11/9/2014
Robert Ballou
BALLOU DOMINATES FLAG-TO-FLAG "OVAL NATIONALS" PRELIMINARY
Perris, California…….Robert Ballou continued his impressive second half of 2014 which has seen him put together an impressive run of podium finishes and three AMSOIL National Sprint Car wins this season, as he picked up the preliminary feature for the Budweiser “Oval Nationals” presented by All Coast Construction in a non-stop thirty-lapper Friday night. The Rocklin, California native pulled away over the last half of the race, scoring his first win at the southern California speedway and locking himself into Saturday’s $20,000-to-win finale.
“This place has been so tough on me, and I consider it one of if not the toughest race track in the country, so to win here is especially satisfying. We’ve put together a great stretch and have our program where we know it needs to be, and the results have shown that,” Ballou said.
Ballou started from the pole and stayed low as he found grip right on the bottom to lead the opening laps. Dave Darland, who started alongside Ballou, patrolled the high line and roared past with the lead on lap five. Darland opened up his advantage as Ballou jumped to the cushion and held second.
Those two raced away from a great battle behind them, and Ballou began to close as they neared the halfway mark. On lap 14, he had a run down the backstretch and shot to the bottom, sliding up in front of Darland with the lead again. He would never be seriously challenged again, working traffic to perfection while building up a 2.857-second final margin of victory in the Blakesley Auto – Deaton’s Waterfront Services #12x Maxim/Ott.
“Dave Darland is the winningest USAC Sprint Car driver of all-time, so when you see him go by you and the top is that good, you have to believe the race is probably over. But I just got into such a good rhythm and was better than him, and I really didn’t want to push the issue, but I didn’t have much choice other than to slide past him for the lead. It was treacherous in traffic dealing with so many fast cars since we went green the whole way, so I was happy to see it get over with,” Ballou said.
Brady Bacon fought through early engine issues and used the bottom to claw past Darland and claim the runner-up position, giving himself a 68-point lead with three races remaining for the Hoffman Auto Racing – Mean Green #69 Triple X/Williams Mopar.
“We lost a cylinder early in the race and I was just happy to not have it turn out to be a more major issue. It actually probably helped us a little bit with running the bottom. We ended up gaining a little bit tonight and got ourselves in good position tomorrow, which is what we’re trying to do out here. We need clean, smooth nights and tonight we had a little hiccup but caught some luck, and that’s nice to have sometimes,” Bacon said.
Jon Stanbrough battled with Bacon throughout the race, and the two finally cleared Darland late in the going as Stanbrough rounded out the podium in the Griffin’s Propane – MP Environmental Services #37RW Maxim/Fisher.
“It’s been a great few weeks for me with getting married and bringing out my restored Jimmy Oskie J.F.K. car to California, and I always love coming out here. We came on more and more as the race went on, so I’m really happy to get a podium and put ourselves in good position for tomorrow night,” Stanbrough said.
Darland came home fourth in the Phillips Motorsports – Racer’s Advantage Store #71P DRC/Foxco, while C.J. Leary backed up his “Billy Wilkerson Fast Time Award” from Woodland Auto Display with a top-five run in the Leary Construction Company – Green Tech Lubricants #30 DRC/Claxton Mopar.
Those five along with seventh-place finisher Mike Spencer accrued enough points to lock into tomorrow’s feature, as they will run a “Super 6 Dash” to line up the race’s first three rows.
AMSOIL USAC SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: November 7, 2014 – Perris, California – Perris Auto Speedway – 19th Budweiser “Oval Nationals” presented by All Coast Construction
