Archives for Sprint, Midget & Silver Crown Racing

WINDOM WAXES ‘EM AT ELDORA’S #LETSRACETWO

Posted by  on Sunday, May 13th 2018     
WINDOM WAXES ‘EM AT ELDORA’S #LETSRACETWO
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Rossburg, Ohio………For Chris Windom, this is supposed to be his big May.  The reigning USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car champ has a jam-packed schedule of short track races across the Midwest to compete in and is on the verge of his first start at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
If Saturday night’s #LetsRaceTwo at Eldora Speedway was any indication of how this May will play out for the Canton, Ill. native, this month will truly be one to remember.
Windom took the lead from Kevin Thomas, Jr. on the fourth lap of the 30-lap feature at the western Ohio half-mile dirt oval and went on to hammer home USAC victory number one for 2018 and his first Sprint Car win at the track since 2013.
Rain was on the forecast and urgency was at the forefront as the show was pushed along to defeat Mother Nature.  Yet it was Thomas who initially looked like the one to take the bull by the horns at the start, splitting between Chase Stockon and Windom just past the flag stand, then sliding up in front of pole sitter Joe Stornetta to grab the lead by turn one.
Windom immediately charged forth and tried to redeem a two-for-one discount coupon, sliding by Stornetta and Thomas in quick succession entering turn three to briefly snare the top spot before Thomas ducked back underneath to regain control exiting the fourth turn.
The first big incident of the night occurred in turn two on the third lap when 11th-running Justin Grant and another car made contact, sending the Ione, Calif. native on a wild ride that he would walk away from unscathed.
On the ensuing restart, more trouble ensued when third-running Stornetta climbed the outside wall between turns three and four and cartwheeled several times before coming to rest near the bottom of turn four.  The series Rookie making just his second start at Eldora escaped injury.
“We’ve had a lot of good runs. I think we’ve had four or five podium finishes so far, but you get sick of those after a while and you just want to win a race. It’s awesome to start it here!” – Chris Windom (Ryan Sellers Photo)
On the restart, Windom got up on the wheel once again and went on the attack, running down Thomas with a successful turn one slider.  Thomas fought back on both ends of the racetrack with a two-pack of sliders, to no avail.
“I don’t know if there was urgency, but clean air here, even in a non-wing car, is crucial,” Windom pointed out.  “With the dust, and watching guys mess up on the cushion, it’s just a lot easier being in the lead.  I knew that the slider line (Thomas) was running would work on restarts, but I thought if I could get up and start getting my momentum going up top, it’d be better, and it was.  When I saw the opportunity, I just took it.  I wanted to get out to the lead and get away from everybody as quick as possible.  Obviously, it helps with the great racecar (crew chief) Derek Claxton gave me.”
Though it appeared Windom and the Baldwin Brothers Racing team had the “it” factor going on from the get-go, it wasn’t initially clear to Windom how well his car was going to react as the race wore on at a feisty joint like “The Big E.”
“The first couple of laps, I didn’t know how great my car was with the way we were sliding ourselves,” Windom admitted.  “Once we started rolling the top, I knew the car was really good.  As long as I didn’t mess up on my end, it was going to be tough for anyone to get to us.  This place is just so mentally and physically demanding.  Running the cushion like that is tough to do for 30 laps.”
By halfway, Windom’s lead was a full-straightaway – a country mile, if you will – as a pack that included Stockon, Tyler Courtney, Robert Ballou and Friday night winner Brady Bacon sorted out the runner-up spot lap-after-lap with Courtney finally able to emerge with the second position on the 19th lap.  But, by then, Windom’s lead was a nearly insurmountable 4.843 seconds.  It was a lead so large that Windom was unaware of how large it actually was.
“I didn’t know I had that big of a lead,” Windom exclaimed.  “I knew we were pretty good, but when you start getting into lapped traffic, every little lapped car can slow you down just enough.  It’s such a momentum racetrack for a guy to catch you.  You have to be slow and methodical through lapped traffic, but you can’t let up too much.  I tried to pick them off as quickly as I could and tried to get some guys between me and second.”
By race’s end, Windom had lapped up to eighth place.  Courtney was able to make up some ground as Windom got hung up while threading the needle through traffic.  But the hang-up was a brief one and not nearly enough to stall Windom as he finished hammering the proverbial nail, winning by a margin of 2.3 seconds over Courtney, Stockon, Bacon and Ballou.
“We’ve had a lot of good runs,” Windom recalled.  “I think we’ve had four or five podium finishes so far, but you get sick of those after a while and you just want to win a race.  It’s awesome to start it here!”
Contingency award winners Saturday night at Eldora Speedway included Chase Stockon (Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner), Chris Windom (Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner), Kevin Thomas, Jr. (Chalk Stix/Indy Race Parts Third Heat Winner), Paul Dues (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger), Chad Boespflug (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher) and Isaac Chapple (Roger & Barb Tapy 13th Fastest Qualifier).
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: May 12, 2018 – Rossburg, Ohio – Eldora Speedway – “#LetsRaceTwo”
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-15.940; 2. Tyler Courtney, 7BC, Clauson/Marshall/Newman-16.048; 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 69, Dynamics-16.086; 4. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-16.135; 5. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-16.181; 6. Joe Stornetta, 44, Pace-16.182; 7. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-16.205; 8. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-16.284; 9. Chad Boespflug, 98, NineEight-16.300; 10. Brady Bacon, 99, Bacon-16.385; 11. Dave Darland, 36D, Goodnight/Curb-Agajanian-16.460; 12. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-16.609; 13. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR/Chapple-16.706; 14. Dallas Hewitt, 18, Keen-16.772; 15. Kyle Cummins, 3c, EZR/Cummins-16.924; 16. Bill Rose, 6, Rose-17.023; 17. Chad Wilson, 14, Wilson-17.106; 18. Carmen Perigo, 21, Stehman-17.135; 19. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-17.444; 20. Paul Dues, 87, Dues-17.691; 21. Riley VanHise, 96, VanHise-17.868.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer) 1. Stockon, 2. Bacon, 3. Rose, 4. Grant, 5. Leary, 6. Chapple, 7. Goodnight. 2:19.73
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer) 1. Windom, 2. Ballou, 3. Courtney, 4. Darland, 5. Hewitt, 6. Dues, 7. Wilson. 2:18.57
CHALK STIX/INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer) 1. Thomas, 2. Stornetta, 3. Perigo, 4. Westfall, 5. Boespflug, 6. Cummins, 7. VanHise. 2:26.50
FEATURE: (30 laps – starting position in parentheses) 1. Chris Windom (2), 2. Tyler Courtney (5), 3. Chase Stockon (3), 4. Brady Bacon (10), 5. Robert Ballou (8), 6. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (4), 7. C.J. Leary (6), 8. Matt Westfall (12), 9. Kyle Cummins (15), 10. Dallas Hewitt (14), 11. Dave Darland (11), 12. Paul Dues (20), 13. Chad Boespflug (9), 14. Carmen Perigo (18), 15. Chad Wilson (17), 16. Isaac Chapple (13), 17. Riley VanHise (21), 18. Bill Rose (16), 19. Matt Goodnight (19), 20. Joe Stornetta (1), 21. Justin Grant (7). NT
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**Grant flipped on lap 3 of the feature. Stornetta flipped on lap 3 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-3 Thomas, Laps 4-30 Windom.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Paul Dues (20th to 12th)
WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Chad Boespflug
ROGER & BARB TAPY 13TH FASTEST QUALIFIER: Isaac Chapple
NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Thomas-572, 2-Windom-556, 3-Courtney-523, 4-Leary-494, 5-Stockon-486, 6-Ballou-476, 7-Darland-469, 8-Bacon-452, 9-Grant-426, 10-Boespflug-384.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: May 18 – Granite City, Illinois – Tri-City Speedway & May 19 – Pevely, Missouri – Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 – “River Town Showdown”
category: Sprint, Midget & Silver Crown Racing
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BACON BLAZES ELDORA FOR #LETSRACETWO NIGHT ONE WALLOP

Posted by  on Saturday, May 12th 2018     

BACON BLAZES ELDORA
FOR #LETSRACETWO NIGHT ONE WALLOP

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Rossburg, Ohio………Brady Bacon is a renaissance man of sorts. Wing or wingless, running the top or the bottom, the Broken Arrow, Okla. native seems to adapt to a multitude of situations on any given racetrack.

Under the Friday night lights of Eldora Speedway’s #LetsRaceTwo, Bacon was thrust into performing all those roles within a single performance as the lone wheelman pulling double-duty with both the USAC AMSOIL National and World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Cars.

Bacon was exemplary on both ends of the spectrum, conquering his second career USAC Sprint Car victory on the high banks, doing so by riding his way to victory on the wave of the expected and the unexpected.

Wheels right up against the concrete – that’s the expected line at Eldora that involves putting the right rear rubber smack dab up against the outer wall. Then there’s the not-so-expected hide-and-seek line in which the left side wheels are within earshot of the inside walls in the corners before the car emerges from the bottom having gained substantial ground.

