back to his Sunnyvale, Texas home.

ise and defending King of the 360’s Sam Hafertepe Jr. rounding out the top five.

ies at the World of Outlaws World Finals, Desjardins had only one previous Series Feature start in America – the night before at The Dirt Track at Charlotte. But the Yamaska, QC driver did not waste any time getting used to racing on foreign soil as he battled for 30 laps to bring home a prestigious World of Outlaws World Finals trophy.

Desjardins drew the Stock Car Steel Pole Award, putting him in the best seat for a potential $10,000 top prize in the 30-lap Feature. When the green flag dropped, Desjardin jumped out in front, holding the lead for the first 13 laps.

Defending Series champion Matt Sheppard, who is poised to win a ninth title on Saturday, crept to the inside of the Quebec native and put on the pressure. After several tight side-by-side battles around the turns with Desjardins riding high and Sheppard taking the inside line, the #9S was able to edge around the #37M and take the lead on Lap 13.

The Waterloo, NY driver commanded the field as he has done several times this season for the next several laps. But after surviving two restarts, his luck ran out after a third yellow flag dropped.

Before the green flag dropped again, Sheppard’s machine came to a rolling stop due to a mechanical issue. This cleared the way for Desjardins to move back into the lead. It also bumped Tim Fuller up to second, who had charged his way forward from 12th.

After Sheppard was assisted off the track, the remaining competitors were back to contending for the final 11 laps.

Desjardins and Fuller kept the battle enticing until the end, with Fuller staying within striking distance until they crossed the finish line. After a valiant attempt, it was not enough to overtake the #37M as he kept his lead to bring home a victory back north of the border.

another Oval Nationals prelim victory was within the realm of possibility on this night.

In that particular moment, Ballou felt that then-race leader Kevin Thomas Jr. was the class of the field after checking out to a considerable lead in the early stages.

However, that’s why they run the races, and the balance of the 30-lap distance from that point forward ultimately painted a completely different picture in Ballou’s favor.

In fact, it was pure artistry from one of the best to ever do it on the USAC AMSOIL Sprintcar National Championship tour and, despite the earlier estimation, Ballou wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

“(CJ) Leary got under me one lap (with 10 laps to go), but I was too tight to run down there then,” Ballou explained. “I tried to get my shocks a little bit better to where I could hold it down around the bottom and not get tight. It was really tough, but then Brady (Bacon) shot right by me, and I’m like, the 69 isn’t getting by me tonight and I sat up in the seat.”

Running as deep as fourth with just 10 laps remaining, Ballou found a sudden burst that put him right back into the thick of the hunt. It came just as he foretold during the earlier stoppage, that he would be a player for the win once the fuel load began to burn off.

Ballou charged under Brady Bacon for third on the back straight with nine to go. One lap later, Ballou glided his way into second with a turn one slide past Emerson Axsom to put him within a full two seconds of Thomas who seemingly held a commanding lead with the sands in the hourglass collecting piling up.

Finding his way into his front-running position by utilizing the bottom side of the racetrack, Thomas cut a swath of land for his own use by entering turns one and three on the bottom, then letting his car sweep to the top at the exit of turns two and four.

But with two laps until the bell tolled for thee, Thomas faced a bout of traffic. Charging into turn one hot on the heels of the 24th place car of Chris Gansen, Thomas was forced to alter his line on the bottom, skating his ride up the track a tad earlier in the corner than he had all race long.

The loss of momentum for Thomas was all Ballou needed to dig his talons in on the low line and drive his way past on the back straight to rise to the top of the leaderboard once and for all and for good.

Ballou negotiated turns three and four splendidly, scraping the infield berm with his left front wheel along the way as he dipped under Gansen who cleared a courteous path for the frontrunners by swinging wide on the front straightaway just as the white flag was being presented.

Ballou, Thomas and now Leary entered the final lap separated by a single car length between each driver. Ballou gained some much obliged separation from Thomas on the backside of the half-mile dirt oval, carrying onward to a 0.632 second victory in his Ballou Motorsports/Suburban Subaru – Dragonfly Aviation – Berks Western Telecom/Triple X/Ott Chevy.

the Fujistu Feature en route to his third series victory in five starts at the Bakersfield bullring. The other two attempts resulted in podiums, meaning Golobic owns an eye-popping 1.6 average finish in NARC competition at the facility. The Rocklin gasser’s trio of KCRP triumphs puts him atop the track’s NARC win list.

The victory also comes a week after Golobic claimed his third Trophy Cup championship. It’s been a good seven days for the driver of the Matt Wood Racing/NOS Energy Drink No. 17W.

“I love this place,” a jubilant Golobic said in victory lane. “I think the worst I’ve run is like second or third. I’ve got a few wins, so I always love coming down here. It makes the drive a little bit more worth it all the way from Rocklin. When you win, it definitely makes it a little bit easier.”

Golobic led the field to green courtesy of his win in the Sunnyvalley Bacon Dash with Corey Day alongside.

410 race of the local outdoor dirt-track season wound down on Saturday at BAPS Motor Speedway in northern York County. Dietrich had advanced to a spot that would have assured him of the title and was trying for more when he tangled with Lucas Wolfe on a restart near the midpoint of the race.  Dietrich was done for the day.

Dietrich’s closest challenger for the season-long crown, Anthony Macri of Dillsburg, had to finish second to knock Dietrich from the series point lead after Dietrich exited the race. That is exactly where Macri ran for much of the race after losing the lead to Freddie Rahmer. Then, in the closing laps of the race, Macri slipped to fourth while fighting with lapped traffic.

The final margin of victory for Dietrich over Macri was seven points — 1,256-1,249.

t I’d have the opportunity to drive a midget again so I’m going to take the ride” in the victory lane celebrations.

Entering a stout field of one-hundred-seventeen merged-field Championship Night competitors in the POWRi Outlaw Non-Wing Micro League at Port City Raceway would find Daison Pursley clock overall quick-time on prelim night one with a 10.327-second lap with Steven Snyder Jr, Daison Pursley, Frank Flud, Cannon Mcintosh, Kyle Spence, TJ Smith, Kris Carroll, and Kale Drake automatically locked in from preliminary night finishes.

qualed him with Tim Kaeding and Jac Haudenschild for second most all time, just one behind Brent Kaeding’s record of four.

All three of Golobic’s wins have come at Thunderbowl Raceway, a record he now solely owns as no other driver has claimed three in Tulare since the Trophy Cup moved there in 2005.

Golobic’s first two Trophy Cup wins came in 2016 and ’17, and those were with the Keith Day No. 22 team. This year he wheeled the Matt Wood Racing No. 17w to the victory, and with his brother, Dustin, on the wrenches, the celebration was all the more special.

“It’s just chemistry,” Shane said of why the two work so well together. “You can’t fake that. It’s brother-to-brother. Our dynamic has changed a little bit lately. He’s got a big boy job during the week, but he shows up and puts all this effort in. I can’t thank him enough.”

In the feature, Golobic went in as the high point man and pieced together a memorable drive from 20th to third to seal the deal.

ars 200 finale at the Oswego Speedway and the $50,000 check that goes with it.

