[Bill Gardner]

LARSON LAST-CORNER GAS CITY “INDIANA MIDGET WEEK” WINNER

Gas City, Indiana.……Kyle Larson of Elk Grove, California has a history of late-race heroics, and Wednesday’s “Indiana Midget Week” opener for the Honda National Dirt Midget Series was just another one of those tales. The 20-year old used a restart with three laps left to launch on the high-side from third to an unbelievable move around Tracy Hines coming off the final corner for the win.

“It’s nice to steal a win on the last lap from Tracy. I’ve finished second enough to him. I really had trouble getting going, got stuck on the bottom early. It took a while to get the top cleaned off, but once it did, I could carry a lot of momentum. I’ve never raced at Gas City like this. It was awesome. I got to second on the top right away on that restart, and then just hit two or three great laps to barely beat him,” Larson said.

Andrew Felker jumped from the pole to lead the opening lap, but Hines dropped low off turn-four to move under the Missouri driver for the lead to close lap two. Hines took off with the lead as a hornets nest erupted behind him for top-five spots. Laps clicked off quickly, as the first half went all green. A yellow on lap 16 bunched up the field with Hines leading Christopher Bell, Felker, Larson, and new track record holder Bryan Clauson.

Once back to green, Larson made a big dive underneath Felker for the third spot, as the front trio separated themselves from the pack. Bell gained on Hines as the laps wore on, but it appeared nothing would stop the New Castle, Indiana veteran.

Just three laps from the end, top-ten running Rico Abreu spun in turn two. Hines led the field to the restart, and Larson flew off into turn-one and circled his teammate Bell, with Hines in his cross-hairs. As the two hit the white flag, Larson moved alongside Hines for the lead. Off turn-two for the final time, Hines had just a nose in front, but Larson used a full head of steam to just sneak by Hines off the final corner. Larson’s win in the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports – Toyota TRD #71K Bullet/Speedway Toyota was just .142 seconds over Hines in the Parker Machinery – Turbines, Inc. #24 Spike/Stanton Toyota.

“Nobody showed their nose the whole time, so I just stuck to my guns. By the time I knew he was coming, we were looking at the checkers. I don’t know if I could have done anything even if I knew he was coming. We just got beat. I don’t feel like I slowed down at all over the course of the race, so I just kept trying to put down the same laps,” said a dejected Hines.

Bell came home third in the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports – Toyota TRD #71 Bullet/Speedway Toyota in his first podium with the USAC Honda National Midget Series.

“I think we were really, really even with Tracy. I thought I could do something if we ever got to traffic. I was debating on that last restart if I should go to the top. I thought I could get a good enough run off four to do something into one, but then I got tight, and Kyle drove by us. It was a heckuva race, though, and a great way to start the week,” Bell said.

Felker came home fourth in the 66 Truck & Salvage – Auto Express #11A Spike/Fontana, while Steve Buckwalter claimed the final top-five spot in the Buckwalter’s Roofing – VRP Shocks #25 Elite/Ott by Deppe.

Bryan Clauson picked up the night’s “ProSource Fast Time Award” by shattering the old track record, coming out 36th during a hammer-down session to go 12.225 seconds around the quarter-mile.

HONDA USAC NATIONAL DIRT MIDGET RACE RESULTS: June 12, 2013 – Gas City, Indiana – Gas City I-69 Speedway – “Indiana Midget Week”

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Bryan Clauson, 39, Tucker/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-12.225; 2. Steve Buckwalter, 25, Buckwalter-12.241; 3. Brad Kuhn, 10, Cook-12.256; 4. Kyle Larson, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.259; 5. Christopher Bell, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.262; 6. Tracy Hines, 24, Parker-12.265; 7. Darren Hagen, 3, RFMS-12.272; 8. Andrew Felker, 11A, Felker-12.279; 9. Dillon Welch, 98, Tucker/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-12.292; 10. Levi Jones, 56, Hmiel-12.316; 11. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-12.332; 12. Rico Abreu, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.333; 13. Michael Pickens, 1NZ, Buckley-12.335; 14. Jerry Coons, Jr., 63, Dooling-12.352; 15. Brad Mosen, 7, Buckley-12.398; 16. Davey Ray, 33, Team RayPro-12.407; 17. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 2, Steele-12.423; 18. Brady Bacon, 11, Wilke-12.437; 19. Dave Darland, 2x, Lein-12.443; 20. Jamie McKinlay, 42AU, Fedrizzi-12.457; 21. Bobby East, 4, Klatt-12.485; 22. Tanner Thorson, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.510; 23. Caleb Armstrong, 7c, C&A-12.581; 24. Thomas Meseraull, 16, Sandy-12.584; 25. Alex Bright, 17, RW/Curb-Agajanian-12.650; 26. Matt Jackson, 97AU, Stuebgen-12.660; 27. Taylor Ferns, 55, Ferns-12.708; 28. Billy Wease, 10x, Moore-12.848; 29. Brenden Bright, 92, Bright-12.904; 30. Johnny Heydenreich, 22, Givens-12.949; 31. Dalton Armstrong, 7A, C&A-12.953; 32. Ross Rankine, 39R, Rankine-12.997; 33. Michael Koontz, 17K, Koontz-13.000; 34. Blake Edwards, 17E, Koontz-13.012; 35. Jimmy Light, 23, Horsepower-13.047; 36. Johnny Murdock, 0, Murdock-13.860; 37. Aaron Pierce, 56P, Hmiel-NT (Tim of 12.512 disallowed); 38. Justin Dickerson, 21D, Dickerson-NT (time of 13.465 disallowed).

FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Thomas, 2. Pickens, 3. Clauson, 4. Bell, 5. East, 6. A. Bright, 7. Welch, 8. B. Bright, 9. Pierce, 10. Koontz. 2:06.16

SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Thorson, 2. Coons, 3. Hines, 4. Bacon, 5. Jones, 6. Buckwalter, 7. Jackson, 8. Heydenreich, 9. Edwards, 10. Dickerson. 2:07.86

THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. . C. Armstrong, 2. Mosen, 3. Hagen, 4. Daum, 5. Darland, 6. Kuhn, 7. D. Armstrong, 8. Ferns, 9. Light. 2:05.58

FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Larson, 2. Abreu, 3. Meseraull, 4. Felker, 5. Ray, 6. McKinlay, 7. Wease, 8. Rankine, 9. Murdock. 2:08.74

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Buckwalter, 2. Kuhn, 3. Ray, 4. Darland, 5. Jones, 6. Welch, 7. East, 8. A. Bright, 9. B. Bright, 10. Wease, 11. Pierce, 12. Edwards, 13. McKinlay, 14. Light, 15. Jackson, 16. Rankine, 17. D. Armstrong, 18. Ferns, 19. Koontz, 20. Heydenreich, 21. Murdock. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Kyle Larson, 2. Tracy Hines, 3. Christopher Bell, 4. Andrew Felker, 5. Steve Buckwalter, 6. Brad Mosen, 7. Bryan Clauson, 8. Darren Hagen, 9. Brad Kuhn, 10. Zach Daum, 11. Jerry Coons, Jr., 12. Levi Jones, 13. Michael Pickens, 14. Bobby East, 15. Dave Darland, 16. Alex Bright, 17. Brady Bacon, 18. Dillon Welch, 19. Caleb Armstrong, 20. Davey Ray, 21. Tanner Thorson, 22. Rico Abreu, 23. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 24. Thomas Meseraull. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Felker, Laps 2-29 Hines, Lap 30 Larson.
**Ferns & D. Armstrong flipped in the Semi.

NEW HONDA NATIONAL DIRT MIDGET POINTS: 1-Hines-64; 2-Bell-61; 3-Felker-56; 4-Clauson-54; 5-Hagen-45; 6-Kuhn-43; 7-Daum/Coons-38; 9-Jones-30; 10-East-25.

NEW HONDA “INDIANA MIDGET WEEK” POINTS: 1-Larson-71; 2-Hines-64; 3-Bell-61; 4-Buckwalter-57; 5-Felker-56; 6-Clauson-54; 7-Mosen-52; 8-Hagen-45; 9-Kuhn-43; 10-Daum/Coons-38.

NEXT HONDA NATIONAL DIRT MIDGET RACE: June 13 – Putnamville, Indiana – Lincoln Park Speedway – “Indiana Midget Week”

[Bill Gardner]

BELL’S FIRST USAC HONDA NATIONAL MIDGET WIN COMES AT LINCOLN PARK

Putnamville, Indiana.……Christopher Bell from Norman, Oklahoma has jumped out to a hot start in the USAC Honda National Dirt Midget campaign aboard his new ride with Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports this season. After finishing on the podium on night one, he held off his hard-charging teammate Kyle Larson for the win on Thursday night at Lincoln Park Speedway as “Indiana Midget Week” rolled on.

Bell benefitted from four of the top-nine qualifiers failing to transfer through their heat and found himself on the pole. He jumped out ahead of another teammate, Rico Abreu, to grab the early lead. With just five laps in the books, a power outage led to a red-flag period.

A wide track led to lots of slide-jobs as the race resumed, with ninth-starting Brad Mosen the prime mover as he climbed into the top-five. The three teammates ran 1-2-3 for an extended run, until Mosen came calling after a restart and took advantage of Abreu and Larson racing for second to dive to the runner-up spot. Mosen immediately reeled in Bell and applied pressure for most of the second half of the race, with Larson disposing of Abreu to track them down while in third.

With just eight to go, Jerry Coons, Jr. stopped while running sixth with a flat right-rear tire. Tire wear was an issue, and the front-runners cooled their tires, including some packing down the enormous cushion in turn-one. Larson jumped up there on the restart and immediately circled Mosen. He set his sights on Bell and tried the outside in one again, but to no avail. With time running out, Larson threw two slide-jobs for the lead but failed to make them stick. He made one more desperation slide into turn-three on the final lap, but came up short, leaving Bell to take the win in the Curb Records – Toyota TRD #71 Bullet/Speedway Toyota.

“This means so much to me. I’m thankful for the opportunity with Keith, Pete, and Kris on this team. We were fortunate to start up there after qualifying tenth. I had to go as slow as I could without getting passed and try to have some stuff at the end. I could hear Kyle out there, so I opened up my entry a little, and then he started sliding me. I saw the white flag and thought ‘Well, here we go.’ Keith warned me under the red that I had to save tires, and we might not make it. Kyle is the best in the business, so it’s really cool to be able to beat him for this,” Bell said.

Larson just missed out on back-to-back wins, this time after garnering the ProSource “Fast Time Award” earlier in the evening aboard the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports – Toyota TRD #71K Bullet/Speedway Toyota.

