Bauer Wins Little Guy Nationals Feature at Mercer

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From Mercer Raceway Park

Mercer, PA — (September 27, 2014) — Michael Bauer was the beneficiary of an on track incident that led to a controversial ruling that had track champion Jimmy Morris penalized for turning the leader, C.J. Jones, with just a pair of laps left in the race for the Bonnell’s Rod Shop Outlaw Sprint Warriors on night two of the 15th Annual Little Guy Nationals at Mercer Raceway Park.

In the Bonnell’s Rod Shop Outlaw Sprint Warriors, C.J. Jones was looking to double up on his heat race win. He jumped out front form the pole position, but Jimmy Morris was always within striking distance. As Jones was approaching slower traffic with just a few laps left in the contest, Morris made contact with Jones as they entered turn three. Jones went around and came to a rest by a utility pole between the third and fourth turns.

The officials made the call to penalize Morris for the contact, and a protest ensued. Morris was slow to accept his fate, and stopped on the frontstretch to debate the point. After being pushed off again, he struck the cone used for the Sprint Car restarts. He then took a few more rounds at the front of the pack, before eventually heading to the pits.

Bauer completed the final laps without incident, getting his first win since occupying the seat in the Lockhart Motorsports 58. Greg Dobrosky was second, after running well inside the top five all night. Joe McEwen crossed ahead of Mike Marano, II, and Cody Bova. Devin Litwiler, Tyler Denochik, Clay Riney, Dan Bennett, and Walt Tutak rounded out the top ten.

The preliminaries belonged to Jones, Mike Miller, and Ralph Engel, Jr.