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Hockett
a Sprint Bandits TNT Rocket at Wichita by Lonnie Wheatley |
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WICHITA,
Kan. (August 16, 2006) – Warsaw, Missouri's Jesse Hockett outdueled
Indiana's Dickie Gaines to capture victory honors in Wednesday night's 30-lap
O'Reilly Sprint Bandits COMP Cams Tour 'N Topless Midwest Swing main event at 81
Speedway. Hockett and Gaines exchanged
shifts in the lead on a pair of occasions, with Hockett taking command for keeps
on the 24th lap and then leading the lap that counted as he took the
checkered flag to post a $4,000 payday aboard the Wesmar-powered VKCC
Motorsports No. 75 DRC-chassis. "I wasn't too concerned
when Dickie got back by me, he was getting looser and looser as the race went
on," Hockett explained afterward. "I
knew I could get him back if I could just get a good run off of turn two." Which is exactly what Hockett
did by making a run off turn two on the 24th circuit then sliding in
front of Gaines entering turn three for the lead en route to his first Sprint
Bandits TNT feature win in a lucrative tune-up for Thursday's go at Lucas Oil
Speedway in Wheatland, MO, and then Lakeside Speedway's $10,000 wingless classic
in Kansas City, an event he won in both 2003 and 2004. After the initial attempt to
start the feature was waved off for a turn two skirmish that eliminated Mike
Martin with front end damage and sent seventh-starter Bud Kaeding to the tail of
the field, polesitter Gaines outgunned Mat Neely for the early lead with third
and fourth starters Jon Stanbrough and Hockett charging past Neely for second
and third on the opening round. With Gaines working the low
groove, Hockett rode the cushion around Stanbrough for the runner-up slot on the
second round and was beginning to mount a bid for the lead when the caution flew
after four laps for Allan Unruh, who spun in turn one.
At the same time, Shane Hollingsworth got tangled up with another car and
came to a stop against the retaining barriers beyond turns three and four.
Unruh and Hollingsworth rejoined the chase at the tail. Back under way, Gaines led just
one more lap before Hockett charged by on the backstretch to take command on the
sixth lap. Gaines immediately moved
to the top side and chased the leader as lapped traffic came into play on the
eleventh circuit. Gaines moved in
to challenge on lap 13 and then took the lead a lap later using the low side of
turn two. Back to the top, Gaines led
Hockett through a gaggle of lapped traffic over the following circuits.
The pair finally broke free of lapped traffic on the 20th
round, with Gaines holding a ten car-length edge over Hockett. Hockett needed just a pair of
laps to close the gap on Gaines and looked to the low side of turn three on the
23rd lap, only to have Gaines repel the challenge.
Hockett made the move stick a lap later though with a strong run off turn
two and a big slide through turn three to take command. Hockett survived a pair of
minor cautions over the final five rounds to post a four car-length victory over
Gaines. Behind the dueling lead
pair, an intense four-car battle for the show position waged throughout the race
including Stanbrough, Neely, Cory Kruseman and Levi Jones, with a resurgent
Kaeding joining the mix over the final handful of laps. Stanbrough earned the show
position, with defending TNT champion Jones taking fourth after starting 14th.
Kruseman rounded out the top five, with Neely and Kaeding sixth and
seventh, respectively. Charles
Davis, Jr., crossed the stripe eighth, with Robert Ballou and Hollingsworth
completing the top ten. Hockett, Lee Stark and Neely
kicked off the night with heat race wins. Stanbrough
made a last-lap pass of Hollingsworth to win the first qualifying race, with
Gaines advancing from fifth to first on the opening round of the second
qualifying race. Kaeding nipped
Daron Clayton at the line to win the third qualifying race. Bret Mellenberndt climbed a
wheel and flipped over the turn two embankment in the second qualifying race.
Despite his crew's best efforts to repair the machine, Mellenberndt
returned pitside on the feature's final pace lap. O’Reilly
Sprint Bandits COMP Cams Tour ‘N Topless 81 Speedway Results: Heat Races: First
Heat (8 Laps): 1. 75-Jesse Hockett,
2. 21x-Dickie Gaines, 3. 10-Shane Hollingsworth, 4. 97-Bret Mellenberndt, 5.
