Bryan Clauson Continues Stranglehold on Eastern Storm Tour
Story By:SHAWN BROUSE / PORT ROYAL SPEEDWAY Photos By:RACERSGUIDE.COM PHOTO STAFF
PORT ROYAL, Pa. –June 12, 2016- Noblesville, Indiana’s Bryan Clauson stormed into Port Royal Speedway on Saturday night on his 2016 circular insanity tour as part of the 10th annual USAC Eastern Storm tour itself and by the time the rowdy event had passed over, Clauson had etched his historic name in the record books of the historic oval.
Clauson stormed forward from deep in the pack to claim the 30-lap, $6,000 USAC National Sprint Series main event and become the 183rd different driver to win a sprint car main at Port Royal.
In the 305 sprint main two-time Port Royal series champion Jeff Miller drove to victory while Eric Irvin scored in the 355 econo late model championship.
A total of 26 USAC sprints entered Port Royal action with Chase Stockon of Fort Branch, Indiana, setting fast time over the field with a lap of 19.148 seconds.
USAC champions Dave Darland and Brady Bacon found themselves parked on the front row for the start of the feature event.
Darland darted into the lead over Bacon at the start with Clauson taking the green from the 11th hole on the grid.
A fierce battle for third developed between Stockon and California’s Thomas Meseraull a few laps into the race with the pair exchanging the spot back and forth before disaster struck on the fifth tour.
As Meseraull raced to the outside of Stockon in the fourth corner, his car kicked out and nailed the frontstretch wall, sending him into a violent series of frontstretch flips in front of the grandstand.
Meseraull vaulted up into the catch fence with enough altitude to allow defending Port Royal USAC winner Robert Ballou to blast underneath his careening car while it was up in the air.
Luckily, Meseraull escaped serious injury.
Darland had Bacon, Stockon and Ballou lined up behind for the new green and Darland continued to lead at first before Bacon started making stabs for control.
Oklahoma’s Bacon completed an outside sweep of the third and fourth turns to take command from Darland with eight away while Ballou pushed his way forward using the outside lane as well.
Ballou was up to second with Clauson still well out of the picture on the 11th tour.
A caution for Chris Windom at the halfway point bunched the field with California’s Ballou glued to Bacon’s bumper for the return to action and a slider in turns three and four netted him the lead with 17 complete and once in front Ballou rocketed away with the lead, looking assured of his second Port Royal USAC win in a row.
Another yellow flag with 12 laps to go now found Clauson just getting up to sixth spot.
Stockon was next to flex his muscle at the front, after chugging along in third all during the mid stages, he picked off Bacon with 10 laps to go and was poised to mount a challenge until a blown motor saw him slow with seven laps to go.
And that’s when things really went haywire as a bizarre and dramatic turn of events saw leader Ballou pit under caution due to a loosened power steering line.
This handed the lead back to Bacon and Clauson suddenly found himself second instead of fourth after really coming to life with 10 laps to go, having blasted from sixth to fourth behind Stockon.
And with that, Clauson was in his office behind the wheel for the restart and a big slider in the third corner saw him take command and begin to run away for what would be a 2.012 second margin over Bacon at the finish.
“This place is a little big for me to be winning,” Clauson exclaimed of his usual prowess on smaller, tighter bullring type tracks.
“I bet if you watched the first 10 laps of that race you didn’t think we’d be sittin’ here.”
Bacon rode home second followed by 12th starter Max McGhee of Camby, Indiana, Darland and CJ Leary of Greenfield, Indiana.
Sixth through 10th went to Jerry Coons Jr., Shane Golobic, a rebounding Ballou with fixed steering, Carmen Perigo and Isaac Chapple.
Heats went to Ballou, Leary and McGhee with Aaron Farney taking the B Main.
The first heat saw Ballou and Shane Cottle racing hard for the lead when Cottle flipped out over the third turn fence, escaping injury.
Huntingdon’s Jeff Miller wired the field for the 18-lap 305 sprint main, finishing ahead of Tyler Reeser, Dave Grube, point leader Nate Gramley and 20th starter Dave Brown Jr.
It was Miller’s first oval win of the season.
Heats went to Reeser, Grube and Miller with John Martin scoring the consolation.
Devin Hart looked like an early favorite for the econo late model main, jumping from his poled starting spot into the lead and pulling away.
Third starter Eric Irvin drove into second on the third lap but was unable to close any distance for the lead until suddenly with 10 laps completed he dramatically closed in.
Irvin then drove by and took the win, his first of the season, with Andrew Yoder getting by Hart for second.
Hart finished third, with no power steering since the eighth circuit.
Tim Fedder was third with Tim Krape finishing fifth.
