turn two banking to drive back by Macedo for the lead.
That proved to be Macedo's last shot as Thorson was able to thwart the attack and pull away on the final lap and a half to defeat Macedo by 0.724 seconds, followed by Bayston and a remarkable comeback by Brady Bacon who raced from the tail to grab fourth after nearly clearing the turn one fence earlier in the feature. Ryan Robinson rounded out the top-five.
Carson Macedo's second-place run in his Keith Kunz - Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/TRD - Mobil 1/Bullet/Speedway Toyota equaled his best career result set back in June of this season in West Memphis, Arkansas. With two races remaining, Macedo, the series' leading rookie in the standings, seeks to become just the 13th driver (and the first since Christopher Bell in 2013) to win the USAC National Midget "Rookie of the Year" award and be victorious in a feature in the same season.
"We were really fast," Macedo stated matter-of-factly. "I thought I had a shot. I was pretty thankful when that yellow came out with three (laps) to go. I threw everything I had at him and we just came up short. Overall, though, I'm happy with the weekend. We were consistent and that's big. I really like this race track and had a blast; I just wish we were up there in victory lane tonight."
Lebanon, Indiana's Spencer Bayston continues to hold onto the USAC Midget National Championship lead after his third place finish Saturday night in his Keith Kunz - Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/TRD - Mobil 1/Bullet/Speedway Toyota, though the gap has now shrunk to a mere nine points over the rapidly-approaching Thorson.
"Early on, I was following Tanner and trying to learn," Bayston explained. "We didn't lose too much ground on him there and then, once we went up top, I felt stronger. Under the red, we started to have a right rear issue and it blistered when we went back to green. I was sort of in defense mode at the end, which allowed Carson to get by. I'm happy for Tanner, though. To sweep this race two years in a row and for us to sweep the podium tonight tells you how good this team is and how hard everybody works."
Contingency award winners Saturday night at Tri-City Speedway included Ryan Robinson (Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner), Carson Macedo (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Winner), Spencer Bayston (Benic Enterprises/Indy Race Parts Third Heat Winner), Jake Neuman (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Brayton Lynch (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).
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USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: October 8, 2016 - Granite City, Illinois - Tri-City Speedway - "Gold Crown Midget Nationals"
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Ryan Robinson (#71 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 2. Tanner Thorson (#67 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 3. Jerry Coons, Jr. (#25 Petry/Goff), 4. Zach Daum (#5D Daum), 5. Jake Neuman (#3N Neuman), 6. Holly Shelton (#67K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 7. Tyler Roth (#13 Zero), 8. Joey Rinne (#0 Zero). 2:02.83
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Carson Macedo (#71K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 2. Brady Bacon (#76m FMR), 3. Tyler Thomas (Thomas #91T), 4. Chad Boat (#84 Tucker/Boat), 5. Gage Walker (#7 Walker), 6. Davey Ray (#23 Two-Three), 7. Broc Hunnell (#73 Hunnell). 2:01.95
BENIC ENTERPRISES/INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Spencer Bayston (#97 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 2. Kyle Jones (#5B Daum), 3. Alex Bright (#77 Hemler), 4. Brayton Lynch (#1K RKR), 5. Dave Darland (#11AG Gray), 6. Ryan Greth (#4 Lesher), 7. Brad Loyet (#22 Malpocker). 2:03.41
FIRST QUALIFYING RACE: (10 laps) 1. Thorson, 2. Bacon, 3. Greth, 4. Jones, 5. Lynch, 6. Hunnell, 7. Roth. 2:34.51
SECOND QUALIFYING RACE: (10 laps) 1. Robinson, 2. Ray, 3. Walker, 4. Loyet, 5. Thomas, 6. Bright, 7. Neuman. 2:35.61
THIRD QUALIFYING RACE: (10 laps) 1. Shelton, 2. Boat, 3. Bayston, 4. Macedo, 5. Daum, 6. Darland. 2:37.03
FEATURE: (40 laps) 1. Tanner Thorson, 2. Carson Macedo, 3. Spencer Bayston, 4. Brady Bacon, 5. Ryan Robinson, 6. Holly Shelton, 7. Jake Neuman, 8. Alex Bright, 9. Chad Boat, 10. Tyler Thomas, 11. Gage Walker, 12. Dave Darland, 13. Brayton Lynch, 14. Davey Ray, 15. Joey Rinne, 16. Zach Daum, 17. Brad Loyet, 18. Broc Hunnell, 19. Kyle Jones, 20. Ryan Greth, 21. Tyler Roth, 22. Jerry Coons, Jr. NT
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**Bacon flipped on lap 9 of the feature. Loyet flipped on lap 33 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-40 Thorson.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Jake Neuman (21st to 7th)
NEW USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bayston-1136, 2-Thorson-1127, 3-Boat-1096, 4-Bacon-1059, 5-Macedo-994, 6-Robinson-843, 7-Shelton-787, 8-Bryan Clauson-720, 9-Thomas-704, 10-Greth-562.
NEXT USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: October 20 - Wayne City, IL - Wayne County Speedway - "Jason Leffler Memorial" (Co-Sanctioned by POWRi)
THORSON WINS 4TH IN A ROW AT GRANITE CITY; CRUISES TO NIGHT #2 “GOLD CROWN” VICTORY
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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com
THORSON WINS 4TH IN A ROW AT GRANITE CITY; CRUISES TO NIGHT #2 "GOLD CROWN" VICTORY
Granite City, Illinois October 7, 2016 - Throughout history, certain tandems have become synonymous with each other: Lewis and Clark, Lennon and McCartney, Calvin and Hobbes, Milk and Cookies, etc.
After his USAC Midget National Championship feature victory Friday night, a new duo to add to the list may very well be Tanner Thorson and Tri-City Speedway.
The Minden, Nevada driver dominated every lap of the caution-free affair in which he established a new 35-lap track record at the 3/8-mile dirt oval on the way to his fourth straight "Gold Crown Midget Nationals" win dating back to 2015.
