Late Model purse (not woo) is 30% of what they pay now. The fair board knows that its fair week in the middle of Absolutely No Where, Kansas. People are coming to the races even if they run those cruisers.

I saw this victory lane photo of Kyle Larson but didn't see a finishing order after that.

By Bryan Gapinski

Belleville, Kan., Aug. 5---Eighteen-year old Kyle Larson continued his brilliant season capturing the 25-lap feature, Friday Night on the opening night for the 34th annual RevHoney Belleville Midget Nationals. It marked the Elk Grove, California’s drivers first ever appearance at the track.

Larson jumped into the lead at the start, from the pole position. Two cautions during the first seven laps kept the field grouped together. Jerry Coons Jr. passed Brad Loyet for second place on Lap 8, while Larson increased his lead each lap.

Coons running second, retired with engine problems on Lap 13, one lap later the caution appeared for another stopped car. Brad Kuhn took over second place on the restart, while a heated battle waged for positions two-five. Larson appeared headed for an easy victory when Danny Sheridan stopped with a flat tire, with four laps remaining.

On the restart Larson was flawless, while Kuhn ran second, defending winner Bryan Clauson moved into third place, and challenged Kuhn for the runner-up position. Larson driving the Keith Kunz owned Bullet-Toyota No. 71 finished 1.8 seconds ahead of Kuhn, Clauson, Loyet, and Caleb Armstrong.

Zach Daum who started in 18th position finished sixth, followed by Mario Clouser who earlier in the night during qualifications lowered the track record to 17.497 seconds, breaking Cole Whitt’s two-year old record. Dalton Armstrong, Bobby East, and C.J. Johnson completed the top ten. “This event has so much history, its great to score a victory here” commented Larson afterwards.



SUMMARY

Qualifications: 1. Mario Clouser, MCM#06-17.497(NTR); 2. C.J. Johnson, Johnson#45-17.568; 3. Kyle Larson, Kunz#67-17.589; 4. Brad Kuhn, RWB#17-17.737; 5. Don Droud Jr., Smith#44-17.782; 6. Brad Loyet, Loyet#05- 17.784; 7. Caleb Armstrong, Kunz#71-17.803; 8. Bobby East, Klatt#4-17.807; 9. Dave Darland, Wilke-PAK#11-17.829; 10. Jerry Coons Jr., Lendich#3nz-17.917; 11. Bryan Clauson, Tucker-BCI-Curb-Agajanian-17.954; 12. Levi Roberts, Nine Racing#9-17.986; 13. Danny Sheridan, Allen#12s-18.000; 14. Josh Pelkey, Allen#12jr-18.018; 15. Zach Daum, Daum#5d-18.084; 16. Darren Hagen, RFMS#3-18.154; 17. Cody Brewer, Brewer#96-18.155; 18. Jeff Stasa, Stasa#91-18.219; 19. Dalton Armstrong, Kunz#71k-18.291; 20. Patrick Stasa, Stasa#19-18.459; 21. Terry Goodwin, Goodwin#2-18.554; 22. Chet Gehrke, Mattson#11c-18.586; 23. Todd Plemons, Minarik#98-18.702; 24. Garrett Hood, Hood#11h-18.991; 25. Randy Boyer, Boyer#69-20.799.



8-lap Heat Race#1: Loyet, Brewer, Clouser, Sheridan, Droud, Hood, Boyer.

8-lap Heat Race#2: Hagen, Roberts, Darland, Kuhn, P. Stasa, Plemons.

8-lap Heat Race#3: Larson, Clauson, D. Armstrong, East, Daum Gehrke.

8-lap Heat Race#4: Coons, C. Armstrong, Pelkey, Johnson, J. Stasa, Goodwin.



20-lap Feature: 1. Kyle Larson; 2. Brad Kuhn; 3. Bryan Clauson; 4. Brad Loyet; 5. Caleb Armstrong; 6. Zach Daum; 7. Mario Clouser; 8. Dalton Armstrong; 9. Bobby East; 10. C.J. Johnson; 11. Don Droud Jr.; 12. Levi Roberts; 13. Danny Sheridan; 14. Cody Brewer; 15. Garrett Hood; 16. Jeff Stasa; 17. Terry Goodwin; 18. Josh Pelkey; 19. Jerry Coons Jr.; 20. Randy Boyer; 21. Dave Darland; 22. Darren Hagen; 23. Chet Gehrke; 24. Patrick Stasa; 25. Todd Plemons.

Feature Lap Leaders: Larson 1-25.

No surprise in this finish,as we saw at midget week Larsen+Kunz+Toyota= damn fast.

Larson + any car = fast the kid is impressive
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Where's the big names? I guess they're ride-less or have other prioritys, but is weird not seeing Darland, Hines, ect, not in the results for Belleville.

I realize that car counts are down across the board in regards to midget racing, but it seems like Belleville is going to need to bring back USAC for the race to continue sucessfully. USAC whether you like them or not would bring out the guys running for points, and that would add some names and some cars. Just being objective...

It is really cool though to see these young kids not being intimidated by a giant track like Belleville. A NTR for Clouser is very impressive, and the win by Larson his first time on the track is pretty amazing.
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Darland was there, in the Wilke-Pak #11.

Whoops didn't see his name buried in there...

Btw its cool to see Droud getting a good run in too!
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The "KID" is very good . They do not need USAC back in there ,they screwed it up. Lets put PowerI in there and you will have 40+ cars. You would have some USAC drivers and 30-35 powerI cars there. Every powerI show that I have been to this yr has had 30+ cars.

---------- Post added at 05:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:44 AM ----------

Can you get any bigger names in midgets than Clauson & Kuhn?

Disappointed with the car count. The solution is that the nationals needs both POWRi and USAC.

While many of the big names, made the trip not all of them did. With USAC sanctioning the two sprint car races in Iowa and having the sanction at Dodge City, the odds are good that the "summer midwest tour" will grow more next year. It is very possible the one night at Lincoln could turn into two nights. Or at the very least, USAC going to another track on Saturday night. This would make it even more difficult for the USAC drivers to cross over.

The last POWRi race that was held only had 22 cars (Sunday night at US36) The car count was helped by many cross over teams. (Clausen, Coons, Kuntz three cars) Of the top 10 POWRi cars in point only 3 of them are at Belleville.

The midget week of money has changed. It used to start the weekend before Belleville and would have several midweek shows with Belleville being the last event. This year it was four days straight last weekend. It started on Thursday and they raced straight through to Sunday night. Changing of the money week also is hurting the car count.

This is sort of like the Angell Park/Badger deal. They need each other to be great. It my opinion, Belleville need to have USAC and POWRi to be great.