ABREU FROM 8TH TO WIN NIGHT 1 OF BELLEVILLE
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Belleville, Kansas…….Defending “Belleville Midget Nationals” champion Rico Abreu picked up right where he left off around the famed Belleville High Banks as he stormed from eighth to win Thursday’s 25-lap preliminary feature. The defending Honda Midget National Champion made it three wins on the year and eleven for his career aboard the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports – Toyota TRD #97 Bullet/Speedway Toyota.
“This is one of my favorite tracks and I’ve had some success here. Saturday night is what counts, so we’ll have to be ready to do this again. I was able to search around some running behind them and find something that worked. They do a great job preparing these cars, and that’s the key to come to a place like this,” Abreu said.
Belleville rookie Kevin Thomas, Jr. jumped to the lead from outside the front row and led his teammates, who started on the outside of the first four rows as they completed the first lap running 1-4. On lap two, polesitter Steve Buckwalter got up into the turn-three guardrail, spinning sideways as cars scattered to miss him. Both Tyler Nelson and Chett Gehrke flipped, while Chad Frewaldt was also collected. All drivers were unhurt.
After another quick yellow two laps later, Abreu used the restart to get a run on Thorson for third, and the caution reappeared a few laps later as Dave Darland caught the cushion in turn-one and jumped sideways before slowing to a stop. Under the yellow, Zach Daum visited the work area for a packed right-front wheel, but he returned to the action.
On this restart, Abreu went after Bell for second and slid him into turn-three for the runner-up spot and began to carve away at Thomas, Jr.’s lead. It fell into Abreu’s hands, however, on lap 12 as Thomas went up in smoke at the start finish line and brought out another yellow as he stopped.
From there, Abreu was in command, although Bell began to reel him back in on the longer green-flag run. He could never get within striking distance, though, and had to settle for second in the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports – Toyota TRD #71 Bullet/Speedway Toyota. Bell also set the night’s Pro Source “Fast Time Award.”
“He did a great job on the restarts, and tonight it was important to get positions as quickly as you could after those. Rico did a great job on those, and after we ran that first lap or two, we kinda had what we had. I packed a wheel with mud fairly early, and that made it pretty tough to see,” Bell said.
Thorson rounded out the podium in the Toyota TRD – Abreu Vineyards #67 Bullet/Speedway Toyota.
“I was feeling around and thought maybe some rubber would come, and I knew my only chance at them would be if it came in and I could find it first. Hats off to those guys, and this team is so strong right now. All the laps you can get around this place are great and will help even more heading to Saturday,” Thorson said.
Tracy Hines came home fourth in the Parker Machinery – Turbines, Inc. #24 Spike/Stanton Toyota and took the point lead by one over Thomas, Jr. heading intoSaturday’s Belleville finale. Daum recovered to drive back up to fifth aboard the Daum Crop Insurance – Weld Wheels #5D Eagle/Stanton Toyota.
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USAC HONDA MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 30, 2015 – Belleville, Kansas – Belleville High Banks -“Belleville Midget Nationals”
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Christopher Bell, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-17.603; 2. Tracy Hines, 24, Parker-17.628; 3. Tanner Thorson, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-17.652; 4. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-17.652; 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 67k, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-17.679; 6. Steve Buckwalter, 25, Buckwalter-17.747; 7. Cody Brewer, 96, Central Motorsports-17.765; 8. Rico Abreu, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-17.772; 9. C.J. Johnson, 45x, Martin-17.939; 10. Dave Darland, 63, RKR/Curb-Agajanian-17.956; 11. Jerry Coons Jr., 27, Heffner-17.956; 12. Spencer Bayston, 39, Clauson-18.165; 13. Matt Johnson, 85, Central Motorsports-18.189; 14. Tyler Thomas, 91T, Thomas-18.190; 15. Isaac Chapple, 52, Chapple-18.251; 16. Michelle Decker, 4M, Meents-18.284; 17. Tyler Nelson, 88, Nelson-18.439; 18. Chad Frewaldt, 75, Frewaldt-18.474; 19. Kyle Jones, 69x, Hefler-18.508; 20. Chett Gehrke, 11c, Matteson-18.548; 21. Jeff Stasa, 91, SBR-18.583; 22. Patrick Stasa, 19s, SBR-18.769; 23. Hunter Fischer, 24F, Fischer-18.839; 24. Warren Johnson, 313, Frewaldt-19.293; 25. Aaron Schuck, 53, SET-19.299; 26. Johnny Murdock, 0, Zero-20.328; 27. Patrick Lawson, 0B, Zero-20.557; 28. Robert Bell, 71B, Bell-20.771; 29. Blake McMillan, 727, McMillan-21.191; 30. Tyler Dunkle, 0D, Zero-NT; 31. Morgan Frewaldt, 926, Frewaldt-NT.