Bacon did it all in one night and even translated what he learned from one car to the other to get a feel for the track and find a comfort zone for himself.

“The B-Feature (in the wing car) really helped me,” Bacon admitted. “I ran the top pretty much wide open. It’s not as fast in a non-wing car, but you have a lot less control too. If the wing cars are on the cushion, then the non-wing cars are definitely going to be up there. It was an old-school Eldora tonight. I did kind of make the bottom off (turn) four work a little bit, which is a little uncharacteristic for here, but it’s been working for us the last couple times.”

Yet, Bacon would have his work cut out for him. He had to start eighth in the field, trailing a lineup that held a collective eight career USAC National Sprint Car victories at “The Big E” coming into the night’s 30-lap main event, five of which belonged to Robert Ballou, who slid up to the lead past Chris Windom from the pole position to hold the early lead.

As the front runners ringed their way around the top, Bacon inch-wormed his way forward on the bottom and, by halfway, was erasing Ballou’s once-happening lead. Bacon hit the top-shelf with authority between turns one and two and tickled the twines of the bottom line in three and four. Although, at times, lapped traffic would stifle Bacon’s baseline shuffle, it would not deter him for long.

“It was getting trickier to hit the bottom, but I just kept it in my back pocket. I knew it was so treacherous up top and easy to lose your momentum. There really wasn’t much grip to gain your speed back. I just knew if he got slowed up or started making mistakes, I could probably get underneath him on the bottom. We still got trapped under some lapped cars, but we were able to clear them before he did. I was a little worried he was going to come back around us, but once we got out there, I tried not to make any mistakes. I knew it was going to be hard for anyone to pass me.” – Brady Bacon on his winning pass of Robert Ballou. (Ryan Sellers Photo)

On the 19th lap, Bacon took the initiative and went on the attack, using a big run to split between Ballou on the high side and the lapped car of Chad Boespflug on the inside. Like a motorist gracefully avoiding a rush hour headache by hitting the exit ramp just prior to traffic backing up to a standstill, Bacon found the open road, put the top down, mashed the throttle and checked out.

“It was getting trickier to hit the bottom, but I just kept it in my back pocket,” Bacon explained. “I knew it was so treacherous up top and easy to lose your momentum. There really wasn’t much grip to gain your speed back. I just knew if he got slowed up or started making mistakes, I could probably get underneath him on the bottom. We still got trapped under some lapped cars, but we were able to clear them before he did. I was a little worried he was going to come back around us, but once we got out there, I tried not to make any mistakes. I knew it was going to be hard for anyone to pass me.”

“It was getting trickier to hit the bottom, but I just kept it in my back pocket. I knew it was so treacherous up top and easy to lose your momentum. There really wasn’t much grip to gain your speed back. I just knew if he got slowed up or started making mistakes, I could probably get underneath him on the bottom. We still got trapped under some lapped cars, but we were able to clear them before he did. I was a little worried he was going to come back around us, but once we got out there, I tried not to make any mistakes. I knew it was going to be hard for anyone to pass me.” – Brady Bacon on his winning pass of Robert Ballou. (Ryan Sellers Photo)

From there, Bacon gradually constructed what would become an insurmountable advantage in the caution-free event, which eventually ballooned to a full-straightaway by race’s end, defeating Ballou by a margin of 5.733 seconds. Windom was third ahead of Justin Grant and Kevin Thomas, Jr.

A full slate of non-stop competition that included jumping back-and-forth, to-and-fro from the USAC car to the WoO car was not an issue for the two-time USAC National Sprint Car champ on this night. Neither was a caution-free affair that was completed at a clip of less than nine-and-a-half minutes, something that is not as physical to Bacon as it may seem to the outsiders.

“This place is more mental than physical,” Bacon contends. “You can get mentally worn out. That happens more to me after the ‘4-Crown.’ I just kind of zone out after it’s over. As long as you’re breathing and doing everything right, it’s not that tiring. It’s definitely a lot easier when things are going your way.”

After a rough start to the season that included exiting the Dooling-Hayward Motorsports/Richard Childress Racing ride following a tumultuous term at Ocala, Fla. in February, Bacon brought his own team to the forefront to compete on the USAC trail. It’s something that has been a challenge to get back up and going, but now Bacon is beginning to reap those rewards.

“We’ve come a long way,” Bacon reflects. “I knew we had all the ingredients to win. We just had to figure out how to put them all together. It’s been a few years since I’ve run this package. We’ve kind of been looking back; we called the Hoffmans a couple times and brought out the notebook to figure out where we were. Things have changed a lot in a couple years; it’s constantly evolving. The shocks are getting better and what we used to do doesn’t really work anymore. We’re trying to find the balance to be fast at the beginning and at the end of the night. This place caters to me or the more experienced drivers. It’s good to get a win close to where I live. Lots of friends are here watching and, obviously, this is a prestigious place.”

Contingency award winners Friday night at Eldora Speedway included Dave Darland (Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner & Roger & Barb Tapy 13th Fastest Qualifier), Justin Grant (Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner), Brady Bacon (Chalk Stix/Indy Race Parts Third Heat Winner & KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Dallas Hewitt (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: May 11, 2018 – Rossburg, Ohio – Eldora Speedway – “#LetsRaceTwo” – “Don Branson/Jud Larson Classic”

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 69, Dynamics-15.318; 2. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-15.384; 3. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-15.631; 4. Chad Boespflug, 98, NineEight Motorsports-15.656; 5. Tyler Courtney, 7BC, Clauson/Marshall/Newman-15.671; 6. Tony DiMattia, 50, TDM-15.814; 7. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-15.895; 8. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-15.904; 9. Brady Bacon, 99, Bacon-15.931; 10. Joe Stornetta, 44, Pace-15.976; 11. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-15.991; 12. Kyle Cummins, 3c, EZR/Cummins-16.067; 13. Dave Darland, 36D, Goodnight/Curb-Agajanian-16.085; 14. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR/Chapple-16.094; 15. Nick Bilbee, 17, Bilbee-16.103; 16. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-16.237; 17. Dallas Hewitt, 18, Keen-16.462; 18. Paul Dues, 87, Dues-16.493; 19. Johnny Petrozelle, 59, Petrozelle-16.656; 20. Chad Wilson, 14, Wilson-16.876; 21. Carmen Perigo, 21, Stehman-16.920; 22. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-16.996; 23. Michael Fischesser, 44s, Fischesser-NT; 24. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-NT.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer) 1. Darland, 2. Windom, 3. Thomas, 4. Stornetta, 5. Westfall, 6. Boespflug, 7. Goodnight, 8. Petrozelle. 2:10.19

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer) 1. Grant, 2. Ballou, 3. Stockon, 4. Courtney, 5. Chapple, 6. Wilson, 7. Hewitt, 2:09.85

CHALK STIX/INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer) 1. Bacon, 2. Leary, 3. Bilbee, 4. Cummins, 5. Dues, 6. Perigo, 7. DiMattia. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps – starting position in parentheses) 1. Brady Bacon (8), 2. Robert Ballou (1), 3. Chris Windom (2), 4. Justin Grant (10), 5. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (6), 6. Tyler Courtney (3), 7. Chase Stockon (5), 8. Dave Darland (12), 9. C.J. Leary (4), 10. Kyle Cummins (11), 11. Joe Stornetta (9), 12. Nick Bilbee (14), 13. Dallas Hewitt (16), 14. Matt Westfall (15), 15. Chad Wilson (18), 16. Paul Dues (17), 17. Isaac Chapple (13), 18. Chad Boespflug (7), 19. Carmen Perigo (19), 20. Matt Goodnight (20). 9:24.44
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**DiMattia flipped during the third heat.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-18 Ballou, Laps 19-30 Bacon.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Brady Bacon (8th to 1st)

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Dallas Hewitt

ROGER & BARB TAPY 13TH FASTEST QUALIFIER: Dave Darland

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Thomas-505, 2-Windom-476, 3-Courtney-445, 4-Leary-432, 5-Darland-423, 6-Stockon-411, 7-Ballou-411, 8-Grant-398, 9-Bacon-384, 10-Boespflug-343.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: May 12 – Rossburg, Ohio – Eldora Speedway – “#LetsRaceTwo”

category: Sprint, Midget & Silver Crown Racing
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GLORY GOES TO GRANT IN SUMAR SILVER CROWN SCORE

Posted by  on Monday, April 30th 2018     
GLORY GOES TO GRANT IN SUMAR SILVER CROWN SCORE
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Terre Haute, Indiana………Speed has never been an issue for Justin Grant when it comes to USAC Silver Crown racing at the Terre Haute Action Track.

Two years ago, the Ione, California driver set quick time and was dominant for the first 93 laps of the 100-lap event. But, it was just a slight mishap with seven laps remaining that cost him a shot at victory.