Sheppard scored his initial clean sweep on the New York Fairgrounds Mile back in 2017 and he also won on the NYS Mile back in 2005.

“The key to the race was the pit stop on the 97th lap,” said the winner “I had a left front tire going down and that caution period allowed me to take on tires and fuel and when I came out, we really started to roll.”

When the event started, Sheppard led the first forty-eight circuits on Oswego’s ⅝th-mile clay oval before pitting for the first time. Max McLaughlin then took over the lead wheeling a retro-painted modified numbered Z8 honoring his father Mike McLaughlin.

Max led through the 124th lap when Marc Johnson took over first. Sheppard began closing in on the Guilderland racer, but Johnson held his ground. Finally, Sheppard returned to the lead on 173rd lap. Johnson then began to fade and Mat Williamson moved into second.

Williamson, who was looking for his third straight win in this event, narrowly avoided losing some laps in an on-track tangle earlier. The St. Catharines, Ontario driver then began pressuring the leader, but Sheppard’s Bicknell modified kept picking up speed in the closing laps and he rolled to the $50,000 triumph.

Williamson ended up second, with McLaughlin third. His HBR racing teammate, Jimmy Phelps, was fourth and Marc Johnson faded to fifth at the finish. Tyler Dipple, Ryan Godown, Stewart Friesen, Tim Fuller and Justin Haers completed the top ten finishers.

Forty big-blocks started the feature grind and seventeen cars finished on the lead lap.

art – a statistic that includes a remarkable six consecutive wins from July 24th through August 26th. Davenport also has four World of Outlaws Late Model victories and a half-dozen wins in other major series this season for a total of 21 overall.

Even with all that success, this was a bucket list win for man called Superman. It is his first at Knoxville – a track famed for spring car racing that is becoming a staple of late models as well.

Davenport led the 50-lap affair early, but gave it up to Bobby Pierce on Lap 9 as the field returned to green after a caution. Two laps later, Bruening commanded the top spot and held it for the next 37 laps.

In the closing laps, Bruening stretched his advantage to two seconds until Davenport found the high side. With Lap 45 in the books, Davenport closed the gap and was on Bruening’s back bumper by Lap 47. Davenport dove to the bottom groove in Turn 1, pulled alongside and took the lead on the following circuit, denying Bruening the first Lucas Oil Late Model win of his career.

“I wish I could have said that I was planning for that,” Davenport said in a press release. “I was just too tight there. I didn’t have the best race car by far. I made a mistake first in lapped traffic I thought I might get rolled on the outside and let Bobby [Pierce] around me so I chose the bottom and let Tyler around me.

“I was trying to race Earl [Pearson Jr.] as clean as I could there, but I knew I had to get by him. I got a big run on Tyler there one time getting into one. I could have blasted on him, but I knew this could be his first crown jewel, so I didn’t want to take it away from him like that.”

For Bruening, the disappointment was bitter. In 40 combined starts this season with the Outlaws and Lucas Oil, he’s earned seven top-10s, but the closest he came to winning was a pair of fourth-place results at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.D. and Boone Speedway in his native Iowa.

“I needed two less laps I guess to hold him off,” Bruening said. “I don’t know. When you are out front for all those laps it’s pretty tough to move out of your line that’s worked the whole race.

“I didn’t know how close he was until it was too late there getting off of four. I didn’t know how high I could go if all the way up there would do it. It was fun to run up front. We just got beat by the best in the world right now.”

Brandon Sheppard scored his 25th top-five of the season and rounded out the podium.

rottle masher Shawn Jones, who earned his first Joe Hunt Magnetos Wingless Tour triumph of the season.

The 30-lap SCCT feature began with 15-year-old Chance Grasty jumping into the lead. The Suisun City youngster held a steady lead out front as the action was hot and heavy behind him. Elk Grove’s Kyle Larson had spun out on the original attempt and many eyes were turned his way, with the 2-time Gold Cup champ blasting his way through the field. Grasty led the first laps of his career with the Sprint Car Challenge Tour but when traffic came into play it gave Max Mittry and Golobic a chance to close.

On lap 13 Mittry carved his way past Grasty and brought Golobic along for second. The racing continued to keep fans on the edge of their seats with side-by-side action all through the field. Larson ended up cracking into the top-five on lap 20 as he found the high side to his liking. Golobic was also able to make his way by Mittry with 21 laps complete to snag the lead that he would never relinquish. The driver of the Matt Wood Racing/ NOS Energy Drink No. 17w accepted the checkered flag for his 11th career Sprint Car Challenge Tour win.

Larson continued his charge as the laps wound down and got past Mittry just before the finish to end up second. Mittry crossed the stripe in third to earn his first ever SCCT podium. Lincoln’s Tanner Carrick and Grasty rounded out the top-five. Completing the top-10 were Joel Myers Jr., Landon Brooks, Michael Faccinto, Pit Stop USA Hard Charger Tim Kaeding and Sean Becker.

Kyle Larson began the evening by earning the Bianchi Farms Fast Time Award by touring the bullring in 12.272 seconds. He went home with $800 total courtesy extra money from Joey and Joelle Carr.

am for back-to-back $4,000 paydays.

Dietrich, now a four-time All Star winner in 2022 with his first two occurring during Ohio Sprint Speedweek, led all but four circuits of the combined 40-lap Tri-State Summer Swing presented by Elliott’s Custom Trailers and Carts contest, kicking things off with a wire-to-wire effort in the first feature, followed by a quick charge from sixth in the second feature, taking command over Lance Dewease on lap five.

Brent Marks, who finished second in each of the Jack Gunn Memorial showstoppers, did his best to spoil Dietrich’s clean sweep with a final corner move in the second main event, but Dietrich prevailed, driving back underneath the “Myerstown Missile” after Marks attempted a slider entering turn one. Traffic played a pivotal role in Marks’ final lap pursuit, creating a two-wide roadblock in front of “Double-D” that commenced with a handful remaining.

An invert was utilized to set the grid for the second 20-lap feature; Dietrich pulled a six following the first 20-lapper.

“I have a great car and a great team supported by great partners…that makes something like this possible,” said Danny Dietrich, driver of Gary Kauffman’s Weikert’s Livestock, Sandoe’s Fruit Market, Pace Performance, Big Cove Whitetail Trophy Hunts, Drop Of Ink Tattoo, Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC, Self Made Racing, No. 48 sprint car. “Just a great effort by everyone involved. Things got a little dicey there in the closing laps of the second feature, and when I saw Brent get underneath me, I thought ‘oh crap.’ Luckily, I was able to get the car turned back underneath and drive off the corner. It feels good to be back at The Grove. We haven’t been here since we raced with the Outlaws. Hopefully we can turn things around and do it again tomorrow at Lincoln.”

k!

er 360 win at the Knoxville Raceway, the triumph is his second on the season with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network and 21st all-time.

“It was early, it wasn’t at the end. We were struggling,” commented Aaron of the car’s speed as the race went on.

“I knew someone was probably coming, but that’s how I wanted the race to play out. I just wanted to go green-to-checkered, so I could run in lapped traffic and try to hide a little bit.”