FIRST HEAT : (8 laps) 1. C.J. Johnson, 2. Bell, 3. K.Thomas, 4. J.Stasa, 5. Nelson, 6. M.Johnson, 7. Schuck, 8. McMillan. 2:22.13
SECOND HEAT : (8 laps) 1. Hines, 2. T.Thomas, 3. Buckwalter, 4. Darland, 5. C.Frewaldt, 6. Dunkle, 7. P.Stasa, 8. Murdock. 2:22.68
THIRD HEAT : (8 laps) 1. Thorson, 2. Coons, 3. Brewer, 4. Chapple, 5. Jones, 6. Fischer, 7. Lawson,. 2:24.42
FOURTH HEAT : (8 laps) 1. Abreu, 2. Daum, 3. Bayston, 4. Gehrke, 5. Decker, 6. W.Johnson, 7. Bell. 2:21.95
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Jones, 2. C.Frewaldt, 3. Decker, 4. M.Johnson, 5. Nelson, 6. W.Johnson, 7. Schuck, 8. Murdock, 9. Bell, 10. Lawson, 11. McMillan, 12. Fischer. 3:47.04
FEATURE: (25 laps) 1. Rico Abreu, 2. Christopher Bell, 3. Tanner Thorson, 4. Tracy Hines, 5. Zach Daum, 6. Jerry Coons Jr., 7. Tyler Thomas, 8. Spencer Bayston, 9. Isaac Chapple, 10. Matt Johnson, 11. Aaron Schuck, 12. Cody Brewer, 13. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14. Dave Darland, 15. Kyle Jones, 16. Warren Johnson, 17. C.J. Johnson, 18. Jeff Stasa, 19. Steve Buckwalter, 20. Michelle Decker, 21. Chett Gehrke, 22. Tyler Nelson, 23. Chad Frewaldt, 24. Johnny Murdock. NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-11 K.Thomas, Laps 12-25 Abreu. |
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UPCOMING EVENT INFO
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BELLEVILLE NATIONALS WINNERS 1978 – 49 Eddie Jackson, Denver, Colo., Harry Conklin/Volkswagen/Edmunds
1979 – 97 Stan Fox, Janesville, Wis., Sherman Pickrell/Volkswagen/Edmunds
1980 – 1 Stan Fox, Janesville, Wis., Steve Lewis/Volkswagen/Edmunds
1981 – 1 Mike Gregg, Ft. Collins, Colo., Hank Hersch/Volkswagen/Edmunds
1982 – 81 Dave Manes, Tucson, Ariz., Dave Manes/Dino/Stewart
1983 – 71 Johnny Parsons Jr., Van Nuys, Calif., Ron Weeks/Cosworth/Challenger
1984 – 48 Mark Passerrelli, Phoenix, Ariz., Tony Passerrelli/Arias/Rich
1985 – 67 Sleepy Tripp, Costa Mesa, Cal., George Zarounian/VW/Edmunds
1986 – 84 Tommy White, Anaheim, Cal., Bobby White/Volkswagen/Edmunds
1987 – 67 Sleepy Tripp, Costa Mesa, Cal., George Zarounian/Cosworth/Edmunds
1988 – 55 Steve Knepper, Belleville, Ill 1989 – 71 Chuck Gurney, Livermore, Calif., Larry Howard/Arias/Ellis 1990 – 4 Jeff Gordon, Pittsboro, Ind., Rollie Helmling/Pontiac/Beast 2013 – 71 Christopher Bell, Norman Okla., Kunz/Curb-Aqajanian/Toyota/ 2014 – 97 Rico Abreu, Rutherford, Calif., Kunz/Curb-Aqajanian/Toyota/ |
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2015 HONDA USAC NATIONAL MIDGET CHAMPIONSHIP
SCHEDULE & RESULTS
@=Indiana Midget Week
