From Bryan Hulbert
Jetmore, KS — (May 26, 2012) — Jason Martin picked up a very indy night one of the 4th annual Steve King Memorial with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by MAVTV. Martin, who started outside the front row, wired the field in rout to his second career victory with the Lucas Oil ASCS presented by MAVTV; his first coming June 25, 2005 at Cowtown Speedway.
Greeted by his friends and family on the front straight-a-way, a very emotion Martin was, as he described; ecstatic. “I didn’t know who was behind me. I seen somebody stick their nose underneath me there towards the end but I didn’t know who it was. I didn’t care. I was driving the piss out of that car” commented Martin. “I’m just ecstatic. We have a lot of success here, a lot of wins, but at this level to win with these guys; they are the best in the nation.”
Starting side by side with the Fatheadz Eyewear 99 of Brady Bacon, Martin was able to win the drag race into the first two turns of the A-Feature; utilizing the highline before diamonding the car to the lower part of the track.
Pulling to a comfortable lead before the red on lap five for the 18 of Tony Bruce Jr. the battle on the track was between Brady Bacon and tenth starting Jeff Swindell. Getting the run on the restart, Swindell would pilot the Randy Washburn Motorsports 0 into the runner up spot on lap six; leaving Bacon to contend with Brad Loyet.
Working into slower traffic, the top four spots would regroup with Martin, Swindell, Bacon, and Loyet all trading lines at either end of the Great American Speedway until the caution flew for the 9 of Gary Wright who slowed to a stop just off the back straight on lap nine.
Utilizing a slower car in the line-up, Martin would pull away before slower traffic brought the field barreling down on the J.E. Chassis 36. Pulling even in lapped traffic, Swindell would get close on the bottom groove but would find Martin firing back into the lead on the high line. Moving into a four car battle again with Martin holding off Swindell and Bacon while a hard charging Brad Loyet shot into second with the lead within reach only to see the caution pull the field to an idle before the lap could be counted.
Moving to the last completed lap, the pace quickened with only five laps to run as Brady Bacon went to work on Swindell; clearing the veteran driver with two laps to go. Pulling to the bottom, Bacon was even with Martin as the two drag raced off of turn two on the final lap but it was Liberal, Kansas native Jason Martin at the checkered flag.
Brady Bacon would hold onto the runner up spot with Jeff Swindell
third and Brad Loyet fourth. Jason Johnson would move up from seventh to finish fifth with Johnny Herrera taking his 45x from twelfth to sixth. The undeniable hard charger of the night Kevin Swindell, who raced into the nights feature via the B-Main, piloted the Curb Records 1x from eighteenth to finish seventh. Wayne Johnson posted his eleventh straight top ten finish in eighth with C.J. Johnson and Luke Cranston rounding out the top ten.
The 4th annual Steve King Memorial at the Great American Dirt Track in Jetmore, Kansas continues Sunday May 27, 2012 with race time set for 7:30pm (CDT).
Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by MAVTV
Great American Dirt Track – Jetmore, Kansas
4th annual Steve King Memorial – Night #1
May 26, 2012
Night #1 car count: 31
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 36-Jason Martin[3]; 2. 5h-Logan Forler[5]; 3.
51-Mike Peters[6]; 4. 0x-Steven Richardson[8]; 5. 05x-Justin Wolf-Medlock[1]; 6. 4x-Shawn Petersen[7]; DNF 99x-Cody Forshee[2]; DNS
1-Ty Williams
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 05-Brad Loyet[2]; 2. 9-Gary Wright[4]; 3.
77x-Wayne Johnson[6]; 4. 81-Danny Wood[8]; 5. 81x-Jon Freeman[3]; 6. 23-Seth Bergman[5]; 7. 91x-Jeff Stasa[1]; 8. 17w-Cole Wood[7]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. e85-Luke Cranston[1]; 2. 0-Jeff Swindell[2]; 3. 45x-Johnny Herrera[4]; 4. 87-Aaron Reutzel[3]; 5. 2-Dustin Morgan[6]; 6. 1x-Kevin Swindell[7]; 7. 74x-Joshua Hodges[5]; 8. 48-Jake Martens[8]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 99-Brady Bacon[6]; 2. 41-Jason Johnson[7]; 3.
45-C.J. Johnson[3]; 4. 18-Tony Bruce Jr[5]; 5. 72-Raymond Seemann[2]; 6. 98-J.D. Johnson[4]; DNF 91-Taylor Milton[1]
B Feature (15 Laps): 1. 2-Dustin Morgan[1]; 2. 1x-Kevin Swindell[3]; 3. 81x-Jon Freeman[4]; 4. 23-Seth Bergman[7]; 5. 74x-Joshua Hodges[9]; 6. 48-Jake Martens[10]; 7. 98-J.D. Johnson[8]; 8. 72-Raymond Seemann[5]; 9. 4x-Shawn Petersen[2]; 10. 99x-Cody Forshee[11]; 11. 91x-Jeff Stasa[13]; DNF 91-Taylor Milton[14]; DNF 05x-Justin Wolf-Medlock[6]; DNF 17w-Cole Wood[12]; DNS 1-Ty Williams
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 36-Jason Martin[2]; 2. 99-Brady Bacon[1]; 3. 0-Jeff Swindell[10]; 4. 05-Brad Loyet[4]; 5. 41-Jason Johnson[7]; 6. 45x-Johnny Herrera[12]; 7. 1x-Kevin Swindell[18]; 8. 77x-Wayne Johnson[8]; 9. 45-C.J. Johnson[14]; 10. e85-Luke Cranston[3]; 11. 81-Danny Wood[9]; 12. 5h-Logan Forler[6]; 13. 0x-Steven Richardson[13]; 14. 81x-Jon Freeman[19]; 15. 18-Tony Bruce Jr[15]; 16. 2-Dustin Morgan[17]; 17. 74x-Joshua Hodges[21]; 18. 23-Seth Bergman[20]; DNF 51-Mike Peters[11]; DNF 48-Jake Martens[22]; DNF 9-Gary Wright[5]; DNF 87-Aaron Reutzel[16]
Lap Leaders: Jason Martin (1-25)