In the process, Thorson was able dig a little closer to the point-lead, as he is now just 15 points behind teammate Spencer Bayston in the latest series standings with three events remaining including Saturday night's "Gold Crown" finale.
Thorson began the feature from outside of the front row alongside Brady Bacon and immediately established the point as the field hit turn one on the opening lap.
Bacon, another driver in the thick of the series point race, encountered trouble one night prior after suffering a cut tire while leading with six laps to go. On this night, the Broken Arrow, Oklahoma native settled into second in the early going, running the high side as Thorson worked the bottom.
Suddenly, on lap six, heartbreak met Bacon for the second consecutive night as his mount began to slow dramatically entering turn three, resulting in an early exit, a 20th place finish and the loss of substantial ground in the title race - a race that he now finds himself 74 points out of the lead after entering Thursday down just 22.
With Bacon now out of sight, no one was able to put up much of a fight on Thorson for the remaining 30 laps and, though, Thorson quickly distanced himself to a three-second lead by the 15th lap, he was unable to completely break away from his fellow competitors involved in the point race.
With his pass on Thursday night runner-up Zach Daum, Chad Boat positioned himself in third, a straightaway behind leader Thorson and Bayston with 20 to go.
The only obstacle separating Thorson from certain victory in the second half of the contest was lapped traffic. But, with a full straightway lead, Thorson was in a zone and a backmarker or two wasn't going to trip him up on this night.
Thorson had to negotiate the eighth, ninth and tenth place cars with less than five laps to go as the battle for position between Holly Shelton, Jerry Coons, Jr. and Kyle Jones waged on in front of the leader.
Thorson had little trouble as he stuck to the bottom while the lappers pursued the high side, providing Thorson a clear path to an eventual, commanding 4.85 second victory over Bayston, Boat, Ryan Robinson and Carson Macedo.
Thorson completed the 35-lap feature at a track record time of nine minutes, 24.36 seconds in his Keith Kunz - Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/TRD - JBL Audio/Bullet/Speedway Toyota, his series-leading fifth USAC National Midget victory of the 2016 season and the ninth of his career.
"I don't know if it's me or this car that keeps getting to victory lane, but these Keith Kunz guys are awesome," Thorson exclaimed. "They deserve to be here. The track was in our favor tonight, for sure. You can't enter the bottom too early here; that makes it tough, but having that track position at the start was really big. Our confidence level is really high heading into tomorrow and I'm looking forward to trying to make it two 'Gold Crowns' in a row."
Lebanon, Indiana's Spencer Bayston held serve at the head of the points race, finishing one spot behind Thorson in Friday night's feature to take second in his Keith Kunz - Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/TRD - Mobil 1/Bullet/Speedway Toyota.
"I was more confident tonight than I was last night," Bayston thought. "I made a couple mistakes earlier in the night and the guys made sure to point them out to me so we could correct them for the feature; I feel like we made some progress in that sense. Tanner was really good through the lapped cars. I felt like I was catching him a little bit, but he was so strong on the bottom that it was hard to make up any ground. We probably needed a yellow, but we'll take a second for points, though, and go try to get a win tomorrow."
Chad Boat, of Phoenix, Arizona, now stands 22 markers out of the lead and seven behind Thorson in the updated series standings after earning third in his Tucker-Boat Motorsports/PristineAuction.com - K & C Drywall/Spike/Speedway Toyota.
"Track position hurt us a little bit," Boat admitted. "We were rolling there for ten laps or so and I thought we could get Spencer. I felt like we were better than Tanner, but then our tire went away and I just had to hold on. Overall, though, it was a decent night. We learned some things last night and got better tonight, so we'll hopefully be two spots better tomorrow."
Contingency award winners Friday night at Tri-City Speedway included Brady Bacon (Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner), Tanner Thorson (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Winner), Dave Darland (Benic Enterprises/Indy Race Parts Third Heat Winner), Alex Bright (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Jake Neuman (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).
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USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: October 7, 2016 - Granite City, Illinois - Tri-City Speedway - "Gold Crown Midget Nationals"
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Brady Bacon (#76m FMR), 2. Chad Boat (#84 Tucker/Boat), 3. Spencer Bayston (#97 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 4. Ryan Greth (#4 Lesher), 5. Jerry Coons, Jr. (#25 Petry/Goff), 6. Gage Walker (#7 Walker), 7. Kyle Jones (#5B Daum), 8. Davey Ray (#23 Two-Three). 2:02.44
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Tanner Thorson (#67 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 2. Carson Macedo (#71K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 3. Zach Daum (#5D Daum), 4. Jake Neuman (#3N Neuman), 5. Tyler Thomas (Thomas #91T), 6. Johnny Murdock (#0 Zero). 2:03.28
BENIC ENTERPRISES/INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Dave Darland (#11AG Gray), 2. Ryan Robinson (#71 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 3. Brad Loyet (#22 Malpocker), 4. Holly Shelton (#67K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 5. Justin Peck (#5x Peck), 6. Brayton Lynch (#1K RKR), 7. Tyler Roth (#13 Zero). 2:05.01
FIRST QUALIFYING RACE: (10 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. Bayston, 3. Thorson, 4. Neuman, 5. Shelton, 6. Bright, 7. Lynch, 8. Murdock. 2:40.66
SECOND QUALIFYING RACE: (10 laps) 1. Thomas, 2. Loyet, 3. Boat, 4. Robinson, 5. Walker, 6. Coons, 7. Roth. NT
THIRD QUALIFYING RACE: (10 laps) 1. Jones, 2. Daum, 3. Macedo, 4. Darland, 5. Greth, 6. Peck, 7. Ray. 2:45.99
FEATURE: (35 laps) 1. Tanner Thorson, 2. Spencer Bayston, 3. Chad Boat, 4. Ryan Robinson, 5. Carson Macedo, 6. Zach Daum, 7. Brad Loyet, 8. Holly Shelton, 9. Jerry Coons, Jr., 10. Kyle Jones, 11. Dave Darland, 12. Alex Bright, 13. Jake Neuman, 14. Tyler Thomas, 15. Justin Peck, 16. Gage Walker, 17. Brayton Lynch, 18. Davey Ray, 19. Tyler Roth, 20. Brady Bacon, 21. Johnny Murdock, 22. Ryan Greth. 9:24.36
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-35 Thorson.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Alex Bright (22nd to 12th)
NEW USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bayston-1072, 2-Thorson-1057, 3-Boat-1050, 4-Bacon-998, 5-Macedo-927, 6-Robinson-785, 7-Shelton-732, 8-Bryan Clauson-720, 9-Thomas-661, 10-Greth-539.