Fast forward to 2018 and a couple more years of experience under the belt, on a similar track surface he faced back then, Grant was determined to not let the past repeat itself on his way to Sunday night’s “Sumar Classic” victory.

“You have to keep your eye on the rubber or have your spotter keeping an eye on the rubber for you,” Grant detailed “A couple years ago here, I was just concentrating on what I was doing, banging the fence and running as hard as I could. As I’ve gotten more comfortable in the Crown cars, I worry as much, or more, about what other guys are doing behind me and make sure to get to the rubber before somebody drives by.”

At the drop of the green, Jerry Coons, Jr. was the dominant figure, climbing to the top spot from his outside front row starting position to lead the first 10 circuits before 2016 “Sumar” winner C.J. Leary went topside to ride by the USAC Triple Crown champ on the lap 11 restart.

Leary rode into the western Indiana sunset with the advantage until lap 36 when Grant caught Leary in lapped traffic and outlasted him down the back straightaway in a side-by-side battle similar to the duels at the adjacent Action Dragway before sliding back up to the berm where he would stand pat until nearly three-quarters of the event were in the books.

On lap 70, Shane Cottle dueled with Grant as the two swapped the top spot four times over the span of a lap and a half.Cottle was credited with leading the lap before each exchanged their race-leading surge. Grant made the ultimate, lasting move, ducking down to the inside of Cottle off turn two to recapture the lead.

“(Shane) and I were both running hard,” Grant recalled. “He was on a harder compound tire than I was, so he could abuse his car a bit more. I was trying to keep my track position, but not burn my tire up doing it. Right before he slid past me and got into Kody, the team made the call that we needed to let him go because we weren’t going to make it to the end racing like that.”

By lap 77, Swanson, the 2014 “Sumar” winner who was relegated to the 18th starting position following an engine change prior to qualifying, was in position to pounce for the lead, ringing around the outside of both Cottle and Grant in a single move between turns three and four.

On the 84th lap, the now third-running Cottle took a chance on a two-for-one deal entering the third turn. In one fell swoop, Cottle breezed by Grant on the inside, then pulled along the inside of Swanson on the inner guardrail. The two touched wheels, sending both into 360-degree spin-cycles. Cottle’s race came to an end backwards near the outside wall while Swanson managed to continue, albeit with a flat left rear tire, forcing him to make a pit stop for new rubber and restart from the tail of the field.
“My spotter, Chris (Wheeler), let me know that Swanson was back to P2 and that, whatever we had left, we needed to use it now. We saved everything as best we could up to that point. When he gave me the call, that’s when we went.” – Justin Grant (Gene Crucean Photo)

Once racing resumed, Grant set off toward a comfortable margin with a lead of nearly three seconds while Swanson mounted a valiant charge to the front, threading the needle to slip past Tyler Courtney with seven laps to go for third in turn three, then motoring past Leary with an outside pass a lap later. With Swanson’s charge, the message was sent forth to Grant that this was no time to dawdle, this was ‘go time.’

“My spotter, Chris (Wheeler), let me know that Swanson was back to P2 and that, whatever we had left, we needed to use it now,” Grant exclaimed. “We saved everything as best we could up to that point. When he gave me the call, that’s when we went.”

It’s a chess game trying to save, yet be fast throughout a 100-lap race on the dirt that, on this day, included variables such as the sun setting early on in the race and the ever-changing track conditions throughout the event.

“On a rubber down racetrack, you’re slowing yourself down to not kill the tires,” Grant continued. “If you wear a tire out, you won’t make it to the end. You’re trying to go as fast as you can without using the tire up. You have to get yourself to the end, then you can go as fast as you can. You hope you have enough tire left to run the last ten (laps) hard and not have a whole lot of concern with it.”

The interval between Grant and Swanson was rapidly closing in the final laps as lapped traffic loomed. It’s one thing to navigate your way through gridlock with ease and another to catch them at exactly the right spot without interruption to your rhythm, which Grant executed with the precision of an X-Acto knife as he encountered the lapped cars of Neil Shepherd and Mike Haggenbottom in turn one.

“You have to catch them right,” Grant said point blank. “You don’t want to waste any time and you can’t let them break your momentum because somebody like Kody behind you will capitalize. You try to get through them as fast as you can and not let them break your stride and hope the guys behind you get caught up a little bit with them.”

“I figured if I got caught behind them in (turns) one and two, I was going to be pretty well toast or, at least, allow Kody a good shot at it,” Grant admitted. “I knew I needed to get by them there. I wasn’t real sure where they were going to go, though. I thought about splitting them and staying in the rubber, but the inside car kind of moved up a little bit. Fortunately, I had enough of a run to where I was able to get down in the dust and get by them.”

Grant flawlessly finished out the final lap to take his second career Silver Crown win by 1.33 seconds over KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Kody Swanson and pole sitter Tyler Courtney, who charged all the way from 22nd after an early race spin.Chris Windom was fourth after jumping into Bill Rose’s car following mechanical trouble in his regular Gene Nolen Racing ride while Leary rounded out the top-five.

Grant continued the streak of a new “Sumar Classic” winner each year since 1999 with the victory and assumes the series point lead, holding the tiebreaker over Swanson heading into Friday’sHemelgarn Racing/Super Fitness “Rollie Beale Classic.”

Contingency award winners Sunday night at the Terre Haute Action Track included Kody Swanson (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger), Kyle Robbins (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher) and Chris Windom (Roger & Barb Tapy 13th Fastest Qualifier).

category: Sprint, Midget & Silver Crown Racing
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IT’S A TRI-STATE TRIUMPH FOR THOMAS AT THE SPRING SHOWDOWN