Jumping to the point through the first and second turns, Aaron quickly put distance on the field. Non-stop as traffic loomed near the race’s mid-point, Aaron was unphased as the race through the top five focused on Sam Hafertepe, Jr. Taking the green seventh, the five-time Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series National Tour Champion worked to third on Lap 14. Throwing the slide on Clint Garner, the pair tapped tires but were able to save and keep rolling.

Moving his line around the Knoxville Raceway, Sam began entering low and driving across the turns to the cushion to reel in Lynton Jeffrey. To second on Lap 16, Sam trailed Reutzel by 2.824-seconds.

Keeping his line the same as Aaron Reutzel worked the top at all points, Hafertepe closed a second over the next six laps. Down to under a second with four laps to run, Aaron had company as the pair raced to the white flag. Giving it a shot through turns one and two, the momentum wasn’t enough to deny Aaron Reutzel his just rewards.

Thanking sponsors and crew, Aaron made a point to thank his car owners, “I have to put all the attention on Brian and Lisa Ridge. This is a huge, huge, win for them and they deserve it giving me the opportunity to stay home and race the schedule that I want to race. It’s been a fun year for sure.”

Sam Hafertepe, Jr. in second, was joined on the podium by Clint Garner, who captured the spot with three laps to run. Lynton Jeffrey ended up fourth with Terry McCarl in fifth.

at the famed half-mile in 360cid competition, the win was Sam’s 60th with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network.

“Tonight, we had a really good racecar, and the guys just kept working all night long. We weren’t good in Time Trials, we weren’t good in the Heat Race, but we turned the wick up in the Feature and really got going,” stated Hafertepe.

“I have to thank Miles Hill. Without him, none of these guys could be out here working for us, and this equipment we have it’s unbelievable.

history.

n claimed the win in his final heat and started on the pole position in the twenty-five lap final alongside his nemesis for the weekend, local hope Steven Ellement.

Twenty five cars finished the race in what was an epic display of superb Formula 500s racing.

dominated the night, leading all 30 laps en route to his 18th career Series win – tying Brad Doty for 28th on the all-time wins list. In February, he pulled off a similar feat to win at Volusia Speedway Park.<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/KULLYZagi1k” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen></iframe>

y and everybody off their normal routines.

But what has become routine over the last several years is a Courtney feature victory and the defending champ once again nestled into that routine Friday night for his first series victory of the year in the inaugural Werco Manufacturing T-Town Midget Showdown presented by B & H Contractors at Port City Raceway in Tulsa, Okla.

While it wasn’t exactly a rough start to the season by any stretch for the Indianapolis, Ind. driver with a 4^th, a 2^nd and a 20^th in his first three series starts, Courtney and the Clauson-Marshall Racing team dug deep during the time off to find that little bit of “extra” to propel them back to victory lane where they had resided eight times a year ago, including three of the first four, with the series.

“We made a few changes during quarantine and I think we found some stuff,” Courtney admitted after capturing the victory in his NOS Energy Drink Turbo – ZMax/Spike/Stanton SR-11x.  “I was a little rusty on the cushion there at the end of the race, and I need to get a little better at that.  I saw those guys coming on the bottom, but I was kind of committed to the top by that point.”

Courtney was referring to his late-race execution there, but first, he had to charge from the sixth starting position after establishing a track record earlier in the night during Fatheadz Eyewear/MSW Motorsports time trials, a lap of 9.444 seconds around the 1/8-mile dirt bullring, the first sub 10-second qualifying quick time lap in a USAC National Midget points race since John Andretti at the Toronto Skydome in 1993.

It was Courtney’s CMR teammate Cole Bodine who established the early lead from the pole after an early side-by-side scuttle with outside front starter Chris Windom.  Windom remained up top and eventually drove by on lap five for the race lead.

Courtney moved into the top-five on lap 10, passing second quickest qualifier Thomas Meseraull for the position.  Moments later, Meseraull’s bid for a frontrunning result came to an abrupt halt when he contacted Courtney’s rear bumper and slid to a stop.  Meseraull restarted and finished 13^th.

Nearing midway, Courtney had closed in on a three-car tussle for second, which also involved Tanner Thorson and Buddy Kofoid.  On the 21^st lap, Courtney emerged from the herd with the runner-up spot, although Windom still held a hefty lead of nearly two seconds ahead of him.

That advantage was erased on the following lap when 15^th running Daison Pursley stopped at the top of turn four, thus bringing out the yellow flag and bunching up the field for the restart.  Courtney gripped low while Windom ran the top, but on the 25^th lap, Windom’s slight stumble on the turn one curb gave Courtney the crack in the door he needed to get through as he jolted to the race lead.

Windom remained in touch with his former CMR teammate Courtney just prior to a yellow for first-time USAC starter Emerson Axsom who spun between turns three and four.

Following a restart with 10 to go, Windom ultimately recharged the figurative batteries and made his bid to overtake Courtney, successfully sliding past in turn two with eight laps remaining.  Courtney instantly ducked to the inside of Windom exiting turn two, and to Courtney’s left, both Logan Seavey and Thorson created two more lanes of space on the bottom to briefly make it four-wide for the lead.

Courtney escaped the jam and entered turn three on the bottom with the lead with Windom going topside back to second and Thorson and Seavey getting momentarily shuffled out.  Windom took one more run at Courtney in turn three to no avail just as the red flag flew on lap 34 when Hank Davis and Clinton Boyles made contact in turn one, sending Boyles flipping near the outside wall.  He was uninjured.

On the ensuing restart, Courtney utilized a quality start on the opening lap to carve out some distance between he and Windom.  A hard-charging Seavey, who started all the way back in 19^th, picked his way to second past Windom on the bottom with four to go and tried to hunt down Courtney, but time was short his hourglass was out of sand.

The checkered flag was Courtney’s for the 14^th time in his USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget career, tying him with Chuck Arnold, Jack Turner and Leroy Warriner for 49^th all-time.

“It feels really good, especially being the first time back,” Courtney said.  “It’s cool to come to these races when your friends Xia Xianna and Brady (Bacon) are promoting it, and stepping up, especially in a hard time like this.  Thanks to them and Mike and Megan Eubanks who’ve done a hell of a job with this place.”

Courtney competed in a micro sprint in his only previous Port City racing experiences, but this marked his first visit in a midget at the track, and after Friday’s triumph, he’s looking for even more on Saturday night.

“Tomorrow’s going to be a tough one,” Courtney continued when speaking of Saturday’s night two of the T-Town Midget Showdown.  “All these guys are going to keep getting better, so you can’t slouch off.  Hats off to my whole team who’ve worked their tails off with nothing really to do; they haven’t backed down.”

Sutter, California’s Seavey made his debut in the Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports Midget a memorable one, driving from 19^th to 2^nd to earn Hard Charger honors courtesy of KSE Racing Products and Jerry Medlin in his AME Electrical Contracting – ZMax/Spike/Stanton SR-11x.

“We just had a heck of a racecar there,” Seavey exclaimed.  “I feel like we’ve struggled the past couple of days, but finally got the car gripped up to where I could drive through the slick and keep the car straight.  That’s really what you need on a track like this.”