“I was thinking if I could pressure him (Bell) some, he might use his tire up, but he stayed calm and I wasn’t able to get anywhere. It was cool to see him win his first, and I think he’s gonna win a lot of races this year. We had that red, and I heard the announcer talking about running up above the cushion, actually. It worked for me a little earlier, so I thought I’d try it again. It helped in two ways, getting by a car and saving the right-rear some. I had more tire than Chris, but we just didn’t quite have enough to get him,” Larson said.

New Zealand driver Mosen finished off a fine run to come home third in the Western Springs Speedway – BSL Racing Products #7NZ Breka/Esslinger.

“We ran some other races before this week and didn’t have much success, but this is the time to step up and have some good runs. I’m so proud of our team. We bring these cars from New Zealand and don’t do many shows, but the boys put together a great race car. It’s so much fun to come up here and race with all these great drivers. To race wheel-to-wheel with those guys tonight was awesome. I had a hell of a good time,” Mosen said.

Tracy Hines backed up his second-place run from the night before by coming home fourth in the Parker Machinery – Turbines, Inc. #24 Spike/Stanton Toyota. Abreu wound up fifth in the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports – Toyota TRD #67K Bullet/Speedway Toyota, and Steve Buckwalter picked up the B&W Auto Mart “Hard Charger Award” after driving from 16th to finish sixth in the Buckwalter’s Roofing – VRP Shocks #25 Elite/Ott by Deppe.

HONDA USAC NATIONAL DIRT MIDGET RACE RESULTS: June 13, 2013 – Putnamville, Indiana – Lincoln Park Speedway – “Indiana Midget Week”

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Kyle Larson, 71k, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.336; 2. Andrew Felker, 11a, Felker-13.462; 3. Tracy Hines, 24, Parker-13.626; 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2, Steele-13.686; 5. Bobby East, 4, Klatt-13.688; 6. Brad Mosen, 7nz, Buckley-13.759; 7. Darren Hagen, 3, RFMS-13.785; 8. Brady Bacon, 11, Wilke-Pak-13.800; 9. Rico Abreu, 67k, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.817; 10. Christopher Bell, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.845; 11. Levi Jones, 56, 5IVE-6IX-13.939; 12. Jerry Coons Jr., 63, Dooling-13.950; 13. Ryan Criswell, 11R, R & C-13.972; 14. Blake Edwards, 17E, Koontz-13.978; 15. Dillon Welch, 98, CTR/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-14.023; 16. Brenden Bright, 92, Bright-14.027; 17. Taylor Ferns, 55, Ferns-14.083; 18. Austin Brown, 7, Brown-14.121; 19. Tanner Thorson, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.128; 20. Steve Buckwalter, 25, Buckwalter-14.130; 21. Dave Darland, 2x, Lein-14.145; 22. Brad Kuhn, 10, Cook-14.152; 23. Michael Pickens, 1nz,Buckley-14.196; 24. Tyler Thomas, 2s, Lein-14.198; 25. Bryan Clauson, 39, CTR/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-14.204; 26. Thomas Meseraull, 16, Sandy-14.230; 27. Dalton Armstrong, 7a, C & A-14.360; 28. Nick Lucas, 6, Isenhower-14.440; 29. Shane Cockrum, 14c, Cockrum-14.457; 30. Alex Bright, 17, RW/Curb-Agajanian-14.465; 31. Ross Rankine, 39R, RW/Curb-Agajanian-14.475; 32. Billy Lawhead, 35, Three 5 Racing-14.479; 33. Davey Ray, 33, Team RAYPRO-14.543; 34. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-14.553; 35. Matt Jackson, 97au, Jackson-14.612; 36. Caleb Armstrong, 7c, C & A-14.682; 37. Colten Cottle, 5c, Cottle-14.687; 38. Jaimie McKinley, 42ua, Fedrizzi-14.696; 39. Jimmy Light, 23, FTD Motorsports-14.745; 40. Michael Koontz, 17k, Koontz-14.806; 41. Cameron King, 55k, King-14.882; 42. Billy Wease, 10x, Moore-14.887; 43. Justin Dickerson, 21D, Dickerson-14.925; 44. Johnny Murdock, 0, Murdock-15.823; 45. Seth Motsinger, 2m, Brown-NT.

QUALIFYING RACE : (8 laps) 1. Ray, 2. Daum, 3. C.Armstrong, 4. C.Cottle, 5. Jackson, 6. Koontz, 7. King, 8. Wease, 9. Dickerson, 10. McKinley, 11. Motsinger, 12. Murdock, 13. Light. NT

FIRST HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Larson, 2. Abreu, 3. Darland, 4. Ray, 5. East, 6. Clauson, 7. Criswell. 8. Ferns, 9. Cockrum. NT

SECOND HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Brown, 2. Bell, 3. Felker, 4. Kuhn, 5. Mosen, 6. Daum, 7. A.Bright, 8. Meseraull, 9. Edwards. NT

THIRD HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Hagen, 2. Pickens, 3. Thorson, 4. Jones, 5. Hines, 6. Welch, 7. C.Armstrong, 8. Rankine, 9. D.Armstrong. NT

FOURTH HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Buckwalter, 2. Coons, 3. T.Thomas, 4. K.Thomas, 5. Bacon, 6. B.Bright, 7. C.Cottle, 8. Lucas, 9. Lawhead. 2:36.39

