From Bryan Gapinski
Belleville, KS — (August 1, 2015) — Bryan Clauson scored a wire-to-wire victory winning the 38th annual Belleville Midget Nationals, Saturday Night at the Belleville High Banks. The victory for Clauson was his third, joining Jerry Coons Jr. as the only three-time winner of the event sanctioned by the USAC Honda National Dirt Midget Series.
Clauson jumped into the lead at the start of the outside front row, leading Rico Abreu and Coons at the completion of the first lap. One lap later Christopher Bell moved into fourth place, passing four cars in the first two laps.
Clauson held a two second lead when began lapping the tail of the field on Lap 6. Bell moved into third place on Lap 15, while Clauson held a three-second plus advantage over the field.
At the midway point, Clauson increased his lead to four seconds over Abreu, and Bell. There were several close battles behind Clauson for position in the top ten, while he continued to increase his lead. Fourth place running Coons slowed, with eight laps remaining bringing out the events only caution.
Clauson’s blistering pace left only eight cars on the lead lap on the restart. Clauson took advantage of two lapped cars between himself and second place Bell on the restart and pulled away with a clear race track ahead. Clauson slowly increased his lead each lap.
Clauson driving the Rusty Kunz Racing/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports No. 63 sponsored by Dooling Machine Products, finished 1.44 seconds ahead of Bell. Abreu, Tracy Hines, Coons Jr., Kevin Thomas Jr., Zach Daum, Tanner Thorson, Cody Brewer, and Dave Darland completed the top ten. “The team did an excellent job all week, lapped traffic was tough all night, but we got it done” commented Clauson, whose previous victories came in 2009-10.
HONDA USAC NATIONAL MIDGET RACE RESULTS: August 1, 2015 – Belleville, Kansas – Belleville High Banks – 38th “Belleville Midget Nationals”
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps – no points) 1. Rico Abreu (#97 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 2. Spencer Bayston (#39 Clauson), 3. Warren Johnson (#926 Frewaldt), 4. C.J. Johnson (#45x Martin), 5. Phillip Davis (#11 Gehrke), 6. Robert Bell (#71x Bell), 7. Patrick Lawson (#0B Zero), 8. Isaac Chapple (#52 Chapple). 2:25.22
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps – no points) 1. Christopher Bell (#71 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 2. Bryan Clauson (#63 RKR/Curb-Agajanian), 3. Tyler Thomas (#91T Thomas), 4. Matt Johnson (#85 Central Motorsports), 5. Garett Hood (#727 McMillan), 6. Jeff Stasa (#91 SBR), 7. Kyle Jones (#69x Hefner), 8. Johnny Murdock (#0 Zero). NT
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps – no points) 1. Dave Darland (#63x RKR/Curb-Agajanian), 2. Jerry Coons Jr. (#27 Heffner), 3. Tanner Thorson (#67 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 4. Steve Buckwalter (#25 Buckwalter), 5. Chad Frewaldt (#75 Frewaldt), 6. Aaron Schuck (#53 SET), 7. Hunter Fischer (#24F Fischer), 8. Morgan Frewaldt (#313 Frewaldt). NT
FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps – no points) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr. (#67k Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 2. Tracy Hines (#24 Parker), 3. Zach Daum (#5D Daum), 4. Cody Brewer (#96 Central Motorsports), 5. Patrick Stasa (#19s SBR), 6. Tyler Dunkle (#0D Zero), 7. Michelle Decker (#4m Meents), 8. Chett Gehrke (#11c Matteson). 2:24.78
POLE DASH: (6 laps) 1. Abreu, 2. Clauson, 3. K.Thomas, 4. Coons, 5. Bayston, 6. Hines, 7. C.Bell, 8. Darland. 1:49.81
B DASH: (6 laps) 1. Thorson, 2. Daum, 3. C.J. Johnson. 4. T.Thomas, 5. M.Johnson, 6. Brewer, 7. W.Johnson, 8. Buckwalter. NT
LAST CHANCE RACE: (12 laps) 1. P.Stasa, 2. C.Frewaldt, 3. J.Stasa, 4. Jones, 5. Chapple, 6. Decker, 7. Hood, 8. Gehrke, 9. Schuck, 10. Murdock, 11. Davis, 12. R.Bell, 13. M.Frewaldt, 14. Fischer, 15. Dunkle, 16. Lawson. NT
FEATURE: (40 laps) 1. Bryan Clauson, 2. Christopher Bell, 3. Rico Abreu, 4. Tracy Hines, 5. Jerry Coons Jr., 6. Kevin Thomas Jr., 7. Zach Daum, 8. Tanner Thorson, 9. Cody Brewer, 10. Dave Darland, 11. Tyler Thomas, 12. Patrick Stasa, 13. Jeff Stasa, 14. Isaac Chapple, 15. C.J. Johnson. 16. Michelle Decker, 17. Chett Gehrke, 18. Chad Frewaldt, 19. Matt Johnson, 20. Kyle Jones, 21. Steve Buckwalter, 22. Spencer Bayston, 23. Garett Hood, 24. Warren Johnson. NT
——————————–
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-40 Clauson.
NEW HONDA USAC NATIONAL MIDGET POINTS: 1-Hines-513, 2-K.Thomas Jr.-506, 3-Thorson-449, 4-Abreu-448, 5-T.Thomas-442, 6-Bayston-419, 7-Coons-413, 8-Darren Hagen-321, 9-C.Bell-316, 10-Darland-222.
NEXT HONDA USAC NATIONAL MIDGET RACE: August 18 – Spring Run, PA – Path Valley Speedway Park