By Brian Liskai (Waynesfield, Ohio) | Broken Arrow, Oklahoma’s Brady Bacon survived near catastrophe coming to the checkers and drove to a $12,000 pay day for the Ron Kahle Jr. Memorial at Waynesfield Raceway Park Sunday, May 30. The event pitted the K&L Ready Mix NRA Sprint Invaders against the Patriot Sprint Tour and drew a strong field of 33 360 c.i. winged sprint cars.
Bacon, the defending USAC National Sprint Car Champion, could see the checkers in the air as he exited turn four but two lapped cars ahead of him collided and starting flipping right in front of “the macho man” who took quick evasive action to avoid the melee. That set up a one lap dash to decide the huge pay day and Bacon easily drove away when the green came back out. The victory, Bacon’s second ever at “The Field,” came a week after he took a wild ride at Terra Haute that left him bruised and battered. Bacon also finished 9th in Saturday’s Little 500 to earn Rookie of the Race honors.
“After last week this is feels fantastic. I just love Waynesfield and the first win was for $3,000 so this might make this my favorite track with a $12,000 pay day. My wife and kids are at home watching and probably had a great time but not as good as I had,” joked the driver of the Hoffman Racing/Fatheadz Eyewear #69. “This is our first winged win with Hoffman’s and I have to thank John Cressman for lending us a fantastic running motor.”.
Bacon and Greg Wilson brought the field to green for the 40-lap Ron Kahle Jr. Memorial Race with Wilson gaining the upper hand over Bacon, Dustin Daggett, Jared Zimbardi, Dallas Hewitt and Randy Hannagan. In just five laps the leaders were into traffic with Wilson maintaining a three car length advantage over Bacon.
A caution on lap eight gave Wilson a clear track and he continued to lead when the green reappeared over Bacon, Daggett, Zimbardi and Hannagan. The leaders found lapped traffic again by the 14th circuit and that allowed Bacon to close and grab the lead on lap 16 as he and Wilson battled through the lapped cars.
Bacon built a sizeable lead but the second caution flag would fly with just eight laps to go. Bacon executed a great restart and pulled away from Wilson as Daggett, who won the previous night in Michigan, holding down third while a tremendous battle ensued for fourth involving Hannagan and Jared Horstman.
Coming to the checkers Tim Allison and Zane DeVault got together right in front of Bacon, as the pair flipped violently with Bacon taking quick evasive action to avoid the incident. Both drivers were uninjured. Bacon took the green and drove away to the win over Wilson, Daggett, Hannagan and Horstman.
NRA Sprint Invaders / Patriot Sprint Tour Quick Results
