Ballou Continues to Roll At Perris

Chase Stockon passes Dave Darland while Robert Ballou trails. photo Speedblur101

PERRIS, CA -RIS- The 20th edition of the Budweiser Oval Nationals began Thursday night with the 2014 champion, Robert Ballou continuing his winning ways. In a race which went the full 30 laps without a caution and had five lead changes Ballou passed Dave Darland for the win on lap 28.

Photos from night 1

The feature started with Richard Vander Weerd going from the pole to lead Dave Darland for the for the first five laps. Darland took the lead for lap seven and eight and Chase Stockon lead from lap eight to lap 15. Robert Ballou moved from the fourth starting place to lead laps 16 and 17 before Darland regained the lead on lap 18.

At this point Darland and Ballou were well ahead of Stockon who was having to deal with Bryan Clauson who started eight.

As the green laps went on the leaders were catching traffic, and were lapping 18th place Aaron Farney on lap 29 when Ballou got under Darland in turn two and passed for the win. Ballou passed 17th place Michael Spencer the next lap.

When asked about the finish Darland was willing to take responsibility for the loss. “I made a mistake in a couple of corners that cost me.”

Ballou has now won three Oval National features in a row and will be going for four Friday night.

In the preliminaries Justin Grant was the first qualifier and the fast qualifier at 16.655 seconds. Jake Swanson, Ryan Bernal, Josh Hodges, Chase Stockon and Mike Spencer were the heat winners. Jon Stanbrough won the B Main and Lee Dakus won the C Main.

The win by Ballou increased his points lead over Chase Stockon to 27 while Michael Spencer's lead narrowed to 21 over Damion Gardner.

The second night of Oval Nationals continues tomorrow night.

AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL & CRA SPRINT CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: November 12, 2015 - Perris, California - Perris Auto Speedway - 20th "Budweiser Oval Nationals" - Presented by All Coast Construction

     QUALIFICATIONS:1.Justin Grant, 5, Baldwin-16.655; 2. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-16.831; 3. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-16.900; 4. Chase Stockon, 32, 32TBI-16.909; 5. Dave Darland, 71P, Phillips/Curb-Agajanian-16.951; 6. Richard Vander Weerd, 10, Vander Weerd-16.953; 7. Austin Williams, 2, Jory-16.960; 8. Bryan Clauson, 63, Dooling/Hayward-16.973; 9. Matt Mitchell, 37, Mitchell-17.001; 10. Kevin Thomas Jr., 17RW, Dutcher-17.019; 11. Tracy Hines, 4X, Hines-17.025; 12. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-17.039; 13. Damion Gardner, 4, Alexander-17.046; 14. Chad Boespflug, 04G, Cook-17.053; 15. Mike Spencer, 50, Chaffin-17.099; 16. Austin Liggett, 83, Liggett-17.130; 17. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-17.154; 18. Ronnie Gardner, 12A, Allen-17.163; 19. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-17.188; 20. R.J. Johnson, 51, Martin-17.192; 21. Jake Swanson, 92, Sertich-17.207; 22. Ryan Bernal, 56, Phulps-17.229; 23. Josh Hodges, 74X, Hodges-17.262; 24. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-17.325; 25. Cody Williams, 44, Jory-17.326; 26. Matt Rossi, 02, Rossi-17.352; 27. Max Adams, 5M, Adams-17.364; 28. Chris Windom, 21X, Pollock-17.410; 29. Jace Vander Weerd, 88, VanderWeerd -17.515; 30. Danny Faria Jr., 4D, Gansen-17.554; 31. A.J. Bender, 21, Bender-17.564; 32. Brady Short, 42, Cheney-17.575; 33. Geoff Ensign, 3F, Finkenbinder-17.628; 34. Brody Roa, 48, Leonard-17.657; 35. Logan Williams, 5J, Jory-17.693; 36. Verne Sweeney, 98JR, Tracy-17.723; 37. Kyle Edwards, 51E, Tafoya-17.729; 38. David Bezio, 37X, Bezio-17.787; 39. Tommy Malcolm, 5X, Napier-17.922; 40. Chris Gansen, 4G, Gansen-17.960; 41. Lee Dakus, 75, Dakus-18.014; 42. Jeremy Ellertson, 98, Ellertson-18.193; 43. Koby Barksdale, 12B, Blair-18.234; 44. Randy Waitman, Y69, Waitman-18.237; 45. Mitch Wissmiller, 36, Springstead-18.752; 46. Mike Collins, 04, Collins-19.306; 47. Parker Colston, 64, Gore-19.358; 48. Mikey Lovas, 36L, Lovas-19.422; 49. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-NT