“I feel so good,” the 2018 USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget champ stated.  “I really wish we could’ve gotten by Sunshine (Courtney) there.  He’s passed me a lot driving through the slick while I’m up there pounding the curb, and I was hoping we could reverse the roles tonight but didn’t quite get it done.  I needed to make a few better moves once I got into the top-five; I just wasn’t quite pouncing on the opportunities like I needed to.  That’s kind of what ended it for me once Sunshine got out to a little bit of a lead, I could close a little bit, but I knew there wasn’t enough to get all the way there.”

Windom (Canton, Ill.) led a race-high 20 laps, and after losing the lead with 16 laps remaining, came back with a strong second effort, although he fell to third at the conclusion after admitting to needing to “make a few less mistakes” in his Tucker-Boat Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – Pristine Auction – K & C Drywall/Spike/Speedway Toyota.

“We got the lead and I started hitting the curb a little bit and getting tight on entry and Tyler got by us,” Windom recalled.  “We had a hell of a race back to the lead, but (Courtney) was just a little better at the end than I was.  Obviously, we’ve got a really fast racecar and these guys are at the top of their game.”

following Saturday night’s Shamrock Classic victory at the Southern Illinois Center.  And like a common refrain from a song you might’ve heard in the past, ‘two out of three ain’t bad.’

After capturing a season opening victory in Ocala during February, then dominating the second night at Ocala until an engine issue stifled a surefire victory, Thorson entered the Shamrock Classic with a plan to return to his winning ways, but that plan and the confidence went slightly askew early in the evening.

“After the qualifier, I thought I was about to load this thing up and get out of here,” Thorson admitted.  “This place has never been really too good to me.”

Yet, Thorson and team remained tactful and honed in on the details that allowed him to drive from his 15^th starting spot to victory lane, the furthest back in the field a winning driver has started with the series since himself, also from 15^th at Lincoln Park Speedway in Putnamville, Ind. in June of 2019.

“We just kept at it all night,” Thorson said.  “I was really fast the last time I was here and we kind of brought the same set up here, but it didn’t work.  We just had to change some things and go through some stuff and it paid off.”

In doing so, Thorson kept the streak intact of consecutive different USAC Midget winners to emerge at the Southern Illinois Center to nine and the run of different Shamrock Classic victors to five years running.

arly lead, Dietrich worked on Forsythe for second from his third-starting spot. Once by Forsythe, Dietrich set chase for Smith and took over the top spot on the 12th lap. Three laps later, Smith spun into the first-turn wall, ending his day.

From that point on, Dietrich held the lead at the Pigeon Hill oval, although at times it was a slim one. Local World of Outlaws driver, Hanover’s Logan Schuchart, won a spirited battle with Freddie Rahmer for the second spot. Schuchart had started fourth, while Rahmer started eighth.

w him drop from a surefire win to having to transfer through the semi in order to qualify for the feature, Bacon was once again the class of the field, driving from 9^th to 1^st to capture his second consecutive series main event win in as many nights at the 3/8-mile D-shaped dirt track in Ocala, Fla.

All the meanwhile, the Broken Arrow, Oklahoma native was adamant to make sure a victory wasn’t going to slip through his fingers twice in one night.

“We made an extra lap in the feature.  I wasn’t going to stop until we knew it was over,” Bacon exclaimed.

For you see, earlier Saturday evening during his heat race, Bacon was fully in charge, dominating the preliminary event until the final lap when his car began to slow dramatically.  Was something amiss mechanically with his ride, many pondered.

However, as it turned out, Bacon thought he saw the flagman waving the white.  As he came around the stripe the next time, he saw another flag waving and assumed it was the checkered.  As it turned out, that flag was, in fact, the white.  Bacon let off the gas on the actual last lap, assuming the race was over, and dropped from 1^st to 8^th as his competitors drove by him to knock him out from a potential second row starting spot.

As a result, Bacon was forced to transfer through the semi-feature, which he won, then rolled off from the 9^th starting spot in the 30-lap feature – the same position he started from in his victory just 24 hours prior.

ies champion with serious injuries.  His eventual comeback was a mixed bag of highlight reel moments as well as an up-and-down closing to the campaign that left him without a full-time drive.

A Chili Bowl prelim victory in January was just a prelude to Friday night’s splendid drive by the Minden, Nev. native that witnessed him zip to the front in spectacular fashion just prior to and following a mid-race restart where he exchanged multiple sliders with series Rookie Buddy Kofoid to snare the lead and control the final 16 laps to score the win in the series season-opening Winter Dirt Games XI feature at Bubba Raceway Park.

Thorson’s 14^th career USAC National Midget feature win in his Hayward Motorsports/OILFIRE – Factory Kahne – Walker Filtration – Smith Titanium/Spike/Stanton SR-11x moved him into the top-50 and in a four-way tie for 48^th on the all-time series win list alongside Chuck Arnold, Jack Turner and Leroy Warriner.

le USAC National Midget season since Jeff Gordon and Rollie Helmling in 1990.  In addition, they led the series in all major categories with 175 laps led, 20 top-fives, 26 top-tens, 8 fast qualifying times and 9 heat race wins to win the title by 179 points.

for good in May and held it for the remainder of the season.  The team’s first finish outside the top-ten didn’t come until August, leading to an extreme knack for consistency that saw them finish in the top-ten 32 times in 34 starts.  Along the way, they captured both the Eastern Storm and Indiana Sprint Week title and the Oval National in Perris, Calif. Their 11 fast qualifying times rank as the third most ever in a single USAC National Sprint Car season.

to have done it four times in a row is an even bigger accomplishment,” stated Hafertepe.

Looking at the stats of Sam’s four championships, two with Keith Dobbs and two with Hills Racing Team, the driver of the No. 15h landed 40 wins, 94 top-fives, and 114 top-tens in 139 A-Feature starts and is the fourth driver to have four or more titles with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network, and is the third to do so consecutively with Terry Gray (1995-1998) and Gary Wright (2004-2007) on that list.

Speaking on the past four seasons, Sam explained, “The first two years, we really didn’t have anything in our way. We just dominated, and years three and four, luck started to catch up to us a little bit but thankfully we were still fast enough to overcome the bad luck and take advantage. For me, this is a pretty big accomplishment especially with the competition we’ve had.”

to take advantage of Jimmy Owens’ misfortune on lap 46 to regain the point. Kyle went on to lead the remaining five circuits of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series special en route to capturing the $12,000 top prize over Tim McCreadie, Josh Richards, Hudson O’Neal, and Jonathan Davenport!

(October 27, 2019) Kyle Bronson, of Brandon, Florida, secured his eighth feature win of the 2019 campaign over the October 25-26 weekend in the ‘Showdown on the Suwannee’ for Limited Late Models at All-Tech Raceway in Ellisville, Florida! On Friday night during preliminary action, Kyle clicked off the fastest lap in his group during qualifying before claiming a second place effort in his heat race. After rolling off from the outside of the third row in Saturday’s 75-lap headliner, Kyle drove to the front of the stellar field to bag the $10,000 top prize ahead of Mark Whitener, Michael Page, Bo Allen, and Chad Tuten!