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-16.295; 2. Jon Stanbrough, 37RW, Dutcher-16.313; 3. Mike Spencer, 50, Chaffin-16.324; 4. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-16.413; 5. Austin Williams, 2, Jory-16.467; 6. Ronnie Gardner, 93, Gardner-16.487; 7. Damion Gardner, 4x, Alexander-16.557; 8. Dave Darland, 71P, Phillips-16.573; 9. Robert Ballou, 12x, Ballou-16.605; 10. Bryan Clauson, 20, Stewart/Curb-Agajanian-16.651; 11. Danny Faria, Jr., 2F, Bowman-16.652; 12. Justin Grant, 40, Hery-16.679; 13. Richard Vander Weerd, 10, Vander Weerd-16.719; 14. Matt Mitchell, 37, Mitchell-16.749; 15. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-16.752; 16. Darren Hagen, 17RW, Dutcher-16.773; 17. Jace Vander Weerd, 88, Vander Weerd-16.809; 18. Ryan Bernal, 56, Phulps-16.833; 19. Rickie Gaunt, 66, Miller-16.835; 20. Nic Faas, 37F, Mitchell-16.839; 21. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 73, Ford-16.859; 22. Chase Stockon, 32, 32/TBI-16.862; 23. Christopher Bell, 51T, Roth-16.869; 24. Greg Alexander, 72, Tyler-16.880; 25. Jake Swanson, 92, Sertich-16.881; 26. Cody Williams, 44, Jory-16.899; 27. Chad Boespflug, 5B, Baldwin-16.916; 28. Geoff Ensign, 3F, Finkenbinder-16.927; 29. Johnathan Henry, 17, Henry-16.958; 30. Josh Pelkey, 12, Allen-16.991; 31. R.J. Johnson, 51, Martin-17.005; 32. Matt Rossi, 02, Rossi-17.010; 33. Shon Deskins, 20s, Deskins-17.026; 34. Logan Williams, 5, Jory-17.047; 35. David Bezio, 37x, Bezio-17.058; 36. Austin Liggett, 9s, Hurst-17.064; 37. Michael Curtis, 45c, Turner/Wheeler-17.182; 38. Garrett Hansen, 7, Priestley-17.234; 39. Mike Martin, 16, Martin-17.264; 40. Max Adams, 5x, Adams-17.272; 41. Landon Hurst, 179, Hurst-17.355; 42. Colby Copeland, 5v, VanLare-17.359; 43. Trent Williams, 52, Williams-17.406; 44. Parker Colston, 64, Gore-17.467; 45. Terry Schank, Jr., 1, Gleason-17.513; 46. Corey Ballard, 34, Ballard-17.640; 47. A.J. Bender, 21, Bender-17.644; 48. Verne Sweeney, 98, Tracy-17.647; 49. Jeff Sibley, 42N, Sibley-17.658; 50. Chris Gansen, 4G, Gansen-17.674; 51. Jeremy Ellertson, 98x, Ellertson-17.754; 52. Kyle Edwards, 39E, Edwards-17.807; 53. Tony Everhart, 55, Everhart-18.241; 54. Tobey Sampson, 12B, Blakesley-18.766; 55. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-NT.
C MAIN: (10 laps) 1. Hurst, 2. T. Williams, 3. Copeland, 4. Schank, 5. Ballard, 6. Bender, 7. Andretti, 8. Sibley, 9. Edwards, 10. Sweeney, 11. Gansen, 12. Everhart, 13. Sampson, 14. Ellertson. 3:01.09
FIRST HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Thomas, 2. R. Gardner, 3. Johnson, 4. C. Williams, 5. Hagen, 6. Liggett, 7. Faria, 8. Leary. 2:54.71
SECOND HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Stockon, 2. Stanbrough, 3. Grant, 4. Boespflug, 5. Rossi, 6. J. Vander Weerd, 7. Curtis, 8. D. Gardner. NT
THIRD HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Bell, 2. Bernal, 3. Spencer, 4. Darland, 5. Ensign, 6. R. Vander Weerd, 7. Hansen, 8. Deskins. 2:56.30
FOURTH HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Bacon, 3. Gaunt, 4. Mitchell, 5. Alexander, 6. Martin, 7. L. Williams, 8. Henry. NT
FIFTH HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Pelkey, 2. Hines, 3. Swanson, 4. Clauson, 5. A. Williams, 6. Faas, 7. Bezio, 8. Adams. 3:02.06
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Leary, 2. Hagen, 3. Faria, 4. R. Vander Weerd, 5. A. Williams, 6. Rossi, 7. Faas, 8. Liggett, 9. D. Gardner, 10. Ensign, 11. J. Vander Weerd, 12. Alexander, 13. Henry, 14. Adams, 15. Bezio, 16. Schank, 17. Copeland, 18. Hurst, 19. Curtis, 20. T. Williams, 21. Martin, 22. Hansen, 23. Deskins, 24. L. Williams. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Jon Stanbrough, 4. Dave Darland, 5. C.J. Leary, 6. Bryan Clauson, 7. Mike Spencer, 8. Richard Vander Weerd, 9. Ryan Bernal, 10. Christopher Bell, 11. Matt Mitchell, 12. Danny Faria, Jr., 13. Ronnie Gardner, 14. Tracy Hines, 15. Justin Grant, 16. Damion Gardner, 17. Chase Stockon, 18. Darren Hagen, 19. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 20. R.J. Johnson, 21. Cody Williams, 22. Josh Pelkey, 23. Chad Boespflug, 24. Rickie Gaunt, 25. Austin Williams, 26. Jake Swanson. 9:24.75
***Colston flipped in Qualifying. Leary flipped in Heat 1. D. Gardner flipped in Heat 2. L. Williams flipped in the Semi. Hansen flipped in the Semi.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-4 Ballou, Laps 5-13 Darland, Laps 14-30 Ballou.
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1- Bacon-1,829; 2-Clauson-1,761; 3-Darland-1,739; 4-Stanbrough-1,654; 5-Stockon-1,501; 6-Hines-1,433; 7-Grant-1,405; 8-Ballou-1,352; 9-Chris Windom-1,351; 10-Leary-1,243.
NEW AMSOIL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-D.Gardner-1,210, 2-Spencer-988, 3-Brody Roa-790, 4-Mitchell-786, 5-C.Williams-769, 6-A.Williams-737, 7-Swanson-659, 8-Faas-629, 9-R.Vander Weerd-614, 10-L.Williams-465.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: November 8 – Perris Auto Speedway – Perris, California – Budweiser “Oval Nationals” presented by All Coast Construction
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Article Credit: usacracing.com
