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Ballou
dominates Border Wars
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By Greg Billing Staff Writer
- Dayton Daily News
Sunday, April 29, 2007
ROSSBURG — The 13th Border Wars became a battle of survival at Eldora Speedway on Saturday.
Robert Ballou won his first United States Auto Club national sprint car race with a dominating performance. Ballou grabbed the lead on lap six and never lost it. Nine caution flags slowed the pace early. But once the action got going so did Ballou.
On Lap 6, Ballou took a middle line to split Levi Jones and Brady Short. Runner-up Jerry Coons Jr., the Border Wars defending champ, never came close to Ballou's back end again.
"I think we could have run until tomorrow and he still would have lapped us," said Coons Jr.
Ballou takes his Border Wars lead to Gas City I-69 Speedway on June 14. That race was rescheduled after getting rained out on Friday. Maybe that's not a bad thing in an event that's supposed to run on consecutive nights.
Only 13 of the 22 cars that started finished the 25-lap feature.
P-Hill Posse in action
The area surrounding Pleasant Hill and Laura is easily the sprint car capital of Miami County, and possibly the Miami Valley. About a half dozen drivers hail from the area. Two were in action during the 13th Border Wars at Eldora Speedway on Saturday.
For Pleasant Hill's Aron McFadden and Laura's Matt Westfall, it was a battle.
McFadden, making his second career start at Eldora, posted an 18.542 in qualifying and scratched from his heat. Westfall, who scored a USAC win at Eldora last season, saw mechanical problems end his night after warm-ups.
Hot Laps
The Border Wars is all about consistency. Of the 12 title winners, only three drivers won races en route to that championship (J.J. Yeley, 2001; Jay Drake, 2004-05).
One of the H's in 4-H could've stood for horsepower Saturday. About 600 4-H and Future Farmers of America (FFA) from Darke, Mercer and Shelby counties were guests of Eldora. One of the perks was a meet-and-greet session with USAC drivers Tracy Hines and Levi Jones.
Contact this reporter at
(937) 225-2400, ext. 6991 or
gbilling@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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