By Lonnie Wheatley
PEORIA, Ariz. (November 17, 2012) – Wayne Johnson and Bryan Clauson took the lion’s share of the 45th Annual FVP Western World Championships presented by Sands Chevrolet purse by topping Saturday’s championship feature events atop the 1/3-mile Canyon Speedway Park clay oval.
Johnson used tire management to his advantage to take a late $10,000 win in the winged Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour portion of the event after Jason Johnson and Brady Bacon both used up right rear tires in the closing laps, while Clauson took command early and was flawless the rest of the way to take the $5,000 ASCS Canyon Region non-wing Sprint Car portion.
Thursday night preliminary feature winner Brady Bacon led the 30-lap winged feature to the green flag and outgunned Jason Johnson for the point at the outset. Bacon led J. Johnson and Brian Brown over the early rounds before fifth-starter W. Johnson moved past Brown into third by the tenth round.
Racing through traffic since the seventh round, Bacon held off J. Johnson until a turn three bobble on the 23rd round opened the door for the newly-crowned three-time National champion. Moments later, the caution flew for the first time as Logan Forler came to a stop in turn four with a flat right rear tire.
Johnson led the way on the restart only to have his right rear go down two laps later, handing the lead back to Bacon with W. Johnson nipping at his heels with just four laps remaining. Bacon suffered a similar fate on the restart, with W. Johnson assuming the point and then holding on the rest of the way to take the win.
“I knew tire management was going to be a big deal, we went a little harder on the left rear and that made big difference,” W. Johnson explained. “This is one of the bigger paying races, so it’s good to get it.”
W. Johnson crossed the stripe ahead of Brown, with Tony Bruce, Jr., Kyle Hirst and 12th-starter Johnny Herrera rounding out the top five. Christopher Bell was sixth, with 16th-starter Danny Lasoski, Jeff Swindell, Jayme Barnes and 20th-starter Gary Wright completing the top ten.
In non-wing ASCS Canyon Region action, Bryan Clauson blasted past Casey Shuman for the lead on the fourth round en route to the $5,000 score after escaping an unusual pre-race incident that eliminated scheduled third-starter Brady Bacon from action after flipping as a result from contact with the frontstretch wall while briefly running in the track.
With Bacon sideline, pole starter Casey Shuman beat fellow front row starter Clauson to the top of the opening pair of corners and led early on. But, when Clauson showed Shuman his nose on the low side of turns one and two on the third lap, Shuman ducked low the next time around only to leave the door open for Clauson to motor by on the high side.
After R.J. Johnson slid to a stop off the top of turn four after six laps, Clauson went to work on the field and raced the traffic over the final half of the 30-lapper before ultimately taking the checkered flag with nearly a straightaway advantage over Shuman.
“We went to the top and railed it and that was the place to be,” Clauson explained after the triumph aboard Mike Martin’s No. 16b. “It’s cool to win the Western World, it’s one of those races everyone wants to win.”
Clauson took the checkered flag ahead of Shuman, with Tracy Hines, Charles Davis, Jr., and Josh Pelkey rounding out the top five. The balance of the top ten included Mike Martin, Dave Darland, Jerry Coons, Jr., Mike Spencer and Michael Bonneau.
45th Annual FVP Western World Championships presented by Sands Chevrolet Saturday Results:
Winged Portion (Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour)