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. East, 2. Hines, 3. Bacon, 4. Welch, 5. Clauson, 6. Mosen, 7. Edwards, 8. Meseraull, 9. Criswell, 10. A.Bright, 11. Daum. 12. B.Bright, 13. D.Armstrong, 14. Rankine, 15. Ferns, 16. C.Armstrong, 17. C.Cottle, 18. Lucas, 19. Lawhead. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Christopher Bell, 2. Kyle Larson, 3. Brad Mosen, 4. Tracy Hines, 5. Rico Abreu, 6. Steve Buckwalter, 7. Andrew Felker, 8. Brad Kuhn, 9. Brady Bacon, 10. Michael Pickens, 11. Levi Jones, 12. Bryan Clauson, 13. Caleb Armstrong, 14. Dave Darland, 15. Dillon Welch, 16. Bobby East, 17. Jerry Coons Jr., 18. Tyler Thomas, 19. Darren Hagen, 20. Zach Daum, 21. Tanner Thorson, 22. Davey Ray, 23. Kevin Thomas Jr., 24. Austin Brown. NT
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**Cockrum flipped during the first heat. K.Thomas, East and Daum flipped on lap 11 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Bell.

NEW HONDA NATIONAL DIRT MIDGET POINTS: 1-Bell-128, 2-Hines-122, 3-Felker-109, 4-Kuhn-87, 5-Clauson-84, 6-Abreu-75, 7-Coons-74, 8-Hagen-68, 9-Jones-66, 10-Bacon-62.

NEW “INDIANA MIDGET WEEK” POINTS: 1-Larson-142, 2-Bell-128, 3-Hines-122, 4-Buckwalter-110, 5-Felker-109, 6-Mosen-108, 7-Kuhn-87, 8-Clauson-84, 9-Abreu-75, 10-Pickens-74.

NEXT HONDA NATIONAL DIRT MIDGET RACE: June 14 – Bloomington, Indiana – Bloomington Speedway – “Indiana Midget Week”

[Bill Gardner]

CLAUSON CLAWS TO BLOOMINGTON “INDIANA MIDGET WEEK” WIN

Bloomington, Indiana.……Bryan Clauson turned things around on Friday night at Bloomington Speedway, winning the third leg of “Indiana Midget Week” for the Honda National Dirt Midgets. It was the 26th National Midget win of Clauson’s young career, moving him to 15th all-time.

Rico Abreu jumped from the pole and paced the early rounds on the bottom while Clauson was working his way from the tenth starting spot. He did most of his work early, jumping to the high side to roar into the top-five. Just before a caution at lap ten, Clauson moved by Tracy Hines for third.

After the restart, Clauson sailed around the high side and quickly moved in on Abreu for the lead. The youngster from Rutherford, California did not go down easily, though. After Clauson rolled by him, Abreu pointed the other direction and slid Clauson in the next corner. Clauson was up to the task, though, and took the lead right back.

Again on a restart with nine to go, Abreu threw a big move at Clauson but to no avail. Abreu’s teammate Christopher Bell then moved in to take second ust before the final caution flew with three to go. On the restart, Bell got a run to the inside but Clauson slammed the door and held on to win by .242 seconds in the Honeybaked Ham Company of Bloomington – Curb Records #39 Spike/Esslinger.

“It’s great to get this win tonight in Honeybaked Ham’s hometown, with them here with us tonight. We laid down as good a lap as we could and gave ourselves something to work with. We had (teammate) Dillon Welch running the B and he got going good through the middle, which really helped. I’ve been in Rico and Bell’s position before and had somebody buzz right by me up high here. I was happy we were on the good end tonight,” Clauson said.

Bell took the second spot and an early-season 42-point margin in the standings aboard the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports – Toyota TRD #71 Bullet/Speedway Toyota.

“I couldn’t be happier to have three podium finishes after three nights out here. This is the toughest midget racing in the world, so I couldn’t be happier. I kept trying different things with the shocks under yellow. I tried going up there after Clauson went by me, but I just had nothing. On that last restart, I hit on something with the car and got up alongside him, but he came back down to the bottom and I bottomed out, so that killed my run,” Bell said.

Abreu picked up his best finish of the week and vaulted to sixth in points for the week in the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports – Toyota TRD #67K Bullet/Speedway Toyota.

“I could see Clauson’s shadow a few times. I was working on keeping my momentum on the bottom. I was gonna stay down there until someone drove by me, and he ended up getting me. I wasn’t as good when I tried to move up, and I actually lost another spot before I got back down. We’re still working, and every race we’ve gotten better. I just need to keep qualifying well to start up front and give myself a chance. As tough as these USAC races are, starting up front is really important,” Abreu said.

Davey Ray ended a solid evening with a fourth-place run in the Mecum Auto Auctions – Ray Pro #33 Spike/Toyota, while Jerry Coons, Jr. rounded out the top-five in the Joe Dooling-owned Westin Packaged Meats #63 Spike/Esslinger. Zach Daum picked up the ProSource “Fast Time Award” before encountering mechanical problems in the Feature, and Alex Bright grabbed the B&W Auto Mart “Hard Charger Award” after driving from 19th to finish ninth.

