From Larry Boos
ROSSBURG, OH (May 12) – Robert Ballou may wish that USAC (United States Auto Club) would race their Sprint Car division more often at Eldora Speedway. After Wednesday night’s thrilling win, he now has three career USAC wins, with all of them coming on Eldora’s massive one-half mile clay oval. In a night when most folks thought would fall to Mother Nature, two-time NASCAR Cup champion Tony Stewart jumped behind the wheel of a UMP (United Midwestern Promoters) Modified and drove to the win.
Wednesday’s chase was a make-up of the postponed Coca Cola Spring Classic event from April, and again weather played havoc, with showers falling until 2:30 in the afternoon, and then a steady mist remained in the air all night – yet the track officials confirmed with USAC that the show was a go.
With the wet conditions, the track was in top notch shape and played into the hands of the USAC gentry.
Ballou jumped right into the lead of the 30-lap chase that appeared to be headed to a non-stop affair. The steady green pace was interrupted on lap 25 when Matt Goodnight flipped in turn two.
Prior to that, Chris Windom was running the best race of his Eldora career, as he held off defending champion Levi Jones for several circuits to hold down runner-up honors. That ended on lap five when Jones shot past him and charged towards Ballou. Within no time, Jones had reeled in Ballou, but as they duo moved into lapped traffic, Ballou seemed to have the edge.
At the same time, moving through the field was Bryan Clauson. Clauson was able to use the lapped traffic to get by Jones on lap 22 and instantly set his sights on Ballou. After the Goodnight flip and resulting red flag, the restart found Clauson on Ballou’s tail, with Jones in third.
When the race resumed, Ballou continued his rapid pace, but Clauson was right there and with the white flag in the air to show one final lap around Eldora, Clauson was able to move into contention and set up a pass in turn three. Instead of a traditional Eldora slide, he rode outside of
Ballou and just as it appeared he could get the job done, he simply ran out of race track and collided with the outside concrete wall and flipped.
That left a one lap chase to the finish and one more obstacle for Ballou. That obstacle was Jones, who nearly pulled off a last lap pass, but had to settle for second at the finish. Completing the top five were Windom, Damion Gardner and Hunter Schuerenberg.
When the modifieds rolled off for their finale, Canadian Tim Richardson was the man of the hour with his instant run up front. Several restarts were needed before the pace was set, but Richardson was up to the task. He was holding off Doug Adkins for the top spot as Stewart, who started eighth, was moving his way through the field. By the third lap he was up to third and following a five lap battle with Adkins, he was able to moved into second and set his sights on Richardson.
Getting into lapped traffic was just what Stewart wanted to see, and he took advantage of that by sweeping past Richardson on lap 13. From there, he rode to the finish untouched for his first Modified feature win at Eldora. Richardson hung on for second, with Ryan Cripe finished third, followed by Mike Roediger and John Henry.
–30—
COCA-COLA SPRING CLASSIC
