Thrilling Start to Indiana Sprint Week Finds Clauson In Victory Lane

By T.J. Buffenbarger

Gas City, IN – (July 13, 2012) – Bryan Clauson kicked off Indiana Sprint Week in style by winning the opening night feature Friday at Gas City I-69 Speedway.  Clauson battled almost the entire race with Levi Jones for the lead, pulling away at the end of the race for the victory.   Clauson was driving a Fisher powered Maxim chassis.

 

“I knew we were faster than Levi, but I had a hard time putting laps together without a mistake to get him,”  said Clauson.  “We ran a lot of local races, doing our homework, to get ready for (Indiana Sprint Week) my crew guys have this car on a rail right now, and it makes a big difference in my confidence this year.”

Jones and Darren Hagen started on the front row for the 30-lap feature.  Jones drove into the lead while Clauson motored around the top to move into second place by lap two, and challenged Jones for the lead.  From there Clauson and Jones raced side by side for the lead, swapping lines at each end of the race track.  Clauson continued to try to pull a slide job on Jones in turns one and two, then going up to the cushion in three and four while Jones ran the bottom.  Clauson claimed the lead on lap four, but drove off the end of the race track, handing the lead back to Jones as the duo continued to battle side by side.

 

Even a caution that collected Tracy Hines and Hunter Schuerenberg and a flip by Andrew Elson did not cool off the heated battle between Clauson and Jones.  Clauson eventually got by Jones for the lead and began to open up a three car length lead with 10 laps to go.  Jones found himself under siege from Darland and 10^th starting Jon Stanbrough.  Jones, Darland, and Stanbrough continued to race while Clauson motored away to the victory.  Stanbrough nipped Jones at the line for second while Darland and 9^th starting Shane Cottle rounded out the top five.

 

Brent Beauchamp was the fastest qualifier over the 47 car field with a lap of 11.901 seconds.  Coleman Gulick won then non-qualifiers race and promptly raced into a transfer spot during the first heat race.  Cottle, Kevin Thomas, Jr, Schuerenberg, and Robert Ballou won the heat race events while Stanbrough won the Semi Feature.

 

Toby Alfrey won the USAC Ignite Midget car feature over Ross Rankine.

 

2012 Indiana Sprint Week Round 1
Amsoil USAC National Sprint Car Series
Gas City I-69 Speedway – Gas City, IN
Friday July 13^th, 2012

AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: July 13, 2012 – Gas City, Indiana – Gas City I-69 Speedway – 25th AMSOIL “Indiana Sprint Week”

 

QUALIFYING: 1. Brent Beauchamp, 11B, Beauchamp-11.901; 2. Bryan Clauson, 7, CTR/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-11.931; 3. Hunter Schuerenberg, 35, Byram-11.983; 4. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-12.063; 5. Dave Darland, 11, Walker-12.103; 6. Darren Hagen, 69, Dynamics-12.111; 7. Chase Stockon, 32, Stockon-12.130; 8. Levi Jones, 20, Stewart-12.135; 9. Shane Cottle, 2, Epperson-12.206; 10. Jon Stanbrough, 21x, Roberts/Tate-12.212; 11. Ted Hines, 12, Hines-12.247; 12. Scotty Weir, 77, Wingo-12.266; 13. Jon Sciscoe, 57, Hazen-12.271; 14. Kevin Thomas Jr., 9k, Black Jack-12.288; 15. Damion Gardner, 71, DG-12.291; 16. Robert Ballou, 81, MPHG-12.292; 17. Bobby East, 5E, East-12.301; 18. Andrew Elson, 27a, Elson-12.303; 19. Thomas Meseraull, 41, SST-12.322; 20. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-12.342; 21. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-12.342; 22. Chris Gurley, 12g, Team Automotive-12.347; 23. Josh Clemons, 71c, Clemons/Pedersen-12.384; 24. Dakota Jackson, 3, Jackson-12.403; 25. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-12.404; 26.Wes McIntyre, 83, McIntyre-12.411; 27. Chad Boespflug, 98, Boespflug-12.414; 28. Matt Mitchell, 37, Mitchell-12.425; 29. Jerry Coons Jr., 71p, Phillips-12.462; 30. Jonathan Hendrick, 68, Hendrick-12.473; 31. Justin Grant, 40, Hery-12.478; 32. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-12.501; 33. Coleman Gulick, 14, Gulick-12.508; 34. Chase Briscoe, 5B, Briscoe-12.537; 35. A.J. Hopkins, 42G, R & M-12.560; 36. Seth Parker, 38p, Parker-12.588; 37. Brady Short, 36, Short-12.617; 38. Kyle Cummins, 3c, Cummins-12.641; 39. Josh Burton, 04, Burton-12.646; 40. Casey Shuman, 10E, Edison-12.717; 41. Richard Vander Weerd, 10, Vander Weerd-12.743; 42. Travis Welpott, 18, Gorman-12.773; 43. Wesley Gordon, 23H, Horner-12.881; 44. Tyler Hewitt, 21H, Hewitt-12.888; 45. Jace Vander Weerd, 88, Vander Weerd-12.889; 46. Garrett Abrams, 32x, Abrams-12.940; 47. Kevin Studley, 57x, Studley-13.045.