Posted by  on Sunday, April 29th 2018     
IT’S A TRI-STATE TRIUMPH FOR THOMAS
AT THE SPRING SHOWDOWN
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Haubstadt, Indiana………Recently, it seems when the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Cars come to Tri-State Speedway, Kevin Thomas, Jr. finds himself in the mix at the front.
On two occasions last year, he was involved in last lap battles on the quarter-mile paperclip – one of which went his way and one that did not.
On Saturday night, the wave went KTJ’s way once again as he surged to the lead through the tight crevice between the outside wall and C.J. Leary’s right-side wheels exiting turn four with four laps remaining to win the “Spring Showdown,” co-sanctioned by the Midwest Sprint Car Series.
The Cullman, Alabama driver has found his groove in Haubstadt in recent times, winning his second consecutive USAC race there and fourth overall dating back to 2013.  But it’s more than just simply being fast at this tricky joint.  So many things can occur in the snap of a finger.  You have to be on your toes, yet you have to keep your cool to put yourself in a position to win, which Thomas has been a natural at when it comes to Tri-State Speedway.
“Sometimes it’s hard for me to do, but you have to be as patient as possible here,” Thomas admitted.  “Even right there at the beginning, I fell back a little bit.  You get to racing with others, you fall back and you’re not on the aggressive side.  I just started picking them off; (Justin) Grant and I had a good race midway through the feature.  We’re sliding each other back and forth and that’s fun, but whenever you’re doing that, people are steadily driving away.  Once we got cleared, we kind of had the seas part for us.”
From the start, though, it was Kody Swanson who controlled much of the first half of the event, leading the opening 12 laps as Leary frisked the three-time USAC Silver Crown champ repeatedly.  Leary had the middle line working, poking ahead of Swanson momentarily on each end of the track, but not enough to complete the pass on Swanson who carried the high-side momentum downhill off turns two and four to maintain the advantage.
On the 13th lap, as the leaders were mired in heavy lapped traffic, Leary’s tireless work paid off handsomely as he slid up across the nose of Swanson’s ride off turn four to complete the pass and possess the lead.
Two laps later, Swanson and Friday night Bloomington winner Dave Darland were engaged in a grapple for second.  The two banged wheels, allowing Thomas and Logan Seavey to be the beneficiaries as they capitalized and moved past both to rotate into the second and third positions, respectively.
“I think it’s beneficial as many times we’ve run here throughout the year because this track does different things,” Thomas said.  “Last year, we had a track similar to this and got really, really tight.  We looked at our notebook, went back on that and freed our car up a little bit.  Even though we were still tight, we were way freer than what we were. (Ryan Sellers Photo)
“When Dave and Kody got together, they split wide open and we went through both of them and got to second,” Thomas recalled.  “Lapped traffic is a key here too.  You can’t miss a step.  As soon as the leader gets clear, he’s going to pick up the pace quite a bit.  If you’re stuck three or four cars back, you can end up about a straightaway behind.  You have to watch yourself really closely there and you have to make stuff happen.  Once we got to second, I had to be the aggressor.  Running second for a while tonight allowed me to move around a little bit.  Tonight was one of those nights when running second was better.”
Leary was indeed clear on the restart with 12 laps remaining.  With a clear track ahead and lapped cars separating he and second-running Thomas, the advantage was all his.  Yet, Thomas made quick work, clearing the traffic, but still remained a second-and-a-half back from Leary.
Following a Donny Brackett back straightway spin with six laps remaining, Thomas threw a series of curveballs, sliders and spitballs at Leary to no avail as Leary clung to the spot by the quick of his nails until Aric Gentry’s car went up in a ball of flame and smoke to bring out the final yellow with four laps to go, forcing one final restart.  Thomas acted a student on the previous restart, taking notes for the final exam he would have one more opportunity to ace on the lap 27 restart.
“I was watching C.J. in front of me, seeing where I could gain ground and where I couldn’t,” Thomas said.  “I could gain ground in (turns) one and two and I’d lose it all in (turns) three and four.  We were pretty tight, so I just couldn’t figure out how to get through three and four without the nose pushing a little bit.  I just spent a few laps working on my line in that corner, and then once I figured it out, luckily, we had a caution.”
With Leary maintaining his midline route, Thomas stuck his Dynamics, Inc./Mean Green – Jonathan Byrd/DRC/Speedway Chevy on the high-line and, at the exit of turn four, emerged with the lead, squeaking by Leary without much room to spare on either side.  Thomas would pull away in the final laps to win his first race for the famed Hoffman team by just a tick under a full second over Leary, Seavey, Darland and Grant.
“We were able to put it up top there,” Thomas explained.  “There wasn’t as much grip up there, but it was better for me because we were really tight.  I got up there in the crumbs a little bit and freed the car up, but I was still able to keep my momentum going.  I think that move is all it took right there because he was every bit as fast as us.  I was talking to him right after the feature he said that one of the spokes on his steering wheel ended up breaking after contact with another driver.  That’s crazy to be able to do as good as he did with the equipment breaking like that.”
One night following a disastrous slip from 6th to 19th place in just two corners after jumping the turn three curb during the feature at Bloomington, Thomas found his mojo once again, but this time he did it by doing things a bit differently, equaling the same result as his most recent Tri-State trip.
“I think it’s beneficial as many times we’ve run here throughout the year because this track does different things,” Thomas said.  “Last year, we had a track similar to this and got really, really tight.  We looked at our notebook, went back on that and freed our car up a little bit.  Even though we were still tight, we were way freer than what we were.  This place is small and tight, but if you can’t keep your momentum up and can’t keep the front wheels on the ground, it’s a tough place to get around.  Honestly, I still struggle with that until probably the last five laps of the feature.  It was just a few little notes that helped us out tonight and a few little adjustments here and there.  I’m just glad to bounce back after running off the track last night!”
Contingency award winners Saturday night at Tri-State Speedway included C.J. Leary (Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner), Chase Stockon (Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner), Kevin Thomas, Jr. (Chalk Stix Third Heat Winner), Dave Darland (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Winner), Robert Ballou (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger), Kellen Conover (Saldana Racing Products First Non-Transfer), Brandon Mattox (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher) and Chris Windom (Roger & Barb Tapy 13th Fastest Qualifier).
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: April 28, 2018 – Haubstadt, Indiana – Tri-State Speedway (Co-Sanctioned by MSCS)
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-13.252; 2. Logan Seavey, 5B, Briscoe-13.333; 3. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 69, Dynamics-13.385; 4. Dave Darland, 36D, Goodnight/Curb-Agajanian-13.552; 5. Kyle Cummins, 3c, EZR/Cummins-13.778; 6. Carson Short, 21, RCM-13.570; 7. Chad Boespflug, 98, NineEight-13.879; 8. Tyler Thomas, 17GP, Dutcher-14.068; 9. Donny Brackett, 4B, Brackett-14.077; 10. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-14.086; 11. Kody Swanson, 3R, Rock Steady-14.131; 12. Chet Williams, 38, Fortune-14.143; 13. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-14.145; 14. Brian Wallace, 27, Wallace-14.253; 15. Brian Karraker, 23, Karraker-14.258; 16. Stephen Schnapf, 61m, Edwards-14.266; 17. Aric Gentry, 10, Gentry-14.267; 18. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-14.286; 19. Tyler Courtney, 7BC, Clauson Marshall Newman-14.292; 20. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR/Chapple-14.355; 21. Stevie Sussex, 04, Burton-14.368; 22. Brady Bacon, 99, Bacon-14.423; 23. Joe Stornetta, 44, Pace-14.466; 24. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-14.474; 25. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox/Nigg-14.548; 26. James Lyerla, 11, JL-14.553; 27. Johnny Petrozelle, 59, Petrozelle-14.743; 28. Kellen Conover, 5K, Schmidt-14.796; 29. Collin Ambrose, 36, Ambrose-14.983; 30. Eric Perrott, 45, Perrott-20.727; 31. Jim Shelton, 41, Shelton-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer) 1. Leary, 2. Windom, 3. Gentry, 4. Sussex, 5. Cummins, 6. Mattox, 7. Ambrose, 8. Brackett. 2:20.97
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer) 1. Stockon, 2. Short, 3. Bacon, 4. Grant, 5. Seavey, 6. Lyerla, 7. Wallace, 8. Perrott. NT
CHALK STIX THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer) 1. K. Thomas, 2. Courtney, 3. Swanson, 4. Stornetta, 5. Boespflug, 6. Karraker, 7. Petrozelle, 8. Shelton. NT
INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer) 1. Darland, 2. Ballou, 3. Schnapf, 4. Chapple, 5. Conover, 6. T. Thomas, 7. Williams. NT
SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer) 1. Seavey, 2. Mattox, 3. Brackett, 4. Cummins, 5. Ambrose, 6. Karraker, 7. Conover, 8. Wallace, 9. Petrozelle, 10. T. Thomas, 11. Shelton, 12. Boespflug, 13. Perrott, 14. Lyerla. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps – starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (5), 2. C.J. Leary (6), 3. Logan Seavey (7), 4. Dave Darland (4), 5. Justin Grant (2), 6. Chris Windom (10), 7. Robert Ballou (20), 8. Kody Swanson (1), 9. Carson Short (3), 10. Chase Stockon (14), 11. Joe Stornetta (19), 12. Tyler Courtney (15), 13. Brandon Mattox (21), 14. Brady Bacon (18), 15. Donny Brackett (9), 16. Stephen Schnapf (12), 17. Isaac Chapple (16), 18. Kyle Cummins (8), 19. Collin Ambrose (22), 20. Aric Gentry (13), 21. Brian Karraker (11), 22. Tyler Thomas (23), 23. Stevie Sussex (17). NT
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**Williams flipped during the fourth heat. Cummins flipped on lap 7 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-12 Swanson, Laps 13-26 Leary, Laps 27-30 K. Thomas.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Robert Ballou (20th to 7th)
SALDANA RACING PRODUCTS FIRST NON-TRANSFER: Kellen Conover
WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Brandon Mattox
ROGER & BARB TAPY 13TH FASTEST QUALIFIER: Chris Windom
NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Windom-356, 2-K. Thomas-351, 3-Leary-328, 4-Courtney-306, 5-Darland-305, 6-Stockon-278, 7-Grant-273, 8-Seavey-271, 9-Ballou-266, 10-Boespflug-261.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: May 5 – Plymouth, Indiana – Plymouth Speedway
category: Sprint, Midget & Silver Crown Racing
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DARLAND FIRST TO 60 USAC SPRINT WINS WITH BLOOMINGTON SCORE

Posted by  on Saturday, April 28th 2018     

DARLAND FIRST TO 60 USAC SPRINT WINS
WITH BLOOMINGTON SCORE

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Bloomington, Indiana………In the history of USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car racing, no driver has earned more victories or started more feature events than has Dave Darland.

On Friday night at Bloomington Speedway, perhaps no driver has ever had a more popular win in the history of the series than has Dave Darland.

On a night when “The People’s Champ” became the first to reach 700 starts in the series, he also became the first to hit 60 career wins after leading the final 18 laps of the 30-lap feature to score his first victory in USAC National competition since November of 2016 to end a 40-race winless streak.

“It’s just taken me forever,” Darland said with a laugh. “Seven-hundred starts and 60 wins. I don’t know what happened the other 640 times, but it’s been a great career for me. I still love driving racecars and, on nights like this, it’s such a great feeling.”

Dave Darland became the first driver to reach 60 career USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car feature wins with his victory Friday night at Bloomington (Ind.) Speedway. (Ryan Sellers Photo)

The monumental victory is actually the second for Darland in a Goodnight-owned car – the first coming in July of 2010 during “Indiana Sprint Week” at Lawrenceburg (Ind.) Speedway. After the two entities paired up last year, the combination has been electric with Darland picking up three fast qualifying times in as many appearances to finish out last year’s USAC season. Just last week, Darland and Goodnight reeled off their first victory of the season together in local competition at Lincoln Park Speedway in Putnamville, Indiana. Yes, they’re reunited and it feels so good.

