Bacon
Cooks Up Sprint Bandits TNT Three-Peat in Lakeside
Opener!
Lonnie Wheatley, KANSAS CITY, Kan. (August 15, 2008)
Oklahoma's Brady Bacon just found victory lane in the
"traditional" 410-ci Sprint Car ranks two
nights earlier.
Now,
the third generation shoe seems to be unstoppable as he
snared his third O'Reilly Sprint Bandits Tour 'N Topless
Midwest Swing feature win in as many nights by topping
Friday's 25-lap preliminary feature event at Lakeside
Speedway.
Bacon
took full advantage of a late caution to overtake
race-long leader and current TNT points leader Dave
Darland on the 21st lap, ultimately beating Darland to
the checkered flag with Damion Gardner and Bryan Clauson
taking the final two guaranteed starting berths in
Saturday night's $10,000 to win Ron Shuman Classic.
"I
made all the adjustments I could make on that last
caution and it worked, this car is working so great
right now it just seems like we can do no wrong,"
Bacon explained of Mike and Megan Eubanks' Wesmar-powered
Tel-Star Communications No. 99 Triple-X.
Working
forward from the ninth position, the caution that proved
to be Bacon's big break also negated Bryan Clauson's
move around Darland on the high side for the lead and a
possible win. Clauson still earned a lock-in position
with a last-lap pass of R.J. Johnson for fourth in a
wild scramble for position.
"A
win tonight would have been nice, but at least we're
locked in for tomorrow night, that's the one we
want," Clauson commented.
While
Darland outgunned polesitter Hunter Schuerenberg for the
lead at the drop of the green flag, Bacon went to work
from the fifth row and had cracked the top five after
just a handful of circuits and was then fourth behind
Darland, Clauson and R.J. Johnson after Schuerenberg
spun to a stop along the frontstretch after ten laps.
Johnson
and Bacon both charged around Clauson on the restart,
with Arizona's Johnson using the low side of the track
to pressure the rim-riding Darland for the lead as the
caution flew after 16 laps.
Opting
to protect the low line, Darland dropped to the bottom
with Bacon surging past Johnson for second. With several
front runners bottled up on the lower portion of the
track, Clauson took full advantage by powering by on the
top side of the backstretch on the 21st lap only to have
a caution flag fly for Dustin Morgan's disabled mount on
the backstretch.
With
Clauson back to third behind Darland and Bacon on the
restart, Darland moved back to the upper groove and
Bacon gobbled up the lead on the lower portion of the
track, holding it to the checkered flag.
Darland
held on for second in Scott Benic's Gaerte-powered RWB
No. 2b Maxim, while Damion Gardner gained three
positions over the final five circuits to take the show
position in the Leffler Racing Pace Lighting No. 71
Beast.
Clauson
edged Johnson at the line for fourth in Kevin
Montgomery's Kenz & Leslie No. 76 with Johnson
rounding out the top five in the Arizona Race Mart No.
15 Maxim.
Cole
Whitt notched a sixth-place showing in his first TNT
outing of the week, with Darren Hagen, 14th-starter Gary
Taylor, Charles Davis, Jr., and 20th-starter Chris
Windom completing the top ten.
Dustin
Morgan, Darland, Gardner and Whitt topped heat race
action, with Mike Leslie, Clauson, Jesse Hockett and
Thomas Meseraull winning the qualifiers. Daron Clayton
won the 10-lap "B" Main.
The
night ended early for several competitors, including
Robert Ballou and Kevin Swindell (who both flipped on
the final lap of the first heat race) and Zach Goulden
(who flipped on the second lap of the fourth qualifying
race). Dusty Murray took down some fence cables on the
first attempt to start the "B" Main.
The
Fourth Annual O'Reilly Sprint Bandits Tour 'N Topless
Midwest Swing concludes with Saturday night's
$10,000-to-win Ron Shuman Classic at Lakeside Speedway,
with heat races set to fire off at 7:30 p.m.
OReilly
Sprint Bandits Tour N Topless Lakeside Speedway
Results:
Heat
Races:
First
Heat (8 Laps): 1. 67-Dustin Morgan, 2. 5*-Gary Taylor,
3. 92-Daron Clayton, 4. 10-Darren Hagen, 5.
81-Robert Ballou, 6. 1-Kevin Swindell, 7.
24-Alan Billings.
Second
Heat (8 Laps): 1. 2b-Dave Darland, 2. 11-Hunter
Schuerenberg, 3. 14-Coleman Gulick, 4. 7c-Chris Morgan,
5. 75-Jesse Hockett, 6. 76bg-Mike Leslie, 7. 8-Jeff
Wingate.