 

QUALIFYING RACE: (8 laps) 1. Gulick, 2. Parker, 3. Short, 4. Hopkins, 5. Shuman, 6. Cummins, 7. Briscoe, 8. Burton, 9. Gordon, 10. Welpott, 11. J.Vander Weerd, 12. Hewitt, 13. Studley, 14. R.Vander Weerd, 15. Abrams. NT

 

FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Cottle, 2. Coons, 3. Darland, 4. Gulick, 5. Windom, 6. Beauchamp, 7. Shuman, 8. Sciscoe, 9. Goodnight, 10. East. NT

 

SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Thomas, 2. Clauson, 3. Hagen, 4. Gurley, 5. Elson, 6. Stanbrough, 7. Hendrick, 8. McIntyre, 9. Cummins, 10. Parker. 2:17.68

 

THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Schuerenberg, 2. Meseraull, 3. Gardner, 4. Boespflug, 5. Short, 6. Stockon, 7. Grant, 8. Ted Hines, 9. Briscoe, 10. Clemons. NT

 

FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Jones, 3. Weir, 4. Tracy Hines, 5. Jackson, 6. Mitchell, 7. Leary, 8. Jarrett, 9. Burton, 10. Hopkins. NT

 

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Stanbrough, 2. Stockon, 3. Beauchamp, 4. East, 5. Elson, 6. Sciscoe, 7. Jackson, 8. Clemons, 9. Ted Hines, 10. McIntyre, 11. Hendrick, 12. Mitchell, 13. Leary, 14. Short, 15. Hopkins, 16. Shuman, 17. Jarrett, 18. Grant, 19. Burton, 20. Briscoe, 21. Goodnight, 22. Parker, 23. Windom, 24. Cummins. NT

 

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Bryan Clauson, 2. Jon Stanbrough, 3. Levi Jones, 4. Dave Darland, 5. Shane Cottle, 6. Jon Sciscoe, 7. Damion Gardner, 8. Scotty Weir, 9. Jonathan Hendrick, 10. Chase Stockon, 11. Jerry Coons Jr., 12. Kevin Thomas Jr., 13. Bobby East, 14. Chad Boespflug, 15. Darren Hagen, 16. Hunter Schuerenberg, 17. Chris Gurley, 18. Thomas Meseraull, 19. C.J. Leary, 20. Coleman Gulick, 21. Brent Beauchamp, 22. Tracy Hines, 23. Robert Ballou, 24. Andrew Elson. NT

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**Elson flipped on lap 12 of the feature.

 

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-4 Jones, Laps 5-7 Clauson, Laps 8-18 Jones, Laps 19-30 Clauson.

 

NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Stanbrough-828, 2-Jones-802, 3-Darland-759, 4-Gardner-744, 5-Hines-694, 6-Clauson-647, 7-Windom-610, 8-Hagen-609, 9-Schuerenberg-599, 10-Ballou-592.

NEW AMSOIL INDIANA SPRINT WEEK POINTS: 1-Clauson-72, 2-Jones & Stanbrough-61, 4-Darland-59, 5-Cottle-56.

 

NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: July 14 – Kokomo (IN) Speedway – 25th AMSOIL “Indiana Sprint Week”

 

USAC MIDWEST IGNITE MIDGET RACE RESULTS: July 13, 2012 – Gas City, Indiana– Gas City I-69 Speedway

FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Ross Rankine (#39 Rankine), 2. Toby Alfrey (#4 Alfrey), 3. Adam Thomason (#74 Thomason), 4. Sam McGhee (#11M McGhee), 5. Stratton Briggs (#2B Briggs), 6. Cody Gardner (#2 Alfrey), 7. Bill Kriegbaum (#12 Kriegbaum).

SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Cooper Clouse (#14 Clouse), 2. Tyler Shullick (#61 Shullick), 3. Joey Greening (#17G Greening), 4. Katlynn Leer (#12k Kruseman), 5. Emmy Gray (#77 Gray), 6. Tony Monday (#50 Monday).

FEATURE: (20 laps) 1. Toby Alfrey, 2. Ross Rankine, 3. Cooper Clouse, 4. Tyler Shullick, 5. Katlynn Leer, 6. Stratton Briggs, 7. Adam Thomason, 8. Sam McGhee, 9. Joey Greening, 10. Cody Gardner, 11. Tony Monday, 12. Emmy Gray, 13. Bill Kriegbaum. NT
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