HONDA USAC NATIONAL DIRT MIDGET RACE RESULTS: June 14, 2013 – Bloomington, Indiana – Bloomington Speedway – “Indiana Midget Week”

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-12.304; 2. Bobby East, 4, Klatt-12.324; 3. Caleb Armstrong, 7c, C & A-12.403; 4. Andrew Felker, 11a, Felker-12.480; 5. Michael Pickens, 1nz, Buckley-12.481; 6. Christopher Bell, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.490; 7. Tracy Hines, 24, Parker-12.496; 8. Rico Abreu, 67k, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.527; 9. Dalton Armstrong, 7a, C & A-12.544; 10. Davey Ray, 33, Team RAYPRO-12.580; 11. Bryan Clauson, 39, CTR/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-12.588; 12. Darren Hagen, 3, RFMS-12.630; 13. Austin Brown, 7, Brown-12.661; 14. Brad Kuhn, 10, Cook-12.688; 15. Jerry Coons Jr., 63, Dooling-12.691; 16. Ryan Criswell, 11R, Criswell-12.716; 17. Brady Bacon, 11, Wilke-Pak-12.731; 18. Dave Darland, 2x, Lein-12.734; 19. Tanner Thorson, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.760; 20. Alex Bright, 17, RW/Curb-Agajanian-12.812; 21. Shane Cockrum, 14c, Cockrum-12.819; 22. Tyler Thomas, 2s, Lein-12.847; 23. Jaimie McKinlay, 42ua, Fedrizzi-12.857; 24. Taylor Ferns, 55, Ferns-12.859; 25. Levi Jones, 56, 5IVE-6IX-12.863; 26. Steve Buckwalter, 25, Buckwalter-12.908; 27. Seth Motsinger, 2M, Brown-12.923; 28. Matt Jackson, 97au, Jackson-12.966; 29. Dillon Welch, 98, CTR/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-12.967; 30. Blake Edwards, 17E, Koontz-12.975; 31. Ross Rankine, 39R, Rankine-12.986; 32. Brenden Bright, 92, Bright-12.989; 33. Lynsey Liguori, 6rr, Liguori-13.103; 34. Colten Cottle, 5c, Cottle-13.138; 35. Thomas Meseraull, 16, Sandy-13.139; 36. Billy Lawhead, 35, Three 5 Racing-13.146; 37. Nick Lucas, 6, Isenhower-13.197; 38. Michael Koontz, 17x, Koontz-13.268; 39. Justin Dickerson, 21D, Dickerson-13.541; 40. Johnny Murdock, 0, Murdock-13.927; 41. Brad Mosen, 7nz, Buckley-NT.

FIRST HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. A.Brown, 3. Pickens, 4. Daum, 5. Cockrum, 6. Jones, 7. D.Armstrong, 8. Welch, 9. Mosen, 10. Liguori, 11. Lucas. 2:11.83

SECOND HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Darland, 2. Bell, 3. Ray, 4. Kuhn, 5. T.Thomas, 6. Edwards, 7. C.Cottle, 8. Koontz, 9. East, 10. Buckwalter. 2:14.33

THIRD HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Thorson, 2. Clauson, 3. Hines, 4. Coons, 5. C.Armstrong, 6. Dickerson, 7. McKinlay, 8. Rankine, 9. Motsinger. 2:14.03

FOURTH HEAT : (10 laps) 1. A.Bright, 2. Hagen, 3. Abreu, 4. Felker, 5. Criswell, 6. B.Bright, 7. Lawhead, 8. Ferns, 9. Jackson, 10. Murdock. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. C.Armstrong, 2. D.Armstrong, 3. Jones, 4. Cockrum, 5. Criswell, 6. Welch, 7. Buckwalter, 8. McKinlay, 9. Jackson, 10. Ferns, 11. Rankine, 12. B.Bright, 13. Mosen, 14. Cottle, 15. Edwards, 16. Koontz, 17. Liguori, 18. Lucas, 19. Motsinger, 20. Dickerson, 21. T.Thomas, 22. Lawhead, 23. Murdock. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Bryan Clauson, 2. Christopher Bell, 3. Rico Abreu, 4. Davey Ray, 5. Jerry Coons Jr., 6. Michael Pickens, 7. Darren Hagen, 8. Caleb Armstrong, 9. Alex Bright, 10. Austin Brown, 11. Levi Jones, 12. Tanner Thorson, 13. Brad Kuhn, 14. Brady Bacon, 15. Ryan Criswell, 16. Dalton Armstrong, 17. Andrew Felker, 18. Dave Darland, 19. Dillon Welch, 20. Tracy Hines, 21. Zach Daum, 22. Shane Cockrum. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-12 Abreu, Laps 13-30 Clauson.

NEW HONDA NATIONAL DIRT MIDGET POINTS: 1-Bell-193, 2-Clauson-151, 3-Hines-141, 4-Felker-136, 5-Abreu-135, 6-Kuhn-119, 7-Coons-117, 8-Hagen-117, 9-Jones-99, 10-C.Armstrong-97.

NEW “INDIANA MIDGET WEEK” POINTS: 1-Bell-193, 2-Clauson-151, 3-Kyle Larson-142, 4-Hines-141, 5-Felker-136, 6-Abreu-135, 7-Pickens-127, 8-Kuhn-119, 9-Coons-117, 10-Hagen-117.

NEXT HONDA NATIONAL DIRT MIDGET RACE: June 15 – Lawrenceburg, Indiana – Lawrenceburg Speedway – “Indiana Midget Week”

[Bill Gardner]

DAUM DOES IT IN LAWRENCEBURG “INDIANA MIDGET WEEK” FEATURE

Lawrenceburg, Indiana.……Zach Daum of Pocahontas, Illinois had endured a tough week before arriving at Lawrenceburg Speedway on Saturday night, but the slump turned around at the end of the Honda National Midget Series 30-lapper as Daum found himself in victory lane. It was Daum’s second win in the series, and the first since capturing the 2011 “Hut Hundred.”

Bobby East led the first lap from the front row, but Caleb Armstrong slid through turns three and four on lap two to jump to the lead. Armstrong, looking for his first National win on dirt, stretched out a big lead as he navigated a fast track with a big cushion around the high banks.

