By Lonnie Wheatley
BELLEVILLE, Kan. (August 3, 2019) – Jake Bubak kept his Belleville 305 Sprint Car Nationals perfection alive by storming to a $7,000 payday in Saturday night’s POWRi United Rebel Sprint Series-sanctioned Second Annual Belleville 305 Nationals 30-lap finale atop the ½-mile Belleville High Banks clay oval.
It completed an improbably duplication of last year’s Belleville 305 Sprint Car Nationals two-night sweep with the Arvada, CO, shoe now four-for-four in event competition aboard the Coyote Candle Company No. 74x Sprint Car.
While Bubak didn’t wire the field this time around, he bettered himself in the lapped cars department by leaving just six other cars on the lead lap after lapping all but seven other cars in last year’s inaugural event.
This time, Eagle, Nebraska’s Tyler Drueke earned the pole position for the feature with Bubak alongside. But it was fourth-starter Jason Martin gunning into the lead on the initial circuit ahead of Bubak, Jed Werner and Drueke.
Martin held off Bubak for a half dozen rounds before Bubak powered by for the point. Martin tried to fight back, but Bubak began to slip away as the laps clicked off.
Bubak reached traffic in short order and spent the last two-thirds of the feature event slicing through the field. By the time the checkered flag flew, Bubak held more than a half-lap advantage over Drueke, who made a late move past Martin to snare runner-up honors.
Martin settled for the show position behind Bubak and Drueke with Luke Cranston picking off several positions in the closing circuits to snare fourth. J.D. Johnson rounded out the top five with Joe Wood, Jr. and Jed Werner the final cars on the lead lap. Ty Williams was eighth with Shane Sundquist and Buddy Tubbs completing the top ten.
The original start to the feature was waved off when Jeremy Huish got into the turn one guardrail and suffered race-ending damage.
One lap later, Trey Gropp took a wild ride in turn one that precipitated a red flag. Gropp walked away from the damage, picking up Hard Luck honors.
Cranston, Bubak, Drueke, J.D. Johnson and Werner topped heat race action with Drueke, Zach Blurton, Bubak and Williams winning the qualifying races. Before Gropp’s “A” Main tumble, T.J. Cain became the weekend’s first flip victim when he tumbled down the backstretch on the opening lap of the fifth and final heat race.
Nebraska’s Shayle Bade and Arkansas’ Tim Crawley, who suffered ignition box woes that sidelined him from heat race action, both earned “B” Main wins. Both “B” Mains featured spirited battles for the fourth and final transfer position with Kyler Johnson battling past Blake Scott in the first “B” Main and then Todd Plemons edging Dalton Stevens in the second “B” Main. Andy Shouse took The Keizer Wheels hard charger award moving from 19th to 13th.
Senineteentcond Annual Belleville 305 Sprint Car Nationals Night Two
August 3, 2019 Results:
Heat Races:
Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 11-Luke Cranston, 2. 54-Trey Gropp, 3. 2b-Brett Becker, 4. 03x-Joe Wood, Jr., 5. 2J-Zach Blurton, 6. 17-Todd Plemons, 7. Kevin Schramek, 8. 99x-Dalton Stevens.
Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 74b-Jake Bubak, 2. 7x-Shane Sundquist, 3. 5x-Jason Martin, 4. 0-Steven Richardson, 5. 03-Shayle Bade, 6. 6-Mark Walinder, 7. 75-Nick Nichols, 8. 1-Ryan Oerter.
Heat Three (8 Laps): 1. 12-Tyler Drueke, 2. 29s-Blake Scott, 3. 911-Ty Williams, 4. 27-Andy Shouse, 5. 29n-Larry Neighbors, 6. 16-Scott Cochran, 7. 27b-Keith Rauch, 8. 82c-Christian Kinnison.
Heat Four (8 Laps): 1. 98-J.D. Johnson, 2. 7-Toby Chapman, 3. 15-Jack Potter, 4. 95-Buddy Tubbs, 5. 45x-Kyler Johnson, 6. 24-Cody Hays, 7. 45-Lonnie Cos, 8. 23-Donovan Wise (DQ-Crossed scales below the minimum weight after finishing third).
Heat Five (8 Laps): 1. 50-Jed Werner, 2. 88J-Jeremy Huish, 3. 1s-Ryan Voss, 4. 9-John Webster, 5. 67-T.J. Cain, 6. 33k-Aaron Ploussard, 7. 911x-Tim Crawley (DNS), 8. 74-Jon Freeman (DNS).