December 15, 2019) Kyle Bronson reached the double digit win mark in 2019 on Saturday evening, December 14 at the nearby East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton, Florida! Kyle advanced from eighth to second in his Late Model heat race to earn the pole position for the ‘Dalton Myers Memorial’ finale. The Brandon, Florida star then led each and every circuit during the 54-lap affair to pocket the $5,400 payday for his tenth triumph of the season ahead of Jeff Mathews, Steve Mathis, Jr., Ashton Winger, and Travis Varnadore!

his season.

Davenport led from the start of the race and appeared to be on the way to his first Pittsburgher 100 victory. Throughout the latter half of the event, he fought off O’Neal’s constant challenges, but was pulling away when a caution came out for a stalled car in turn four.  Under the lap 93 caution, Davenport slowed to a stop in the middle of the backstretch, and was pushed back to the hot pit area to add fuel to his Longhorn Chassis.

Earl Pearson Jr. charged from the 23rd stating spot to finish second behind O’Neal.  Tim McCreadie rallied from two pitstops to finish in third. Jimmy Owens fought his way back to finish fourth after tangling with another car just shy of half way and having to restart at the tail, and 2-time Pittsburgher 100 winner, Gregg Satterlee, rounded out the top five.

ney was able to take the lead with two laps to go and drove to victory. The win was Courtney’s second in a row in the midget car portion of the 4-Crown National driving for Clauson-Marshall Racing.

“For a while I couldn’t gain any ground on those guys because we were all going the same speed,” said Courtney. “We got to lapped traffic and we started racing a bit. I just tried to time my moves right, but Tanner just kept coming back. He’s turning into one heck of a driver. To win all three you have to start with one. That one was a lot harder than I was hoping for but this is Eldora. That’s what this place is all about. Hopefully that’s a good way to start of the night for these fans.”

Tanner Carrick led the opening lap with his Keith Kunz Motorsports teammate Logan Seavey in second, shuffling front row starter Jerry Coons Jr. back to third position. Rico Abreu made his presence felt early dropping Coons back to third position on the second lap and set out after the leaders.

The red flag appeared on lap five when Jason McDougal flipped in turn four. McDougal exited the car under his own power.

Following the red flag Seavey took the lead from Carrick with a slide job in turns one and two only to have Carrick return the favor at the other end of the racetrack to maintain the top position. Behind them Courtney was moving up from his sixth starting position and drove by Abreu for the third spot.

With 11 laps complete Carrick Seavey, and Courtney pulled away from the rest of the field. On lap 16 the fireworks began when Seavey made a bit for the lead diving under Carrick to take the lead. Seavey and Carrick began to slide job each other on each end of the racetrack exchanging the lead on each end of the race track.

With five laps to go Courtney threw his hat into the ring putting a slide job on Seavey for second. Seavey crossed back as Carrick opened some distance between himself and the race for second. That cushion was short lived as Courtney gained the second position from Seavey and started exchanging slide jobs with Carrick. This continued until Courtney threw the final slide job on Carrick in turns one and two and pulled away to take the white flag.

Courtney completed the finale lap uncontested for the victory over Carrick, Seavey, Abreu, and Kevin Thomas Jr.

the tenth occasion a driver has reached at least 10 series wins in a season and the 10^th of those select drivers in that club to win at Eldora during their banner year.

Tom Bigelow (14 wins), J.J. Yeley & Robert Ballou (13), Larry Dickson & Pancho Carter (12), Bubby Jones (11), Dickson, Carter & Jay Drake (10) each got it done at Eldora on their magical seasons.  Now you can add a little “Sunshine” to that list.

However, the ride to get there on this night was a tad turbulent early on as the team ran into mechanical issues that forced them to swap out the engine for another bullet following qualifying.  It seemed to do the trick as Courtney walloped the competition in his heat race, then proceeded to decimate the field for much of the 30-lapper in his Clauson Marshall Newman Racing/Priority Aviation – Competition Suspension, Inc./Spike/Rider Chevy until having to hold off a late surge from hard-charging C.J. Leary left that fairytale ending hanging in the balance momentarily.

Courtney started from the pole position, but it was 2007 “4-Crown” USAC Sprint Car winner Robert Ballou who eked into the lead from his outside front row starting spot to lead the opening lap with Leary and Courtney in tow.

As Leary trailed Ballou, the reigning “4-Crown” Sprint Car winner was amidst a battle with Courtney for second.  Courtney threaded the dot of the i around the outside of Leary in turn two.  Leary then snagged the concrete and spun completely around down the back straightaway and somehow, someway, avoided catastrophe as the entire field missed him, allowing him to restart, although he would now have to come from the tail in 22^nd.

Following the restart, Courtney made his surge, sliding past Ballou entering the third turn.  Ballou countered with an uppercut to the chin and clung to his grip of the lead as the pair crossed the line.  Courtney reloaded and fired his next shot, sliding to the lead past Ballou entering turn one.  By lap 10, Courtney’s advantage was a full-straight ahead of Ballou.

Ballou’s bid to get back into the game hit a literal snag on the 14^th lap when he clipped the turn two outside wall and spun around to a stop, ending his evening earlier than anticipated.  That moved Justin Grant into second where he and the hard-charging Leary took a full head a steam at running down Courtney.  Grant found the demise of his night in the same spot that took caught Leary and Ballou earlier in turn two.  Grant’s car churned against the concrete along the back straight before grinding to a halt with four laps remaining.

Leary was in second behind Courtney for the lap 27 restart, but a challenge to Courtney’s throne was discarded almost immediately as Courtney blitzed to a good jump when action resumed.  The only race for position was behind Courtney as Leary, Kevin Thomas, Jr. and Isaac Chapple roamed three-wide at times for the runner-up position.

It was all to Courtney’s advantage, however, as he drove away to his tenth series win of the year and joined Jack Hewitt, Kyle Larson, Jerry Coons, Jr. and Dave Darland as the fifth driver to win in a Midget, USAC Sprint Car and Silver Crown car during his “4-Crown” career.

Leary finished second ahead of Chapple, who scored a career-best third-place result.  Point leader Thomas was fourth ahead of Chris Windom.

rack – his first came in 2017. He was a shark that sensed blood in the water. No one was going to keep him from his target. He and his Shark Racing team made sure of it.

Aside from Hot Laps, which were ran twice due to a two-and-a-half-hour rain delay before Qualifying, Schuchart won everything he could involving a sprint car Friday night. He set Quick Time, won his Drydene Heat race, drew the pole for the DIRTVision Fast Pass Dash, won the Dash and led all 30 laps in the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series Feature – earning his eighth victory of the season.

“This is definitely one, coming to Eldora, is one I always look forward to,” Schuchart said. “It’s been really good to us. We just haven’t been able to win one. So, to end our season at Eldora and win one is cool. Especially since I’ve had so many good runs and haven’t won one since 2017. It’s cool to win at this place any chance you get.”

k Racing teammate Jacob Allen leading, searching for his first World of Outlaws win. He couldn’t catch him. A runner-up finish looked like his calling, and he was OK with that.

