Fairbury, NE, USAC National Midgets Lead-up To Belleville

[CIRF]

The USAC National Midgets began their Nebraska-Kansas swing Aug. 2nd at Jefferson County Speedway in Fairbury, Nebraska. Great show with 33 midgets in action vying for 22 starting spots.


Bryan Clauson was the big mover coming from 13th starting position all the way up to 4th. If Fairbury was any indication as to the quality of competition for the Belleville Midget Nationals we have another great Nationals in the making!! Got a feeling this is gonna' be a memorable 4 days of open wheel dirt track racing!!!

Now it's on to Beloit, Kansas for the second night of USAC midget competition before heading for The High Banks of Belleville!! Weather looks good and the beer is cold and the racing is HOT!!

Here's the recap:





BOAT CRUISES TO FIRST CAREER SERIES VICTORY IN USAC MIDGETS' JEFFERSON COUNTY DEBUT

Fairbury, Nebraska.........In the USAC Midget National Championship’s return to the state of Nebraska after a nine-year hiatus, Phoenix, Arizona’s Chad Boat broke through in his 65th career series start, leading the final 19 laps to take his first series victory in front of a standing-room-only crowd at Riverside Chevrolet’s “Tuesday Night Thunder” in USAC’s first ever visit to Fairbury, Nebraska’s Jefferson County Speedway.

The night’s 35-lap feature marked just the sixth the time a USAC National Midget main event of this distance had been held, and the first occasion since February of 1979 when Bob Wente took the victory at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum.

On the opening laps of the 35-lap feature, pole sitter Holly Shelton waged in a side-by-side battle with Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports teammate Spencer Bayston, who started alongside on the outside of the front row. Bayston appeared to have the upper hand at the entrance to turns one and three, but each time, series rookie Shelton fought back on the inside line to retain the top spot.

On the third lap, fourth-running Tanner Thorson got bottled-up on the topside of turn four, sliding to a stop at the exit of the turn to bring out the night’s first yellow flag.

On the lap four restart, third-running Tyler Thomas, returning from a two-month break from midget racing, dove to the bottom in turn one, going three-wide alongside Shelton (middle) and Bayston (outside). Thomas was able to edge ahead to the lead, albeit briefly, before both Shelton and Bayston made a Tyler Thomas sandwich off of turn two, resuming their high-low battle for the lead as Thomas slid back to third.

On lap five, Bayston was finally able to slip by Shelton for the lead on the outside with Thomas in tow, shuffling Shelton back to third.

On the tight confines of the 1/5-mile dirt oval, real estate was at a premium, but that wasn’t any hindrance to sixth-starting Boat, who sailed his way past Thomas for the second spot on lap 12.

Boat was able to chase down Bayston in the ensuing laps and, on lap 16, made his first bid for the lead on the inside of Bayston in turn one, but was unable to make the move stick. Undeterred, Boat stayed right with Bayston as the two sped down the back straightaway into the third turn, ripping the bottom as he propelled himself past Bayston for the lead at the flagstand at the conclusion of lap 17.

Meanwhile, Thomas found his second wind as Boat found himself fenced-in while negotiating lapped traffic. But, with 11 laps to go, an incident involving the cars of Terry Goodwin, Lance Bennett and sixth-running Ryan Greth in turn three slowed the pace, bringing out a caution and, thus, removing lapped traffic from play to give the leaders a clear track ahead on the restart.

Chad Boat aimed for the bottom on the lap 25 restart as Thomas shadowed just behind in second. One lap later, Thomas showed Boat his nose entering the first turn, but Boat was able to withstand the pressure to hold onto to the lead as the pair exited turn two.

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Brady Bacon, 76m, FMR-11.354; 2. Chad Boat, 84, Tucker/Boat-11.457; 3. Ryan Greth, 4, Lesher-11.479; 4. Tyler Thomas, 91T, Thomas-11.514; 5. Tanner Thorson, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.581; 6. Spencer Bayston, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.586; 7. Ryan Robinson, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.631; 8. Holly Shelton, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.687; 9. Carson Macedo, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.702; 10. Tucker Klaasmeyer, 27, Klaasmeyer-11.718; 11. Dave Darland, 11AG, Gray-11.745; 12. Keith Rauch, 47, Mason-11.819; 13. Bryan Clauson, 63, Dooling/Hayward-11.911; 14. Matt Johnson, 85, Central-11.929; 15. Chett Gehrke, 11c, Matteson-11.948; 16. Bob Harr, 2, Halarr-11.989; 17. Anton Hernandez, 25, Petry/Goff-11.994; 18. John Klabunde, 77, Klabunde-12.054; 19. Brayton Lynch, 1K, RKR-12.137; 20. Lance Bennett, 10, McCauley-12.138; 21. Troy Simpson, 7, Simpson-12.332; 22. Terry Goodwin, 2G, Goodwin-12.443; 23. Dustin Weland, 88, Weland-12.503; 24. Ryan Oerter, 43, RKO-12.510; 25. Jeff Stasa, 91, SBR-12.578; 26. Johnny Murdock, 0, Zero-12.647; 27. Derek Kral, 0B, Zero-12.923; 28. Tyler Dunkle, 37, Zero-13.212; 29. Nathan Johnson, 13, Zero-13.254; 30. Mark Hamilton, 76, Hamilton-16.499; 31. Casey Shuman, 32, Dunlap; 32. Jeff Crook, 5J, Crook; 33. Ashley Oerter, 16, RKO


FEATURE: (35 laps) 1. Chad Boat, 2. Tyler Thomas, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Bryan Clauson, 5. Spencer Bayston, 6. Carson Macedo, 7. Tucker Klaasmeyer, 8. Holly Shelton, 9. Ryan Robinson, 10. Tanner Thorson, 11. Brayton Lynch, 12. Chett Gehrke, 13. Keith Rauch, 14. Lance Bennett, 15. Bob Harr, 16. John Klabunde, 17. Dustin Weland, 18. Terry Goodwin, 19. Ryan Greth, 20. Dave Darland, 21. Anton Hernandez, 22. Jeff Stasa. NT

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**Greth flipped on lap 29 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-4 Shelton, Laps 5-16 Bayston, Laps 17-35 Boat.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Bryan Clauson (13th to 4th)