Bacon
Sizzles in Sprint Bandits TNT Round Three at OKC!
Lonnie Wheatley, OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (August 13, 2008)
– Brady Bacon rarely gets the opportunity to race in
his native state of Oklahoma. In fact, prior to
Wednesday night, he hadn't ever raced a non-wing 410-ci
Sprint Car in the Sooner State.
The
third generation shoe made the most of his initial
opportunity by capturing his first career feature win in
the "traditional" 410-ci ranks by racing to
victory lane in the O'Reilly Sprint Bandits Tour 'N
Topless Midwest Swing 30-lap main event at State Fair
Speedway.
Bacon
battled past former TNT champion Jesse Hockett on the
18th lap to become the race's fourth different leader en
route to capturing the checkered flag aboard the Wesmar-powered
Tel-Star Communications No. 99 Triple-X entry owned by
Mike and Megan Eubanks, who also fielded the Midget race
car in which Bacon captured his first Midget win in
2005.
"There's
been a lot of seconds and thirds, it's nice to finally
get this one," Bacon commented after becoming the
third different in as many nights of TNT action.
With
Bacon starting five rows deep in the ninth position, it
was Tuesday night winner Dave Darland leading the way to
the green flag with Arizona's R.J. Johnson alongside.
A
prohibitive favorite to win his second feature in as
many nights after collecting five feature wins over the
previous eight nights and winning both his heat and
qualifying races over the first three legs of TNT
competition, Darland bicycled his car through turns one
and two on both of the opening pair of circuits and fell
to eighth by the time the first caution flew for Casey
Shuman, who spun to a stop off the exit of turn four
after contact.
After
leading the initial three circuits, Johnson surrendered
the point to Gary Taylor, who led three rounds as well
until Hockett powered past for the lead.
Meanwhile,
Bacon had cracked the top five by the fifth lap and was
up to third behind Hockett and teammate Taylor by the
tenth round. Bacon slipped by Taylor for the runner-up
spot on the 13th round and promptly turned up the heat
on Hockett before ducking underneath entering turn one
for the lead on the 18th lap.
Bacon
quickly fled the scene, leaving Hockett, Taylor and a
surging Damion Gardner to dice for second. That battle
through thick traffic soured on the 24th lap, when
Gardner cut a right front tire in turn three following
contact after working his way up to second. As Gardner
tried to maneuver out of harm's way on the frontstetch,
Dustin Morgan climbed his right rear tire and flipped to
bring out a red flag with seven laps to go.
Bacon
checked out on the final restart, racing to the
checkered flag by a comfortable margin over Hockett's
VKCC Motorsports No. 75. Mired in sixth prior to the red
flag, Darland made a late charge to snare the show
position aboard Scott Benic's No. 2b Maxim.
Norman,
Oklahoma teen Koby Barksdale raced among the top five
the entire distance before finishing fourth, with Darren
Hagen recovering from an incident in the second heat
race that sent five of eight starters pitside to charge
from 17th to fifth aboard the Trucker's 24-Hour Road
Service No. 10 DRC.
Nipped
at the line by his teammate, Thomas Meseraull claimed
sixth, with Taylor slipping from third to seventh in the
final seven laps. New York native Coleman Gulick climbed
from 15th to eighth, with Shuman recovering from the
early spin to finish ninth. Charles Davis, Jr.,
completed the top ten.
R.J.
Johnson, Chris Windom, Shuman and Darland topped heat
race action, with Bryan Clauson, Darland, Gardner and
Hockett victorious in the qualifying races. Hagen won
the 12-lap "B" Main.
Kerry
McAlister and Cory Kruseman both got upside down in the
five-car tangle in the second heat. Kevin Swindell went
for a wild ride in turn three in the second qualifying
race, with Henry Clarke tumbling through turn two in
spectacular fashion in the fourth qualifier. There were
no injuries.
Monday
night winner Robert Ballou was caught up in the Clarke
incident and scratched for the night with excessive
damage.
The
Fourth Annual O'Reilly Sprint Bandits Tour 'N Topless
Midwest Swing continues Thursday night at Creek County
Speedway in Sapulpa, OK, before culminating with two
nights of action at Kansas City's Lakeside Speedway.
O’Reilly
Sprint Bandits Tour ‘N Topless State Fair Speedway
Results:
Heat
Races:
First
Heat (8 Laps): 1. 15-R.J. Johnson, 2. 76-Mike Leslie, 3.
21s-Charles Davis, Jr., 4. 1-Kevin Swindell, 5.
71-Damion Gardner, 6. 67-Dustin Morgan, 7. 76bg-Mike
Leslie, 8. 55-Tony Everhart.