      C-MAIN:(10 laps) 1. Dakus, 2. Ellertson, 3. Colston, 4. Waitman, 5. Collins, 6. Wissmiller. NT

      FIRST HEAT:(10 laps) 1. Swanson, 2. R.Vander Weerd, 3. Hines, 4. Grant, 5. Rossi, 6. Liggett, 7. Sweeney. 2:57.45

      SECOND HEAT:(10 laps) 1. Bernal, 2. Meseraull, 3. A.Williams, 4. Bacon, 5. Stanbrough, 6. Adams, 7. Short, 8. Edwards. 2:52.19

      THIRD HEAT:(10 laps) 1. Hodges, 2. D.Gardner, 3. Ballou, 4. Clauson, 5. Windom, 6. R.Gardner, 7. Ensign, 8. Bezio. 2:51.94

      FOURTH HEAT:(10 laps) 1. Stockon, 2. Farney, 3. Boespflug, 4. J.Vander Weerd, 5. Leary, 6. Roa, 7. Malcolm, 8. Mitchell. 2:51.89

      FIFTH HEAT:(10 laps) 1. Spencer, 2. Johnson, 3. Darland, 4. Thomas, 5. C.Williams, 6. L.Williams, 7. Faria, 8. Gansen. 2:55.88

      SEMI:(12 laps) 1. Stanbrough, 2. Windom, 3. C.Williams, 4. Liggett, 5. Leary, 6. Ensign, 7. Roa, 8. R.Gardner, 9. Bender, 10. Edwards, 11. Rossi, 12. Bezio, 13. Adams, 14. Malcolm, 15. Ellertson, 16. Waitman, 17. Sweeney, 18. Gansen, 19. Short, 20. Faria, 21. L.Williams, 22. Dakus, 23. Colston. 3:40.85

      FEATURE:(30 laps) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Dave Darland, 3. Bryan Clauson, 4. Chase Stockon, 5. Jon Stanbrough, 6. Brady Bacon, 7. Richard Vander Weerd, 8. Kevin Thomas Jr., 9. Justin Grant, 10. Thomas Meseraull, 11. Tracy Hines, 12. Ryan Bernal, 13. R.J. Johnson, 14. Chris Windom, 15. Josh Hodges, 16. Damion Gardner, 17. Mike Spencer, 18. Aaron Farney, 19. Austin Wiliams, 20. Jake Swanson, 21. Cody Williams, 22. Jace Vander Weerd, 23. Chad Boespflug, 24. Logan Williams, 25. Austin Liggett, 26. Chris Gansen. 9:12.71

------------------------------------

**Barksdale flipped during qualifications.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-5 R.Vander Weerd, Laps 6-7 Darland, Laps 8-15 Stockon, Laps 16-17 Ballou, Laps 18-27 Darland, Laps 28-30 Ballou.

NEW AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Ballou-1,972, 2-Stockon-1,945, 3-Darland-1,924, 4-Bacon-1,787, 5-Stanbrough-1,657, 6-Thomas-1,579, 7-Windom-1,432, 8-Leary-1,313, 9-Hines-1,234; 10-Grant-1,163.

NEW AMSOIL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-Spencer-1,172, 2-D.Gardner-1,151; 3-R.Vander Weerd-1,104. 4-A.Williams-1,069, 5-Swanson-981, 6-Roa-929, 7-Mitchell-773, 8-C.Williams-732, 9-L.Williams-649, 10-Bernal-519.

NEXT AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL & CRA SPRINT CAR RACE: November 13 - Perris (CA) Auto Speedway - 20th "Budweiser Oval Nationals" - Presented by All Coast Construction

Results Courtesy USAC

Ed Hollowell

Reporter for RIS since 1996. Photo since 2002.

Read More on Oval Track news
Volume 2015, Issue 11, Posted 4:25 AM, 11.13.2015