Cruising down the backstretch, he saw Allen’s Drydene No. 1a car power into turn three, heading for two laps to go. When Schuchart exited turn four, he no longer saw Allen in front of him. The white and blue No. 1a slowed and pulled into the infield.

The lead was Schuchart’s. And after two clean laps, so was the win.

“It’s a tough deal,” Schuchart said of Allen’s affliction. “I’m happy to get the win. It’s awesome to have these cars up front. Whatever happened, this team works really hard to keep these cars on the racetrack.”

The victory was Schuchart’s seventh of the year – further breaking his record of winning at most four wins in a season – and 15th career World of Outlaws win overall.

ts at Placerville Speedway.

Golobic tested the limits of his vocal cords from yelling inside his NOS Energy Drink No. 17w car. He couldn’t get out of it fast enough and do something his calm mannered self would rarely do.

He climbed to the top wing of his car, yelling and cheering, with the checkered flag in hand, letting the blue and orange confetti bath him while he celebrated his second World of Outlaws wins.

“I feel like two gives you a little more credibility than one,” said Golobic, who runs a part-time schedule with the Series. “I got the first one at a little short track, Antioch (Speedway). It was a none stop Feature, it counts as an Outlaws win one hundred percent, but there’s always that little bit of doubt. I’m not so much worried about other people, what they think, but just in me. You know, it’s been a few years since we done it. You just wonder if it is ever going to happen again. Tonight, we had the race car to do it.”

the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory worth $30,000 in front of a capacity crowd.

Richards’ third Lucas Oil win of the season came over the defending Hillbilly Hundred winner Brandon Overton, Tim McCreadie, 20th starting Shanon Buckingham, and Jimmy Owens. Richards fought off the challenges of Owens for the first 80 laps of the race as they ran 1-2 for that entire distance until a caution flag with 20 laps to go changed the complexion in the race for second.

On the restart Richards maintained his lead and McCreadie moved into second. At one-point McCreadie, Overton, and Buckingham raced three-wide around the tight bullring for the second position. A caution with seven laps to go set-up a quick dash to the finish. Richards again pulled away just enough to pick up the win while Overton passed McCreadie for second with two laps remaining.
In front of a partisan West Virginia crowd, the homestate driver had accomplished one of his life-long dreams, by winning America’s oldest dirt late model crown jewel event. “I don’t know if I wanted to see that last caution. I wanted to get a couple of lap cars between myself and those other guys. You never know what you got. The right rear tire was getting a little warmer than I wanted. The car was phenomenal. The guys did a great job on the car.”

“I used to come here with my uncle Robbie Scott and watch everybody win this race, guys like Davey Johnson who drove for my dad won this race. I want to thank the crowd; they are great as always tonight and thanks to Carl Short for putting on this event.”

.

]; 4. 17-Quinn Jones, [14]; 5. 41C-Brian Carber, [4]; 6. 187-James Morris, [19]; 7. 9-Chase Randall, [11]; 8. 44K-Daniel Robinson, [10]; 9. 25K-Kyle Spence, [21]; 10. 34-KJ Snow, [17]; 11. 23-Jermeny Camp, [3]; 12. 94-Andrew Peters, [13]; 13. 311-Ayrton Gennetten, [24]; 14. 88G-Garrett Hulsey, [1]; 15. 99A-Alex Owen, [23]; 16. 37-Aiden Purdue, [5]; 17. 71S-Austin Schaeffer, [20]; 18. 47-Heath Hehnly, [9]; 19. 39-Russ Disinger, [25]; 20. 2B-Nathan Benson, [12]; 21. 93-Matt Carr, [18]; 22. 21H-Dylan Kadous, [16]; 23. (DNF) 92-Jordan Herrman, [8]; 24. (DNF) 8X-Chris Andrews, [22]; 25. (DNF) 81-Frank Flud, [15]

0 Knoxville program.   Congrats Parker and thank you for putting the icing on the cake for keizer Wheels!!!

retty nerve racking,” Dietrich said after the 35-lap Feature.

GETTYSBURG, Pa. (June 24, 2019) – It was quite the nine-day campaign for Gettysburg, Pennsylvania’s Danny Dietrich, not only entering action on home dirt in Central Pennsylvania, but also making the trip to the Buckeye State to join the All Star Circuit of Champions during Ohio Sprint Speedweek.

With Mother Nature causing some issues along the way, Dietrich ended his nine-day campaign with six main event starts, two of which resulting in victories. ‘Double-D’ secured wins at Lincoln Speedway on Saturday, June 15, as well as at Williams Grove Speedway on Friday, June 21. The pair of wins bumped Dietrich’s season win total to ten, officially equalling his 2018 win total.

nevitable. He claimed the lead with the assist of several drivers blowing a tire during the second night of the $15,000-to-win United Rentals Patriot Nationals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte on Saturday.

That caused Schuchart’s right foot to become wary of the throttle in the closing laps of the Feature.

“I was trying to be kind of conservative and not spin the tires, not run it into the corner very hard, try to not wear the tire very much,” Schuchart said.

A second too long on the throttle or off it handed defeat the win.

That was not an option, though. He had something to lose. The top four in points blew a tire with a handful of laps to go, giving Schuchart the opportunity for a healthy points gain.

Behind him, though, defeat had nothing to lose. Australian James McFadden, running just his second race in the No. 9 Kasey Kahne Racing car, is only driving the car until an injured Kahne is ready to return. Points are of no concern. He’s there to win at no cost.

Sam15.com takes Lake of the ozarks.

Dominating one week ago in Michigan, Sam Hafertepe, Jr. carried that momentum into Missouri for his third win in as many races with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network coming at Lake Ozark Speedway on Saturday night.

“Hats off to my guys. They did a hell of a job tonight, just like they’ve been doing all year long. That’s three in a row and we’re going to keep on going. Lock-in cars or not, we’re going to try to get it done tomorrow night,” commented Hafertepe, who has taken command of the National Tour point standings by 14 markers.

edway.

would be strong once again, as Logan Schuchart would lay down a lap of just 13.792 seconds placing him 3rd overall and Jacob Allen would be nipping at his heels with a lap time of 13.879 placing him 4th overall in single-car qualifications.

Those lap times placed each driver on the front row of their heat races. Jacob would take full advantage of an outside of the front row starting position and out duel Kraig Kinser for the Heat Race win. This race would deliver a generational flashback to veteran fans of the sport, and it was uniquely fun watching an Allen and Kinser battling for a win at the famed half-mile.

Logan Schuchart would roll from pole position in heat race number 3, but the top side prevailed at the drop of the green flag, and Carson Macedo would go on to take the top spot and Logan would roll under the checkered flag in the second position, placing both Shark Racing Machines in the DIRTVision Fast Pass Dash!

The drivers draw for starting positions for the dash and Logan would draw the two spot while Jacob drew the three-spot. While this is exciting for the team, you can also imagine some butterflies come when your cars are racing that close together, that deep into the night, and this was shaping up to be both fun and a nerve-racking night for the Drydene Shark Racing Team.

