Hafertepe Caps Championship Weekend With Fall Fling Victory at Creek County

Hafertepe Caps Championship Weekend With Fall Fling Victory at Creek County Speedway

Story By: Bryan Hulbert/ASCS

Photo By: Casey Cochran/ASCS

SAPULPA, Okla. (October 28, 2018) Adding a cherry to the top of his third consecutive championship, Sam Hafertepe, Jr. rode out of the John Christner Trucking Fall Fling with an extra $4,000 and his seventh victory over a stout field of 61 drivers at Creek County Speedway with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by Sawblade.com.

Trailing Sean McClelland the first 33 laps, Hafertepe made the top of turns one and two work after several laps of only being able to close on the back bumper of the D&E Supply No. 22. Fighting back for the top spot, McClelland was not able to regain the position.
“There is nothing like racing your best friend for 40 laps. That was probably one of the funnest races I’ve driven in my entire life. Me and Sean have been friends for a long time and for us to race like that and have our friendship last like it has, it means a lot, then to win this deal and show everybody who deserves this championship. That’s what we set out to do tonight,” commented an emotional Sam Hafertepe, Jr.
Beating Sean on the initial start, the caution flew for Matt Covington who spun to a stop in the first turn.
With the No. 22 holding the lead on the restart, Hafertepe’s next attempt at the point came while working Lap 2, only to have his slide job negated by another caution. Pressuring McClelland on the restart, the Townline Variety No. 15h was not able to get the run as Sean slowly pulled away with traffic coming into play as the field worked past the tenth lap. Allowing Hafertepe to pull back in on McClelland, the No. 22 did not falter on the low line; using slower cars as picks to protect any run to the outside.
Taking their high-speed chess game into the mid-point of the A-Feature, Hafertepe pulled the trigger on Lap 23 to take the lead but had his advance quickly answered with Sean driving back around the No. 15h. Battling hard into slower traffic, the caution lights came on with 25 laps complete as Blake Hahn spun to a stop.
Getting away from Sam on the restart, Sean continued to roll the bottom as Hafertepe searched the middle and high line at both ends of Creek County Speedway. Building momentum as the leaders worked to Lap 30, Hafertepe took three runs at Sean McClelland with his run on Lap 34 off the turn-two cushion being the one that secured the lead. Quickly through traffic with the lead in hand, Sam opened his advantage to 3.582 seconds at the finish.
Holding off Seth Bergman on the final lap, Sean McClelland crossed second for his ninth career podium finish with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by Sawblade.com. Bergman third was followed by Jason Martin with Kyle Bellm making up the top five. Charging out of the first B-Feature, El Paso’s John Carney II raced through the field to sixth after starting 20th. Wayne Johnson in seventh had Blake Hahn recover from his caution to finish eight. Skylar Gee advanced six spots to ninth with roger Crockett tenth.
On top of Hafertepe claiming the championship, other awards on the night included Alex Sewell who secured the 2018 title for the American Bank of Oklahoma ASCS Red River Region presented by Smiley’s Racing Products. The 2018 Brodix National Rookie of the Year went to Scott Bogucki. This marks the first time an Australian driver has won the National Rookie of the Year.
The Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by Sawblade.com thanks the teams, drivers, tracks, sponsors, and above all the fans for your support in 2018. Updates on the coming season can be found online at http://www.ascsracing.com.
For other news, notes, and information on the American Sprint Car Series, from the National Tour to any of the Regional Tours that make up the nearly 150 races across the ASCS Nation in 2018, log onto http://www.ascsracing.com, follow on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Twitter (@LucasOilASCS).
Race Results:
Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour
Creek County Speedway – Sapulpa, Okla.
John Christner Trucking Fall Fling
Saturday, October 27, 2018
Car Count: 61
Pizza Express Heat Races (Top 40 advance to Qualifiers)
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 95-Matt Covington, [2]; 2. 99-Skylar Gee, [4]; 3. 31-Casey Wills, [3]; 4. 53-Jack Dover, [5]; 5. J2-John Carney II, [7]; 6. 11M-Michael Tyre II, [8]; 7. 84-Brandon Hanks, [1]; 8. 35-Rick Wright Jr, [9]; 9. 97-Kevin Cummings, [6]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 17W-Harli White, [2]; 2. 2X-Tucker Doughty, [3]; 3. 91T-Tyler Thomas, [8]; 4. 79-Tim Kent, [9]; 5. 17G-Channin Tankersley, [4]; 6. 26M-Fred Mattox, [6]; 7. 44-Chris Martin, [7]; 8. (DNF) 2H-Wally Henson, [1]; 9. (DNF) 55-Johnny Kent, [5]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Scott Bogucki, [2]; 2. 2C-Wayne Johnson, [6]; 3. 22-Sean McClelland, [8]; 4. 54-Will Scribner, [1]; 5. 7M-Chance Morton, [3]; 6. 2E-Josh Tyre, [9]; 7. 53B-Bailey Felkins, [4]; 8. 10B-Kevin Brewer, [7]; 9. 5M-Charles McManus, [5]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 15D-Andrew Deal, [2]; 2. 50Z-Zach Chappell, [4]; 3. 90-Lance Norick, [6]; 4. 5J-Jamie Ball, [3]; 5. 45X-Johnny Herrera, [7]; 6. 1X-Tim Crawley, [9]; 7. 03-Joe Wood Jr, [1]; 8. 2-Mickey Walker, [5]; 9. 65L-Nicholas Lucito, [8]
Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, [3]; 2. 23X-Grady Chandler, [1]; 3. 5D-Zach Daum, [9]; 4. 8-Alex Sewell, [2]; 5. 35L-Cody Ledger, [8]; 6. 77X-Alex Hill, [6]; 7. 48-Cody Stacy, [5]; 8. (DNF) 222-Jaiden Hughes, [4]; 9. (DNF) 24-Ben Frey, [7]
Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 14K-Kyle Bellm, [2]; 2. 11G-Mike Goodman, [1]; 3. 68-Jason Martin, [6]; 4. 12H-Tony Bruce Jr, [7]; 5. 79V-Ryan Hall, [3]; 6. 2K-Kenneth Walker, [5]; 7. 20S-Sheldon Barksdale, [8]; 8. 29-Tanner Berryhill, [4]
Heat 7 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Roger Crockett, [2]; 2. 17B-Ryan Bickett, [4]; 3. 23-Seth Bergman, [6]; 4. 1-Travis Rilat, [1]; 5. 9$-Kyle Clark, [5]; 6. 44S-Jared Sewell, [8]; 7. 7F-Noah Harris, [7]; 8. 52-Blake Hahn, [3]
Hoosier Tire Qualifiers (Top 16 in combined Passing Points advance to the A-Feature)
Qualifier 1 (8 Laps): 1. 11G-Mike Goodman, [1]; 2. 23-Seth Bergman, [2]; 3. 14K-Kyle Bellm, [4]; 4. 95-Matt Covington, [5]; 5. 2C-Wayne Johnson, [6]; 6. 1X-Tim Crawley, [8]; 7. 50Z-Zach Chappell, [3]; 8. 17G-Channin Tankersley, [10]; 9. 44S-Jared Sewell, [9]; 10. 53-Jack Dover, [7]
Qualifier 2 (8 Laps): 1. 35L-Cody Ledger, [1]; 2. 2X-Tucker Doughty, [2]; 3. 11-Roger Crockett, [4]; 4. 17B-Ryan Bickett, [3]; 5. 91T-Tyler Thomas, [6]; 6. 5J-Jamie Ball, [8]; 7. 17W-Harli White, [5]; 8. J2-John Carney II, [7]; 9. 7M-Chance Morton, [10]; 10. 54-Will Scribner, [9]