Second
Heat (8 Laps): 1. 17-Chris Windom, 2. 22-Koby Barksdale,
3. 5c-Cody Cordell, 4. 15k-Kerry McAlister, 5. 21k-Cory
Kruseman, 6. 41x-Brent Swift, 7. 41k-Henry Clarke, 8.
10-Darren Hagen.
Third
Heat (8 Laps): 1. 32-Casey Shuman, 2. 5*-Gary Taylor, 3.
81-Robert Ballou, 4. 10T-Thomas Meseraull, 5.
97-Bret Mellenberndt, 6. 41-Ray Allen Kulhanek, 7.
25-Jeff Leep. DNS: 9x-Larry Carter.
Fourth
Heat (8 Laps): 1. 2b-Dave Darland, 2. 99-Brady Bacon, 3.
27-Andy Shouse, 4. 75-Jesse Hockett, 5. 14-Coleman
Gulick, 6. 61J-Danny Jennings, 7. 71k-Alex Schutte.
Qualifying
Races (Top 16 in Combined Passing Points from Heats
& Qualifiers to "A" Main; Balance to
"B" Main):
First
Qualifier (8 Laps): 1. 67-Dustin Morgan, 2. 10T-Thomas
Meseraull, 3. 99-Brady Bacon, 4. 15-R.J. Johnson, 5.
76-Bryan Clauson, 6. 25-Jeff Leep. DNS: 15k-Kerry
McAlister, 9x-Larry Carter.
Second
Qualifier (8 Laps): 1. 2b-Dave Darland, 2. 97-Bret
Mellenberndt, 3. 61J-Danny Jennings, 4. 21s-Charles
Davis, Jr., 5. 27-Andy Shouse, 6. 71k-Alex Schutte, 7.
1-Kevin Swindell. DNS: 21k-Cory Kruseman.
Third
Qualifier (8 Laps): 1. 71-Damion Gardner, 2. 14-Coleman
Gulick, 3. 22-Koby Barksdale, 4. 76bg-Mike Leslie, 5.
17-Chris Windom, 6. 5c-Cody Cordell, 7. 55-Tony
Everhart. DNS: 41x-Brent Swift.
Fourth
Qualifier (8 Laps): 1. 75-Jesse Hockett, 2. 5*-Gary
Taylor, 3. 10-Darren Hagen, 4. 32-Casey Shuman, 5.
41-Ray Allen Kulhanek, 6. 41k-Henry Clarke, 7.
81-Robert Ballou.
"B"
"Main (Top 6 Advance to "A" Main):
"B"
Feature (12 Laps): 1. 10-Darren Hagen, 2. 61J-Danny
Jennings, 3. 71k-Alex Schutte, 4. 76bg-Mike Leslie, 5.
5c-Cody Cordell, 6. 41-Ray Allen Kulhanek, 7. 15k-Kerry
McAlister, 8. 25-Jeff Leep, 9. 55-Tony Everhart, 10.
9x-Larry Carter. DNS: 1-Kevin Swindell, 81-Robert
Ballou, 41k-Henry Clarke, 21k-Cory Kruseman,
41x-Brent Swift.
O'Reilly
Sprint Bandits TNT State Fair Speedway "A"
Main
“A”
Main (30 Laps): 1. 99-Brady Bacon, 2. 75-Jesse Hockett,
3. 2b-Dave Darland, 4. 22-Koby Barksdale, 5. 10-Darren
Hagen, 6. 10T-Thomas Meseraull, 7. 5*-Gary Taylor, 8.
14-Coleman Gulick, 9. 32-Casey Shuman, 10. 21s-Charles
Davis, Jr., 11. 76-Bryan Clauson, 12. 71k-Alex Schutte,
13. 15-R.J. Johnson, 14. 27-Andy Shouse, 15. 61J-Danny
Jennings, 16. 41-Ray Allen Kulhanek, 17. 76bg-Mike
Leslie, 18. 97-Bret Mellenberndt, 19. 17-Chris Windom,
20. 71-Damion Gardner, 21. 67-Dustin Morgan, 22. 5c-Cody
Cordell.
Lap
Leaders: R.J. Johnson 1-3, Gary Taylor 4-6, Jesse
Hockett 7-17, Brady Bacon 18-30
O'Reilly
Sprint Bandits TNT Midwest Swing Points (Top 15): 1.
Dave Darland 440, 2. Darren Hagen 420, 3. Casey Shuman
414, 4. Jesse Hockett 412, 5. Gary Taylor 406, 6. Thomas
Meseraull 398, 7. Coleman Gulick 380, 8. (tie) Damion
Gardner and R.J. Johnson 376, 10.
Robert Ballou 369, 11. Brady Bacon 366, 12.
Alex Schutte 352, 13. Bret Mellenberndt 348, 14. Charles
Davis, Jr. 345, 15. Cory Kruseman 331.
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