6/1/2010
ASCS
Make It a Bacon Double in the Lucas Oil ASCS Steve King Memorial at Jetmore!
Lonnie Wheatley, JETMORE, Kan. (May 30, 2010) – Broken Arrow, Oklahoma’s Brady Bacon completed a sweep of the weekend’s Second Annual Boot Hill Casino Steve King Memorial at the Jetmore Motorplex by racing to victory lane in Sunday night’s 30-lap Lucas Oil ASCS presented by K&N Filters main event.
But, after a convincing victory in the previous night’s preliminary event, Bacon’s mettle was tested to the limit in Sunday’s Steve King Memorial Finale by past National champions Tim Crawley and Jason Johnson.
The 20-year-old was up to the test though, using a quick dose of mid-race luck and a lot of skill to post his second Lucas Oil ASCS National win less than 24 hours after notching his first.
The 30-lapper that was interrupted by just one caution after 16 laps that negated Crawley’s move into the lead culminated with Bacon holding off Jason Johnson in some intense final rounds through lapped traffic.
“I could hear ‘em, I knew someone was all over me,” Bacon explained after the $6,000 triumph. “That’s why I kept moving around on the track, going high and then low, I didn’t want to stay in one place and have ‘em go right by in the middle.”
That strategy and perfect timing in traffic sealed the deal for Bacon in Mike and Megan Eubanks’ Wesmar-powered Tel-Star Communications No. 99 Triple-X with a narrow victory over 2008 series champion Johnson.
“Those lapped cars were killin’ me, I kept sayin’ ‘Outta the way, outta the way, outta the way’,” Johnson commented after settling for runner-up honors in the Don Ott-powered Haynes/Pope Transportation No. 41 Maxim. “Sometimes it works out that way though.”
While Saturday night runner-up Crawley landed on the pole of Sunday’s feature in the redraw with Bacon front row outside, Johnson pulled the six pill in the redraw to start third row outside after earning the night’s most passing points in heat race action.
Bacon used the top side of the track to take command on the opening lap with Crawley and fourth-starter Gary Wright in pursuit with Johnson up to fourth by the fifth lap.
As Bacon began working traffic on the ninth circuit, defending Steve King Memorial champion Jack Dover was the man on the move disposing of the likes of Tony Bruce, Jr., Kyle Hirst, Johnson and Wright to climb from seventh on the fifth circuit to third and among the lead mix when the race’s only caution flew after 16 laps when Travis Rilat coasted to a stop off the backstretch.
While Dover had been on the march, Bacon had his hands full with Crawley’s advances as the leaders battled in frantic fashion through lapped traffic.
Bacon made perhaps his lone mistake of the race with a brief hesitation in traffic in turns one and two on the 17th lap, a slip that Crawley pounced upon and burst into the lead down the backstretch only to have the yellow lights flicker on for Rilat.
“I didn’t need that yellow flag, that’s for sure,” Crawley commented afterward.
As action resumed, Johnson turned up the wick on the topside of the 3/8-mile dirt oval by quickly taking fourth away from Wright and then taking third from the hands of Dover, who had nearly passed Crawley just a couple of laps before that caution.
Back into traffic, Johnson overtook Crawley for second on the 24th circuit and set his sights on Bacon.
Johnson looked high and low on the racetrack, but Bacon made the right move each time to come away with the winner’s hardware.
“The Ragin’ Cajun” crossed the stripe two car-lengths back in second, with Crawley taking show honors in Mike Ward’s McCarver-powered Boater Sports/Southern Renovations No. 88 Maxim.
Dover held fourth to the line in the Shaver-powered 3D Auto Transport/Home Pride No. 53 Eagle, with Wright rounding out the top five in Scott Brown’s ASI-powered Lubbock Wrecker Service/Richwood Construction No. 9x Maxim.
Reigning series champ Shane Stewart worked from ninth to sixth, with leading Brodix Rookie of the Year contender Kyle Hirst in seventh.
Tony Bruce, Jr., crossed the stripe eighth, with 18th-starter Johnny Herrera and 22nd-starter Ricky Logan completing the top ten.
Darren Long, Dover, Johnson, Matt Covington and Mike Peters topped Sunday night’s heat race action, with Channin Tankersley and Herrera winning the “B” Mains.
Turn two on the opening lap of both “B” Mains proved to be a bad time and place for a pair of drivers, with Sean McClelland upside down in the first “B” and then Don Young turned over in the second “B” Main.
The Lucas Oil ASCS National Series presented by K&N Filters returns to action next weekend with events at Outlaw Motor Speedway near Muskogee, OK, on Friday night, June 4, and then Little Rock’s I-30 Speedway on Saturday night, June 5.
Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Cars presented by K&N Filters
Second Annual Boot Hill Casino Steve King Memorial Finale
Jetmore Motorplex Results:
Locked in from Saturday Night’s Preliminary Feature:
99-Brady Bacon, 88-Tim Crawley, 6-Kyle Hirst, 9x-Gary Wright.
Heat Races (Top 12 in Passing Points to "A" Main with top 2 in passing points in feature redraw with locked in cars; Balance to 2 "B" Mains):
Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 3g-Darren Long, 2. 19-Patrick Stasa, 3. 1x-Garry Lee Maier, 4. 10a-Ricky Logan, 5. 50z-Zach Chappell, 6. 97b-Aaron Berryhill, 7. 35-Matt Sherrell, 8. 81au-Gavin Punch, 9. 81-Jon Freeman.
Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 53-Jack Dover, 2. 18-Tony Bruce, Jr., 3. 36-Jason Martin, 4. 5h-Justyn Cox, 5. 77x-Dean Drake, 6. 87x-Strike Hill, 7. 91x-Taylor Milton, 8. E85-Jeremy Campbell, 9. 91-Jeff Stasa.
Heat Three (8 Laps): 1. 41-Jason Johnson, 2. 57-Shane Stewart, 3. 94-Danny Wood, 4. 45-C.J. Johnson, 5. 0w-Michael Woodruff, 6. 33-Kris Miller, 7. 4-Kirby Hagans, 8. 25-Dylan Peterson, 9. 12m-Jerry Graves, Jr.
Heat Four (8 Laps): 1. 95-Matt Covington, 2. 71-Channin Tankersley, 3. 74x-Joshua Hodges, 4. 1-Sean McClelland, 5. 20-Luke Cranston, 6. 21-Taylor Velasquez, 7. 44-Doug Lovegrove, 8. 87a-Andrew Marshala.
Heat Five (8 Laps): 1. 51-Mike Peters, 2. 93-Dustin Morgan, 3. 29-Travis Rilat, 4. 45x-Johnny Herrera, 5. 44w-Austen Wheatley, 6. 7-Don Young, 7. 77-Colt Treharn, 8. 0-Jake Martens.
"B" Mains (Top 3 From Each Advance to "A" Main):
First "B" Feature (15 Laps): 1. 71-Channin Tankersley, 2. 36-Jason Martin, 3. 44w-Austen Wheatley, 4. 97-Aaron Berryhill, 5. 45-C.J. Johnson, 6. 35-Matt Sherrell, 7. 0-Jake Martens, 8. 44-Doug Lovegrove, 9. 87x-Strike Hill, 10. 81-Jon Freeman, 11. 0w-Michael Woodruff, 12. E85-Jeremy Campbell, 13. 50z-Zach Chappell, 14. 81au-Gavin Punch, 15. 12m-Jerry Graves, Jr., 16. 1-Sean McClelland.
Second "B" Feature (15 Laps): 1. 45x-Johnny Herrera, 2. 93-Dustin Morgan, 3. 10a-Ricky Logan, 4. 29-Travis Rilat, 5. 91x-Taylor Milton, 6. 77x-Dean Drake, 7. 4-Kirby Hagans, 8. 20-Luke Cranston, 9. 77-Colt Treharn, 10. 33-Kris Miller, 11. 25-Dylan Peterson, 12. 21-Taylor Velasquez, 13. 87a-Andrew Marshala, 14. 91-Jeff Stasa, 15. 7-Don Young.
Jetmore Motorplex – Steve King Memorial Championship “A" Main Event:
“A” Feature (30 Laps): 1. 99-Brady Bacon, 2. 41-Jason Johnson, 3. 88-Tim Crawley, 4. 53-Jack Dover, 5. 9x-Gary Wright, 6. 57-Shane Stewart, 7. 6-Kyle Hirst, 8. 18-Tony Bruce, Jr., 9. 45x-Johnny Herrera, 10. 10a-Ricky Logan, 11. 3g-Darren Long, 12. 1x-Garry Lee Maier, 13. 95-Matt Covington, 14. 94-Danny Wood, 15. 51-Mike Peters, 16. 36-Jason Martin, 17. 71-Channin Tankersley, 18. 5h-Justyn Cox, 19. 19-Patrick Stasa, 20. 74x-Joshua Hodges, 21. 44w-Austen Wheatley, 22. 93-Dustin Morgan, 23. 29-Travis Rilat, 24. 50z-Zach Chappell.
Lap Leaders: Brady Bacon 1-30.
Note: Zach Chappell and Travis Rilat both utilized provisionals to start the “A” Main. It was Chappell’s first of the year and Rilat’s second.
Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Cars presented by K&N Filters Points (Top 20): 1. Brady Bacon 642, 2. Shane Stewart 611, 3. Jason Johnson 604, 4. Tony Bruce, Jr. 584, 5. Tim Crawley 578, 6. Jack Dover 558, 7. Kyle Hirst 544, 8. Matt Covington 527, 9. Danny Wood 526, 10. Gary Wright 504, 11. Johnny Herrera 501, 12. Ricky Logan 482, 13. Zach Chappell 479, 14. Travis Rilat 449, 15. Darren Long 446, 16. Sean McClelland 406, 17. (tie) Dustin Morgan and Channin Tankersley 405, 19. Austen Wheatley 392, 20. Justyn Cox 391.
ASCS Rocky Mountain Region Points (Top Ten): 1. Johnny Herrera 300, 2. Mike Peters 272, 3. C.J. Johnson 264, 4. Joshua Hodges 250, 5. Luke Cranston 248, 6. Patrick Stasa 246, 7. (tie) Kirby Hagans and Jason Martin 235, 9. Michael Woodruff 226, 10. Jerry Graves, Jr. 220.
Submitted By: Lonnie Wheatley