0c-Leighton Crouch, 6. 55-Tony Everhart, 7. 83s-Larry Neighbors, 8. 70-A.J.
Martin. Second
Heat (8 Laps): 1. 16-Lee Stark, 2.
21s-Charles Davis, Jr., 3. 14-Jon Stanbrough, 4. 29-Bud Kaeding, 5. 11p-Preston
Peebles II, 6. 57-Mike Martin, 7. 30-Rick England, 8. 57x-Allan Unruh. Third
Heat (8 Laps): 1. 2b-Mat Neely, 2.
15-R.J. Johnson, 3. 12-Robert Ballou, 4. 38-Cory Kruseman, 5. 10r-David Wheeler,
6. 92-Daron Clayton, 7. 11d-Levi Jones, 8. 15k-Kerry McAlister. Qualifying Races – Combined Passing Points from Heats & Qualifiers Determine “A” Feature Lineup First
Qualifier (8 Laps): 1. 14-Jon
Stanbrough, 2. 10-Shane Hollingsworth, 3. 2b-Mat Neely, 4. 21s-Charles Davis,
Jr., 5. 11p-Preston Peebles II, 6. 10r-David Wheeler, 7. 70-A.J. Martin, 8.
83s-Larry Neighbors. Second
Qualifier (8 Laps): 1. 21x-Dickie
Gaines, 2. 15-R.J. Johnson, 3. 75-Jesse Hockett, 4. 55-Tony Everhart, 5. 30-Rick
England, 6. 0c-Leighton Crouch, 7. 57x-Allan Unruh, 8. 97-Bret Mellenberndt. Third Qualifier (8 Laps): 1. 29-Bud Kaeding, 2. 92-Daron Clayton, 3. 38-Cory Kruseman, 4. 11d-Levi Jones, 5. 57-Mike Martin, 6. 12-Robert Ballou, 7. 16-Lee Stark, 8. 15k-Kerry McAlister. O'Reilly Sprint Bandits COMP Cams TNT 81 Speedway “A” Main “A”
Main (30 Laps): 1. 75-Jesse Hockett,
2. 21x-Dickie Gaines, 3. 14-Jon Stanbrough, 4. 11d-Levi Jones, 5. 38-Cory
Kruseman, 6. 2b-Mat Neely, 7. 29-Bud Kaeding, 8. 21s-Charles Davis, Jr., 9.
12-Robert Ballou, 10. 10-Shane Hollingsworth, 11. 11p-Preston Peebles, 12.
92-Daron Clayton, 13. 15-R.J. Johnson, 14. 55-Tony Everhart, 15. 10r-David
Wheeler, 16. 70-A.J. Martin, 17. 30-Rick England, 18. 16-Lee Stark, 19.
57x-Allan Unruh, 20. 0c-Leighton Crouch, 21. 15k-Kerry McAlister, 22. 83s-Larry
Neighbors, 23. 57-Mike Martin, 24. 97-Bret Mellenberndt. Lap
Leaders: Dickie Gaines 1-5, Jesse
Hockett 6-13, Dickie Gaines 14-23, Jesse Hockett 24-30. O'Reilly
Sprint Bandits COMP Cams TNT Midwest Swing Points (Top Fifteen):
1. Jon Stanbrough 288, 2. Levi Jones 284, 3. (tie) Robert Ballou, Bud
Kaeding, Dickie Gaines and Jesse Hockett 282, 7. Mat Neely 276, 8. Shane
Hollingsworth 270, 9. Cory Kruseman 268, 10. Charles Davis, Jr. 264, 11. Preston
Peebles II 262, 12. R.J. Johnson 248, 13. Lee Stark 236, 14. A.J. Martin 230,
15. Larry Neighbors 226. 2006
O'Reilly Sprint Bandits TNT Points (Top Ten):
1. Cory Kruseman 840, 2. Jon Stanbrough 826, 3. Bud Kaeding 800, 4.
Dickie Gaines 751, 5. Mat Neely 693, 6. Charles Davis, Jr. 691, 7. Daron Clayton
652, 8. Bryan Clauson 536, 9. Shane Cottle 518, 10. Darren Hagen 506.
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