The inaugural Lucas Oil ASCS National Sprint Tour has battled Mother Nature all season. Following a “snow out” at Oklahoma City the final weekend of March the tour then had the next few events rained out, with some of them even called off a day or two before the scheduled event due to the amount of rain already fallen and the ominous forecast ahead. On Saturday night the ASCS National Tour once again fought the weather, and on this night the drivers and the fans won, but just barely!
Fifty-three cars assembled at the Lake Ozark Speedway in mid-Missouri with drivers and crews doing their best to stay cool in the sun baked one hundred degree heat. Relief was on the way in the form of a line of thunderstorms that had developed a little over a hundred miles to the north and west around six o’clock and my night was spent keeping one eye on the racetrack and one eye on my phone’s weather radar hoping that we could somehow get this show in before the rain hit. The track crew had prepped the 3/8-mile to perfection with just the right amount of moisture in the surface and the sprint drivers were able to run from bottom to top making for six exciting heat races. Kathryne Minter surprised the large crowd by holding off local favorites Randy Martin and Jesse Hockett to win heat race number once. Brady Bacon sizzled to the second heat victory while Jason Johnson made a last lap pass of Frank Brown to win heat three and top the passing point chart earning him the pole position in the main event. The tour’s most recent winner Nick Smith was the winner of the fourth heat with Gary Taylor taking heat number five. In that race Tim Newman showed just how steep the cushion had become in turn one as he hit it wrong and went for quite a tumble rolling side-to-side at least four times. He emerged uninjured, but his ride was done for the night. Young Austin Alumbaugh held off the veteran Paul McMahan for the victory in the sixth and final qualifier.
Three B-Mains with the top two transferring filled out the starting field with Jesse Hockett passing Tim Crawley mid-race to win the first one. This race is held to honor the memory of Hockett’s former crew chief Daniel McMillin and in the first two editions of the event it has been Jason Johnson in victory lane at the end of the night. Hockett would now have to start seventeenth in the race that he would like to win for his fallen friend. Young Josh Fisher ran away with the second B as Danny Wood slipped past Trey Robb late in the race for the second transfer spot, and it was Aaron Berryhill and Mitchell Moore earning the last two qualifying spots in the third B-Main.
The feature field was set and with lightning now filling the sky just to the west the majority of the crowd agonized through a twenty-five lap feature for the Crate Late Models, more on that later. Just as the sprint feature was making its parade lap at 10:30 the raindrops started to fall and when the field took the green it was an interesting mixture of residual one hundred degree heat, the cool winds from an approaching storm, the swirling dust that twenty-five sprint cars create when they are turned loose under green and large spitting raindrops. Randy Martin snared the lead in turn one and pulled away from the field as they negotiated the rain-slicked surface and when the caution waved for Gary Taylor who had stopped on the high side of turn four it looked like that would do it as the rain started to fall even harder. Several fans, including us, headed for their cars and while some left we stopped short of doing that when the raindrops suddenly slowed their pace.
The cars stayed on the track and were able to work the moisture back in and within about ten minutes they were ready to go back to racing. The raindrops were still falling as we hustled back to our seats as Tommy Bryant and Jason Johnson slipped past Martin on the restart. The next twenty-nine laps may just be the best racing that we will see all year as our attention was pulled between the thrilling battle for the lead featuring Bryant and Johnson, and the charge through the pack being made by McMahan, Hockett and Gary Wright. Johnson and Bryant slapped wheels heading down the backstretch on lap eight and the race became even more intense as they started to negotiate lapped traffic a few laps later. With eight laps to go Johnson slid up in front of Bryant to take the lead down the backstretch only to have Bryant take it right back with a bold slider in turns three and four, plus with Shane Stewart now quickly approaching the lead duo the crowd moved to the edge of their seats. Two laps later Johnson was able to make it stick with Bryant still in hot pursuit and as they crossed the stripe with four laps to go Bryant had a run on the new leader. The Conroe, Texas, driver pointed the nose of his #85 to the very bottom groove heading into turn one and when Johnson also chose that line Bryant had to jack his car sideways to keep from getting into the leader. It was a slide that he could not recover from as Bryant spun up the track and collected Mitchell Moore bringing out the caution. It was the first time that my son Morgan and I had seen Bryant in action and despite the fact he would have to settle for a twelfth-place finish after restarting at the rear, he definitely picked up at least two new fans on the night with his bold driving style.
With a clear track ahead of him there was no stopping Johnson over the final four laps as he earned $6,000 for his third straight win of the Daniel McMillin Memorial at Lake Ozark Speedway. Stewart, who started tenth and finished in second will likely retain his series point lead while Brady Bacon took home the third spot. Jack Dover was making a run on Bacon only to jump the cushion in turn four coming to the white flag allowing Paul McMahan to get by him for fourth. Gary Wright came from row seven to finish in sixth with Jesse Hockett coming home seventh after starting in row nine. One of the provisional starters Tony Bruce Jr. advanced from row twelve to finish eighth. The raindrops were still falling and the lightning flashed along with the cameras as Johnson stood in victory lane. The “Cajun Sensation” had won the race and the ASCS had finally defeated Mother Nature.
I mentioned earlier that the crowd “agonized” through the Crate Late Model feature, well that was only because of the threatening weather as their feature was a pretty good one to watch after they got two early cautions out of the way. Darin Walker has been nearly unstoppable in this division around Missouri this year and he showed why as he passed leader Aaron Heck on lap four and then pulled away to nearly a half lap lead over a pack of five that were waging an entertaining race for second. Misfortune struck Walker on lap eighteen though when he stopped on the track with a right front tire down and even though he would have to restart from the rear of the twenty-one car field you had to wonder just how far he could advance in the final seven laps. Bobby Martintoni assumed the lead on the restart and he had Bobby Dauderman all over him for the next three laps before the caution waved once again for Walker who had another flat right front tire. Dauderman would be able to get the nose of his car to the outside of the leader working through the turns over the final four circuits, but there was no stopping “the Italian Stallion” Martintoni from taking the $750 victory. Dauderman, Mike Harris, Gordy Gundaker and Rylan Dagg would complete the top five.
There were also eighteen UMP Modifieds on hand and their feature rounded out the night, but with the raindrops still present and with oranges and reds showing up on my radar not far to the west we decided to hit the road before their feature race closed out the night.
A big thank you to Tammy Gundaker and her pit shack staff for the fine hospitality as they were still fresh and pleasant after working for more than four hours with the hundred degree sun beating down on them. Sprint car fans, make sure that you look for this event and mark it on your calendar for 2010 to see if Jason Johnson came make it four straight.
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