Qualifier 3 (8 Laps): 1. 22-Sean McClelland, [6]; 2. 31-Casey Wills, [1]; 3. 12H-Tony Bruce Jr, [2]; 4. 28-Scott Bogucki, [5]; 5. 90-Lance Norick, [3]; 6. 79-Tim Kent, [4]; 7. 1-Travis Rilat, [9]; 8. 8-Alex Sewell, [8]; 9. (DNF) 45X-Johnny Herrera, [7]; 10. (DNF) 79V-Ryan Hall, [10]
Qualifier 4 (8 Laps): 1. 5D-Zach Daum, [1]; 2. 68-Jason Martin, [3]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, [6]; 4. 99-Skylar Gee, [4]; 5. 15D-Andrew Deal, [5]; 6. 26M-Fred Mattox, [10]; 7. 9$-Kyle Clark, [9]; 8. 11M-Michael Tyre II, [8]; 9. 23X-Grady Chandler, [2]; 10. 2E-Josh Tyre, [7]
BMRS B-Features (Top 2 from each advance to the A-Feature)
B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 12H-Tony Bruce Jr, [1]; 2. J2-John Carney II, [5]; 3. 50Z-Zach Chappell, [3]; 4. 90-Lance Norick, [2]; 5. 84-Brandon Hanks, [12]; 6. 65L-Nicholas Lucito, [14]; 7. 44-Chris Martin, [10]; 8. 2E-Josh Tyre, [8]; 9. 77X-Alex Hill, [9]; 10. 44S-Jared Sewell, [7]; 11. 11M-Michael Tyre II, [6]; 12. 97-Kevin Cummings, [15]; 13. 48-Cody Stacy, [11]; 14. 222-Jaiden Hughes, [13]; 15. 26M-Fred Mattox, [4]
B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 79-Tim Kent, [2]; 2. 1-Travis Rilat, [4]; 3. 31-Casey Wills, [1]; 4. 1X-Tim Crawley, [3]; 5. 17G-Channin Tankersley, [5]; 6. 7F-Noah Harris, [10]; 7. 2K-Kenneth Walker, [9]; 8. 03-Joe Wood Jr, [12]; 9. 23X-Grady Chandler, [6]; 10. 29-Tanner Berryhill, [13]; 11. 55-Johnny Kent, [15]; 12. 54-Will Scribner, [8]; 13. 53B-Bailey Felkins, [11]; 14. 24-Ben Frey, [14]; 15. 7M-Chance Morton, [7]
B Feature 3 (12 Laps): 1. 17W-Harli White, [2]; 2. 9$-Kyle Clark, [4]; 3. 45X-Johnny Herrera, [6]; 4. 15D-Andrew Deal, [1]; 5. 8-Alex Sewell, [5]; 6. 5J-Jamie Ball, [3]; 7. 52-Blake Hahn, [13]; 8. 20S-Sheldon Barksdale, [9]; 9. 35-Rick Wright Jr, [10]; 10. 2H-Wally Henson, [14]; 11. 2-Mickey Walker, [12]; 12. 10B-Kevin Brewer, [11]; 13. 53-Jack Dover, [7]; 14. 5M-Charles McManus, [15]; 15. 79V-Ryan Hall, [8]
Protect the Harvest A-Feature
A Feature (41 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, [2]; 2. 22-Sean McClelland, [1]; 3. 23-Seth Bergman, [6]; 4. 68-Jason Martin, [3]; 5. 14K-Kyle Bellm, [4]; 6. J2-John Carney II, [20]; 7. 2C-Wayne Johnson, [9]; 8. 52-Blake Hahn, [23]; 9. 99-Skylar Gee, [15]; 10. 11-Roger Crockett, [5]; 11. 11G-Mike Goodman, [7]; 12. 45X-Johnny Herrera, [24]; 13. 35L-Cody Ledger, [13]; 14. 2X-Tucker Doughty, [8]; 15. 91T-Tyler Thomas, [12]; 16. 1-Travis Rilat, [21]; 17. 17B-Ryan Bickett, [16]; 18. 12H-Tony Bruce Jr, [17]; 19. (DNF) 5D-Zach Daum, [14]; 20. (DNF) 28-Scott Bogucki, [11]; 21. (DNF) 79-Tim Kent, [18]; 22. (DNF) 95-Matt Covington, [10]; 23. (DNF) 9$-Kyle Clark, [22]; 24. (DNF) 17W-Harli White, [19]
Lap Leaders: Sean McClelland 1-33; Sam Hafertepe, Jr, 34-41
CP-Carrillo Hard Charger: John Carney II +14
FSR Radiator High Point Driver: Sean McCelland
Provisionals: Blake Hahn; Johnny Herrera
2018 ASCS National Driver Points (Top 15 Final): 1. Sam Hafertepe, Jr. 4,306; 2. Seth Bergman 4,175; 3. Wayne Johnson 34,095; 4. Blake Hahn 3,971; 5. Johnny Herrera 3,917; 6. Matt Covington 3,879; 7. Skylar Gee 3,665; 8. Scott Bogucki 3,621; 9. Travis Rilat 3,377; 10. Jamie Ball 3,303; 11. Harli White 3,279; Chris Martin 3,256; 13. Alex Hill 2,881; 14. Roger Crockett 2,402; 15. Sammy Swindell 2,132;