Third
Heat (8 Laps): 1. 71-Damion Gardner, 2. 15-R.J. Johnson,
3. 32-Casey Shuman, 4. 99-Brady Bacon, 5. 1k-Kim
Kennedy, 6. 71x-Robert Bell, 7. 46-Dusty Murray.
Fourth
Heat (8 Laps): 1. 29w-Cole Whitt, 2. 76-Bryan Clauson,
3. 21s-Charles Davis, Jr., 4. 97-Bret Mellenberndt, 5.
10T-Thomas Meseraull, 6. 49-Zach Goulden, 7. 65-Chris
Parkinson.
Qualifying
Races (Top 16 in Combined Passing Points from Heats
& Qualifiers to "A" Main; Balance to
"B" Main):
First
Qualifier (8 Laps): 1. 76bg-Mike Leslie, 2. 15-R.J.
Johnson, 3. 67-Dustin Morgan, 4. 71-Damion Gardner, 5.
1k-Kim Kennedy, 6. 92-Daron Clayton, 7. 17-Chris Windom,
8. 24-Alan Billings.
Second
Qualifier (8 Laps): 1. 76-Bryan Clauson, 2. 2b-Dave
Darland, 3. 97-Bret Mellenberndt, 4. 32-Casey Shuman, 5.
8-Jeff Wingate. DNS: 1-Kevin Swindell, 81-Robert
Ballou.
Third
Qualifier (8 Laps): 1. 75-Jesse Hockett, 2. 99-Brady
Bacon, 3. 10-Darren Hagen, 4. 29w-Cole Whitt, 5.
14-Coleman Gulick, 6. 46-Dusty Murray, 7. 71x-Robert
Bell.
Fourth
Qualifier (8 Laps): 1. 10T-Thomas Meseraull, 2.
11-Hunter Schuerenberg, 3. 21s-Charles Davis, Jr., 4.
5*-Gary Taylor, 5. 7c-Chris Morgan, 6. 65-Chris
Parkinson, 7. 49-Zach Goulden.
"B"
"Main (Top 6 Advance to "A" Main):
"B"
Feature (10 Laps): 1. 92-Daron Clayton, 2. 7c-Chris
Morgan, 3. 14-Coleman Gulick, 4. 17-Chris Windom, 5.
1k-Kim Kennedy, 6. 71x-Robert Bell, 7. 8-Jeff Wingate,
8. 65-Chris Parkinson, 9. 24-Alan Billings, 10. 46-Dusty
Murray. DNS: 49-Zach Goulden, 81-Robert
Ballou, 1-Kevin Swindell.
O'Reilly
Sprint Bandits TNT Lakeside Speedway Preliminary
"A" Main
A
Main (25 Laps): 1. 99-Brady Bacon, 2. 2b-Dave Darland,
3. 71-Damion Gardner, 4. 76-Bryan Clauson, 5. 15-R.J.
Johnson, 6. 29w-Cole Whitt, 7. 10-Darren Hagen, 8.
5*-Gary Taylor, 9. 21s-Charles Davis, Jr., 10. 17-Chris
Windom, 11. 7c-Chris Morgan, 12. 75-Jesse Hockett, 13.
10T-Thomas Meseraull, 14. 11-Hunter Schuerenberg, 15.
76bg-Mike Leslie, 16. 97-Bret Mellenberndt, 17.
14-Coleman Gulick, 18. 1k-Kim Kennedy, 19. 92-Daron
Clayton, 20. 67-Dustin Morgan, 21. 71x-Robert Bell, 22.
32-Casey Shuman.
Lap
Leaders: Dave Darland 1-20, Brady Bacon 21-25.
O'Reilly
Sprint Bandits TNT Midwest Swing Points (Top 15):
Drivers:
1. Dave Darland 720, 2. Jesse Hockett 678, 3. (tie) Gary
Taylor, Thomas Meseraull and Brady Bacon 666, 6. Damion
Gardner 656, 7. Casey Shuman 652, 8. Coleman Gulick 612,
9. Charles Davis, Jr. 605, 10. R.J. Johnson 591, 11.
Robert Ballou 590, 12. Bret Mellenberndt 584,
13. Darren Hagen 556, 14. Chris Windom 504, 15. Mike
Leslie 496.
Owners:
1. 2B Racing #2b - 720, 2. Trucker's #10 700, 3.
VKCC #75 678, 4. (tie) Tel-Star #5* and Tel-Star #99
- 666, 6. Leffler Racing #71 656, 7. Rex Foster #32
652, 8. Hazardous Motorsports #14 612, 9. Mark
Swanson #21s 605, 10. Ricky Johnson #15 - 591, 11.
MPHG Promotions #81 590, 12. Mellenberndt
#97 584, 13. (tie) Triple Crown Racing #1 and
Trucker's #10T 522, 15. Windom Racing #71 504.
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