ISW, Clauson Wins First At Action Track
TERRE HAUTE JULY 16, 2014 -RIS- “I think this is the last track in Indiana I had to cross off my list and man it's been tough. You don't walk into wins at Terre Haute!” Explained Bryan Clauson in the winners circle after his first win at the “Action Track”. Clauson had started the 30 lap feature third and followed early leaders Brady Bacon, laps 1 through 13 and Robert Ballou, laps 14 through 16.
The win moved Clauson up to fourth place in the “Indiana Sprint Week” standings with three races, Putnamville, Bloomington and Haubstadt remaining. “It's just a huge huge win tonight. It's hard for us to put into words for what it means to us moving down the road. We'll see. We've got three more long nights, I'm sure we'll see some adversity but we're just going to keep battling till the end. If we get beat there going to have to earn it.” Said Clauson.
Behind Bryan finished Robert Ballou who was sorely disappointed with second. “I probably need more brains for the driver. I probably gave it away. I burned these tires off trying to cut the corners off anere thep thd just trying to find a better place on the racetrack. I knew we were good on the top but sometimes it just bites me here when I just stay up there the whole time. You get those guys like Tracy Hines who creep up toward the end of the race running around the bottom. You know I just probably gave it away. I burnt these tires off. I knew with 15 laps to go I could catch them but I wasn't going to get by them. I knew that they were hot. We didn't have much traction left.” Said Ballou.
Brady Bacon was also speaking of his regrets over his third place finish. “Being on the lead on that one restart (lap 14) wasn't probably the place to be. I couldn't really afford to try anything different. I just had to wait and move in front of the before they pounced on me, which I wasn't able to do. They both got by me coming off of four. They were just running a little lower. I was kind'a moving around and they would pull away if I tried something that didn't work. We were just as fast as them if we would have been able to keep them behind us on that restart, It would have been alright.”
Bacon goes into the fifth sprint week race at Putnamville tomorrow with a 20 point lead over second place Dave Darland who finished seventh after being moved from the outside front row starting position to start sixth due to being late to the starting grid.
Jon Stanbrough had the worst time in the feature of any front runner as he was the second fast qualifier and won his heat but dropped out of the feature race early to finish last. He dropped to ninth in the sprint week standings after being third following Lawrenceberg.
Chris Windom leads “Indiana Sprint Week” points, 242 to Darland's 237. The top five are all close with 14 points covering the group.
Just a few miles east of Terre Haute, Lincoln Park Speedway at Putnamville on the “National Road”, U.S. highway 40 to the kids, will be the host of the fifth sprint week event on Thursday night.
Results Courtesy USAC
AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: July 16, 2014 - Terre Haute, Indiana - Terre Haute Action Track - 27th "Indiana Sprint Week" - "Don Smith Classic"
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Robert Ballou, 12x, Ballou-20.170; 2. Jon Stanbrough, 37RW, Dutcher-20.174; 3. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-20.186; 4. Bryan Clauson, 20, Stewart/Curb-Agajanian-20.389; 5. Daron Clayton, 3R, Byram-20.395; 6. Chris Windom, 11, Walker-20.403; 7. Dave Darland, 71p, Phillips-20.440; 8. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-20.472; 9. Shane Cottle, 2E, Epperson-20.701; 10. Brady Short, 11p, Pottorff-20.760; 11. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-20.812; 12. Shane Cockrum, 66, Amati-20.868; 13. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-20.951; 14. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-21.012; 15. Jimmy Light, 23, Two-Time-21.013; 16. Tyler Courtney, 21x, Pollock-21.027; 17. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-21.029; 18. Justin Grant, 40, Hery-21.056; 19. Chase Briscoe, 5B, Briscoe-21.141; 20. Casey Shuman, 21k, Krockenberger-21.248; 21. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-21.277; 22. Kevin Thomas Jr., 9k, KT-21.281; 23. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-21.347; 24. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-21.449; 25. Thomas Meseraull, 41, SST-21.451; 26. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-21.526; 27. Landon Simon, 24, Simon-21.674; 28. Brody Roa, 91R, BR-21.697; 29. Lee Dakus, 75, Dakus-21.979; 30. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-22.162; 31. Nathan Moore, 48, Moore-22.292; 32. Brian Hayden, 2H, Hayden-22.597; 33. Jay Waugh, 99a, Waugh-22.630; 34. Ethan Barrow, 15, Barrow-23.028; 35. Eric Burns, 99, Gasway-23.548; 36. Cole Ketcham, 41k, Ketcham-23.651; 37. Mark Smith, 1M, Smith-NT; 38. Hunter Schuerenberg, 20N, Schuerenberg/Nolen-NT.
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Cottle, 2. Jarrett, 3. Stockon, 4. Ballou, 5. Clayton, 6. Meseraull, 7. Farney, 8. Waugh, 9. Dakus. 2:47.71
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Stanbrough, 2. Thomas, 3. Short, 4. Grant, 5. Windom, 6. Andretti, 7. Barrow, 8. McGhee, 9. Hines. 2:53.80
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. Darland, 3. Leary, 4. Briscoe, 5. Light, 6. Moore, 7. Swanson, 8. Burns, 9. Simon. 2:58.44
FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Courtney, 2. Shuman, 3. Clauson, 4. Coons, 5. Mattox, 6. Hayden, 7. Ketcham, 8. Roa, 9. Cockrum. NT
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Windom, 2. Meseraull, 3. Hines, 4. Farney, 5. Swanson, 6. Hayden, 7. Mattox, 8. Waugh, 9. Barrow, 10. Andretti, 11. Light, 12. McGhee, 13. Dakus, 14. Roa, 15. Ketcham, 16. Burns, 17. Clayton, 18. Moore. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Bryan Clauson, 2. Robert Ballou, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Chris Windom, 5. Brady Short, 6. Justin Grant, 7. Dave Darland, 8. Tracy Hines, 9. Shane Cottle, 10. Chase Stockon, 11. Jerry Coons Jr., 12. Chase Briscoe, 13. Aaron Farney, 14. C.J. Leary, 15. Tyler Courtney, 16. Kevin Thomas Jr., 17. Logan Jarrett, 18. Thomas Meseraull, 19. Brody Roa, 20. Casey Shuman, 21. Kody Swanson, 22. Brian Hayden, 23. Jarett Andretti, 24. Jon Stanbrough. NT
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**Simon flipped during the third heat. Cockrum flipped during the fourth heat.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-13 Bacon, Laps 14-16 Ballou, Laps 17-30 Clauson.
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,226, 2-Darland-1,206, 3-Clauson-1,135, 4-Stanbrough-1,096, 5-Stockon-1,080, 6-Hines-1,040, 7-Grant-1,020, 8-Windom-983, 9-Schuerenberg-910, 10-Leary-833.
NEW INDIANA SPRINT WEEK POINTS: 1-Windom-242, 2-Darland-237, 3-Grant-234, 4-Clauson-233, 5-Bacon-228, 6-Ballou-209, 7-Stockon-191, 8-Hines-190, 9-Stanbrough-189, 10-Short-186.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: July 17- Putnamville, IN - Lincoln Park Speedway - 27th Indiana Sprint Week"
Ed Hollowell
Reporter for RIS since 1996. Photo since 2002.