Qualifying 1.17H-Hud Horton , 10.997; 2.22H-Randy Hannagan , 11.074; 3.85-Dustin Daggett, 11.119; 4.11W-Harli White, 11.134; 5.35-Jared Zimbardi, 11.202; 6.22-Conner Loeffler, 11.308; 7.18-Todd Heuerman, 11.454; 8.18J-Dean Jacobs, 11.465; 9.11-Tim Allison , 11.480; 10.5M-Max Stambaugh , 11.505; 11.16B-Zane DeVault, 11.505; 12.12G-Corbin Gurley, 11.592; 13.22M-Dan McCarron, 11.610; 14.69-Brady Bacon, 11.649; 15.24-Kobe Allison, 11.675; 16.W20-Greg Wilson, 11.677; 17.17-Jared Horstman , 11.766; 18.27-Brad Lamberson, 11.775; 19.5J-Jake Hesson, 11.781; 20.79-Jordan Thomas, 11.837; 21.2P-Ricky Peterson, 11.868; 22.28F-Davie Franek, 11.880; 23.9r-Logan Riehl, 11.892; 24.23-Devon Dobie , 11.898; 25.12-Luke Hall, 11.913; 26.46-Ryan Coniam, 11.919; 27.27W-Tyler Gunn, 11.937; 28.49-Scott Kreutter, 11.941; 29.2-Dave Axton, 12.189; 30.11N-Ed Neumeister, 12.196; 31.28M-Conner Morrell, 12.229; 32.67-Steve Glover, 12.721; 33.66-Chase Dunham, 99.000;
Heat 1 – (8 Laps, top 5 to A) 1. 35-Jared Zimbardi[3] ; 2. 17-Jared Horstman [5] ; 3. 2P-Ricky Peterson[6] ; 4. 11-Tim Allison [2] ; 5. 22M-Dan McCarron[1] ; 6. 2-Dave Axton[8] ; 7. 12-Luke Hall[7] ; 8. 17H-Hud Horton [4]
Heat 2 – (8 Laps, top 5 to A) 1. 69-Brady Bacon[1] ; 2. 22H-Randy Hannagan [4] ; 3. 22-Conner Loeffler[3] ; 4. 28F-Davie Franek[6] ; 5. 5M-Max Stambaugh [2] ; 6. 46-Ryan Coniam[7] ; 7. 27-Brad Lamberson[5] ; 8. 11N-Ed Neumeister[8]
Heat 3 – (8 Laps, top 5 to A) 1. 18-Todd Heuerman[3] ; 2. 16B-Zane DeVault[2] ; 3. 85-Dustin Daggett[4] ; 4. 24-Kobe Allison[1] ; 5. 27W-Tyler Gunn[7] ; 6. 5J-Jake Hesson[5] ; 7. 28M-Conner Morrell[8] ; 8. 9r-Logan Riehl[6]
Heat 4 – (8 Laps, top 5 to A) 1. W20-Greg Wilson[1] ; 2. 11W-Harli White[4] ; 3. 79-Jordan Thomas[5] ; 4. 18J-Dean Jacobs[3] ; 5. 23-Devon Dobie [6] ; 6. 12G-Corbin Gurley[2] ; 7. 49-Scott Kreutter[7] ; 8. 67-Steve Glover[8]
Dash – (6 Laps) 1. 69-Brady Bacon[1] ; 2. W20-Greg Wilson[3] ; 3. 18-Todd Heuerman[2] ; 4. 85-Dustin Daggett[6] ; 5. 22H-Randy Hannagan [5] ; 6. 35-Jared Zimbardi[4]
B-Main – (12 Laps, top 4 to A) 1. 2-Dave Axton[1] ; 2. 46-Ryan Coniam[2] ; 3. 27-Brad Lamberson[6] ; 4. 12G-Corbin Gurley[4] ; 5. 49-Scott Kreutter[8] ; 6. 12-Luke Hall[5] ; 7. 5J-Jake Hesson[3] ; 8. 28M-Conner Morrell[7] ; 9. 9r-Logan Riehl[11] ; 10. 17H-Hud Horton [9] ; 11. 11N-Ed Neumeister[10] ; 12. 67-Steve Glover[12] ; 13. 66-Chase Dunham[13]
A-Main – (40Laps)
1. 69-Brady Bacon[1] ; 2. W20-Greg Wilson[2] ; 3. 85-Dustin Daggett[4] ; 4. 22H-Randy Hannagan [5] ; 5. 17-Jared Horstman [9] ; 6. 35-Jared Zimbardi[6] ; 7. 22-Conner Loeffler[12] ; 8. 2P-Ricky Peterson[11] ; 9. 79-Jordan Thomas[10] ; 10. 27W-Tyler Gunn[18] ; 11. 5M-Max Stambaugh [19] ; 12. 28F-Davie Franek[15] ; 13. 46-Ryan Coniam[22] ; 14. 18J-Dean Jacobs[16] ; 15. 23-Devon Dobie [20] ; 16. 11-Tim Allison [14] ; 17. 16B-Zane DeVault[8] ; 18. 18-Todd Heuerman[3] ; 19. 2-Dave Axton[21] ; 20. 11W-Harli White[7] ; 21. 12G-Corbin Gurley[24] ; 22. 24-Kobe Allison[13] ; 23. 27-Brad Lamberson[23] ; 24. 22M-Dan McCarron[17]