NEXT USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: October 8 - Granite City, IL - Tri-City Speedway - "Gold Crown Midget Nationals"
THORSON THRILLS AT GRANITE CITY; WINS NIGHT #1 OF “GOLD CROWN MIDGET NATIONALS”
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com
THORSON THRILLS AT GRANITE CITY; WINS NIGHT #1 OF "GOLD CROWN MIDGET NATIONALS"
Granite City, Illinois October 6, 2016 - While it may not become as famous as Danny Sullivan's "Spin and Win" at the 1985 Indianapolis 500, Minden, Nevada's Tanner Thorson's "Half Spin and Win" performance on Thursday's opening night of the 2016 "Gold Crown Midget Nationals" at Tri-City Speedway will surely go down as one he won't soon forget.
While running fourth on the sixth lap of the 30-lap feature, Thorson drifted into the infield after getting sideways between turns three and four. Thorson regained control of the car, kept the RPMs up and was able to continue on, albeit after kicking up a cloud of southern Illinois soil as he gassed his Keith Kunz - Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/TRD - JBL Audio/Bullet/Speedway Toyota through the infield to rejoin the action on the front straightaway.
The mishap immediately dropped Thorson back to seventh as teammates Carson Macedo and Spencer Bayston sped past as did 2008 "Gold Crown" winner Jerry Coons, Jr.
Not only was Thorson's bid for a third straight Granite City victory in jeopardy, an opportunity to cash in on valuable points toward a tight USAC National Midget championship were in danger of being squandered.
Thorson didn't panic and, one lap later, he was able to get back around Coons for sixth just before the yellow flag flew for a Brayton Lynch spin on the back straight.
On the ensuing restart, Thorson worked his way back to the fourth spot as, up front, Brady Bacon threw a successful slider on Chad Boat for the lead entering turn one.
After disposing of Zach Daum for third, Thorson engaged in a see-saw battle with Boat for second that changed hands three times.
On the tenth lap, Thorson used a big run on the bottom of turn four to grab the spot from Boat. But, on lap 11, Boat cruised the cushion to glide around the outside of Thorson in turn four to retake the position. Thorson stuck within close range and was able to take ahold of second for good with another run on the bottom of turn four past Boat on the 12th lap.
The spectacular back-and-forth game of chess between Boat and Thorson played into Bacon's favor as it allowed Bacon to stretch his lead out front to more than a second as he sought his first USAC National Midget win since 2012's "Hut 100" at Haubstadt, Indiana's Tri-State Speedway.
Thorson also began to put distance between himself and third-running Boat, but with ten laps to go, race leader Bacon began to encounter lapped traffic. With cars running high and low, Bacon had the daunting task of carefully wading his way through the backmarkers with a flying Thorson set to pounce at a moment's notice.
Bacon had difficulty working his way around the lapped car of Gage Walker, eventually executing a lap 22 slide job on Walker, but that allowed Thorson to knock a half-second off of the interval and slice Bacon's lead down to a mere three car lengths.
With Thorson hot on the trail of Bacon with six laps remaining, Bacon bounced over the turn four cushion, contacting the outside wall before continuing on as Thorson shot by for the lead.
There would be no victory lane celebration for Bacon on this particular night as, by the time he hit turn two, it became apparent that the right rear tire on his machine was flat, necessitating a yellow that brought the action to a halt.
The late-race restart set up a rematch of last year's Saturday night "Gold Crown" showdown between Thorson and Daum. This time around would be the same as the last as Thorson would once again hold the upper hand, pulling away on the restart to tame the three-eighths-mile dirt oval in Granite City for the third time in as many tries dating back to last year's sweep of the "Gold Crown."
Thorson's eighth career victory in the series came one and a half second in front of Daum, Macedo, Boat and Bayston. Thorson became just the second driver to win three straight at the "Gold Crown," joining Darren Hagen, who won three in a row during a single weekend in 2010.
Meanwhile, a minor bit of redemption was in store for Bacon in the end as he raced to a sixth place finish during the final six laps after changing his right rear tire and restarting from the tail.
With Thorson's win and Bacon's misfortune, the tide has once again turned in the race for the 2016 USAC National Midget title. The points battled that entered Thursday night with just a 30-point separation between first and fourth remained at 30, but with a few positions rearranged.
Thorson leapfrogged both Bacon and Boat to vault from fourth to second in the standings with four races remaining while Bayston's lead shrunk from 22 to 18. With Thorson's recent dominance at Granite City, he has the chance to make up a good chunk of ground during the next two nights of the "Gold Crown."
"This is one of my favorite tracks," Thorson exclaimed. "Saving the tires is going to be a big factor in these races this weekend because the track is so fast and the races are longer. I feel like I saved them pretty well tonight, but it's a 40-lapper on Saturday. The last couple of restarts were tricky because I knew the bottom was good. It went away on entry, though, toward the end of the race so I knew I needed to get to the top. I just went with my gut and it worked out for us. My guys gave me a great car and we're excited for tomorrow and Saturday."
Zach Daum had to settle for his second straight runner-up performance at Granite City behind Thorson in his Dan Daum/TRD - Daum Crop Insurance/Eagle/Stanton Toyota, but the Pocahontas, Illinois native was pleased to bring home his best USAC finish of the season.