A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 77X-Wayne Johnson[5]; 2. 21-Brian Brown[4]; 3. 18-Tony Bruce Jr[6]; 4. 5H-Kyle Hirst[3]; 5. 45X-Johnny Herrera[12]; 6. 17B-Christopher Bell[8]; 7. 1M-Danny Lasoski[16]; 8. 94-Jeff Swindell[10]; 9. 17J-Jayme Barnes[15]; 10. 9-Gary Wright[20]; 11. 89-Rico Abreu[21]; 12. 99-Brady Bacon[1]; 13. 57X-Lucas Wolfe[22]; 14. 2L-Logan Forler[9]; 15. 82-Justin Henderson[17]; 16. 33V-Henry VanDam[11]; 17. 3-J.J. Hickle[19]; 18. 2-Dustin Morgan[23]; DNF 15C-Donny Schatz[13]; DNF 41-Jason Johnson[2]; DNF 23-Seth Bergman[14]; DNF 74X-Joshua Hodges[18]; 23. 05-Brad Loyet[7]
B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 82-Justin Henderson[2]; 2. 3-J.J. Hickle[4]; 3. 89-Rico Abreu[8]; 4. 17W-Cole Wood[3]; 5. 1X-Aaron Reutzel[1]; 6. 20Z-Rick Ziehl[5]; 7. 90-Lance Norick[6]; 8. 41W-Joshua Williams[9]; 9. 4X-Shawn Petersen[10]
B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 74X-Joshua Hodges[2]; 2. 9-Gary Wright[3]; 3. 57X-Lucas Wolfe[6]; 4. 39C-Travis Rilat[1]; 5. 53-Jack Dover[4]; 6. 11C-Matt Covington[10]; 7. 224-John Carney II[5]; 8. 15X-Bud Goodwin[9]; 9. 77-Dalten Gabbard[7]; 10. 22-Jesse Baker[8]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 53-Jack Dover[2]; 2. 20Z-Rick Ziehl[1]; 3. 74X-Joshua Hodges[4]; 4. 82-Justin Henderson[3]; 5. 11C-Matt Covington[5]; 6. 41W-Joshua Williams[6]; 7. 4X-Shawn Petersen[7]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 39C-Travis Rilat[3]; 2. 1X-Aaron Reutzel; 3. 9-Gary Wright[6]; 4. 17W-Cole Wood[7]; 5. 90-Lance Norick[4]; 6. 15X-Bud Goodwin[5]; DNF 2-Dustin Morgan[1]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 57X-Lucas Wolfe[2]; 2. 3-J.J. Hickle[3]; 3. 89-Rico Abreu[5]; 4. 224-John Carney II[4]; 5. 77-Dalten Gabbard[1]; 6. 22-Jesse Baker[6]
Non-Wing Portion (ASCS Canyon Region)
A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 16B-Bryan Clauson[2]; 2. 77X-Casey Shuman[1]; 3. 6H-Tracy Hines[4]; 4. 50-Charles Davis Jr[6]; 5. 12-Josh Pelkey[8]; 6. 16-Mike Martin[5]; 7. 8D-Dave Darland[11]; 8. 12C-Jerry Coons Jr[13]; 9. 7-Mike Spencer[7]; 10. 29-Michael Bonneau[9]; 11. 93X-Dustin Morgan[19]; 12. 41W-Rick Ziehl[12]; 13. 4JR-Shane Cottle[15]; 14. 19-Andrew Reinbold[17]; 15. 74X-Joshua Hodges[18]; 16. 2-Josh Shipley[20]; 17. 93-Justin Quinn[22]; DNF 32B-Brian Hosford[21]; DNF 51-R.J. Johnson[14]; DNF 97-Kyle Hirst[16]; DNS 99-Brady Bacon; 22. 21-Jon Stanbrough[10]
B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 4JR-Shane Cottle[5]; 2. 19-Andrew Reinbold[3]; 3. 93X-Dustin Morgan[2]; 4. 32B-Brian Hosford[8]; 5. 94-James Aragon[12]; 6. 53-Tom Lee[11]; 7. 78-Chris Bonneau[7]; 8. 2AZ-Shane Cockrum[9]; 9. 17K-Kyle Danielson[10]; DNF 8-Bob Ream Jr[1]; DNF 2R-Matt Rossi[4]; DNF 6-Ronnie Clark[6]
B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 97-Kyle Hirst[1]; 2. 74X-Joshua Hodges[3]; 3. 2-Josh Shipley[2]; 4. 93-Justin Quinn[5]; 5. 19R-Ronnie Smith[8]; 6. 5X-Jody Wirth[9]; 7. 20L-Matt Lundy[7]; 8. 6JT-Michael Curtis[12]; 9. 20-Shon Deskins[6]; 10. 48-Thomas Ogle[4]; 11. 77-Dalten Gabbard[10]; 12. 74-Colby Copeland[11]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 20-Shon Deskins[2]; 2. 20L-Matt Lundy; 3. 2AZ-Shane Cockrum[3]; 4. 48-Thomas Ogle[4]; 5. 74X-Joshua Hodges[6]; 6. 5X-Jody Wirth[5]; 7. 32B-Brian Hosford[8]; DNF 74-Colby Copeland[7]; DNF 6JT-Michael Curtis[1]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 97-Kyle Hirst[1]; 2. 3-Jake Simmons[2]; 3. 19-Andrew Reinbold[3]; 4. 93-Justin Quinn[8]; 5. 19R-Ronnie Smith[4]; 6. 6-Ronnie Clark[5]; 7. 78-Chris Bonneau[6]; 8. 77-Dalten Gabbard[7]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 2-Josh Shipley[2]; 2. 2R-Matt Rossi[4]; 3. 8-Bob Ream Jr[6]; 4. 4JR-Shane Cottle[5]; 5. 53-Tom Lee[1]; 6. 93X-Dustin Morgan[8]; 7. 17K-Kyle Danielson[3]; 8. 94-James Aragon[7]