ABBOTTSTOWN, PA , 6/2/2010 – On an historic night in the Pigeon Hills, Levi Jones kept his perfect USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car Series “Eastern Storm” record intact in the club’s first-ever sprint car race at Lincoln Speedway.
Like the night before at Grandview Speedway, Jones set fast time and picked up the victory in the 40-lap, $6,000-to-win feature event.
And while the USAC sprint teams finished one, two, and three, they left Lincoln impressed with both the race track itself and a few of its racers.
York’s Johnny Mackison, Jr. came from 15th starting spot to cross fourth, and two-time defending track champ Brian Montieth, in a wingless sprint car for the first time ever, finished fifth. Both drivers bested some of the biggest stars of USAC.
“It’s just a pleasure to be here in victory lane again in Pennsylvania,” said Jones upon exiting the Tony Stewart #20 sprinter, “I might just move here!”
“We’ve kinda hit our stride,” continued Jones, “We’ve figured out our shock package with the Penske stuff, and our Kistler motors are running great. The guys don’t ever let anything fall off this 20 car, so it’s a pleasure to drive it.”
Bryan Clauson started on the front row and led the first three laps before fourth-starting and USAC points leader Damion Gardner took the lead on lap four. Gardner paced the field for the next seven laps before Clauson reclaimed the lead with a high-side move in turns three and four of lap 12.
Four laps later, Jones grabbed the runner-up spot from Gardner, the lost it again on the next lap.
Meanwhile, Clauson opened up a 1.79-second lead at the halfway mark, just before entering lapped traffic with Gardner, Jones, and polesitter Dave Darland trailing.
When the leaders hit lapped traffic on lap 24, Gardner closed the gap on Clauson.
A caution flag for a spinning Brent Marks in turns three and four bunched the field on lap 27.
On the restart, Jones grabbed second again from Gardner, with local racer Montieth momentarily taking third from the #71 on lap 30. A lap later, a charging Chris Windom, came back to grab third from Montieth.
Up front, Jones closed and made the race-winning pass on lap 31. As he drove to the checkers, another local driver, Johnny Mackison, Jr. was storming through the field from his 15th starting spot to take fourth from Montieth on lap 35.
Jones took the checkered .47-seconds ahead of Windom, who got around Clauson for the runner-up spot with seven laps to go. Clauson settled for third, with Mackison and Montieth completing the top five.
“Actually, my car was working pretty good,” said Mackison of his #65 wingless sprinter, “Vince at VRP shocks…we’ve been on the phone with him all night long getting us dialed in…because we don’t have a clue what we’re doing right now. I run these things about once every eight or ten years. Last time here (2002), we were running pretty good (fourth) and tipped over, and I just wanted to finish the race tonight. I was pretty concerned about even making the show earlier tonight.”
“This is the first time I’ve stepped in one of these,” said Montieth of his fifth place run, “Honestly, I’ve never even seen these guys run. My crew was telling me to be sure and lift ‘way before the turns to pitch it into the turns. Last night, I was pretty nervous, and we were on You-Tube watching you guys out in Indiana and trying to get some clue of what was going on. I had a blast! It was definitely fun!”
Sixth through tenth were Gardner, Darland, Jerry Coons, Jr., Henry Clarke, and Ricky Williams.
Heats for the USAC Sprints were won by Casey Shuman, Coons, and Clauson, with Mark Bitner winning the consolation.
Fast time in time trials over the 26-car USAC field was set by Levin Jones, with a new one-lap track record time of 15.951-seconds (84.634 MPH).
Eric Heydenreich was the story for the ARDC midgets. Heydenreich qualified in the consolation event and came from 19th starting spot to claim the 25-lap ARDC feature event. And he did it in just 12 laps, passing four cars, including outside front row starter and race-long leader Nick Wean on a 12th-lap restart. The race went non-stop the rest of the way, with 15th-starting Steve Buckwalter crossing second, Bruce Buckwalter, Jr. finishing third, Wean settling for fourth, and Dusty Heistand completing the top five.
Heats for the 34 ARDC were won by Alex Bright, Bruce Buckwalter Jr., and Wean, with Eric Heydenreich winning the consolation.
Lincoln Speedway swings back into action this Saturday night, June 5th for the Annual $4,000-to-win Weldon Sterner Memorial for the 410 Sprinters at 7 PM. The 358 Sprints and Thundercars will round out the evening’s racing action. Gates will open at 5 PM.
To get all the latest news, results, schedule changes and rule changes, visit Lincoln Speedway’s website at http://www.lincolnspeedway.com to stay up-to-date on all the action or pending weather conditions at Central Pennsylvania’s “Premier” Saturday night race track – The Fabulous Lincoln Speedway.
AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT RACE RESULTS: June 1, 2010 – New Oxford, Pennsylvania – Lincoln Speedway – “Eastern Storm”
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Levi Jones, 20, Stewart-15.951; 2. Ricky Williams, 11w, Williams-16.085; 3. Damion Gardner, 71, DG-16.123; 4. Chris Windom, 11, Walker-16.139; 5. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-16.194; 6. Bryan Clauson, 2B, RWB-16.336; 7. Dave Darland, 39, Goodnight-16.431; 8. Brian Monteith, 21, Parish-16.513; 9. Kyle Moody, 99m, Moody-16.585; 10. Mark Bitner, 15, Bitner-16.623; 11. Jerry Coons Jr., 69, Dynamics-16.661; 12. Henry Clarke, 67, Kunz-16.671; 13. Casey Shuman, 10x, Barnhill-16.695; 14. Shane Hmiel, 17s, 56 Inc.-16.953; 15. Johnny Mackison, 65, Mackison-16.983; 16. Chase Stockon, 32, Stockon-17.085; 17. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-17.123; 18. Brent Marks, 19m, Marks-17.382; 19. Bob Howard, 49, Howard-17.469; 20. J.C. Bland, 98, Bland-17.561; 21. J.R. Berry, 74, Berry-17.641; 22. Steve Petry, 8, Petry-18.067; 23. Landon Simon, 24, Simon-18.301; 24. Todd Zinn, 23, Zinn-18.317; 25. Bill Rose, 6, Rose-NT; 26. Eli Deshaies, 91, Deshaies-NT.
FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Shuman, 2. Jones, 3. Windom, 4. Darland, 5. Stockon, 6. Bitner, 7. Howard, 8. Petry. NT
SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Coons, 2. Williams, 3. Montieth, 4. Hmiel, 5. Robbins, 6. Hines, 7. Bland, 8. Simon. NT
THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Clauson, 2. Gardner, 3. Marks, 4. Clarke, 5. Mackison, 6. Moody, 7. Berry, 8. Zinn. 2:24.85
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Bitner, 2. Hines, 3. Bland, 4. Howard, 5. Moody, 6. Berry, 7. Simon, 8. Petry, 9. Zinn. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. L. vi Jones, 2. Chris Windom, 3. Bryan Clauson, 4. Johnny Mackison, 5. Brian Monteith, 6. Damion Gardner, 7. Dave Darland, 8. Jerry Coons Jr., 9. Henry Clarke, 10. Ricky Williams, 11. Mark Bitner, 12. Tracy Hines, 13. Kyle Moody, 14. J.C. Bland, 15. Kyle Robbins, 16. Brent Marks, 17. Chase Stockon, 18. Casey Shuman, 19. J.R. Berry, 20. Shane Hmiel, 21. Bob Howard, 22. Landon Simon. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-3 Clauson, Laps 4-11 Gardner, Laps 12-30 Clauson, Laps 31-40 Jones.
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Gardner-735; 2-Jones-731; 3-Clauson-671; 4-Coons-662; 5-Hines-631; 6-Windom-596; 7-Clarke-521; 8-Robert Ballou-470; 9-Darland-470; 10-Hmiel-345.
NEW RACER’S CHALLENGE (Presented by RW & Our Partners) SPRINT POINTS: 1-Jones-145; 2-Clauson-129; 3-Windom-127; 4-Gardner-122; 5-Darland-106; 6-Hines-90; 7-Williams-89; 8-Clarke-87; 9-Mackison-80; 10-Coons-73.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: June 3 – New Egypt (NJ) Speedway
ARDC MIDGETS
Feature (25 Laps) – 1. 11-Eric Heydenreich; 2. 0-Steve Buckwalter; 3. 83-Bruce Buckwalter, Jr.; 4. 78-Nick Wean; 5. 6-Dusty Heistand; 6. 19-Steven Drevicki; 7. 12-Drew Heistand; 8. 44-Frank Polimeda; 9. 54-Billy Pauch, Jr.; 10. 75-Ryan Watt; 11. 9-Steve Lenig; 12. 49-Trevor Kobylarz; 13. 84-Jimmy Cammock, Jr.; 14. 51-P.J. Gargiulo; 15. 77-Alex Bright; 16. 34-Ryan Smith; 17. 55-Steve Craig; 18. 26-Stephanie Stevens; 19. 16-Dave Shirk; 20. 57-Jason Rice; 21. 89-Andrew Hannula (DNF); 22. 1-Mike Miller (DNF); 23. 52-Tim Buckwalter (DNF); 24. 20-Carey Becker (DNF); 25. 91-Donnie Trent (DNF); 26. 46-Brett Arndt. No Time
Lap Leaders – Nick Wean (1-11); Eric Heydenreich (12-25)