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Bacon Sizzles in Sprint Bandits TNT Round Three at OKC! |
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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. |