ProSource “Fast Qualifier” Rico Abreu was the man on the move, moving past East and Bryan Clauson just past the halfway point and setting his sights on Armstrong. The two ran a frenzied pace on the top-side and encountered traffic with ten to go. Abreu had a big run as they completed lap 22 and made a banzai move to the inside of turn-one, narrowly clearing Armstrong, who tapped him in the rear.

The duo kept racing as Michael Pickens, who had followed Abreu into striking distance, slid under Armstrong into turn-three. Pickens gained on Abreu quickly. Just a few laps later, Pickens slowed in turn-four with apparent engine issues.

On the restart, Abreu appeared to have lost the handle on his Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports #67K, eventually spinning just after Daum, who started eighth, scooted under him for the lead into turn-one.

Daum got a big jump on the restart, as Clauson appeared to be his only threat for the win. Armstrong was fading, but Brady Bacon came on strong utilizing the bottom groove to make it a three-car fray. With Bacon low and Clauson high, they closed on Daum but didn’t have enough as Daum won by .295 seconds in the Daum Crop Insurance – Toyota #5D Eagle/Stanton Toyota.

“This had been such a terrible week for us. We were in the non-qualifier’s race two nights ago. Last night, we had quick time and broke in the feature. It feels really good to come back and get a win. We got a couple breaks, but our car was definitely coming on. I like to run the bottom, and tonight it came to us. Those guys started racing each other, and we just were able to get right on through,” Daum said.

Bacon, who started ninth, narrowly edged out Clauson by .019 seconds for the runner-up spot in the Wilke-Pak Racers – Speedway Motors #11 Spike/Stanton Mopar.

“We were kinda racing with Daum throughout the race. He was able to get up there a little quicker. We were obviously better at the end, just needed a bit more time. It was nice to have a really good race track here at Lawrenceburg, where we could move around and put on a show,” Bacon said.

Clauson closed the gap on Christopher Bell’s “Indiana Midget Week” point lead, celebrating his 24th birthday with a podium finish in the Honeybaked Ham of Bloomington – Curb Records #39 Spike/Esslinger.

“We just needed a longer run after that last restart to be able to do anything with Zach. It took a while for things to play out for us. We’ve gotten things turned around this week, though, and with Bell’s troubles we have a chance at the title for the week tomorrow at Kokomo,” Clauson said.

East came home fourth in the Klatt Enterprises – Chevy Performance #4 Beast/Chevy, while Darren Hagen rounded out the top-five in the RFMS Racing – Liberty Village #3 DRC/Esslinger.

HONDA USAC NATIONAL DIRT MIDGET RACE RESULTS: June 15, 2013 – Lawrenceburg, Indiana – Lawrenceburg Speedway – “Indiana Midget Week”

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Rico Abreu, 67k, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.368; 2. Michael Pickens, 1nz,Buckley-14.733; 3. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-14.859; 4. Christopher Bell, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.889; 5. Brady Bacon, 11, Wilke-Pak-14.892; 6. Caleb Armstrong, 7c, C & A-14.932; 7. Jerry Coons Jr., 63, Dooling-14.932; 8. Taylor Ferns, 55, Ferns-14.956; 9. Bobby East, 4, Klatt-15.015; 10. Alex Bright, 17, RW/Curb-Agajanian-15.016; 11. Austin Brown, 7, Brown-15.046; 12. Tanner Thorson, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-15.048; 13. Bryan Clauson, 39, CTR/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-15.057; 14. Steve Buckwalter, 25, Buckwalter-15.068; 15. Darren Hagen, 3, RFMS-15.074; 16. Brad Kuhn, 10, Cook-15.084; 17. Ryan Criswell, 11R, R & C-15.150; 18. Brad Mosen, 7nz, Buckley-15.161; 19. Dave Darland, 2x, Lein-15.249; 20. Andrew Felker, 11a, Felker-15.254; 21. Tyler Thomas, 2s, Lein-15.350; 22. Tracy Hines, 24, Parker-15.400; 23. Dalton Armstrong, 7a, C & A-15.441; 24. Levi Jones, 56, 5IVE-6IX-15.455; 25. Matt Jackson, 97au, Jackson-15.493; 26. Brenden Bright, 92, Bright-15.507; 27. Dillon Welch, 98, CTR/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-15.571; 28. Seth Motsinger, 2M, Brown-15.664; 29. Jaimie McKinlay, 42ua, Fedrizzi-15.693; 30. Johnny Murdock, 0, Murdock-17.061; 31. Jimmy Glenn, 07, JG-NT.

FIRST HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Abreu, 2. Clauson, 3. T.Thomas, 4. East, 5. Bacon, 6. Criswell, 7. McKinlay, 8. Jackson. NT

SECOND HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Mosen, 2. C.Armstrong, 3. Buckwalter, 4. B.Bright, 5. A.Bright, 6. Murdock, 7. Hines, 8. Pickens. NT

THIRD HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Hagen, 2. Darland, 3. Coons, 4. D.Armstrong, 5. Daum, 6. Brown, 7. Welch. 2:03.23

FOURTH HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Felker, 2. Kuhn, 3. Bell, 4. Jones, 5. Ferns, 6. Thorson, 7. Motsinger. 2:01.64

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Daum, 2. Pickens, 3. Bacon, 4. A.Bright, 5. Hines, 6. Brown, 7. Thorson, 8. Welch, 9. Criswell, 10. McKinlay, 11. Motsinger, 12. Jackson, 13. Ferns, 14. Murdock, 15. Glenn. 3:05.77