“Things went well for a long time, but the last couple years, we’ve been struggling to run well and get victories,” Darland said. “We’ve run decent most of the time, but victory lane was a little hard to find. When I began driving (for the Goodnight team) last year, we started out great and it’s been great ever since. I’ve run this car about ten times now and we’ve had a chance to win all ten of them. It’s great to be back with a team that I jell with. This car drives great and I’m glad where I’m at.”

Darland began the race from the outside of the front row and, right from the get-go, he and pole starter Chase Stockon were locked in a near dead-heat continuously throughout much of the first half of the event, interrupted only by a Dakota Jackson turn three flip on the third lap of the feature.

On the restart, Darland instantaneously returned to his comfort zone, rim-riding on the ledge while Stockon tethered himself to the bottom. Just as Darland appeared to have the upper hand, the top line seemingly vamoosed for a moment as a re-energized Stockon surged ahead on the bottom to snare the lead by the length of a shoe at the line on lap seven.

As Stockon opened a canyon-wide margin on Darland, the Lincoln, Indiana driver was undeterred, staying true to himself and refusing to wilt and pedal to the bottom. Darland paved his own trail and was going to risk fate, letting his race ride or die on the outstretched arms of the red clay.
Dave Darland (top in #36D) battles for the lead with #32 Chase Stockon during Friday night’s USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car feature at Bloomington (Ind.) Speedway. (Neil Cavanah Photo)
“I just decided to stay on top,” Darland said firmly. “Everybody’s been asking me ‘Did you ever consider going to the bottom after getting passed?’ I said no, not really. Hell no! But, really, I kind of did. I just knew that the top had potential, but I just had to figure out how to run it better.”

“When Chase (Stockon) got around me, I just learned how to run the top harder and that’s what I did. I just started running it harder,” Darland said. “I figured out where I could hit it and where I had to get away from it, especially down in (turns) one and two where the lip was really tall. You had to be careful not to snag it and throw the front end over the bank. But, down here in (turns) three and four, it was kind of up-on-the-edge where you couldn’t go in too hard and go over the edge. Both ends were a little bit different, but both ends had potential up there. So, I just had to figure out what it had and hit it in the right spots at the right time.”

By the 13th circuit, Darland’s high-wire act had led him right back into the corner of Stockon’s right eye as he plucked the lead away by the length of an eyelash at the stripe on the outside. Each lap thereafter, Darland constructed an advantage that was impenetrable – to a half-second, then to a full-second, and, finally, to a crescendo of over a second-and-a-half as he entered lapped traffic with less than five laps to go.

Darland had to be perfect shaving the highline with his Hoosier rubber lap-after-lap, but instead of searching high-low-middle to find the fastest way around, the USAC Triple Crown champ applied Occam’s razor to find the solution – stick with your gut go to the front.

Darland’s lead ballooned to 1.76 seconds at the checkered flag to defeat Chris Windom, KSE Hard Charger Logan Seavey (from 15th), Chad Boespflug and C.J. Leary.

Contingency award winners Friday night at Bloomington included Robert Ballou (Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner), Kyle Cummins (Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winners), Dave Darland (Chalk Stix Third Heat Winner), Tyler Courtney (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Winner), Logan Seavey (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger), Kody Swanson (Saldana Racing Products First Non-Transfer), Jordan Kinser (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher) and Brady Bacon (Roger & Barb Tapy 13th Fastest Qualifier).

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: April 27, 2018 – Bloomington, Indiana – Bloomington Speedway

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Tyler Thomas. 17GP, Dutcher-10.954; 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 69, Dynamics-11.085; 3. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-11.179; 4. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-11.238; 5. Jeff Bland Jr., 18w, Waltz-11.240; 6. Chad Boespflug, 98, NineEight-11.252; 7. Dave Darland, 36D, Goodnight/Curb-Agajanian-11.281; 8. Stevie Sussex, 04, Burton-11.290; 9. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-11.291; 10. Joe Stornetta, Jr., 44, Pace-11.355; 11. Jordan Kinser, 70, Hurst-11.437; 12. Tyler Courtney, 7BC, Clauson/Marshall/Newman-11.454; 13. Brady Bacon, 99, Bacon-11.489; 14. Kody Swanson, 3R, Rock Steady-11.498; 15. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-11.543; 16. Logan Seavey, 5B, Briscoe-11.553; 17. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-11.560; 18. Kyle Cummins, 3c, EZR/Cummins-11.585; 19. Nick Bilbee, 2E, Epperson-11.596; 20. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR/Chapple-11.605; 21. Dakota Jackson, 3, Jackson-11.823; 22. Jerry Coons Jr., 21K, Krockenberger-11.848; 23. Shelby VanGilder, 22v, VanGilder-11.851; 24. Lee Underwood, 24L, Underwood-11.905; 25. Chet Williams, 38, Fortune-11.906; 26. Johnny Petrozelle, 59, Petrozelle-12.037; 27. Jadon Rogers, 14J, Rogers-12.353; 28. Stephen Schnapf, 61m, Edwards-NT.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer) 1. Ballou, 2. Bacon, 3. Jackson, 4. Stockon, 5. Bland, 6. T. Thomas, 7. Williams. 1:57.74

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer) 1. Cummins, 2. Boespflug, 3. K. Thomas, 4. Coons, 5. Stornetta. 6. Swanson, 7. Petrozelle, 1:57.38

CHALK STIX THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer) 1. Darland, 2. Bilbee, 3. Leary, 4. Kinser, 5. VanGilder, 6. Rogers, 7. Grant. NT

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer) 1. Courtney, 2. Underwood, 3. Chapple, 4. Windom, 5. Sussex, 6. Seavey, 7. Schnapf. 2:02.42

SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer) 1. T. Thomas, 2. Stornetta, 3. Bland, 4. Seavey, 5. Grant, 6. Sussex, 7. Swanson, 8. Rogers, 9. Williams, 10. VanGilder, 11. Petrozelle. 2:38.40

FEATURE: (30 laps – starting positions in parentheses) 1. Dave Darland (2), 2. Chris Windom (4), 3. Logan Seavey (15), 4. Chad Boespflug (3), 5. C.J. Leary (5), 6. Jeff Bland Jr. (8), 7. Chase Stockon (1), 8. Brady Bacon (13), 9. Joe Stornetta (10), 10. Tyler Courtney (12), 11. Justin Grant (14), 12. Tyler Thomas (7), 13. Jordan Kinser (11), 14. Kyle Cummins (17), 15. Nick Bilbee (18), 16. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (6), 17. Robert Ballou (16), 18. Isaac Chapple (19), 19. Jerry Coons Jr. (21), 20. Lee Underwood (22), 21. Stevie Sussex (9), 22. Kody Swanson (23), 23. Dakota Jackson (20). NT
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**Jackson flipped on lap 3 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Stockon, Laps 2-6 Darland, Laps 7-12 Stockon, Laps 13-30 Darland.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS/PROSOURCE HARD CHARGER: Logan Seavey (15th to 3rd)

SALDANA RACING PRODUCTS FIRST NON-TRANSFER: Kody Swanson

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Jordan Kinser

ROGER & BARB TAPY 13TH FASTEST QUALIFIER: Brady Bacon

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Windom-294, 2-K.Thomas Jr.-269, 3-Courtney-260, 4-Boespflug-251, 5-Leary-247, 6-Darland-233, 7-Stockon-227, 8-Cummins-215, 9-Grant-210, 10-Ballou-207.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: April 28 – Haubstadt, Indiana – Tri-State Speedway – “Spring Showdown”

category: Sprint, Midget & Silver Crown Racing
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COURTNEY CLAIMS REDEMPTION ON KOKOMO GP NIGHT ONE