"We were back there in the thick of it, even though we were towards the front." Daum explained. "The big sliders are probably more nerve-wracking to watch than when you're in the car and I know that nine out of ten guys out here aren't going to stick you in the fence if they can't clear you. We'll take a second tonight; it's the same as last year with Tanner out front, but hopefully by the end of the weekend, we can change that."
Leading series rookie Carson Macedo of Lemoore, California turned in another solid performance Thursday night, grabbing third in his Keith Kunz - Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/TRD - Tarlton & Son/Bullet/Speedway Toyota.
"The car was good tonight, but the track was tricky," Macedo said. "You had to find where you were good at right away and Tanner did that. I'm happy with our night, though; it was fun to race with all of these guys the way we did, really hard, but very clean. This place is wild! You have to respect it because you're moving. There's not a lot of room on the top of turn four, but you have to commit to the top if you're going to run it. It's tricky, but I'm really excited for the next two nights."
Davey Ray and Ryan Greth walked away uninjured after both flipped in turn one on the second lap of the feature.
Contingency award winners Thursday night at Tri-City Speedway included Tyler Thomas (Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner and Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher), Chad Boat (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Winner), Brad Loyet (Benic Enterprises/Indy Race Parts Third Heat Winner) and Gage Walker (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger).
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USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: October 6, 2016 - Granite City, Illinois - Tri-City Speedway - "Gold Crown Midget Nationals"
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Tyler Thomas (Thomas #91T), 2. Justin Peck (#5x Peck), 3. Zach Daum (#5D Daum), 4. Dave Darland (#11AG Gray), 5. Ryan Robinson (#71 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 6. Kyle Jones (#5B Daum), 7. Alex Bright (#77 Hemler), 8. Steve Buckwalter (#25 Buckwalter), 9. Gage Walker (#7 Walker). NT
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Chad Boat (#84 Tucker/Boat), 2. Davey Ray (#33 RAYPRO), 3. Ryan Greth (#4 Lesher), 4. Spencer Bayston (#97 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 5. Tanner Thorson (#67 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 6. Holly Shelton (#67K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 7. Jake Neuman (#3N Neuman), 8. Andrew Felker (#11A Felker). 2:01.55
BENIC ENTERPRISES/INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Brad Loyet (#05 Loyet), 2. Brady Bacon (#76m FMR), 3. Carson Macedo (#71K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian, 4. Jerry Coons, Jr. (#25x Petry/Goff) 5. Brayton Lynch (#1K RKR), 6. Andy Malpocker (#22 Malpocker), 7. Tyler Roth (#13 Zero), 8. Johnny Murdock (#0 Zero). 2:03.44
FIRST QUALIFYING RACE: (10 laps) 1. Boat, 2. Ray, 3. Jones, 4. Coons, 5. Lynch, 6. Murdock, 7. Loyet, 8. Bright. 2:37.67
SECOND QUALIFYING RACE: (10 laps) 1. Macedo, 2. Bacon, 3. Daum, 4. Darland, 5. Neuman, 6. Malpocker, 7. Robinson. NT
THIRD QUALIFYING RACE: (10 laps) 1. Thorson, 2. Greth, 3. Shelton, 4. Bayston, 5. Peck, 6. Thomas, 7. Roth. 2:36.61
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Tanner Thorson, 2. Zach Daum, 3. Carson Macedo, 4. Chad Boat, 5. Spencer Bayston, 6. Brady Bacon, 7. Kyle Jones, 8 Jerry Coons, Jr., 9. Dave Darland, 10. Holly Shelton, 11. Jake Neuman, 12. Justin Peck, 13. Tyler Thomas, 14. Gage Walker, 15. Andy Malpocker, 16. Ryan Robinson, 17. Steve Buckwalter, 18. Johnny Murdock, 19. Brayton Lynch, 20. Tyler Roth, 21. Alex Bright, 22. Davey Ray, 23. Ryan Greth. NT
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**Ray and Greth flipped on lap 2 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-7 Boat, Laps 8-24 Bacon, Laps 25-30 Thorson.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Gage Walker (22nd to 14th)
NEW USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bayston-1005, 2-Thorson-987, 3-Boat-986, 4-Bacon-975, 5-Macedo-869, 6-Robinson-724, 7-Bryan Clauson-720, 8-Shellton-683, 9-Thomas-626, 10-Greth-516.
NEXT USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: October 7-8 - Granite City, IL - Tri-City Speedway - "Gold Crown Midget Nationals"
HURRYIN’ HODGES HAMMERS ‘EM IN “FALL NATIONALS” AT THE BURG
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com
HURRYIN' HODGES HAMMERS 'EM IN "FALL NATIONALS" AT THE BURG
Lawrenceburg, Indiana October 1, 2016 - In a season that's seen a new crop of youngsters step up to the forefront of USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car competition, Josh Hodges became the latest to establish himself as a first-time series winner, taking the lead with 13 laps to go, then running away from the field for a commanding victory in Saturday night's $10,000-to-win "Fall Nationals" at Lawrenceburg Speedway.
The 21-year-old Hodges, from Tijeras, New Mexico, became the seventh first-time winner on the USAC National Sprint Car trail during the 2016 season, joining Scotty Weir, Tyler Courtney, Kyle Cummins, Brent Beauchamp, Carson Short and C.J. Leary on the list.
The state of New Mexico's first USAC National winner since Silver City's Richard Griffin scored a Sprint Car feature victory at the Terre Haute (Ind.) Action Track in 2000, Hodges has continually progressed since his first tour of "Indiana Sprint Week" in the summer 2015.
In 2016, he's been a force in the western United States within USAC, winning a CRA Sprint Car feature, two West Coast/Southwest Sprint Car Special Events and a Southwest Sprint Car feature. In addition, Hodges has traveled back-and-forth between the west and the Midwest throughout the season, allowing him to snag a pair of unsanctioned sprint car feature victories at Lawrenceburg.
