By T.J. Buffenbarger
Rossburg, OH — (May 6, 2016) — Rossburg, OH – (May 6, 2016) – Bryan Clauson has managed to win a wide variety of races during his career. The one thing that was still missing from Clauson’s resume was a USAC Amsoil National Sprint Car Series feature victory at Eldora Speedway. Friday that dream became reality as Clauson during the “Let’s Race Two” event at Eldora.
Like many of Clauson’s previous features when he was close to victory with the non-wing sprint car at Eldora there were several close calls while racing Thomas Meseraull and C.J. Leary for the win. After taking the lead Clauson has a close call with the fence, but Leary was unable to take advantage as he went on to victory.
“We’ve been so close here a number of times (with the sprint car). Was close again to giving it away there. Thankful to get through those last laps. Hopefully this means we go the monkey off of our back and we won’t have to plug it in the fence in three and four every time.”
The victory was Clauson’s 12th victory of the season and gave Clauson wins in all three of USAC’s National Series at Eldora on feature event 49 of his “Chasing 200: Circular Insanity Tour” where Clauson is attempting to compete in 200 events this calendar year.
“The top is really fast because you are banging the boards up there, and sometimes you get it a little too hard there. We had to be patent. Our car was really good, but it was hard enough to carry enough speed to finish a slider on the guys that were really good. We got into heavy lapped traffic there and I was able to make some moves and get to C.J. (Leary) and he caught the wall off two and let me get a run. From there our Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Dooling Machine, B&H Contractors machine was flawless. I can’t thank my Dad, Tyler Ransbottom, everyone that supports this deal enough. It feels good to win a sprint car feature here.”
Dallas Hewitt and Leary started on the front row with Hewitt getting the lead on the opening lap. Clauson wasted no time charging up to third on the opening lap, but it was short lived as Meseraull dropped Clauson back to fourth. Up front Leary took the lead using a slide job in turns one and two. Hewitt was able to counter though and retake the lead. Leary countered again on lap four and Hewitt was unable to counter that move as Leary pulled away with the lead on lap four.
While Leary pulled away Hewitt was under siege from Meseraull and Clauson. Meseraull slid by Hewitt through turns three and four on lap five. This allowed Clauson to slide by Hewitt for third one lap later.
By lap seven Leary opened up a sizeable advantage while Clauson closed in on Meseraull for the second spot. Three laps later Leary started overtaking slower traffic and allowed Meseraull and Clauson to slowly close in. By lap 18 Leary was boxed in and Meseraull was cutting through traffic at a furious pace with Clauson in tow trying to close the gap.
Just past the halfway point Leary had Meseraull and Clauson on his back bumper in heavy traffic, but used the slower car of Chris Windom to pick Meseraull and Clauson to open up some breathing room. That relief was short lived though as Leary continued to encounter traffic that allowed Meseraull and Clauson to close.
Meseraull started to close the gap with nine laps to go. When Leary tried to put Max McGhee a lap down with McGhee moving down to slow Leary’s momentum it allowed both Meseraull and Clauson to challenge Leary for the lead.
While Leary was desperately cutting through traffic to maintain his advantage Clauson used a sweeping slide job through turns three and four to take away second spot. From there Clauson immediately dove under Leary for the lead through turns one and two with five laps to go, but could not make the pass.
With four laps to go Leary tagged the fence just enough for Clauson to get a run with a slide job to take the lead. Just when it looked like Clauson would motor onto victory the red flag appeared with three laps to go when defending USAC National Sprint Car Series champion Robert Ballou and Jarett Andretti got together in turn three. Both drivers emerged from their cars under their own power.
With three laps to go after the restart Leary hung right with Clauson’s back bumper. Coming to the white flag it appeared Leary would be able to mount a challenge for the lead, but Clauson got a tremendous run through turns one and two that allowed him to drive away for the victory. Leary held onto the runner up spot with Meseraull, Hewitt, and Brady Bacon rounding out the top five.
Clauson was your ProSource Fast Qualifier with a lap of 16.111 seconds at an average speed of 108.362 miles per hour. Dave Darland, Chris Windom, Cody Gardner, and Shane Cottle won heat race events. Tyler Courtney won the B-Main.
During the first heat race Logan Jarrett flipped in turn one. Jarrett climbed out of the car under his own power.