Posted by  on Saturday, April 14th 2018     
COURTNEY CLAIMS REDEMPTION ON KOKOMO GP NIGHT ONE
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Kokomo, Indiana………Waiting for redemption is a challenge.  That’s just what Tyler Courtney faced Friday at Kokomo Speedway on night one of the “Kokomo Grand Prix,” featuring the USAC P1 Insurance Midget National Championship.
One month after missing the feature in the season-opener at the Southern Illinois Center in Du Quoin, Ill., Courtney was champing at the bit to return to what everyone has become accustomed to at Kokomo since August of last year by getting back to victory lane.
Courtney overcame an appetizing see-saw battle for the lead with the driver who became the star of Du Quoin last month, Logan Seavey.  With one final slider to close the door, an avoidance of lapped traffic mayhem and a late-race restart, Courtney overcame all those obstacles to come through with his fourth-career series win and first of the season.  It’s a long way, figuratively and literally, from the lonely sideline he stood on in the most recent race.
“It was frustrating having to wait a month,” Courtney begins.  “You just have to take those nights.  Unfortunately, you’re going to have those and just hope that everyone else has a night like that at some point, but you have to come back and rebound as best you can.  There hasn’t been any racing lately, so we couldn’t do anything.  Our motto is ‘you’re only as good as your last race,’ so you don’t want to end on missing the show.  “We tried to maximize points tonight, but just came up short in qualifying there.  We were really good in the feature and Tim (Clauson) gave me a really good racecar.  I think we definitely rebounded and showed that we’re still in contention for this thing for the rest of the year.”
Courtney, of Indianapolis, Ind., would roll off from the fifth position for the 30-lap feature while, up front, series point leader Seavey motored around the outside of pole-sitter Kevin Thomas, Jr. to take the early lead.  Seavey would stretch the lead out following a brief challenge from reigning series champ Spencer Bayston until a lap nine red flag for a Dave Darland “Tommy Tipover” in turn four.  Darland would restart.
On the ensuing restart, Bayston drew the bow back and the let the arrow fly toward the cushion, sliding up in front of Seavey near the exit of turn two, nearly forcing Seavey into a complete halt, which created an opening for third-running Courtney to enter the fray on the inside and make it three-wide midway down the back straightaway.  Seavey rolled through the alley between Courtney and Bayston like an Earl Anthony strike, pinning himself to the top spot as he drifted up to the turn three cushion.
Courtney remained on the bottom as Seavey ripped the top, with Courtney clasping to the advantage by a mere car length at the line at the conclusion of laps 10 and 11.  On the 12th circuit, however, Courtney moved up to the middle to slow Seavey’s charge, but the impressive series Rookie from Sutter, Calif. looked anything but a Rookie when he stuck it on the cushion, went right for the jugular and reclaimed the lead from Courtney at the exit of turn four.
Instantly, Courtney aimed for the bottom of turn one and threw his slider, briefly taking the lead before Seavey cut back downhill off turn two to take back possession into turn three.  Courtney reloaded and aimed for the bottom of turn four to slide back to the front yet again to lead lap 13.  Seavey packed the gunpowder and fired another Bullet (by Spike) at Courtney in turn three, sliding all the way up to the cush which left the door open for Courtney to carry the momentum back to the point to pull ahead on the 14th lap.

“It was frustrating having to wait a month. You just have to take those nights. Unfortunately, you’re going to have those and just hope that everyone else has a night like that at some point, but you have to come back and rebound as best you can. There hasn’t been any racing lately, so we couldn’t do anything. Our motto is ‘you’re only as good as your last race,’ so you don’t want to end on missing the show.” – Tyler Courtney (Photo Courtesy of USAC)

“This place is all about momentum, so you just have to try and kill his momentum as much as possible.  It was tough to do,” Courtney explained.  “The kid (Seavey) is a tough racer and he’s proven that by winning the first race of the year and a POWRi championship last year.  He’s a smart racer and people have taken note of that.  I think it was a deal where a little bit more experience on my part came into play.  I kind of knew where to cut his momentum off and where to pick mine back up.  We made the right moves at the right time tonight and it worked in our favor.”
A lap past halfway, Seavey whacked the turn four wall in pursuit of Courtney.  As he gathered up his horse, Chad Boat got by him for second as Courtney extended his lead to a second-and-a-half, although the lead would begin to shrink as the frontrunners encountered lapped traffic.
The closest encounter came with five laps remaining as series Rookies Kyle Craker and Chase Jones tangled on the back straight, sending Jones sideways toward the infield grass just as the leaders were arriving on the scene, putting Courtney into a brief scare.
“It was pure pucker factor,” Courtney said matter-of-factly.  “I thought the 33 (Jones) was going to come right into the side of my right rear and I was going to go for a ride.  I just jammed the throttle and squeaked out of there.”
Despite the close calls in gridlock, Courtney was hoping for a clean and green run down the stretch.
“I wasn’t hoping for a yellow,” Courtney admits.  “I wanted it to stay green because I thought we were really good through lapped traffic.  I know that’s where you can win or lose these races.  Restarts are definitely tough.  Then, to have to restart after the white flag came out, it’s a tough deal.  You really have to stay focused, hit your marks and make them perfect.  These races aren’t easy to win.  Guys like Chad and Brady are veterans, so they know when to pounce and how to pounce.  That’s definitely in the back of your mind, but you just have to keep your nose down and do what you’ve been doing the whole race.”
With Courtney seemingly control, the chessboard was reset when 12th running Tyler Thomas stalled atop the turn four cushion just as the white flag was waving, setting up a green-white checkered finish.  On the GWC, Boat was able to hang with Courtney, just two car lengths separating the top-two as they crossed under the white.  However, Courtney incrementally inched away from Boat on the final go-around to take the victory by a half-second over Boat, Brady Bacon, Bayston and fast qualifier Justin Grant.
With a pair of “Sprint Car Smackdown” wins and a “Kokomo Klash” score to close out 2017 and now a “Kokomo Grand Prix” triumph to begin 2018, Courtney has posted an undefeated mark since August of last year when he’s made an appearance at Kokomo.  Yet, with the competition as fierce as it is right now, Courtney won’t allow himself to get complacent.
“If you get yourself too confident, you kind of get yourself in trouble,” Courtney reminded himself.  “I think anytime we come to this place, I feel pretty confident that I’m going to do my job to win.  I’ve won with two different teams here now that have given me great cars and that definitely makes my job easier.  Every win here is special.  It’s such a neat place and the O’Connors are great people who do a lot for our sport and put up a lot of our marquee events throughout the year.  The best thing we can do to repay him is to put on a show like we did tonight.”
Contingency award winners Friday night at Kokomo Speedway included Tucker Klaasmeyer (Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner), Jerry Coons, Jr. (Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner), Tyler Thomas (Chalk Stix Third Heat Winner), Thomas Meseraull (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Winner & KSE Racing Products Hard Charger), Dave Darland (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher) and Tyler Nelson (Saldana Racing Products First Non-Transfer).
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USAC P1 INSURANCE MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: April 13, 2018 – Kokomo, Indiana – Kokomo Speedway – “Kokomo Grand Prix”
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Justin Grant, 17BC, Clauson-Marshall/Wood-13.154; 2. Tyler Courtney, 7BC, Clauson/Marshall-13.168; 3. Ryan Robinson, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.241; 4. Spencer Bayston, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.261; 5. Logan Seavey, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.274; 6. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 15, Petry/Goff-13.373; 7. Brady Bacon, 76m, FMR-13.385; 8. Chad Boat, 84, Tucker/Boat-13.400; 9. Holly Shelton, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.402; 10. Tanner Carrick, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.428; 11. Tyler Thomas, 91T, Thomas-13.549; 12. Zeb Wise, 39BC, Clauson/Marshall-13.550; 13. Tucker Klaasmeyer, 27, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.592; 14. Kyle Craker, 76E, FMR-13.604; 15. Brayton Lynch, 1K, RKR-13.612; 16. Thomas Meseraull, 63, Dooling-13.688; 17. Andrew Felker, 7F, Boss-13.689; 18. Jerry Coons, Jr., 25, Petry/Goff-13.696; 19. Kyle Schuett, 9K, Schuett-13.722; 20. Dave Darland, 91D, Thomas-13.770; 21. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-13.771; 22. Alex Bright, 77, Bright-13.804; 23. C.J. Leary, 4, TOPP-13.944; 24. Matt Moore, 9, Hergott/RayPro-13.976; 25. Tyler Nelson, 88T, Nelson-14.007; 26. Andrew Layser, 35, Bright-14.125; 27. Sam Johnson, 72, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.176; 28. Chase Jones, 33, RayPro-14.219; 29. Ethan Mitchell, 19M, Mitchell-14.301; 30. Kevin Studley, 57K, Studley-14.302; 31. Chris Hettinger, 71H, Hettinger-14.487; 32. Bear Wood, 8JR, Wood-15.718; 33. Gage Walker, 7, Walker-19.423; 34. Zane Hendricks, 27z, Tucker/Boat-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Klaasmeyer, 2. Seavey, 3. Grant, 4. Felker, 5. Shelton, 6. Walker, 7. Nelson, 8. Mitchell, 9. Windom. NT
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Coons, 2. K. Thomas, 3. Courtney, 4. Carrick, 5. Craker, 6. Hendricks, 7. Layser, 8. Studley, 9. Bright. 2:16.86
CHALK STIX THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. T. Thomas, 2. Bacon, 3. Robinson, 4. Schuett, 5. Leary, 6. Lynch, 7. Johnson, 8. Hettinger. 2:16.86
INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Meseraull, 2. Wise, 3. Boat, 4. Bayston, 5. Darland, 6. Jones, 7. Moore, 8. Wood. 2:16.66
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Shelton, 2. Darland, 3. Bright, 4. Craker, 5. Jones, 6. Lynch, 7. Nelson, 8. Leary, 9. Hendricks, 10. Walker, 11. Moore, 12. Layser, 13. Johnson, 14. Studley, 15. Mitchell, 16. Wood, 17. Hettinger, 18. Windom. 2:46.01
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Tyler Courtney (5), 2. Chad Boat (8), 3. Brady Bacon (7), 4. Spencer Bayston (3), 5. Justin Grant (6), 6. Zeb Wise (12), 7. Logan Seavey (2), 8. Thomas Meseraull (16), 9. Ryan Robinson (4), 10. Kevin Thomas Jr. (1), 11. Holly Shelton (9), 12. Tucker Klaasmeyer (13), 13. Dave Darland (20), 14. Andrew Felker (17), 15. Jerry Coons Jr. (18), 16. Brayton Lynch (15), 17. Tanner Carrick (10), 18. Kyle Craker (14), 19. Gage Walker (23). 20. Alex Bright (21), 21. Tyler Thomas (11), 22. Chase Jones (22), 23. Kyle Schuett (19), 24. Matt Moore (24). NT
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**Moore flipped on lap 1 of the feature. Darland flipped on lap 8 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-9 Seavey, Laps 10-11 Courtney, Lap 12 Seavey, Laps 13-30 Courtney.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Thomas Meseraull (16th to 8th)
WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Dave Darland
SALDANA RACING PRODUCTS FIRST NON-TRANSFER: Tyler Nelson
NEW USAC P1 INSURANCE MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Seavey-131, 2-Grant-128, 3-Wise-126, 4-Boat-125, 5-Robinson-117, 6-Bacon-106, 7-Bayston-100, 8-Courtney-91, 9-K. Thomas Jr.-84, 10-Carrick-75.
NEXT USAC P1 INSURANCE MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: April 14 – Kokomo, Indiana – Kokomo Speedway – “Kokomo Grand Prix”
category: Sprint, Midget & Silver Crown Racing
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SANTOS GOES BACK-TO-BACK IN PHOENIX SILVER CROWN OPENER