Qualifying Races (Top 16 in combined finishing/passing points from Heats and Qualifiers to “A” Main/Balance to two “B” Mains)
Qualifier One (8 Laps): 1. 12-Tyler Drueke, 2. 95-Buddy Tubbs, 3. 7x-Shane Sundquist, 4. 11-Luke Cranston, 5. 1s-Ryan Voss, 6. 24-Cody Hays, 7. 17-Todd Plemons, 8. 9-John Webster, 9. 23-Donovan Wise, 10. 67-T.J. Cain (DNS).
Qualifier Two (8 Laps): 1. 2J-Zach Blurton, 2. 50-Jed Werner, 3. 98-J.D. Johnson, 4. 03-Shayle Bade, 5. 29s-Blake Scott, 6. 54-Trey Gropp, 7. 99x-Dalton Stevens, 8. 33k-Aaron Ploussard, 9. 6-Mark Walinder, 10. 75-Nick Nichols.
Qualifier Three (8 Laps): 1. 74b-Jake Bubak, 2. 0-Steven Richardson, 3. 03x-Joe Wood, Jr., 4. 911x-Tim Crawley, 5. 7-Toby Chapman, 6. 2b-Brett Becker, 7. 29n-Larry Neighbors, 8. 4s-Kevin Schramek, 9. 82c-Christian Kinnison, 10. 27b-Keith Rauch (DNS).
Qualifier Four (8 Laps): 1. 911-Ty Williams, 2. 5x-Jason Martin, 3. 45x-Kyler Johnson, 4. 27-Andy Shouse, 5. 15-Jack Potter, 6. 88J-Jeremy Huish, 7. 16-Scott Cochran, 8. 74-Jon Freeman, 9. 1-Ryan Oerter, 10. 45-Lonnie Cox (DNS).
“B” Mains (Top 4 from each advance to “A” Main)
“B” Feature One (12 Laps): 1. 03-Shayle Bade, 2. 27-Andy Shouse, 3. 16-Scott Cochran, 4. 45x-Kyler Johnson, 5. 29s-Blake Scott, 6. 9-John Webster, 7. 82c-Christian Kinnison, 8. 75-Nick Nichols, 9. 33k-Aaron Ploussard, 10. 4s-Kevin Schramek (DNS), 11. 67-T.J. Cain (DNS), 12. 45-Lonnie Cox (DNS).
“B” Feature Two (12 Laps): 1. 911x-Tim Crawley, 2. 7-Toby Chapman, 3. 88J-Jeremy Huish, 4. 17-Todd Plemons, 5. 99x-Dalton Stevens, 6. 24-Cody Hays, 7. 29n-Larry Neighbors, 8. 6-Mark Walinder, 9. 74-Jon Freeman, 10. 1-Ryan Oerter, 11. 23-Donovan Wise, 12. 27b-Keith Rauch (DNS).
Belleville 305 Sprint Car Nationals Preliminary “A” Main
“A” Main (20 Laps): 1. 74b-Jake Bubak (2) [$7,000], 2. 12-Tyler Drueke (1) [$3,500], 3. 5x-Jason Martin (4) [$3,000], 4. 11-Luke Cranston (9) [$2,500], 5. 98-J.D. Johnson (7) [$2,000], 6. 03x-Joe Wood, Jr., (8) [$1,750], 7. 50-Jed Werner (3) [$1,650], 8. 911-Ty Williams (5) [$1,600], 9. 7x-Shane Sundquist (10) [$1,550], 10. 95-Buddy Tubbs (6) [$1,500], 11. 0-Steven Richardson (14) [$1,450], 12. 15-Jack Potter (11) [$1,400], 13. 27-Andy Shouse (19) [$1,350], 14. 911x-Tim Crawley (18) [$1,300], 15. 16-Scott Cochran (21) [$1,250], 16. 03-Shayle Bade (17) [$1,200], 17. 45x-Kyler Johnson (23) [$1,150], 18. 2J-Zach Blurton (12) ($1,100], 19. 2b-Brett Becker (16) [$1,050], 20. 1s-Ryan Voss (13) [$1,000], 21. 7-Toby Chapman (20) [$1,000], 22. 17-Todd Plemons (24) [$1,000], 23. 54-Trey Gropp (15) [$1,000], 24. 88J-Jeremy Huish (22) [$1,000].
Lap Leaders: Jason Martin 1-6, Jake Bubak 7-30.