MAY 12, 2010
USAC National Sprints – 25 cars
Quick Qualifier: Bryan Clauson – 16.246
Heat 1:
1. Matt Westfall[2]; 2. Hunter Schuerenberg[4]; 3. Robert Ballou[6]; 4. Bryan Clauson[8]; 5. Jerry Coons Jr.[7]; 6. Scotty Weir[5]; 7. Matt Goodnight[3]; 8. Jace Stockton[9]; 9. Kevin Studley[1];
Heat 2:
1. Henry Clarke[2]; 2. Bud Kaeding[4]; 3. Tracy Hines[7]; 4. Shane Hmiel[5]; 5. Casey Shuman[3]; 6. Casey Roberts[8]; 7. Dallas Hewitt[1]; 8. Ricky Williams[6];
Heat 3:
1. Bill Rose[3]; 2. Dave Darland[4]; 3. Levi Jones[8]; 4. Chris Windom[6]; 5. Steve Ott[2]; 6. Jon Stanbrough[5]; 7. Damion Gardner[7]; 8. Brandon Ferguson[1];
B Main :
1. Casey Riggs[1]; 2. Damion Gardner[2]; 3. Ricky Williams[3]; 4. Jon Stanbrough[5]; 5. Scotty Weir[4]; 6. Chase Stockon[10]; 7. Matt Goodnight[6]; 8. Dallas Hewitt[8]; 9. Brandon Ferguson[9]; 10. Kevin Studley[7];
A Main :
1. Robert Ballou[2]; 2. Levi Jones[5]; 3. Chris Windom[1]; 4. Damion Gardner[8]; 5. Hunter Schuerenberg[13]; 6. Tracy Hines[3]; 7. Casey Riggs[7]; 8. Jon Stanbrough[12]; 9. Shane Hmiel[11]; 10. Dave Darland[15]; 11. Scotty Weir[10]; 12. Ricky Williams[9]; 13. Bryan Clauson[6]; 14. Matt Westfall[19]; 15. Bill Rose[18]; 16. Chase Stockon[22]; 17. Bud Kaeding[14]; 18. Henry Clarke[20]; 19. Matt Goodnight[16]; 20. Steve Ott[21]; 21. Casey Shuman[17]; 22. Brandon Ferguson[24]; 23. Jerry Coons Jr.[4]; 24. Dallas Hewitt[23];
Open Wheel Modifieds – 40 cars
Heat 1:
1. Ryan Sutter[2]; 2. Ryan Cripe[1]; 3. Brent Hole[7]; 4. Rob Williams[5]; 5. Cory Seeling[8]; 6. Warren Shingleton[3]; 7. Shawn Bayliff[10]; 8. Brian Post[7]; 9. Justin Coulter[4]; 10. Scott Knepley[9];
Heat 2:
1. Jesse Bitterling[2]; 2. Tim Richardson[4]; 3. Kent Robinson[6]; 4. Jon Henry[9]; 5. Jeff Babcock[10]; 6. Josh Morton[1]; 7. Zeke McKenzie[3]; 8. Ed Shaner[8]; 9. Bill Lewis[7]; 10. Josh Greber[5];
Heat 3:
1. Mike Roediger[1]; 2. Greg Johnson[4]; 3. Nick Katterhenry[6]; 4. Shaun Smith[5]; 5. Mike Dirksen[2]; 6. Todd Brenn[9]; 7. Scott Williams[7]; 8. Anthony Davis[3]; 9. Scott Bowersock[8]; 10. David Treon Jr.[10];
Heat 4:
1. Doug Adkins[2]; 2. Tony Stewart[8]; 3. Dustin Webber[1]; 4. Scott Orr[3]; 5. Tony Anderson[4]; 6. Bob Burch[9]; 7. Corey Bevard[5]; 8. Justin Matson[7]; 9. Mike Chrisman[10]; 10. Shane Unger[6];
B Main :
1. Jeff Babcock[2]; 2. Cory Seeling[1]; 3. Brian Post[7]; 4. Shawn Bayliff[5]; 5. Bill Lewis[10]; 6. Ed Shaner[8]; 7. Warren Shingleton[3]; 8. Zeke McKenzie[6]; 9. Josh Morton[4]; 10. Justin Coulter[9]; 11. Scott Knepley[11]; 12. Josh Greber[12];
B Main 2:
1. Justin Matson[8]; 2. Mike Dirksen[1]; 3. Corey Bevard[6]; 4. Tony Anderson[2]; 5. Anthony Davis[7]; 6. Mike Chrisman[10]; 7. Scott Williams[5]; 8. Shane Unger[12]; 9. Todd Brenn[3]; 10. Bob Burch[4]; 11. Scott Bowersock[9]; 12. David Treon Jr.[11];
A Main :
1. Tony Stewart[8]; 2. Tim Richardson[1]; 3. Ryan Cripe[2]; 4. Mike Roediger[4]; 5. Jon Henry[14]; 6. Greg Johnson[7]; 7. Kent Robinson[10]; 8. Shaun Smith[15]; 9. Justin Matson[18]; 10. Scott Orr[16]; 11. Shawn Bayliff[23]; 12. Rob Williams[13]; 13. Brian Post[21]; 14. Ryan Sutter[6]; 15. Corey Bevard[22]; 16. Mike Dirksen[20]; 17. Tony Anderson[24]; 18. Dustin Webber[12]; 19. Doug Adkins[3]; 20. Jesse Bitterling[5]; 21. Brent Hole[9]; 22. Nick Katterhenry[11]; 23. Jeff Babcock[17]; 24. Cory Seeling[19];