However, on Saturday night, Hodges made the Midwest his stage and, a little over a year after his debut on the National scene, the fruits of his labor have paid off with a USAC National victory in his Jack Hodges/Jackson Compaction - Mesilla Valley Transportation/Maxim/Gibson.
"I knew it was going to be tough to beat Darland on the start," Hodges admitted. "I thought we had gotten a decent start, but he just beat me to turn one. I just got in a rhythm. I've gotten to run here quite a bit, so I kind of knew what to look for and, luckily, we caught lapped traffic in time and I was able to get moved up. It seemed like it slowed up just enough there; when it slows up and you get to lapped traffic, you need to move up. I was able to do that and when you're running third, you can go where they're not. Our car was bad fast. It's unreal to get our first USAC win here at such a big show!"
Earlier in the night, Hodges' Southwest Sprint Car rival, Stevie Sussex, laid down the fastest lap in ProSource Qualifying in his first ever visit to Lawrenceburg, making his debut in the Phillips Motorsports machine. The Tempe, Arizona driver, aiming to make his first USAC National Sprint Car feature start since 2011, earned $1100 for the quick lap courtesy of ProSource and the Lawrenceburg Speedway Fire Rescue team in memory of Bill Hall.
Hodges held the pole for the 30-lap main event with April Lawrenceburg winner Dave Darland alongside.
Darland got the early jump at the start on the outside. Hodges fought to stay alongside Darland for the duration of the first lap, but Darland prevailed off of turn four to secure the lead on the opening lap.
Nearing the halfway mark, Darland saw his six car length advantage over Hodges begin to shrink as the two neared lap traffic. As the two continued to run the middle of the racetrack, third-running Windom closed in to make it a three-car tango.
On lap 15, Hodges migrated to the high side, which in the short-run cost him a position as Windom shot underneath to grab second off of turn two.
In the long run, though, the move to the high side would pay large dividends for Hodges as he created his own line up top that enabled him to pull even with Windom off the second turn on lap 16. Both Hodges and Windom surrounded the tail tank of Darland as the three drag raced under a blanket down the back straightaway.
Hodges rode the rim through turns three and four, propelling himself past Windom for second at the stripe by a half-car length.
Yet, Darland still maintained the advantage up front and, on lap 18, the lapped car of Joss Moffatt got a bit sideways between turns one and two, encroaching on the line of Darland at the exit of turn two. Darland pitched his car slightly to avoid contact, allowing Hodges and Windom to once again be close enough to smother him with pressure.
The three formed a nose-to-tail freight train into turn three and as Darland continued to cut through the middle, Hodges and Windom stepped out of line to hit the cushion. Hodges nailed the berm perfectly and rode the rail to the lead past Darland at the line at the completion of lap 18.
One lap later, Windom utilized the same line in the same part of the racetrack to produce the same result, flying by Darland for the second position.
However, Hodges was long gone by that point, stretching his lead out to a half-straightaway with five laps remaining.
With all the lapped cars in front of him cooperating by running the low side, Hodges had no trouble putting this race on ice in the final laps, cruising to a 1.884 second win in the fastest 30-lap USAC Sprint Car feature ever run at Lawrenceburg: 7 minutes, 21.09 seconds over Windom, Darland, Kyle Cummins and Justin Grant.
Second place finisher Chris Windom came off his recent wrapping up of the 2016 Silver Crown title with his second straight runner-up result in his Baldwin Brothers Racing/Fox Paving - AMSOIL/Maxim/Claxton Mopar. The Canton, Illinois veteran has been a model of consistency this season, not only in the Silver Crown division in which he finished in the top-five in all nine races, but also in the Sprint Car where he has not finished outside of the top-six since July 16!
"It was going to be a good race there for a while," Windom thought. "Then, Josh (Hodges) jumped to the top and found something there and pulled away from us. We're fortunate to get up to second. We just didn't quite have enough for him tonight."
Lincoln, Indiana's Dave Darland, who owns the most USAC Sprint Car wins at Lawrenceburg with seven, led the opening 17 laps of Saturday night's feature in his Jeff Walker-Curb-Agajanian Racing/Jam-It-In Storage - Hoosier Tire/Maxim/Claxton.
"We're pretty happy to get out of here with a decent finish," a relieved Darland shared. "It's been a tough summer; we haven't been running that great. About ten laps in, we lost a cylinder or something happened to it. From lap ten on, it just didn't run quite right. It kept losing power the longer the race went. To get out of here with a third place finish with the problems we had, we're certainly happy about it. If that hadn't have happened, I think we had a good chance at winning."