Posted by  on Sunday, April 8th 2018     
#63 Kody Swanson and eventual winner #22 Bobby Santos battle for the lead during Saturday’s “Phoenix Copper Cup” at ISM Raceway. (Al Steinberg Photo)
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Phoenix, Arizona………Each year, it seems the ongoing tug-of-war for pavement supremacy on the USAC Silver Crown Champ Car circuit is waged between Bobby Santos and Kody Swanson.
In the 2018 season opener, the duo once again picked up right where they left off in a memorable stop at the tri-oval of ISM Raceway where the two fought tooth-and-nail during a side-by-side battle that lasted two laps at speeds nearing 150mph with both never turning a single wheel in the wrong spot.
Although the starring roles remained unaltered on this day, a plot twist had Santos trying to overcome a turbulent beginning in which he dropped to the tail of the field following an early-race pit stop.
Santos’ precision was downright surgical as he rose up the scoring pylon, ultimately surging ahead on the inside of Swanson on lap 80, then rocketed away during the final laps to score his second-straight “Phoenix Copper Cup” victory.
Santos, of Franklin, Mass., became the first to capture a Phoenix Silver Crown victory in consecutive years since Dave Steele won five in a row between 2002 and 2006, something that doesn’t stray too far from Santos’ mind when he competes here in the Valley of the Sun.
“It’s right up there,” Santos exclaimed. “To win back-to-back is really cool. Although, for a minute there, I didn’t expect to be sitting here. We had a good car all day today, but we kind of missed (the setup) at the start of the race. This means a lot. One of my idols is Dave Steele. He owned this place. I feel like he’s pushing me a little bit.”
Santos’ early trouble commenced as he pushed up the racetrack between turns one and two on multiple occasions early in the going, dropping him from his second starting position to 10th by lap ten. Following a caution for a Kyle Robbins turn one spin on lap 17, Santos’ crew chief and father, Bob, made the decision to pull him into pit lane for a few adjustments that seemed to do the trick.
Although Santos would have his work cut out for him, restarting 16th on the lap 22 restart with quite a few heavy-hitters serving as the rabbits that Santos would have to chase down, including a strong Kyle Hamilton who led a race-high 54 laps, plus Chris Windom, Swanson, David Byrne and Justin Grant. Meanwhile, Santos was lurking just behind in sixth by the midway point.
Bobby Santos picked up his third career USAC victory at ISM Raceway Saturday.  In 2009, he won in USAC Midget competition before winning the Silver Crown events in 2017 and 2018. (Al Steinberg Photo)
On lap 53, Windom got caught behind the lapped car of Breidinger toward the end of the back stretch. Windom dove low, flat lining his momentum while Swanson and Byrne chose the high road to cruise past them all to take second and third, respectively.
On lap 66, Hamilton was seemingly in control in his first series start since the 2015 season. Yet, exiting turn four, the pack freight-trained him on the inside as Hamilton slowed dramatically, eventually coming to a rest on the back stretch to prompt a yellow flag.
Thirty laps remained on the restart, leaving a full-out sprint to the finish. Running fourth, Santos quickly disposed of Windom on lap 73 with an inside move in turn three. Two laps later, Santos said adios to Byrne as he bagged second with just a quarter of the race remaining.
Patience was not in the cards at this moment as Santos immediately caught Swanson and pressurized the three-time series champ, putting them nose-to-tail just inches apart. Santos then dove to the inside of Swanson moments later, engaging in a full two-lap, clean, Ben Hur-style wheel-to-wheel war that Santos emerged victorious with on lap 80.
“Racing side-by-side at a place like this is really cool and lot of fun,” Santos explained. “You never know what (Kody) has left. Last year, Kody made a late-race charge and, in another couple laps, he could’ve beat us. I had that in the back of my mind that, at that point, I needed to get past him and get away from him. Racing here, I’ve never had to try so hard and be so up-on-the-wheel for 100 laps. Ten years ago, I used to ride for 50 and race for 50. Now we’re racing for 100.”
From there, Santos had but a few lappers to overcome as a cloud of attrition cast itself over a few of the front runners in the final laps, including Windom and Byrne. But that cloud dissipated for Santos over the 100-miler, as he pulled away for a commanding victory over Swanson, Grant, Eric Gordon and hard charger/top Rookie finisher Cody Gerhardt.
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USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: April 6-7, 2018 – Phoenix, Arizona – ISM Raceway – “Phoenix Copper Cup”
QUALIFYING: (Held April 6) 1. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-25.326; 2. Bobby Santos, 22, DJ Racing-25.363; 3. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-25.438; 4. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-25.550; 5. Kyle Hamilton, 6, Klatt-25.623; 6. Chris Windom, 17, Nolen-25.653; 7. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-25.836; 8. Eric Gordon, 21, Armstrong-25.893; 9. Jerry Coons Jr., 20, Nolen-25.986; 10. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-26.012; 11. A.J. Russell, 3, Finkenbinder-26.384; 12. Travis Welpott, 18, Welpott/Gorman-26.569; 13. Cody Gerhardt, 60, Gerhardt-27.450; 14. Bill Rose, 66, Rose-27.466; 15. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR Racing-27.476; 16. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-27.624; 17. Toni Breidinger, 80, Breidinger-27.914; 18. Jesse Dunham, 126, Pierce-28.262.
FEATURE: (100 laps – Held April 7) 1. Bobby Santos, 2. Kody Swanson, 3. Justin Grant, 4. Eric Gordon, 5. Cody Gerhardt, 6. Travis Welpott, 7. David Byrne, 8. Chris Windom, 9. Matt Goodnight, 10. Aaron Pierce, 11. Kyle Hamilton, 12. Bill Rose, 13. Jesse Dunham, 14. Toni Breidinger, 15. Austin Nemire, 16. A.J. Russell, 17. Jerry Coons Jr., 18. Kyle Robbins. 58:07.875
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-11 Byrne, Laps 12-65 Hamilton, Laps 66-79 Swanson, Laps 80-100 Santos.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER AWARD: Cody Gerhardt (13th to 5th)
WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Jesse Dunham
NEW USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Santos & Swanson-70, 3-Grant-64, 4-Gordon-51, 5-Gerhardt-48, 6-Welpott-45, 7-Byrne-42, 8-Windom-39, 9-Goodnight-36, 10-Hamilton-34.
NEXT USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP RACE April 29 – Terre Haute, IN – Terre Haute Action Track – “Sumar Classic”
category: Sprint, Midget & Silver Crown Racing

