Western World First Night Another Ballou Victory

The Winner's Check. Photo- Speedblur101

TUCSON,AZ -RIS- It looked to be a night for the local hero as Jerry Coons Jr. took the lead of the first first of three “Western World” feature events on lap two. He lead with no challengers until traffic and Robert Ballou combined to spoil his fun as he rolled multiple times on the back straight while trying lap a backmarker on lap 25. Ballou went on to win his 13th USAC National Sprint Car feature race of the year which ties him with J. J. Yelley for second behind Tom Bigelow, the all time leader at 14.

Night One Photos

It was not an easy night the “Madman” Robert Ballou. He qualified 14th of 34 drivers but still had trouble passing Matt Rossi in the heat to win.

"We changed just about everything but the driver's seat tonight, and that's only because I own the car. We just had to get me comfortable to run up there where it was a little chop and tough. We worked all through practice night to get better, and we just weren't very good early in the night. Finally, we had ourselves a lane up high early in the race to get up through there. We were fully committed. I'm not sure we could have gotten Jerry, and I really hated to see that happen to him. He ran a great race through traffic," Ballou said.

Ballou was also the race “Hard Charger” after his win from a 14th place start. It was the farthest back a feature winner has started this year. It was the second time this year that the “Hard Charger” was also the feature winner and that was also Ballou back on August 9th at Angel Park Speedway.

Brady Bacon came home second ahead of Bryan Clauson in third.

Bacon was the fast qualifier with a track record 15.275 second lap. Heat race winners were Jon Stanbrough, Robert Ballou, Bryan Clauson and Josh Hodges. R.J. Johnson was the B Feature winner.

Jake Swanson had a long night as he bicycled his car over the turn three wall on his first qualifying lap. He came back to qualify the backup car but had to start the feature on a provisional.

In addition to the USAC National and the USAC/CRA series the USAC West Coast and Southwest Series 360 cars rand with many of the national series drivers taking part. The 30 feature race was taken by Justin Grant with Brady Bacon second and Greg Taylor third.

The second night of the “Western World” will have the same schedule as night one with Wheel Packng starting at 5:15.

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AMSOIL USAC SPRINT CAR NATIONAL & CRA CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: November 19, 2015 - Tucson, Arizona - USA Raceway - "Western World Championships"


QUALIFYING: 1. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-15.275 (New Track Record); 2. Tracy Hines, 4, THR-15.294; 3. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-15.386; 4. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-15.421; 5. Jerry Coons, Jr., 20N, Nolen-15.445; 6. R.J. Johnson, 51, Martin-15.492; 7. Bryan Clauson, 63, Dooling/Hayward-15.516; 8. Damion Gardner, 4x, Alexander-15.524; 9. Richard Vander Weerd, 10, Vander Weerd-15.600; 10. Mike Spencer, 50, Chaffin-15.617; 11. Chase Stockon, 32, 32/TBI-15.620; 12. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 17RW, Dutcher-15.622; 13. Dave Darland, 71p, Phillips/Curb-Agajanian-15.628; 14. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-15.650; 15. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-15.667; 16. Ryan Bernal, 56, Phulps-15.682; 17. Austin Williams, 2, Jory-15.725; 18. Matt Rossi, 02, Rossi-15.762; 19. Brady Short, 19, Underwood-15.770; 20. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-15.797; 21. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-15.823; 22. Justin Grant, 5, Baldwin-15.828; 23. Brody Roa, 48, Leonard-15.833; 24. Mike Martin, 16, Martin-15.857; 25. Danny Faria, Jr., 17v, Bowman-15.942; 26. Chris Windom, 21x, Pollock-15.999; 27. Chad Boespflug, 04G, Cook-16.007; 28. Casey Shuman, 42, Cheney-16.015; 29. Colby Copeland, 74, Williams-16.023; 30. Cody Williams, 44, Jory-16.041; 31. Nick Parker, 94, Morales-16.144; 32. Logan Williams, 5x, Jory-16.164; 33. Jake Swanson, 92, Sertich-16.408; 34. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-17.002.


FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Stanbrough, 2. Darland, 3. Bacon, 4. Coons, 5. Vander Weerd, 6. Hodges, 7. Faria, 8. Swanson, 9. A. Williams. NT


SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Hines, 3. Rossi, 4. Spencer, 5. Grant, 6. Windom, 7. Johnson, 8. C. Williams, 9. Bell. NT


THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Clauson, 2. Meseraull, 3. Leary, 4. Roa, 5. Boespflug, 6. Parker, 7. Stockon, 8. Short. NT


FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Hodges, 2. Bernal, 3. Thomas, 4. Gardner, 5. Farney, 6. Shuman, 7. Martin, 8. L. Williams. NT


SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Johnson, 2. Farney, 3. Vander Weerd, 4. Windom, 5. Faria, 6. Stockon, 7. Swanson, 8. Shuman, 9. Martin, 10. Parker, 11. A. Williams, 12. C. Williams, 13. L. Williams, 14. Bell, 15. Copeland, 16. Boespflug, 17. Short. NT


FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Bryan Clauson, 4. Thomas Meseraull, 5. Damion Gardner, 6. Dave Darland, 7. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 8. Ryan Bernal, 9. Richard Vander Weerd, 10. C.J. Leary, 11. Tracy Hines, 12. Josh Hodges, 13. Danny Faria, Jr., 14. Brody Roa, 15. R.J. Johnson, 16. Matt Rossi, 17. Aaron Farney, 18. Jon Stanbrough, 19. Jake Swanson, 20. Cody Williams, 21. Mike Spencer, 22. Jerry Coons, Jr., 23. Chase Stockon, 24. Chris Windom. NT

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**Swanson went over the turn 3 wall in qualifying. Copeland flipped during the semi. Coons flipped on lap 25 of the feature.


FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-2 Gardner, Laps 3-24 Coons, Laps 25-30 Ballou.

NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Ballou-2158, 2-Darland-2082, 3-Stockon-2016, 4-Bacon-1964, 5-Stanbrough-1749, 6-Thomas-1697, 7-Windom-1531, 8-Leary-1417, 9-Hines-1385, 10-Grant-1220.

NEW AMSOIL USAC/CRA SPRINT POINTS: 1-D. Gardner-1319, 2-Spencer-1239, 3-R. Vander Weerd-1207, 4-Swanson-1050, 5-A. Williams-1025, 6-Roa-1014, 7-Mitchell-799, 8-C. Williams-773, 9-L. Williams-664, 10-Bernal-609.

NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL & CRA SPRINT RACE: November 20 - USA Raceway - Tucson, Arizona - 48th "Western World Championships"

Results Courtesy USAC

Ed Hollowell

Reporter for RIS since 1996. Photo since 2002.

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Volume 2015, Issue 11, Posted 11:15 AM, 11.20.2015