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Zach Daum, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Bryan Clauson, 4. Bobby East, 5. Darren Hagen, 6. Jerry Coons Jr., 7. Caleb Armstrong, 8. Andrew Felker, 9. Alex Bright, 10. Tracy Hines, 11. Steve Buckwalter, 12. Brad Kuhn, 13. Levi Jones, 14. Tanner Thorson, 15. Dave Darland, 16. Christopher Bell, 17. Austin Brown, 18. Dillon Welch, 19. Tyler Thomas, 20. Rico Abreu, 21. Brad Mosen, 22. Michael Pickens, 23. Dalton Armstrong, 24. Brenden Bright. NT
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**Pickens flipped during the first heat.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 East, Laps 2-20 C.Armstrong, Laps 21-27 Abreu, Laps 28-30 Daum.

NEW HONDA NATIONAL DIRT MIDGET POINTS: 1-Bell-223, 2-Clauson-212, 3-Felker-183, 4-Hines-175, 5-Hagen-173, 6-Coons-168, 7-Abreu-162, 8-Bacon-156, 9-Kuhn-155, 10-C.Armstrong-147.

NEW “INDIANA MIDGET WEEK” POINTS: 1-Bell-223, 2-Clauson-212, 3-Felker-183, 4-Hines-175, 5-Hagen-173, 6-Coons-168, 7-Abreu-162, 8-Bacon-156, 9-Kuhn-155, 10-Buckwalter-148.

NEXT HONDA NATIONAL DIRT MIDGET RACE: June 16 – Kokomo, Indiana – Kokomo Speedway – “Indiana Midget Week”

[Bill Gardner]

BELL’S BREAKTHROUGH “INDIANA MIDGET WEEK” ENDS IN KOKOMO VICTORY

Kokomo, Indiana.…..Christopher Bell left no doubt as to who this year’s “Indiana Midget Week” champion was, emerging at the end of of five nights of bare-knuckle Honda National Midget Series racing as the winner in Sunday’s 30-lap Feature at Kokomo Speedway, and the undisputed king of this year’s IMW.

It was a tough road on this night for Bell, however. After qualifying tenth, Bell had to race through the Semi-Feature after his teammate, Kyle Larson, passed him for the final transfer spot in the heat.

The two squared off again in the Feature, this time with Bell prevailing.

Brad Mosen led Andrew Felker in a two-car breakaway from the rest of the field, as they took advantage of front-row starting spots. Those two circled the rim, while Larson moved into the top-three early. Just before the halfway point, Bell broke into the top-five as he battled with his chief rival in the week-long standings, Bryan Clauson.

Larson had moved to second before halfway and pressured Mosen for the top spot as the leaders hit ten to go. Bobby East and Bell joined the fray to make it four cars racing for the top spot, as Larson used the bottom to claw his way to the lead on lap 22. Bell followed suit shortly after, but a caution with just three laps to go made for one final dash to the checkers.

Bell wasted no time finding his rhythm up against the mean Kokomo cushion, while Larson twisted his machine around the bottom. The two nearly touched on the straightaways, with Bell narrowly holding the advantage on lap 28. Larson tried to counter on the bottom, but bicycled badly and nearly turned over. Bell finished it off with two perfectly laps around the rim to win in the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports – Toyota TRD #71 Bullet/Speedway Toyota.

“Kyle actually drew for us tonight, and he drew really good pills for everybody on our team except me. That kinda put us behind the eight-ball to start with going out so late,” Bell laughed, adding, “Then, he drove around us in the heat to send me to the B-feature. I think that actually helped us, though. I actually found out exactly how hard I could run this place. I worked the bottom a little in the feature, and then just had to drive it as hard as I could on the top to pass Kyle at the end.”

Bell got a good look at the lead duo before eventually making his move, saying, “I was waiting to see what would happen when Kyle and Mosen were battling, and then I was able to get going good on the bottom to get to second. But then I said, ‘You know what, I’m gonna go ahead and go for it,’ and it ended up working. This is my first “Midget Week” with Keith. This is really special to me. I can’t say enough about these cars – they really are the best out here.”

Larson recovered to finish second in the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports – Toyota TRD #71K Bullet/Speedway Toyota, making it three top-two finishes in his three starts for the week.

“I’ve been telling everybody about how good Chris Bell is, and nobody believes me, but hopefully now everybody sees what I’m saying. Hopefully, he can keep doing what he’s doing. I knew the bottom probably wasn’t the place to be, at least in one and two, but I got he lead down there and felt really good down there in three and four. He was just able to get a lot of momentum and not make any mistakes and drive around me, which was pretty impressive. I biked it up a couple times trying to stay up with him after he went past me,” Larson said.

Caleb Armstrong came on strong in the final few laps to net third, a fine result in the C&A Motorsports – Winfield Racing #7c Beast/Stanton Toyota, after leading most of Saturday night’s Feature.

“We just kept getting better and better through the feature. I finally got moved up all the way, and we got rolling really well. The curb was pretty decent tonight, but we were fast up there. This was a tough week, and we were trying to figure out a new car still, but we got the thing going great at the end of the week,” Armstrong said.

