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BALLOU MOTORS TO MONTPELIER BOSS VICTORY

Ballou Motors to Montpelier BOSS Victory

If ever a driver has earned a nickname, Rocklin, California driver Robert Ballou has done just that. Known by most as "The Mad Man", many times Ballou has stormed through the field like a man possessed. However, another trademark of a great driver is showing patience when the situation calls for such. After surviving two early red flags for 3 front runners who flipped, then a leader tangling with a lapped car, Ballou was able to cruise in style to his second career Buckeye Machine BOSS win at the Montpelier Motor Speedway last night.

The action began with 41 of the best traditional sprint drivers in the Midwest signed in to do battle. The 5 heat races were won by Jarrett Andretti, Jon Stanbrough, Robert Ballou, Scotty Weir and Brandon Spithaler. The twin B-Main events were taken by Joss Moffatt and BOSS point leader Mike Miller. Through preliminary events, the program was very clean with the only red flag for Joe Bares who took a wild tumble in turn 4 of his heat race. Bares was fine and the car was able to make it out to start his B-Main event.

The Buckeye Machine redraw with "Bucky" the BOSS Beaver saw the top 2 drivers from each heat race in front of the stands to draw for feature starting spots. One of the tour stars and championship contenders, Michael Fischesser of Cincinnati, Ohio drew the pole of the main event with Todd Keen starting outside the front row. The odds on favorite according to the crowd was Jon Stanbrough after pulling the #4 and watching Robert Ballou get the "9" and Jarrett Andretti the "10". However, the Indiana fans were not prepared for the driver starting from the "3" spot drawn by Evans City, PA driver Brandon Spithaler.

At the drop of the green flag, Todd Keen raced to the lead in search of his first career tour win. But all eyes were on the red #57B Superior Tank & Trailer sprinter owned by Tom Burkey and piloted by the Evans City Earthmover, Brandon Spithaler. After falling to 4th on the opening lap, he worked his way to the high side and then drove around the front 3 cars to rocket to the lead by lap 4. Over the next 2 laps, he opened a 10 car length advantage and appeared to be the car to beat early. But in typical Brandon Spithaler fashion, you run on the very edge, and sometimes over it. Entering turn 1, Spithaler caught the cushion, bicycled, and flipped end over end out off turn 1 and 2. The recent engineering school grad was unhurt, but through for the night with serious damage done to his 2014 BOSS title chances.

"The Bro Show" Jon Stanbrough now set the pace for the restart, but the red quickly flew again as 2nd and 3rd running Keen and Josh Spencer tangled and flipped in turn 1 and 2 also collecting Joss Moffatt. Everyone got out of their cars and appeared to be fine, but Keen was transported to a nearby hospital and found to have a concussion, but was released from the hospital.

After the 2 early red flags, 9th starting Ballou now found himself already up to 3rd trailing Stanbrough and Scotty Weir. Back under green, Stanbrough opened up a healthy lead and appeared to have his way with the field in the Michael Dutcher #37RW. Then, working lap #14, Stanbrough entered lapped traffic and entered turn 3 a little hotter than a car in front of him and looped the car to a stop. He would resume from the tail with a nice charge back up to finish 10th in the final rundown.

Now the battle for second suddenly became the battle for the inaugural BOSS win at Montpelier. Scotty Weir in the Pederson #4P charged back to the green flag with Ballou in tow followed by Jarrett Andretti (up from 10th), Travis Berryhill (up from (11th) and BOSS championship contender Dustin Smith rounding out the top 5. Quietly on the move was Logan Jarrett who had started 19th and already was to 7th for this mid race restart.

The final charge to the checkers saw Weir steering madly in search of that elusive first BOSS win, but Ballou charging hard into turn 1 on lap 18 to surge past Weir down the backstretch. Weir pulled the crossover and the lead duo flashed past the start finish line in a near dead heat. But Ballou had the momentum on the top and rode into the Montpelier history books leading the final 7 circuits to score his second career BOSS triumph. Weire settled for second with Andretti third. Logan Jarrett scored the "Hard Charger" of the night award from the Bridge Restaurant of Sidney, Ohio as he charged from 19th to finish 4th! Travis Berryhill picked up the 5th place finish in his first ever BOSS run. Rounding out the top 10 were Cooper Clouse, Dustin Smith, Michael Fischesser, Joe Liguori and Jon Stanbrough.

Dustin Smith took a slim points lead over Mike Miller who overcame a bad lack night and salvaged an 11th place finish. Michael Fischesser, by virtue of a good night, has moved back into the top 3 in points and is still in serious contention to pick up the 2014 championship. The tour is down to its final 2 rounds with events at the "Track That Action Built" Fremont Speedway in Fremont, Ohio on October 4th. The series champion will be crowned, as always, at the palace of speed, the Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio as part of the "Sprintacular" on Saturday, October 11th.

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