By T.J. Buffenbarger
Rossburg, OH – (May 8, 2015) – Robert Ballou put on a rim riding clinic in route to winning the Friday night portion of the “Mother of All Sprint Car Weekends” with the USAC Amsoil National Sprint Car Series on Friday night at Eldora Speedway.
Ballou’s fourth win of the season came after some adversity following the preliminary events when Ballou’s team decided to pull the engine from their backup car and swap it with their primary.
“We have a rebuild coming up this week, and the motor we hot lapped and qualified with wasn’t cutting it. The only other engine we had was in our other car, and we can’t change cars, so Dan Clifton and the Farney Family busted their butts to get this car put back together. Took the motor out of our backup car, took the motor out of this car, flipped them, and guessed on the setup. Obviously we nailed it pretty good,” said Ballou following his dominating victory. “This place has been pretty good to me, but we haven’t been able to catch a break here in a few years. Its aways good to get the #12 in victory lane here.
Stanbrough and Ballou started on the front row for the 30-lap feature event. Ballou jumped into the lead and opened up a sizeable advantage. As the leaders approached lapped traffic the race for third on back heated up with Jerry Coons, Jr., Justin Grant, Thomas Meseraull, C.J. Leary, and Brady Bacon all racing together for position. Grant and Meseraull in particular raced hard for third until making contact in turn three, sending Grant into the wall to bring out the caution flag on lap 15. Grant was unable to make the restart.
During the restart Ballou pulled away to another sizeable lead. Meseraull continued to move up passing Coons for third on lap 16. Leary disposed of Coons to take fourth one lap later.
Further back in the pack Brady Bacon moved up through the field into the top five on lap 20, but three laps to go Bacon got into the fence coming off turn two and suffered heavy front end damage to bring out the caution flag.
This bunched up the field for the final restart, but Ballou was up to the challenge pulled away over the final seven laps for the victory. Stanbrough was able to hold onto second while Leary moved into the third and final podium position. Meseraull and Tracy Hines rounded out the top five.
Chase Stockon was the fastest qualifier over the 30 car field with a lap of 15.587 seconds at an average speed of 115.481 miles per hour. Stockon, Darland, Windom and Coons won heat race events. C.J. Leary won the B-Main event.
Brandon Mattox hit the wall and turned over between turns three and four during qualifications. Mattoxx was able to exit the car under his own power. Jarett Andretti also flipped during the second heat race, Bacon tangled with Dallas Hewitt and got upside down in the fourth heat race,
USAC Amsoil National Sprint Car Series
Mother of All Sprint Car Weekends
Eldora Speedway – New Weston, OH
Friday May 8, 2015
Qualifications: 1. 32 – Chase Stockon, 15.587; 2. 18 – Thomas Meseraull, 15.833; 3. 40 – Justin Grant, 15.885; 4. 10E – Jerry Coons, Jr. , 15.906; 5. 30 – C.J. Leary, 15.936; 6. 12 – Robert Ballou, 15.984; 7. 81 – Jon Stanbrough, 16.078; 8. 15F – Aaron Farney, 16.079; 9. 57 – Shane Cottle, 16.086; 10. 4 – Tracy Hines, 16.105; 11. 29 – Logan Jarrett, 16.110; 12. 69 – Brady Bacon, 16.148; 13. 17RW – Kevin Thomas, Jr. , 16.195; 14. 71P – Dave Darland, 16.198; 15. 21X – Chris Windom, 16.233; 16. 16 – Dallas Hewitt, 16.238; 17. 24 – Ladon Simon, 16.363; 18. 18 – Jarett Andretti, 16.449; 19. 21H – Travis Hery, 16.598; 20. 12 – Kent Wolters, 16.630; 21. 15 – Brandon Whited, 16.636; 22. 39 – Matt Goodnight, 16.640; 23. 5 – Chad Boespflug, 16.698; 24. 63 – Kody Swanson, 16.704; 25. 77 – Dustin Smith, 16.713; 26. 66 – Daron Clayton, 16.734; 27. 3 – Jake Simmons, 17.391; 28. 83 – Adam Cruea, 17.604; 29. 71 – Robert Bell, 17.664; 30. 28 – Brandon Mattox, NT;
Heat Race #1 (8 Laps): 1. 32 – Chase Stockon, 2. 57 – Shane Cottle, 3. 24 – Landon Simon, 4. 17RW – Kevin Thomas, Jr., 5. 30 – C.J. Leary, 6. 77 – Dustin Smith, 8. 15 –Brandon Whited, 9. 71 – Robert Bell. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #2 (8 Laps): 1. 71P – Dave Darland, 2. 12 – Robert Ballou, 3. 18 – Thomas Messeraull, 4. 4 – Tracy Hines, 5. 39 – Matt Goodnight, 6. 66 – Daron Clayton, 7. 18 – Jarett Andretti. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #3 (8 Laps): 1. 21X – Chris Windom, 2. 5 – Chad Boespflug, 3. 40 – Justin Grant, 4. 81 – Jon Stanbrough, 4. 40 – Justin Grant, 5. 3 – Jake Simmons, 6. 29 – Logan Jarrett, 7. 21H – Travis Hery. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #4 (8 Laps): 1. 10E – Jerry Coons, Jr., 2. 15F – Aaron Farney, 3. 63 – Kody Swanson, 4. 16 – Dallas Hewitt, 5. 83 – Adam Cruea, 6. 12 – Kent Wolters, 7. 69 – Brady Bacon.
B-Main (12 Laps): 1. 30 – C.J. Leary, 2. 69 – Brady Bacon, 3. 39 – Matt Goodnight, 4. 66 – Daron Clayton, 5. 77 – Dustin Smith, 6. 3 – Chris Simmons, 7. 12 – Kent Wolters, 8. 15 – Brandon Whited, 9. 83 – Adam Cruea, 10. 21H – Travis Hery, 11. 71 – Robert Bell. DNS: 18 – Jarett Andretti, 29 Logan Jarrett.
A-Main (30 Laps): 1. 12 – Robert Ballou, 2. 81 – Jon Stanbrough, 3. 30 – C.J. Leary, 4. 18X – Thomas Meseraull, 5. 4 – Tracy Hines, 6. 10E – Jerry Coons, Jr, 7. 71P – Dave Darland, 8. 57 – Shane Cottle, 9.. 15F – Aaron Farney, 10. 32 – Chase Stockon, 11. 21X – Chris Windom, 12. 17RW – Kevin Thomas, Jr., 13. 24 – Landon Simon, 14. 66 – Daron Clayton, 15. 39 – Matt Goodnight, 16. 69 – Brady Bacon, 17. 5 – Chad Boesfplug, 18. 16 – Dallas Hewitt, 19. 3 – Jake Simmons, 20. 63 – Kody Swanson, 21 40 – Justin Grant, 22. 77 – Dustin Smith.
Lap Leaders: Ballou 1-30
Hard Charger: Darland: +5