Contingency award winners Saturday night at Lawrenceburg Speedway included Stevie Sussex (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Chad Boespflug (Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner), Kevin Thomas, Jr. (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Winner), Brady Bacon (Benic Enterprises/Indy Race Parts Third Heat Winner), Carson Short (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger and Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: October 1, 2016 - Lawrenceburg, Indiana - Lawrenceburg Speedway - "Fall Nationals"
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Stevie Sussex, 71p, Phillips-13.453; 2. Justin Grant, 17, McGhee-13.529; 3. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-13.544; 4. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-13.586; 5. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-13.595; 6. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-13.614; 7. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-13.614; 8. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-13.615; 9. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-13.623; 10. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-13.647; 11. A.J. Hopkins, 14H, Hopkins-13.654; 12. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-13.735; 13. Drew Abel, 04, PCA-13.794; 14. Kevin Thomas Jr., 1, Ballou-13.803; 15. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.831; 16. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-13.852; 17. Joss Moffatt, 5J, Moffatt-13.855; 18. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-13.861; 19. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-13.948; 20. Nick Bilbee, 17N, Bilbee-13.954; 21. Aaron Farney, 17GP, Dutcher-13.973; 22. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-14.191; 23. J.T. Stapp, 74, JDS-14.323; 24. Dickie Gaines, 71s, Spille-14.336; 25. Tony McVey, 7m, McVey-14.510; 26. Carson Short, 21, Short-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Boespflug, 2. Abel, 3. Hodges, 4. Cummins, 5. Stanbrough, 6. Leary, 7. Sussex, 8. Simon, 9. McVey. NT
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Thomas, 2. Courtney, 3. Moffatt, 4. Short, 5. Hopkins, 6. Stockon, 7. Bilbee, 8. Stapp, 9. Grant. NT
BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. Darland, 3. Chapple, 4. Mellenberndt, 5. Windom, 6. Andretti, 7. Farney, 8. Gaines. 1:52.93
INDY RACE PARTS SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Sussex, 2. Grant, 3. Leary, 4. Stockon, 5. Andretti, 6. Bilbee, 7. Farney, 8. Simon, 9. Gaines, 10. McVey. 2:51.39
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Josh Hodges, 2. Chris Windom, 3. Dave Darland, 4. Kyle Cummins, 5. Justin Grant, 6. Tyler Courtney, 7. Jon Stanbrough, 8. Stevie Sussex, 9. Brady Bacon, 10. Jarett Andretti, 11. Chase Stockon, 12. Kevin Thomas Jr., 13. Carson Short, 14. Bret Mellenberndt, 15. Nick Bilbee, 16. A.J. Hopkins, 17. C.J. Leary, 18. Chad Boespflug, 19. Isaac Chapple, 20. Aaron Farney, 21. Joss Moffatt, 22. Landon Simon, 23. Drew Abel. 7:21.09 (NTR)
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-17 Darland, Laps 18-30 Hodges.
KSE HARD CHARGER: Carson Short (20th-13th)
NEW AMSOIL USAC SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bacon-2,268, 2-Stockon-2,023, 3-Darland-1,929, 4-Robert Ballou-1,919, 5-Thomas Meseraull-1,910, 6-Boespflug-1,809, 7-Leary-1,807, 8-Windom-1,780, 9-Max McGhee-1,264, 10-Farney-1,233.
NEXT AMSOIL USAC SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: October 15 - Terre Haute (IN) Action Track - "Jim Hurtubise Classic"
GRATEFUL GRANT GETS THE SPRINT WIN AT ELDORA 4-CROWN
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com
GRATEFUL GRANT GETS THE SPRINT WIN AT ELDORA'S "4-CROWN NATIONALS"
Rossburg, Ohio September 24, 2016 - Eldora Speedway has provided the highest of highs and lowest of lows to Justin Grant over the last couple of seasons.
Just a little over four months after his most recent visit to Eldora Speedway, Grant, a 2015 Eldora USAC Sprint Car winner, found himself without a full-time sprint car ride.
Throughout the summer the Ione, California driver bounced around between a handful of different teams searching for consistent success, but since joining forces with the Sam McGhee Motorsports team in mid-August, the pair have jelled to become a force night-in, night-out.
Saturday night at Eldora, it all finally came together for the team and the driver as they both recorded their biggest wins to date in the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car portion of the 35th running of the "4-Crown Nationals."
On the opening lap, outside front row starter Matt Westfall held off a Thomas Meseraull slider in the first turn to secure the lead early on. Instantly, Grant followed Westfall on the outside to fall in line in the second spot.
Westfall, an Eldora USAC Sprint Car winner back in 2006, looked solid in the early going, leading the first third of the feature. But Grant was on a mission that saw him dive to the bottom of turn three on lap 11, sliding up in front of Westfall to claim the lead as Westfall began to fade.
Eighth starting Chris Windom began to ascend by the midway point of the 30-lapper as he reeled in Grant just before a lap 13 caution fell for the stopped car of Scotty Weir, who was caught up in a back straightaway kerfuffle that involved a few cars, with Weir being the unluckiest one of the bunch.
The yellow placed Windom on the tail of Grant for the lap 13 restart, providing a prime opportunity for Windom to challenge Grant.
Windom hurried to the bottom for a slide job on Grant, momentarily nosing ahead between turns one and two, but with little room to spare with Windom underneath him and the concrete wall to his outside, but Grant kept his foot on the gas to escape through the narrow alley left open to reclaim the lead.
Grant would extend his lead to a full second over Windom, and by the time he would reach lapped traffic with ten to go, Grant would gladly accept all the extra breathing room he could get.
The two continued to engage in a high-speed, high-wire act through the back of the field as they came upon the car of Jerry Coons, Jr. with five laps to go. Grant had to briefly step out of the throttle, allowing Windom to pull alongside the inside of Grant momentarily, but was unable to rip the lead away from Grant.
Windom remained within striking distance of Grant in the final circuits as Grant threaded the needle, going for the jugular as he squeezed his way between the lapped cars of Bret Mellenberndt and Jarett Andretti at the entrance of turn one.
Grant manufactured a little bit of space between himself and Windom that might've made all the difference. And Grant certainly knows all too well how quickly things can happen at Eldora for better or worse, having stolen a victory from C.J. Leary's grasp at Eldora during the 2015 "Mother of All Sprint Car Weekends."
On the final corner of the final lap, Windom was close, but not close enough for any last lap heroics on this night, as Grant hung on to win his fourth career USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car feature and the first ever for the Sam McGhee Motorsports Team over Windom, Brady Bacon, Dave Darland and Tyler Courtney.
"I don't know what it was like behind me, but it was exciting looking out of the front of the 17 car," the exuberant Grant said in victory lane after taking the Sam McGhee Motorsports/Brown & Miller Racing Solutions - Mike McGhee & Associates/Maxim/Foxco to the victory. "The holes in one and two were a handful. It seemed like it was fastest just to run right through them. (Turns) three and four were real tricky. I had to be careful not to get into the fence down there. When you get in lapped traffic, you're just kind of on a hope and a prayer."
