By T.J. Buffenbarger
Indianapolis, IN – (June 9, 2012) – Brian Gerster completed a dominating performance in a clean sweep of Saturday’s Must See Racing X-Treme Sprint Car Series feature event at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis. Gerster set a new track record in qualifications, won his heat race, and the 25-lap feature event driving the Dick Meyers owned Hoffman chassis.
“Its pretty darn awesome (pulling off the clean sweep). I have to thank everyone that works on the car and the fans that came out to see us tonight,” said Gerster in victory lane. “It’s a lot of fun running at this first class facility, and a lot of fun to win races with this team. I have to thank Richard Meyers and the rest of the team for giving me such a great race car.”
At the start of the feature Aaron Pierce and JoJo Helberg raced side by side into turn one with Pierce taking the lead. Helberg challenged on the bottom in turns three and four, but could not make the pass and allowed Bobby Santos, III to close in on Helberg.
With two laps complete the first caution flag appeared for Sondi Eden slowing on the front stretch. Eden went pit side and was able to make repairs and rejoin the tail of the field.
During the restart Helberg dove under Pierce to take the lead in turn one. Santos also moved past Pierce in turn three to take the second spot, but Brian Olson spun in turn four to bring out the caution and negating both passes, putting Pierce back into the lead for the restart. Olson restarted at the tail of the field.
The restart was short lived as Travis Miniea got into the wall on the front straightaway, retiring him from the event.
After a red flag for a fuel stop Pierce continued to lead with Helberg on his back bumper. Behind them Gerster began his march to the lead.
On lap eight Gerster pulled a slide job on Santos in turn two to take third, on lap 10 he passed Helberg for second, and one lap later took over the lead from Pierce with a daring pass coming out of turn four.
Pierce and Helberg waged a fierce battle for second while keeping pace with Gerster through slower traffic, making contact on the back stretch on lap 12, but continued on. Just after that Jacob Wilson slows in turn two to bring out the caution flag. Wilson restarted at the back of the field.
During the restart Helberg dove into the second spot around Pierce and
began to challenge Gerster for the lead. Helberg continued to
challenge Gerster on the bottom for two laps before Gerster motored away. Meanwhile Santos and Cox moved past Pierce for the third and fourth positions respectively.
Gerster was driving away from the field when Mike Larrison stopped on the back stretch with two laps to go. Meanwhile Cox was forced pit side with a flat right rear tire.
Gerster was up for the challenge on the restart and motored away for the victory over Helberg, Santos, Baumgartner, and Jimmy McCune.
In addition to his heat race win Gerster set a new all-time track record during qualifications with a lap of 17.407 seconds around the
.686 mile oval at an average speed of 141.874 miles per hour. Aaron Pierce overcame damaging his primary car during practice and jumping into Jimmy Brown’s sprint car with no hot laps to win the second heat race. Santos won the third heat race.
Two separate incidents occurred during practice. Jason Blonde had a top wing failure going into turn one and slammed into the wall.
Blonde was transported to Indianapolis University Hospital west complaining of back pain after the scary incident.
Must See Racing X-Treme Sprint Car Series Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis – Indianapolis, IN Saturday June 9, 2012
Qualifications:
1. 50M – Brian Gerster, 17.407, 141.874 MPH (New Track Record) 2. 41 – Brian Olson, 18.127, 136.239 MPH 3. 98 – Bobby Santos, 18.141, 136.134 MPH 4. 2 – Sondi Eden, 18.342, 134.642 MPH 5. 40 – Jason Cox, 18.488, 133.579 MPH 6. 51 – Mike Larrison, 18.504, 133.463 MPH 7. 7 – JoJo Helberg, 18.599, 132.781 MPH 8. 55 – Aaron Pierce, 18.640, 132.489 MPH 9. O7 – Jacob Wilson, 18.648, 132.432 MPH 10. 37 – Hank Lower, 18.725, 131.888 MPH 11. 4 – Donnie Adams, Jr., 18.748, 131.726 MPH 12. 88 – Jimmy McCune, 18.764, 131.614 MPH 13. 10B – Dave Baumgartner, 18.930, 130.460 MPH 14. 81 – Travis Miniea, 18.969, 130.191 MPH 15. 71 – Troy DeCaire, 19.075, 129.468 MPH 16. 1 – Chris Neuenschwander, 19.450, 126.972 MPH 17. 75C – Jerry Caryer, 19.728, 125.182 MPH 18. 26 – Jeff Bloom, 19.958, 123.740 MPH 19. 10 – Jason Blonde, 99.000, 0.000 MPH 20. 26 – n/a, 99.000, 0.000 MPH
Heat Race #1 (8 Laps): 1. Brian Gerster, 2. JoJo Helberg, 3. Dave Baumgartner, 4. Sondi Eden, 5. Hank Lower, 6. Ron Koehler, 7. Chris Neuenschwander.
Heat Race #2 (8 Laps): 1. 55 – Aaron Pierce, Cox, 2. 40 – Jason Cox, 3. 81 – Travis Miniea, 4. Donnie Adams, Jr, 5. 41 – Brian Olson, 6.
75C – Jerry Caryer. DNS: Jason Blonde
Heat Race #3 (8 Laps): 1. 98 – Bobby Santos, 2. 71 – Troy DeCaire,
3. 07 – Jacob Wilson, 4. 51 – Mike Larrison, 5. 88- Jimmy McCune, 6.
26 – Jeff Bloom.
Feature (25 Laps): 1. Brian Gerster, 2. JoJo Helberg, 3. Bobby
Santos, 4. Dave Baumgartner, 5. Jimmy McCune, 6. Aaron Pierce, 7.
Brian Olson, 8. Jason Cox, 9. Jacob Wilson, 10. Donnie Adams, Jr, 11.
Troy DeCaire, 12. Chris Neuenschwander, 13. Jerry Caryer, 14. Mike Larrison, 15. Jeff Bloom, 16. Hank Lower, 17. Sondi Eden, 18. Travis Minea, 19. Ron Koehler. DNS: Jason Blonde
NOTE: Chis Neuenschwander and Ron Koehler switched cars for the feature event Lap Leaders: Pierce 1-10, Gerster 11-25