When the green flag dropped on the DIRTVision Fast Pass Dash Kraig Kinser would jump out to the advantage, and Jacob Allen would also flex his muscle working his way past teammate Logan Schuchart for the runner up position. Jacob would bring it home in second place, and Logan would follow in third, putting both Shark Racing machines on the front row of the four wide!

As the crew began to finish up final preparations for the A-Main event the World of Outlaws officials would sound the horn for stagging, and it was now time for the 25 lap shootout around the famed half mile. And for the second time this season while Johnny Gibson delivered the greatest call in all of motorsport, it would be a pair of sharks under the fireworks leading the way in the four-wide salute to the fans!

When the formation breaks lose the level of excitement ratchets up as the A-Main is set to go green. And at the drop of the green flag, Jacob Allen got a little bit wide and momentarily fell back to fourth place, but the Newmans Engine powerplant would show its worth and Jacob sailed around the top side of one and two regaining the second position. Logan would fall into a battle with Daryn Pittman who showed he would be a force to reckon with before the night was over.

During the next three laps, you could have cued up the Jaws theme song as Allen was running down Kinser and it was just a matter of time until Allen made his move for the lead around the top side of the Devil’s Bowl Speedway. At the halfway point Jacob had a comfortable lead but was entering lap traffic, and Logan Schuchart and Daryn Pittman both were closing in on the race leader. On lap thirteen in a bittersweet moment, Logan Schuchart turned under Jacob Allen in turns three and four and took over the top spot.

And just as quick as that happened Daryn Pittman found the rubber at the bottom of the racetrack and flew by both Jacob and Logan to take the top spot. Logan, however, remained calm got down into the rubber and when Daryn made one mistake, Logan was there to capitalize on it. On lap 17 Pittman evaded the rubber to make a move on a lap car, and that was the opening Logan needed. Schuchart executed the pass perfectly and would go on to prevail and grab his second win of the very young 2019 season! Jacob Allen would hold on to his very first podium finish of the season and deliver Team Dryden with their best team result to date.

l tour’s top names.

“We were pretty fast (here) last year so I was looking forward to coming back,” Schuchart told more than 7,000 fans from Victory Lane at the Stockton Dirt Track. “I’m very happy we were able to get the win this early in the season.”

Behind Schuchart was Placerville’s Brad Sweet, Tim Kaeding, Aaron Reutzal and D.J. Netto. Rounding out the top 10 were Rico Abreau, Carson Macedo, Donny Schatz, Cory Eliason and Sheldon Haudenschild.

h starting spot to battle with the likes of Tyler Clem of Reddick, FL, Nick Hoffman of Mooresville, MC, and the defending Durrence Layne Chevrolet Dirt Late Model Series National Champion Ashton Winger of Hampton, GA in a race that saw seven lead changes. Bronson camped out on the bottom groove of the track and used it as his path to victory.

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Leary was highly successful on the USAC trail in his own family car over the past several seasons.  This past offseason, Leary made the move to the Arizona-based team, bringing with him a familiar face to a new setting to make the transition as smooth as silk.

“The cool thing was Andy (Reinbold) brought me and (crew chief) Davey (Jones) on as a team since we had already been working together and we get along so well on and off the track,” Leary pointed out.  “I’m just learning this new racecar and this new engine package is quite a bit different than what I was running the past couple of years on our family car.  We did a lot of unique things to the racecar and it paid off for us down here in Florida.”

Courtney slid by Tucker Klaasmeyer with nine laps remaining in Saturday’s 30-lap “Winter Dirt Games X” feature, blasting to victory for the second time in as many nights on the 3/8-mile, D-shaped dirt track to become just the eighth driver to win the opening two USAC National Midget races of the season, joining Lee Kunzman (1972), Gary Bettenhausen (1975), Rich Vogler (1984-85), Dave Steele (2002), Brad Sweet (2010), Bryan Clauson (2011) and Rico Abreu (2014).

“It’s definitely a weight lifted off my shoulders to get the season started off on the right foot,” Courtney said. “We’ve got a great team here and the whole series is tough right now. It’s a lot of fun and it’s obviously the best way you can start. We’ve got awesome momentum going for our midget season right now as well as going into the start of the Sprint Car season next week.”

end, his fast start included back-to-back victories in the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget openers at Bubba Raceway Park. Now the Indianapolis, Ind. driver embarks on a mission in his Clauson/Marshall/Newman Racing No. 7BC to duplicate the feat that only some of the very best in this sport can lay claim to as a repeat series champion beginning with February 14-15-16th’s “Winter Dirt Games X.” Parnelli Jones was the first to do the deed in 1961-62, followed by Sheldon Kinser (1981-82), Rick Hood (1984-85), Steve Butler (1986-88), Robbie Stanley (1991-93), Brian Tyler (1996-97), Levi Jones (2009-10-11) and Bryan Clauson (2012-13). Last year, Courtney had one of the top seasons in the history of the series with 11 victories, only the tenth driver to reach double-figures in USAC Sprint Car wins during a single year. If anything has been proven, it’s not to discount anything Courtney can accomplish with the streak of success he’s enjoying at the moment. It’s difficult to win one championship, let alone back-to-backers and put up the same numbers as the year before. However, it’s been duplicated before and will be again. While most of the consecutive championship-winning drivers saw their numbers go up on the backend of the back-to-back, Parnelli dropped from nine wins to four between 1961-62, yet still had enough mustard to relish the championship honors once again at season’s end. Twenty years later, meanwhile, Sheldon Kinser had a slight dip between his two in 1981-82, from seven to five. From thereon, the numbers, in most instances, picked up the following year with Rick Hood increasing from six to nine wins from 1984-85. Steve Butler was the first three-peat titlist in 1986-87-88, bouncing up from two to three to three victories again, respectively, in those years. Robbie Stanley became the next three-peater, staying relatively stagnant from two to one wins between 1991-92, but 1993 would prove to be his career-best year, winning five times en route to a series title. Brian Tyler had nowhere to go but up following a rare winless championship campaign in 1996, but in 1997, the talented driver would find victory lane on four occasions on his way to another championship. Levi Jones saw all ends of the championship-winning spectrum during his three-straight run from 2009-11, beginning with four in 2009, doubling it to eight in 2010, then back down to three in 2011. Even-keeled Bryan Clauson notched his second-straight in 2013 with seven scores, following a seven win season the prior year in 2012. But the main lesson here with those numbers is that championships are created in a myriad of manners. Winning is only one part of the recipe, along with qualifying up front, transferring through the heat, taking care of the equipment and finishing in the top-five, top-ten every chance you get. After all, the title race could come down to one single point somewhere along the line. Call it a case in example when Courtney and Kevin Thomas, Jr. racked up the same number of points throughout 40 races a season ago, only being decided on a tiebreaker in terms of number of feature wins. The USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car portion of “Winter Dirt Games X” begins this week. Pits open at 3pm Eastern each day at Ocala. Grandstands open at 5pm on Thursday/Friday and 4pm on Saturday. Cars hit the track for engine heat at 6:30pm Eastern on Thursday/Friday and at 5:30pm on Saturday. An open practice session will take place a day before the action starts from 7-10pm. All nights of racing from Ocala will be live on https://www.FloRacing.com/.