***=Co-Sanctioned by ARDC
%%%=Co-Sanctioned by POWRi ###=Co-Sanctioned by Honda USAC Western Midget Series
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2015 HONDA USAC NATIONAL MIDGET
POINT STANDINGS
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2015 HONDA USAC NATIONAL MIDGET FEATURE WINNERS
Rico Abreu – 3 (Lawrenceburg Speedway on June 13, Angell Park Speedway on July 5 & Belleville High Banks on July 30) Christopher Bell – 1 (Bloomington Speedway on June 12) Bryan Clauson – 1 (Lincoln Park Speedway on June 11) Darren Hagen – 1 (Kokomo Speedway on April 11) Tanner Thorson – 1 (Gas City I-69 Speedway on June 10) |
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2015 HONDA USAC NATIONAL MIDGET STATISTICS
FEATURE WINS: FEATURE LAP LEADERS: TOP-FIVE FEATURE FINISHES: TOP-TEN FEATURE FINISHES: HEAT RACE WINS: C-MAIN WINS: SEMI WINS: |
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2015 HONDA USAC NATIONAL MIDGET “HARD CHARGER OF THE RACE”
April 11: Kokomo Speedway – Tanner Thorson (8 positions)
May 29: Plymouth Speedway – Darren Hagen (10 positions)
June 10: Gas City I-69 Speedway – Tyler Thomas (9 positions)
June 11: Lincoln Park Speedway – Christopher Bell (14 positions)
June 12: Bloomington Speedway – Tyler Thomas (10 positions)
June 13: Lawrenceburg Speedway – Tyler Thomas (13 positions)
July 5: Angell Park Speedway – Isaac Chapple (9 positions)
July 28: Solomon Valley Raceway – Tucker Klaasmeyer (12 positions) July 30: Belleville High Banks – Aaron Schuck (12 positions) |
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ALL-TIME USAC NATIONAL MIDGET DRIVER FEATURE WINS
1. [111 wins] Mel Kenyon
2. [95 wins] Rich Vogler
3. [78 wins] Bob Wente
4. [63 wins] Bob Tattersall
5. [59 wins] Sleepy Tripp
6. [48 wins] Jimmy Davies
7. [35 wins] Tracy Hines
8. [34 wins] Bryan Clauson
9. [31 wins] Gene Hartley & Chuck Rodee
11. [30 wins] Dave Darland, Mike McGreevy & Johnny Parsons
14. [27 wins] Gary Bettenhausen & Tony Stewart
16. [25 wins] Darren Hagen, Parnelli Jones & Dave Strickland
19. [24 wins] Bill Engelhart
20. [23 wins] Tom Bigelow, Pancho Carter, Tommy Copp, Kevin Olson & Billy Vukovich
25. [22 wins] Bobby East & Shorty Templeman
27. [21 wins] Steve Cannon, Jimmy Caruthers, Rex Easton & Ken Schrader
31. [20 wins] A.J. Foyt
32. [19 wins] Jerry Coons Jr., Stan Fox & Jason Leffler
35. [18 wins] Dave Steele
36. [17 wins] Jay Drake & J.J. Yeley
38. [16 wins] George Amick, Billy Cantrell, Lee Kunzman, Bobby Olivero & Henry Pens
43. [15 wins] Christopher Bell, Don Branson & Larry Rice
46. [14 wins] Chuck Arnold, Jack Turner & Leroy Warriner |