"I can't thank the McGhee family enough," Grant continued. "Sam McGhee does an amazing job with this racecar. He's 16 years old. He does all the work on this thing, sets it up and calls all the shots; he's incredible! This race has always been one of the big ones to me, if not the biggest one. I've won at Eldora before, but the "4-Crown" is a whole other level of special."
Contingency award winners Saturday night at Tri-State Speedway included Chase Stockon (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Kody Swanson (Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner), Aaron Farney (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Winner), Matt Goodnight (Benic Enterprises Third Heat Winner), C.J. Leary (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat), Josh Hodges (KSE Racing Products/Larry Rice High Performance Hard Charger) and Bret Mellenberndt (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 24, 2016 - Rossburg, Ohio - Eldora Speedway - 35th "4-Crown Nationals"
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-16.514; 2. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-16.612; 3. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-16.612; 4. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-16.705; 5. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-16.901; 6. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-16.918; 7. Justin Grant, 17, McGhee-17.048; 8. Dallas Hewitt, 18x, Keen-17.105; 9. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-17.113; 10. Nick Bilbee, 17N, Bilbee-17.172; 11. Thomas Meseraull, 9x, SC-17.190; 12. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-17.193; 13. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 1, Ballou-17.248; 14. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-17.249; 15. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-17.283; 16. Scotty Weir, 22s, Simon-17.301; 17. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-17.314; 18. Aaron Farney, 17GP, Dutcher-17.320; 19. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-17.354; 20. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-17.355; 21. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-17.398; 22. Brandon Whited, 15, Whited-17.433; 23. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-17.440; 24. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-17.451; 25. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-17.459; 26. Jerry Coons Jr., 20N, Nolen-17.542; 27. Corey Smith, 66s, Smith-17.552; 28. Mitch Wissmiller, 1w, Wissmiller-17.557; 29. Carson Short, 66, Amati-17.609; 30. Bill Rose, 320, Kissel-17.719; 31. Logan Hupp, 7x, Gindling-17.730; 32. Luke Hall, 9N, Nelson-17.741; 33. Jake Blackhurst, 37, Felker-17.836; 34. Drew Rader, 74, Seven-Four-17.847; 35. Travis Hery, 21, Hery-17.852; 36. Tim Creech, 2c, Creech-17.856; 37. Lee Underwood, 24L, Underwood-17.883; 38. Kyle Wissmiller, 3, Simmons-18.036; 39. Dustin Ingle, 2DI, DPI-18.203; 40. Joe Bares, 19, TEST-18.259.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Swanson, 2. Simon, 3. K.Thomas, 4. Westfall, 5. Boespflug, 6. Stockon, 7. C.Short, 8. DiMattia, 9. Blackhurst, 10. Underwood. 2:14.65
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Farney, 2. Bacon, 3. Darland, 4. Whited, 5. Bilbee, 6. Coons, 7. Andretti, 8. Rose, 9. K.Wissmiller, 10. Rader. 2:12.50
BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Goodnight, 2. Hodges, 3. Grant, 4. Meseraull, 5. Cottle, 6. Hery, 7. Hupp, 8. Smith, 9. Ingle, 10. Windom. 2:13.81
INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Leary, 2. Chapple, 3. Weir, 4. Hewitt, 5. Mellenberndt, 6. Hall, 7. Bares, 8. Creech, 9. Courtney. NT
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Stockon, 2. Courtney, 3. Windom, 4. Boespflug, 5. Mellenberndt, 6. Andretti, 7. Coons, 8. Bilbee, 9. Cottle, 10. C.Short, 11. Rose, 12. Hall, 13. Hupp, 14. Rader, 15. Bares, 16. Blackhurst, 16. Hery, 18. Creech, 19. K.Wissmiller, 20. Underwood, 21. Ingle, 22. DiMattia. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Chris Windom, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Dave Darland, 5. Tyler Courtney, 6. Dallas Hewitt, 7. Chase Stockon, 8. Matt Westfall, 9. Josh Hodges, 10. Nick Bilbee, 11. Brandon Whited, 12. Kevin Thomas Jr., 13. Bret Mellenberndt, 14. Jarett Andretti, 15. Isaac Chapple, 16. Thomas Meseraull, 17. Jerry Coons Jr., 18. Matt Goodnight, 19. Carson Short, 20. Aaron Farney, 21. Chad Boespflug, 22. Kody Swanson, 23. Scotty Weir, 24. Landon Simon, 25. C.J. Leary. NT
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**Courtney flipped during the fourth heat. DiMattia flipped during the semi.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-10 Westfall, Laps 11-30 Grant.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS/LARRY RICE HIGH PERFORMANCE HARD CHARGER AWARD: Josh Hodges (22nd to 9th)
NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bacon-2,214, 2-Stockon-1,979, 3-Robert Ballou-1,919, 4-Meseraull-1,910, 5-Darland-1,855, 6-Boespflug & Leary-1,774, 8-Windom-1,708, 9-Max McGhee-1,264, 10-Farney-1,209.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: October 1 - Lawrenceburg (IN) Speedway -"Fall Nationals"
RICO ROMPS IN ELDORA 4-CROWN MIDGET ROUT
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com
RICO ROMPS IN ELDORA 4-CROWN MIDGET ROUT
Rossburg, Ohio September 24, 2016 - Rico Abreu arrived at Eldora Speedway Saturday evening via an airplane ride alongside Tony Stewart after competing in the afternoon's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race in New Hampshire.
As soon as the St. Helena, California driver hit the western Ohio half-mile for the first time on Saturday, it almost seemed as if Abreu was still on-board a jet as he piloted his Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports entry to a complete sweep of the night's USAC National Midget events, recording ProSource Fast Qualifying time, then following that up with a new 8-lap track record run on his way to a heat race victory before slashing his way to third from his sixth starting position by the end of the first lap of the feature.
Abreu rocketed around the outside of teammate Tanner Thorson in turn two on the second lap, and then quickly ran down leader Chad Boat by the time the two got to turn three.