Heats went to Fedder and Hart.
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Feature finishes: 6/11/16
USAC Results:
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-19.148; 2. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-19.385; 3. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-19.428; 4. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-19.434; 5. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-19.503; 6. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-19.521; 7. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-19.627; 8. Jerry Coons, Jr., 39, TWH-19.635; 9. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-19.776; 10. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-19.876; 11. Bryan Clauson, 63, Dooling/Hayward-19.972; 12. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-19.973; 13. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-20.008; 14. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-20.073; 15. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-20.074; 16. Shane Cottle, 65, Franckowiak-20.076; 17. Dustin Smith, 77, Smith-20.110; 18. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-20.199; 19. Mark Smith, 3R, Rock Steady-20.360; 20. Kyle Moody, 99m, Moody-20.383; 21. Tom Harris, 5E, East-20.385; 22. Carmen Perigo, 21, Stehman-20.387; 23. Shane Golobic, 60, Ely-20.761; 24. J.R. Berry, 74, Berry-20.951; 25. Dick Mahoney, 79, Mahoney-21.176; 26. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-21.540.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Stockon, 3. Simon, 4. Darland, 5. Chapple, 6. M.Smith, 7. Perigo, 8. Cottle, 9. Mahoney. NT
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Leary, 2. Clauson, 3. Coons, 4. D.Smith, 5. Boespflug, 6. Golobic, 7. Farney, 8. Moody, 9. Thomas. NT
BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. McGhee, 2. Bacon, 3. Windom, 4. Meseraull, 5. DiMattia, 6. Mellenberndt, 7. Harris, 8. Berry. NT
INDY RACE PARTS SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Farney, 2. M.Smith, 3. Mellenberndt, 4. Golobic, 5. Moody, 6. Thomas, 7. Perigo, 8. Harris, 9. Berry, 10. Mahoney. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Bryan Clauson, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Max McGhee, 4. Dave Darland, 5. C.J. Leary, 6. Jerry Coons Jr., 7. Shane Golobic, 8. Robert Ballou, 9. Carmen Perigo, 10. Isaac Chapple, 11. Kyle Moody, 12. Chris Windom, 13. Dustin Smith, 14. Bret Mellenberndt, 15. Tony DiMattia, 16. Chase Stockon, 17. Aaron Farney, 18. Chad Boespflug, 19. Landon Simon, 20. Mark Smith, 21. Thomas Meseraull, 22. Kevin Thomas Jr.
**Cottle flipped over the guardrail during the first heat. Meseraull flipped on lap 6 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-7 Darland, Laps 8-17 Bacon, Laps 18-23 Ballou, Laps 24-30 Clauson.
KSE HARD CHARGER: Shane Golobic
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,028, 2-Meseraull-1,007, 3-Stockon-938, 4-Ballou-914, 5-Darland-900, 6-Leary-891, 7-Boespflug-830, 8-McGhee-781, 9-Clauson-739, 10-Kyle Cummins-658.
NEW EASTERN STORM POINTS: 1-Clauson-311, 2-Ballou-259, 3-Windom-255, 4-Stockon-236, 5-Bacon-224, 6-McGhee-222, 7-Meseraull-220, 8-Leary-218, 8-Darland-216, 10-Boespflug-212.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: June 12 – York Haven, PA – Susquehanna Speedway – “Eastern Storm”
305 sprints, 18 laps: 1. Jeff Miller, 2. Tyler Reeser, 3. Dave Grube, 4. Nathan Gramley, 5. Dave Brown Jr., 6. Colby Dice, 7. Scott Ellerman, 8. Scott Lutz, 9. Kyle Ganoe, 10. Jake Waters, 11. Cale Reigle, 12. Drew Ritchie, 13. Stephanie Dodson, 14. Erin Statler, 15. Brad Mellott, 16. Reed Thompson, 17. Mike Alleman, 18. Jon Haegele, 19. Billy Ney, 20. John Martin, 21. Zach Newlin, 22. Alan Kumpf, 23. Dave Guss Jr., 24. John Fiore
DNQ: Jack Thornton, Kristen Hess, Kassidy Kreitz, Billy Burkholder, Tom Worrick, Paul Snyder
355 econo late models, 22 laps: 1. Eric Irvin, 2. Andrew Yoder, 3. Devin Hart, 4. Tim Fedder, 5. Tim Krape, 6. Shaun Miller, 7. Jared Fulkroad, 8. Chase Bowsman, 9. Curt Dunn, 10. Derrick Garman, 11. Jason Nace, 12. AJ Stroup, 13. Dustin Kirk, 14. Lucas Bryner
DNS: Garrett Gray, Troy Miller