1/18/2019

“This one was a lot of work. You know I’ve been really fortunate to win some decent races and most of them have been showing up and walking in at three o’clock in the afternoon with my helmet bag and jumping in the car and just doing that and going home. This one’s been … it started with a truck, trailer, and a credit card. And a lot of 12-, 14-hour days leading up to this, a ton of work. It just very validating that we could pull off a win. Those guys believed in me probably more than I did myself. But it’s like a bit of a weight lifted off … I can do that part of it too. Hopefully, we can keep it up,” commented Grant of his victory for RAMS Racing

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ng finished third in the opening round after leading early, a repeat of such a scenario never looked likely on this occasion as Lack rebuffed every overture from those who dared to venture forth in search of the lead. Opening round winner Lachlan McHugh was the early threat until he found himself losing touch with Lack, enabling Woods to take up the chase. There were a few occasions where Woods looked as though he might surge to the front, but Lack saw off every challenge to take the race and emerge as the only driver to finish on the podium in both completed rounds. McHugh found himself fourth at the chequer, with Luke Oldfield rounding out the first five. 

ir game.

Twenty-four hours later, Courtney was standing in victory lane, reversing the spell that cast him in the throes of lapped traffic.  This time, it was he who capitalized in lapped traffic as he ran down Dave Darland with 13 laps remaining to win his 11^th USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car feature of the season.

“I screwed myself with lapped cars last night and I was determined that I wasn’t going to do that again,” an adamant Courtney said.

Courtney started fifth on the field while, up front, fellow USAC National Sprint Car championship contender Chris Windom rocketed from his outside front row starting position to the lead past pole sitter Damion Gardner and quickly carved out a two-plus second advantage.

Car Series presented by Sawblade.com.

Trailing Sean McClelland the first 33 laps, Hafertepe made the top of turns one and two work after several laps of only being able to close on the back bumper of the D&E Supply No. 22. Fighting back for the top spot, McClelland was not able to regain the position.

“There is nothing like racing your best friend for 40 laps. That was probably one of the funnest races I’ve driven in my entire life. Me and Sean have been friends for a long time and for us to race like that and have our friendship last like it has, it means a lot, then to win this deal and show everybody who deserves this championship. That’s what we set out to do tonight,” commented an emotional Sam Hafertepe, Jr.

Beating Sean on the initial start, the caution flew for Matt Covington who spun to a stop in the first turn.

With the No. 22 holding the lead on the restart, Hafertepe’s next attempt at the point came while working Lap 2, only to have his slide job negated by another caution. Pressuring McClelland on the restart, the Townline Variety No. 15h was not able to get the run as Sean slowly pulled away with traffic coming into play as the field worked past the tenth lap. Allowing Hafertepe to pull back in on McClelland, the No. 22 did not falter on the low line; using slower cars as picks to protect any run to the outside.

Taking their high-speed chess game into the mid-point of the A-Feature, Hafertepe pulled the trigger on Lap 23 to take the lead but had his advance quickly answered with Sean driving back around the No. 15h. Battling hard into slower traffic, the caution lights came on with 25 laps complete as Blake Hahn spun to a stop.

Getting away from Sam on the restart, Sean continued to roll the bottom as Hafertepe searched the middle and high line at both ends of Creek County Speedway. Building momentum as the leaders worked to Lap 30, Hafertepe took three runs at Sean McClelland with his run on Lap 34 off the turn-two cushion being the one that secured the lead. Quickly through traffic with the lead in hand, Sam opened his advantage to 3.582 seconds at the finish.

Holding off Seth Bergman on the final lap, Sean McClelland crossed second for his ninth career podium finish with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by Sawblade.com. Bergman third was followed by Jason Martin with Kyle Bellm making up the top five. Charging out of the first B-Feature, El Paso’s John Carney II raced through the field to sixth after starting 20th. Wayne Johnson in seventh had Blake Hahn recover from his caution to finish eight. Skylar Gee advanced six spots to ninth with roger Crockett tenth.

el point leader Devin Gilpin on lap 45 and drove away from the field following a restart with 16 laps to go for the $51,000 payday.

After having to watch several World 100’s from the grandstands after not making the race, McCreadie seemed to be in disbelief to be sitting in victory lane.

“I’ve sat up there up there with you guys for a bunch of these features, so to be down here is pretty amazing,” McCreadie told the large crowd in victory lane. “There are a lot of people that complain about funding, but we just shut our months and keep digging along with what we’ve got.”

Gilpin led a majority of the first half of the main event with pressure from Shane Clanton in second spot. As the race went on Clanton dropped back and found himself in a race with McCreadie for second. On lap 29 McCreadie used his momentum off turn four to take away the runner up spot and pull away down the backstretch.

After taking the runner up spot, McCreadie quickly closed on Gilpin for the lead as the caution flag appeared on lap 36 when Mike Marlar slowed in turn one. Gilpin pulled away during the restart as McCreadie and Jimmy Owens ran side by side for the second spot. McCreadie retained the position and started to chip away at Gilpin’s lead.

After moving around the race track to build up momentum, McCreadie got a run off turn four on lap 45 to drive by Gilpin for the lead. McCreadie pulled away from the rest of the field while Scott Bloomquist drove by Owens for third and started to put pressure on Gilpin for second. Bloomquist and Gilpin raced side by side several times, with Gilpin holding on to the runner-up spot through the mid stages of the event.

Owens was able to take advantage of Bloomquist’s inability to pass Gilpin and took back the third spot on lap 67. Owens then passed Gilpiin for second and started his pursuit of McCreadie for the lead. McCreadie built up a lead of more than five seconds while racing through traffic with 20 laps to go.

With 16 laps to go the final caution flag of the event appeared when Bobby Pierce slowed on the frontstretch. McCreadie chose the inside line for the double file restart and showed he was unfazed by the late race yellow flag by driving away from the field after the restart.

Owens and Dennis Erb Jr. swapped the second spot a couple of times in the late stages of the feature, but McCreadie would not be seriously challenged the remainder of the event to win his first career World 100 victory. Owens, Erb, Blomquist and Brandon Overton rounded out the top five.

In victory lane McCreadie was ready to celebrate with the masses back at his small pickup truck and trailer in the pit area and was quick to praise the work his team has put in.

“It’s amazing the effort my team puts in while I get to go home and be with my wife and two kids, it’s pretty cool. I really don’t know what to say, I’m normally not lost for words. To see all people here and see how excited they are. We’ll be down here for a while, so make sure you stop by.”

The finish:

Tim McCreadie, Jimmy Owens, Tyler Erb, Scott Bloomquist, Brandon Overton, Devin Gilpin, Josh Richards, Dale McDowell, Earl Pearson Jr., Kent Robinson, Chase Junghans, Shane Clanton, Kyle Bronson, Bobby Pierce, Ricky Thornton Jr., Devin Moran, Michael Chilton, Don O’Neal, Shanon Buckingham, Billy Moyer, Brandon Sheppard, Rod Conley, Jimmy Mars, Jonathan Davenport, Brian Birkhofer, Zack Dohm, Mike Marlar, Mason Zeigler, Brian Shirley, Chris Simpson.

October 14, 2018