From Dick Jordan/Bob, Jan Dulap hoto
Robert Ballou started outside front row Wednesday night at Eldora Speedway and blasted off to a big lead early in the 30 lap USAC Sprint Car “Coca-Cola Spring Classic” – “Don Branson/Jud Larson Classic”.
But midway through the main event he had to begin working for the victory as Levi Jones made several challenges for the lead but Ballou held him off and eventually widened his advantage.
In the meantime 6th starting Bryan Clauson was charging towards the front and had Ballou in his sights. The red flag came out lap 25 for Brent Goodnight who was not injured. The restart saw Clauson on Ballou’s bumper with side by side action and swapping slide jobs. As the duo were in turn four coming down for the checkers, Ballou was inside with Clauson high near the wall. Ballou drifted high just slightly and Clauson collected the wall and rode it for a short distance until the front end stuck and he flipped. Clauson’s night ended but he was not hurt.
This set up a one lap shootout now with Levi Jones on Ballou’s tail and the pair ran side by side until exiting turn three with Ballou taking the win with Chris Windom, Damion Gardner and Hunter Schuerenberg rounding out the top five.
Tony Stewart won the UMP Modified feature.
AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT RACE RESULTS: May 12, 2010 – Rossburg, Ohio – Eldora Speedway – “Coca-Cola Spring Classic” – “Don Branson/Jud Larson Classic”
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Bryan Clauson, 2B, RWB-16.246; 2. Casey Riggs, 37, Indiana Underground-16.250; 3. Levi Jones, 20, Stewart-16.298; 4. Jerry Coons Jr., 69, Dynamics-16.422; 5. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-16.431; 6. Damion Gardner, 71, DG-16.495; 7. Robert Ballou, 81, MPHG-16.600; 8. Ricky Williams, 11w, Williams-16.632; 9. Chris Windom, 11, Walker-16.635; 10. Scotty Weir, 12B, RWB-16.639; 11. Shane Hmiel, 17s, 56 Inc.-16.646; 12. Jon Stanbrough, 53, Fox-16.652; 13. Hunter Schuerenberg, 1G, Gorby-16.726; 14. Bud Kaeding, 29, BK-16.771; 15. Dave Darland, 67k, Kunz-16.817; 16. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-17.008; 17. Casey Shuman, 10x, Barnhill-17.082; 18. Bill Rose, 8, Wood-17.125; 19. Matt Westfall, 54, Westfall-17.146; 20. Henry Clarke, 67, Kunz-17.305; 21. Steve Ott, 41, SST-17.329; 22. Kevin Studley, 57, Studley-17.369; 23. Dallas Hewitt, 2H, Hewitt-17.888; 24. Brandon Ferguson, 15, Ferguson-18.158; 25. Chase Stockon, 32, Stockon-NT.
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Westfall, 2. Schuerenberg, 3. Ballou, 4. Clauson, 5. Coons, 6. Weir, 7. Goodnight, 8. Stockon, 9. Studley. NT
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Clarke, 2. Kaeding, 3. Hines, 4. Hmiel, 5. Shuman, 6. Riggs, 7. Hewitt, 8. Williams. NT
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Rose, 2. Darland, 3. Jones, 4. Windom, 5. Ott, 6. Stanbrough, 7. Gardner, 8. Ferguson. 2:14.75
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Riggs, 2. Gardner, 3. Williams, 4. Stanbrough, 5. Weir, 6. Stockon, 7. Goodnight, 8. Hewitt, 9. Ferguson. 3:23.98
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Levi Jones, 3. Chris Windom, 4. Damion Gardner, 5. Hunter Schuerenberg, 6. Tracy Hines, 7. Casey Riggs, 8. Jon Stanbrough, 9. Shane Hmiel, 10. Dave Darland, 11. Scotty Weir, 12. Ricky Williams, 13. Bryan Clauson, 14. Matt Westfall, 15. Bill Rose, 16. Chase Stockon, 17. Bud Kaeding, 18. Henry Clarke, 19. Matt Goodnight, 20. Steve Ott, 21. Casey Shuman, 22. Brandon Ferguson, 23. Jerry Coons Jr., 24. Dallas Hewitt. NT
**Studley flipped during the first heat. Goodnight flipped during the feature. Clauson flipped on lap 30 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Ballou.
NEW AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR SERIES POINTS: 1-Gardner-514; 2-Jones-471; 3-Coons-467; 4-Ballou-442; 5-Hines-433; 6-Clauson-429; 7-Windom-420; 8-Clarke-384; 9-Darland-306; 10-Stanbrough-284.
NEXT AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: May 22 – Newton, Iowa – Iowa Speedway – Casey’s General Stores USAC Triple Crown Pride of Iowa