USAC Amsoil National Sprint Car Series
Eldora Speedway
Rossburg, OH
Friday May 6, 2016
Qualifications:
1. 63 – Bryan Clauson, 16.611
2. 98 – Chad Boespflug, 16.805
3. 66 – Thomas Meseraull, 16.867
4. 18X – Scotty Weir, 16.899
5. 23C – Tyler Courtney, 17.039
6. 17GP – C.J. Leary, 17.068
7. 16 – Dallas Hewitt, 17.122
8. 69 – Brady Bacon, 17.125
9. 1 – Robert Ballou, 17.267
10. 5 – Justin Grant, 17.303
11. 17 – Max McGhee, 17.420
12. 57 – Shane Cottle, 17.547
13. 11 – Dave Darland, 17.575
14. 63 – Kody Swanson, 17.646
15. 4J – Kevin Thomas, Jr. , 17.661
16. 18 – Jarett Andretti, 17.677
17. 15F – Aaron Farney, 17.719
18. 40 – Chris Windom, 17.823
19. 10E – Jerry Coons, Jr. , 17.879
20. 50 – Tony DiMattia, 17.952 “
21. 21 – Carson Short, 18.136
22. 24L – Lee Underwood, 18.176
23. 46 – Cody Gardner, 18.186
24. 41K – Cole Ketcham, 18.188
25. 32 – Chase Stockon, 18.263
26. 24 – Landon Simon, 18.395
27. 97 – Bret Mellenberndt, 18.621
28. 96 – Riley VanHise, 18.724
29. 29 – Logan Jarrett, 18.736
30. 15 – Brandon Whited, 18.760
31. 3R – Kyle Cummins, 18.811
32. 39 – Matt Goodnight, 18.981
33. 10 – Aric Gentry, 19.116
34. 52 – Issac Chapple, 19.218
35. 38 – Matt Westfall, 99.000
Heat Race #1 (8 Laps): 1. 11 – Dave Darland, 2. 1 – Robert Ballou, 3. 21 – Carson Short, 4. 63 – Bryan Clauson, 5. 32 – Chase Stockon, 6. 23 – Tyler Courtney, 7. 15F – Aaron Farney, 8. 10 – Aric Gentry. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #2 (8 Laps): 1. 1. 40 – Chris Windom, 2. 98 – Chad Boespflug, 3. 17GP – C.J. Leary, 4. 5 – Justin Grant, 5. 63X – Kody Swanson, 6. 15 – Brandon Whited, 7. 24L – Lee Underwood, 8. 52 – Issac Chapple, 9. 24 – Landon Simon. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #3 (8 laps): 1. 46 – Cody Gardner, 2. 16 – Dallas Hewitt, 3. 66 – Thomas Meseraull, 4. 4J – Kevin Thomas Jr, 5. 17 – Max McGhee, 6. 3C – Kyle Cummins, 7. 38 – Matt Westfall, 8. 10E – Jerry Coons Jr, 9. 97 – Brett Mellenberndt. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #4 (8 Laps): 1. 57 – Shane Cottle, 2. 69 – Brady Bacon, 3. 18 – Jarett Andretti, 4. 18X – Scotty Weir, 5. 50 – Tony DiMattia, 6. 41K – Cole Ketcham, 7. 96 – Riley VanHise, 8. 39 – Matt Goodnight. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
B-Main: 1. 23 – Tyler Courntey, 2. 63 – Kody Swanson, 3. 17 – Max McGhee, 4. 10E – Jerry Coons Jr, 5. 15F – Aaron Farney, 6. 50 – Tony DiMattia, 7. 24 – Landon Simon, 8. 3C – Kyle Cummins, 9. 41K – Cole Ketcham, 10. 32 – Chase Stockon, 11. 15 – Brandon Whited, 12. Matt Westfall, 13. 96 – Riley VanHise, 14. 24L – Lee Underwood, 15. 52 – Issac Chapple, 16. 39 – Matt Goodnight, 17. 10 – Aric Gentry, 18. 97 – Brett Mellenbendt.
A-Main (25 Laps): 1. 63 – Bryan Clauson, 2. 17GP – C.J. Leary, 3. 66 – Thomas Meseraull, 4. 16 – Dallas Hewitt, 5. 69 – Brady Bacon, 6. 23C – Tyler Courtney, 7. 98 – Chad Boespflug, 8. 57 – Shane Cottle, 9. 11 – Dave Darland, 10. 63 – Kody Swanson, 11. 17 – Max McGhee, 12. 32 – Chase Stockon, 13. 40 – Chris Windom, 14. 18 – Scotty Weir, 15. 4J – Kevin Thomas Jr., 16. 3C – Kyle Cummins, 17. 5 – Justin Grant, 18. 15F – Aaron Farney, 19. 21 – Carson Short, 20. 10E – Jerry Coons Jr., 21. Cody Gardner, 22. Robert Ballou, 23. Jarett Andretti, 24. Tony DiMattia.
Lap Leaders: Laps 1-3 Hewitt, Laps 4-26 Leary, Laps 27-30 Clauson.