SWANSON WINS THE POLE FOR SATURDAY’S PHOENIX COPPER CUP

Posted by  on Saturday, April 7th 2018     

SWANSON WINS THE POLE
FOR SATURDAY’S PHOENIX COPPER CUP
Phoenix, Arizona………Kody Swanson set the mark in Friday’s qualifying session to capture the pole position for Saturday’s “Phoenix Copper Cup” USAC Silver Crown Champ Car Series event at ISM Raceway.
Swanson, of Kingsburg, California, was the last car to make a qualifying attempt when he laid down the fastest lap of the session, defeating 2017 race winner Bobby Santos by just a tick under four-hundredths of a second with a lap of 25.326 seconds/142.146 mph around the one-mile tri-oval. Swanson’s lap was just nine-thousandths of a second off the track’s one-lap Silver Crown record of 25.317 seconds, set by the late Dave Steele in 2004.
Swanson, the three-time Silver Crown champion, has 19 career series victories (2nd all-time), but is eying his first win at Phoenix. In his last two visits to the track in 2009 and 2017, Swanson finished in the runner-up position.
Swanson will be joined on the front row by Santos of Franklin, Mass. In the ensuing rows lie Aaron Pierce (Muncie, Ind.), David Byrne (Shullsburg, Wis.), Kyle Hamilton (Danville, Ind.) and Chris Windom (Canton, Ill.) who occupy the first three rows for the 100-mile event.
Saturday’s race begins at 3:15pm Pacific. Download the USAC app to listen to all the action live from the track’s public address system and the voices of Pat Sullivan and Dean Strom.
Saturday’s full docket is as follows: 1pm: Silver Crown Drivers Meeting. 1:55-2:05pm: Silver Crown Shake Down. 2:05-2:15pm: Silver Crown to Pit Road. 3:15pm: “Phoenix Copper Cup” 100-mile Silver Crown Race.
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USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES QUALIFYING RESULTS: April 6, 2018 – Phoenix, Arizona – ISM Raceway – “Phoenix Copper Cup”
QUALIFYING: 1. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-25.326; 2. Bobby Santos, 22, DJ-25.363; 3. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-25.438; 4. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-25.550; 5. Kyle Hamilton, 6, Klatt-25.623; 6. Chris Windom, 17, Nolen-25.653; 7. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-25.836; 8. Eric Gordon, 21, Armstrong-25.893; 9. Jerry Coons, Jr., 20, Nolen-25.986; 10. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-26.012; 11. A.J. Russell, 3, Finkenbinder-26.384; 12. Travis Welpott, 18, Welpott/Gorman-26.569; 13. Cody Gerhardt, 60, Gerhardt-27.450; 14. Bill Rose, 66, Rose-27.466; 15. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-27.476; 16. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-27.624; 17. Toni Breidinger, 80, Breidinger-27.914; 18. Jesse Dunham, 126, Pierce-28.262
category: Sprint, Midget & Silver Crown Racing

UNITED STATES AUTO CLUB AND RACING ELECTRONICS ANNOUNCE MULTI-YEAR PARTNERSHIP

Posted by  on Tuesday, January 23rd 2018     
SPEEDWAY, Ind. (Jan. 22, 2018) – The country’s premier grassroots racing organization and the national leader in motorsports communication technology are now official partners.
The United States Auto Club (USAC), which sanctions more than 1,000 motorsports events, today announced a multi-year agreement with Racing Electronics granting exclusive vending and communications services and the designation of ” Official Radio Supplier of USAC.”
“Racing Electronics was the clear choice in a two-way communications supplier for USAC,” said Kevin Miller, President & CEO of the United States Auto Club.  “We believe strongly our competitors will find that Racing Electronics offers the best and most reliable equipment for USAC teams and drivers.”
Through the partnership, Racing Electronics will equip USAC’s race officials and will provide technical support and expertise to enhance two-way radio communication for all USAC sanctioned series.  Additionally, Racing Electronics will service race teams’ communications equipment at marquee USAC events across the country.
“USAC represents the best of the best in grassroots racing in America, and we look forward to the opportunity to provide our three decades of experience, quality service, and technical innovation to the more than 17,000 competitors who race in this great series,” said Kevin Hughes, Vice President of Racing Electronics’ Motorsports Services.
USAC will also join Racing Electronics’ Dealer network and will offer the company’s new Switch micro-receiver and accessories via their online store at www.usacracing.com.
About United States Auto Club
Since 1956, United States Auto Club (USAC) has proven itself as being the most diversified motorsports sanctioning body in the world. It is the official sanctioning body of many of today’s largest racing series including its own suite of circle track series in Sprint, Midget and .25 Midget racing (quarter midgets), Pirelli World Challenge, Red Bull Global Rallycross, American Rally Association, International Snowmobile Racing, Robby Gordon Stadium Trucks, TORC Off Road Championship, Ultra 4 Racing, Formula Race Promotions and Karting. USAC has over 17,000 competitors racing at more than 1,000 sanctioned events globally.
About Racing Electronics
Racing Electronics is the worldwide leader in motorsports communications technology and equipment for motorsports drivers, teams, series, venues, and fans, as well as the exclusive provider of FanVision technology to NASCAR, NHRA and Red Bull Global Rallycross.  Racing Electronics offers reliable, industry-tested equipment and best-in-class customer service throughout the motorsports industry.  Founded in New Jersey in 1988, Racing Electronics has called Concord, N.C., home since 2005.  For more information, visit www.racingelectronics.com.
category: Sprint, Midget & Silver Crown Racing

SFH Racing Development to Compete with Three Entries at Annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl

Posted by  on Monday, January 8th 2018     
INDIANAPOLIS (Jan. 8, 2018) – Sarah Fisher Hartman (SFH) Racing Development is going to the 2018 Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Midget Nationals presented by General Tire with their largest lineup to date to compete for a coveted Golden Driller Jan. 9-13 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
SFH Racing Development will see the return of two veteran team members in Kyle O’Gara and Tyler Seavey and team newcomer Ryan Smith will round out their lineup.
This is the sixth straight year SFH Development will contest at one of the crown jewels of midget racing. The 32nd Annual Chili Bowl features over 352 entries, including 56 rookies, 64 A-Main starters and seven past champions spanning 39 states and five countries.
Smith, from Kunkletown, Pennsylvania may be new to the SFH Racing Development team but 2018 marks his fifth Chili Bowl appearance, highlighted by a 13th place finish in the first of two final B Mains in 2017. Smith will pilot the No. 69F sponsored by Harding Group with associate sponsors Direct Supply and 1911 Grill.
Smith is coming off a full season of 410 Winged Sprints competition earning the 2017 Arctic Cat All-Star Runner Up title.
He will fly directly into Tulsa after spending the last three weeks in Australia as part of the USA vs Western Australia Speedweek and picking up a win at Bunbury Speedway on Dec. 30.
“I’ve been close in the past, so I think we have it in us to make the big dance,” Smith said. “It’s a big deal, definitely one of dirt’s biggest stages. Hopefully we can get rolling right away and set ourselves up during our qualifying night. I’m excited to get there.”
For the sixth straight year O’Gara, from Indianapolis, Indiana will be behind the wheel of the 67F sponsored by Speedway Indoor Karting and associate sponsors 1911 Grill, Full Throttle Arms, Direct Supply and Indy Trading Post.
O’Gara heads into Chili Bowl fresh off a second-place finish in The Rumble in Fort Wayne after a summer of dirt midget racing around the Midwest.
“I’m ready to get back to Chili Bowl this year and put to use some of the things we’ve learned last season,” O’Gara said. “I’m very confident in the cars the team has prepared and the talent we have on the team. All of our sponsors, including Speedway Indoor Karting, have given us the keys to be successful this week and it is up to us to make it happen.”
Seavey, from Sutter, California, is with the team for a second straight year after a plethora of competition in 2017 in sprint cars, midgets and outlaw kart competition with multiple wins including victories at Cycleland Speedway and Red Bluff Outlaws. Seavey will drive the No. 68F sponsored by Hartman Oil.
“I’m excited to be back with SFH Racing Development again this year,” Seavey said. “We’re looking to build on last year and the team has put in a tremendous amount of work to get ready. I know this team has what it takes.
“I have to thank all of the sponsors especially Wink Hartman with Hartman Oil. Without them none of this would be possible.”
Associate sponsors for the team include: Direct Supply, Jimmy’s Egg, Speedway Customs, 1911 Grill, Full Throttle Arms, Indy Trading Post and Business Art Designs.
Practice for the Chili Bowl begins today at the Tulsa Expos Raceway inside the River Spirit Expo Center. The marquee week-long midget event will once again feature four preliminary events before the finale on Jan. 13 with the top 24 drivers from the week competing for the coveted Golden Driller. Starting positions in the A Feature are determined by points received during qualifications.
Seavey is scheduled to qualify for the championship event on Tuesday in the Warren Cat Qualifying night. Smith will qualify during the Hard Rock Casino night on Wednesday and O’Gara will compete in the John Christner Trucking Qualifying night on Thursday.
For the fifth year, the Chili Bowl will be streamed online at www.racinboys.com. The pay-per-view broadcast will run from Tuesday through Saturday’s qualifiers. Final features will be televised live on the MAVTV American Real network. For a complete listing of channels and to request MAVTV, visit www.mavtv.com.
For more information and continuous updates from the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire, visit www.chilibowl.com.
Follow O’Gara at @kyleogara, Seavey at @tseav4 and Smith at @ryansmithracing on Twitter and Instagram through the week for updates.
SFH Racing Development was started by Sarah Fisher and her husband, Andy O’Gara, in partnership with Wink Hartman and Hartman Oil as a way to find young racing talent and groom them through multiple series on their way to a professional career in racing.
category: Sprint, Midget & Silver Crown Racing
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