Mosen wound up fourth to end his strong week in the Western Springs Speedway – BSL Race Products #7NZ Breka/Esslinger, while Zach Daum backed up his win from the night before to finish fifth in the Daum Crop Insurance – Toyota #5D Eagle/Stanton Toyota. ProSource “Fast Qualifier” Rico Abreu started the night off by breaking the track record, but he ended upside-down on the final lap of the Feature in turn-three. He was unhurt. Kevin Thomas, Jr. claimed the B&W Auto Mart “Hard Charger Award” after climbing from 22nd to tenth in the Gregg Steele-owned, Duane & Sonja Alexander #2 Beast/Esslinger.

HONDA USAC NATIONAL DIRT MIDGET RACE RESULTS: June 16, 2013 – Kokomo, Indiana – Kokomo Speedway – “Indiana Midget Week”

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Rico Abreu, 67k, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.009; 2. Kyle Larson, 71k, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.063; 3. Brad Kuhn, 10, Cook-13.181; 4. Caleb Armstrong, 7c, C & A-13.272; 5. Tanner Thorson, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.429; 6. Bryan Clauson, 39, CTR/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-13.435; 7. Bobby East, 4, Klatt-13.447; 8. Brad Mosen, 7nz, Buckley-13.453; 9. Andrew Felker, 11a, Felker-13.458; 10. Christopher Bell, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.520; 11. Brady Bacon, 11, Wilke-Pak-13.556; 12. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-13.637; 13. Jaimie McKinlay, 42ua, Fedrizzi-13.662; 14. Tracy Hines, 24, Parker-13.674; 15. Taylor Ferns, 55, Ferns-13.677; 16. Jerry Coons Jr., 63, Dooling-13.697; 17. Steve Buckwalter, 25, Buckwalter-13.719; 18. Tyler Thomas, 2s, Lein-13.759; 19. Dave Darland, 2x, Lein-13.779; 20. Levi Jones, 56, 5IVE-6IX-13.780; 21. Dillon Welch, 98, CTR/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-13.813; 22. Darren Hagen, 3, RFMS-13.840; 23.; Dalton Armstrong, 7a, C & A-13.872; 24. Ryan Criswell, 11R, Criswell-13.951; 25. Brenden Bright, 92, Bright-14.070; 26. Matt Jackson, 97au, Jackson-14.072; 27. Davey Ray, 33, Team RAYPRO-14.079; 28. Thomas Meseraull, 16, Sandy-14.096; 29. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2, Steele-14.175; 30. Austin Brown, 7, Brown-14.189; 31. Billy Wease, 10x, Moore-14.205; 32. Alex Bright, 17, RW/Curb-Agajanian-14.260; 33. Seth Motsinger, 2M, Brown-14.605; 34. Lynsey Liguori, 6rr, Liguori-14.804; 35. Kevin Studley, 57, Studley-14.805; 36. Justin Dickerson, 21D, Dickerson-15.056; 37. Ross Rankine, 39R, Rankine-NT; 38. Michael Pickens, 1nz,Buckley-NT.

FIRST HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Felker, 2. Thorson, 3. Welch, 4. McKinlay, 5. Abreu, 6. K.Thomas, 7. Motsinger, 8. B.Bright, 9. Buckwalter. 2:18.69

SECOND HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Hagen, 2. T.Thomas, 3. Clauson, 4. Larson, 5. Bell, 6. Hines, 7. Brown, 8. Rankine, 9. Liguori, 10. Jackson. 2:18.49

THIRD HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. East, 3. Darland, 4. Ray, 5. Kuhn, 6. Ferns, 7. D.Armstrong, 8. Wease, 9. Studley. NT

FOURTH HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Criswell, 2. Mosen, 3. Daum, 4. Coons, 5. C.Armstrong, 6. Jones, 7. A.Bright, 8. Meseraull, 9. Dickerson. 2:19.01

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Abreu, 2. Bell, 3. C.Armstrong, 4. Kuhn, 5. Hines, 6. K.Thomas, 7. A.Bright, 8. Meseraull, 9. Brown, 10. Motsinger, 11. D.Armstrong, 12. Wease, 13. Rankine, 14. Jackson, 15. B.Bright, 16. Liguori, 17. Studley, 18. Dickerson, 19. Jones, 20. Ferns.2:46.82

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Christopher Bell, 2. Kyle Larson, 3. Caleb Armstrong, 4. Brad Mosen, 5. Zach Daum, 6. Brady Bacon, 7. Bryan Clauson, 8. Jerry Coons Jr., 9. Darren Hagen, 10. Kevin Thomas Jr., 11. Andrew Felker, 12. Dave Darland, 13. Davey Ray, 14. Tyler Thomas, 15. Ryan Criswell, 16. Austin Brown, 17. Jaimie McKinlay, 18. Dillon Welch, 19. Tanner Thorson, 20. Alex Bright, 21. Rico Abreu, 22. Bobby East, 23. Tracy Hines, 24. Brad Kuhn. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-21 Mosen, Laps 22-27 Larson, Laps 28-30 Bell.
**Ferns flipped on the start of the Semi. Abreu flipped at the finish of the Feature.

NEW HONDA NATIONAL DIRT MIDGET POINTS: 1-Bell-286, 2-Clauson-261, 3-Felker-222, 4-Hagen-217, 5-Coons-212, 6-Bacon-209, 7-C.Armstrong-206, 8-Daumn-197, 9-Hines-189, 10-Abreu-185.

FINAL “INDIANA MIDGET WEEK” POINTS: 1-Bell-286, 3-Clauson-261, 3-Felker-222. 4-Hagen-217, 5-Coons-212, 6-Larson-209, 7-Bacon-209, 8-Hines-189, 9-Mosen-188, 10-Daum-185.