Abreu instantly shot down to the bottom of turn three for a classic Eldora slide job right up in front of Boat to take the top spot as Boat countered underneath Abreu and drag raced to the line with Abreu beating Boat back to the stripe by a wheel.
Boat, who won both nights at the "Belleville Midget Nationals," one month ago, made one more attempt on Abreu into turn one on the third lap, but came up short as Abreu shot out of a cannon off the turn two cushion to instantly leave Boat in his afterthoughts.
By the tenth lap, Abreu had established a full-straightaway lead that continued to grow as he sliced, diced and pureed his way through the backmarkers while the lap counter on the scoreboard ticked away, but with just four laps remaining, Abreu's lead would be wiped away as Tyler Courtney slowed with a broken U-Joint.
On the lap 22 restart, it was no contest as Abreu pulled away without missing a beat, but the battle for second waged between Boat, Thorson and Brady Bacon became the race to watch as Thorson slid by Boat for second entering turn one. Bacon slipped past Boat as well for third and made a mad-dash toward Thorson for second in turn one a lap later that came up short.
Yet, in the distance was Abreu who finished off one of the most impressive drives in "4-Crown" midget history as he lapped up to sixth place on his way to his second career USAC Midget victory at Eldora (2013) in his Keith Kunz - Curb-Agajanian/DC Solar - Abreu Vineyards/Bullet/Speedway Toyota.
"Keith Kunz gives me phenomenal racecars every time I come and race with him. I'm very fortunate I get to race with him," Abreu praised. "It's special every time I get to stand up here (at Eldora). I've come close a lot this year and last year, but just never was able to get a win, but we've had solid finishes here."
Minden, Nevada's Tanner Thorson took second in his Keith Kunz - Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/TRD - JBL Audio/Bullet/Speedway Toyota as he edged his way into the thick of a tightened USAC National Midget point race where he now sits just 30 points out of the lead behind Spencer Bayston who dropped out on the sixth lap of Saturday night's feature and finishing in the 22nd position.
Brady Bacon, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, finished third in his FMR Racing/Beast/Toyota. With five races remaining, Bacon finds himself 27 points out of the lead in the series standings and just five behind Boat.
Contingency award winners Saturday night at Eldora Speedway included Rico Abreu (ProSource Fast Qualifier & Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner), Spencer Bayston (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Winner), Chad Boat (Benic Enterprises/Indy Race Parts Third Heat Winner), Carson Macedo (KSE Racing Products/Larry Rice High Performance Hard Charger) and Jake Neuman (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).
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USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 24, 2016 - Rossburg, Ohio - Eldora Speedway - 35th "4-Crown Nationals"
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Rico Abreu, 97k, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-17.164; 2. Spencer Bayston, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-17.647; 3. Brady Bacon, 76m, FMR-17.647; 4. Tanner Thorson, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-17.721; 5. Davey Ray, 33, Team RAYPRO-17.724; 6. Chad Boat, 84, Tucker/Boat-17.775; 7. Ryan Robinson, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-17.852; 8. Holly Shelton, 67k, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-17.972; 9. Jerry Coons Jr., 25x, Petry/Goff-18.065; 10. Jake Blackhurst, 37, Felker-18.153; 11. Tyler Courtney, 7k, Irwin-18.155; 12. Ryan Greth, 4, Lesher-18.197; 13. Andrew Felker, 11A, Felker-18.211; 14. Dave Darland, 11AG, Gray-18.236; 15. Justin Grant, 37x, Felker-18.391; 16. Jake Neuman, 3N, Neuman-18.491; 17. Isaac Chapple, 52c, Chapple-18.528; 18. Bear Wood, 8JR, LW-19.075; 19. Eric Hein, 3, Drangmeister-20.411; 19. Robert Bell, 71-1/2, Bell-NT (Time of 19.266 disallowed); 20. Gary Gipson, 5, Byers-NT (Time of 19.763 disallowed); 22. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-NT; 23. Steve Buckwalter, 25, Buckwalter-NT; 24. Carson Macedo, 71k, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-NT; 25. Ken Drangmeister, 76, Drangmeister-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Abreu, 2. Thorson, 3. Felker, 4. Robinson, 5. Neuman, 6. Blackhurst, 7. Hein, 8. DiMattia. 2:08.94 (NTR)
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Bayston, 2. Darland, 3. Ray, 4. Shelton, 5. Chapple, 6. Courtney, 7. Bell. 2:15.76
BENIC ENTERPRISES/INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Boat, 2. Bacon, 3. Macedo, 4. Coons, 5. Grant, 6. Greth, 7. Wood, 8. Gipson. 2:14.25
FEATURE: (25 laps) 1. Rico Abreu, 2. Tanner Thorson, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Chad Boat, 5. Holly Shelton, 6. Davey Ray, 7. Carson Macedo, 8. Ryan Robinson, 9. Jerry Coons Jr., 10. Dave Darland, 11. Andrew Felker, 12. Justin Grant, 13. Jake Neuman, 14. Isaac Chapple, 15. Jake Blackhurst, 16. Bear Wood, 17. Robert Bell, 18. Tyler Courtney, 19. Eric Hein, 20. Gary Gipson, 21. Ryan Greth, 22. Spencer Bayston, 23. Steve Buckwalter. NT
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**DiMattia and Macedo flipped during qualifying.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Boat, Laps 2-25 Abreu.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS/LARRY RICE HIGH PERFORMANCE HARD CHARGER AWARD: Carson Macedo (23rd to 7th)
NEW USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bayston-947, 2-Boat-925, 3-Bacon-920, 4-Thorson-917, 5-Macedo-805, 6-Bryan Clauson-720, 7-Robinson-693, 8-Shellton-640, 9-Tyler Thomas-589, 10-Greth-493.
NEXT USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: October 6-7-8 - Granite City, IL - Tri-City Speedway - "Gold Crown Midget Nationals"
