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“The
Kruser” Captures $10K in Sprint Bandits TNT East Bay Finale by Lonnie Wheatley |
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TAMPA, Fla. (February 1,
2006) – Cory Kruseman fought off a strong bid from Daron Clayton to
capture the $10,000 winner’s share in Wednesday night’s 40-lap O’Reilly
Sprint Bandits Tour ‘N Topless finale at East Bay Raceway Park’s 30th
Annual Winter Nationals. Kruseman took command from Bryan Clauson on the
fourth lap and spent the final laps of the event fending off the charges of
Clayton, who had charged through the field from his 20th starting
position after winning the evening’s second “B” Main. “I’m just glad I drive for some guys that
like to race as much as I do,” Kruseman commented from victory lane after
taking the checkered flag aboard Glenn Crossno’s Downing-powered No. 38
Bullet. “We were happy to get a
chance to come race down here in Florida and we look forward to coming back.” The top point earner after charging from 16th
to fifth in the Tuesday afternoon prelim then topping Tuesday night’s feature
event, Kruseman drew the second row inside starting slot while Bryan Clauson and
Danny Smith drew the front row. Zach
Chappell joined Kruseman in the second row, with Jon Stanbrough and Bud Kaeding
in row three. After the initial start was waved off for a turn
one spin by Kyle Nicholas, Clauson gunned into the early lead with Kruseman
charging into second as the field raced down the backstretch on the opening
round. Kruseman wasted little time putting the pressure
on Clauson’s Kunz Motorsports No. 67, pulling alongside as the pair raced off
turn four to complete the third round. The
pair raced wheel-to-wheel for the better part of the next lap before Kruseman
gained the advantage. With Kruseman and Clauson pacing the field,
eighth starter Shane Cottle had climbed to third by the time the caution flew
after six laps for debris on the frontstretch. Kruseman led Clauson, Cottle, Chappell and
Kaeding on the restart, as Clayton had already climbed to twelfth from his tenth
row starting berth. Clayton had
climbed to seventh in another handful of laps and cracked the top five by the
time Kruseman started working lapped traffic on the 15th round. Clayton disposed of Chappell for fourth on the 16th
circuit, then gained another position when a flipping Kyle Nicholas collected
Brandon Petty and second-running Clauson with 21 laps in the books.
Clauson rejoined the chase at the tail while Nicholas and Petty, who
flipped in the melee as well, were done for the night. Back under way, Kruseman continued to work the
low side masterfully as Clayton raced past Cottle for second on the 25th
round. Clayton was reeling in the
leader with heavy lapped traffic about to come into play when the race’s final
caution flew for Stanbrough’s turn four spin on the 31st lap. Kruseman got a good jump on the restart,
separating himself from Clayton by ten car lengths.
But Clayton wasn’t done, as he drew himself to the West Coast ace’s
rear nerf bar by the 33rd round. With Kruseman now on the cushion, Clayton flirted
with the wall while trying to set up a potential race-winning slide for the
point. But Kruseman adeptly took
advantage of a lapped car entering turns one and two on the final lap to slip
away to an eight car length advantage as the checkered flag flew, denying the
young Missouri racer what would have been his biggest triumph to date. Clayton settled for a strong runner-up finish,
with Kaeding making a late move to snare the show position.
Cottle crossed the stripe fourth, with Chappell rounding out the top
five. Utilizing his 360-ci powerplant, Jason Sides’
wingless debut netted an impressive sixth place finish, with 13th-starter
Terry McCarl, Danny Smith, Ed Hassler and Dave Darland completing the top ten. Sides, Hassler, Kevin Briscoe and Cottle each
scored heat race wins. Nick Adams
won the first “B” Main, while Clayton made a lap eleven pass of Kenny
Carmichael to top the second 12-lap “B” Main. Brent Beauchamp climbed another car’s wheel and
flipped into the turn one fence in the evening’s fourth heat race.
Beauchamp returned for later action. In the first “B” Main, Charles Davis, Jr.,
hopped a lapped car’s wheel entering turn one while running second with just
two laps to go. Davis snap-rolled
violently at least five times along the turn one fencing.
Davis was transported to a local hospital for observation. O’Reilly
Sprint Bandits Tour ‘N Topless Wednesday Night Results: Top six in total points from Tuesday afternoon and Tuesday night preliminary events locked into “A” Main: 38-Cory Kruseman, 53-Jon Stanbrough, 4-Danny Smith, 67-Bryan Clauson, 2b-Bud Kaeding, 50z-Zach Chappell. Heat Races – Top 3 Advance to “A” Main; Balance to Twin “B” Mains First
Heat (8 Laps): 1. 7s-Jason Sides,
2. 21x-Dickie Gaines, 3. 71-Darren Hagen, 4. 92-Kenny Carmichael, 5. 29p-Terry
Pletch, 6. 57-John Heydenreich, 7. 81-Justin Marvel, 8. 93-Scott Townsend, 9.
29-Kyle Nicholas, 10. 22-Mark Weber. Second
Heat (8 Laps): 1. 66h-Ed Hassler,
2. 36-Brady Short, 3. 2k-Roger Rager, 4. 34-Luke Hall, 5. 92x-Daron Clayton, 6.
53x-Casey Shuman, 7. 21-Charles Davis, Jr., 8. 51x-Harley Slotten, 9. 85-Greg
Leonard. Third
Heat (8 Laps): 1. 56-Kevin Briscoe,
2. 11x-Dave Darland, 3. 11d-Derek O’Dell, 4. 1-Jake Scott, 5. 3R-Brandon
Petty, 6. 4B-Tom Busch, 7. 5-Donnie Maxwell, 8. 5m-Arin McIntosh. Fourth Heat (8 Laps): 1. 5g-Shane Cottle, 2. 24-Terry McCarl, 3. 10-Mat Neely, 4. 16-Nick Adams, 5. 69x-Mark Cole, 6. 88-Steven King, 7. 52-Mark Broughman, 8. 17T-Jack Helget, 9. 51-John Sauermilch, 10. 11-Brent Beauchamp. “B” Mains – Top 3 from Each to “A” Main First
“B” Main (12 Laps): 1. 16-Nick
Adams, 2. 3R-Brandon Petty, 3. 29-Kyle Nicholas, 4. 88-Steven King, 5. 53x-Casey
Shuman, 6. 29p-Terry Pletch, 7. 52-Mark Broughman, 8. 93-Scott Townsend, 9.
1-Jake Scott, 10. 17T- Jack Helget, 11. 22-Mark Weber, 12. 51-John Sauermilch,
13. 21-Charles Davis, Jr. Second
“B” Main (12 Laps): 1.
92x-Daron Clayton, 2. 92-Kenny Carmichael, 3. 34-Luke Hall, 4. 57-John
Heydenreich, 5. 81-Justin Marvel, 6. 69x-Mark Cole, 7. 4b-Tom Busch, 8. 11-Brent
Beauchamp, 9. 51x-Harley Slotten, 10. 5-Donnie Maxwell, 11. 5m-Arin McIntosh.
DNS: 85-Greg Leonard. “A” Main “A”
Main (40 Laps): 1. 38-Cory
Kruseman, 2. 92x-Daron Clayton, 3. 2b-Bud Kaeding, 4. 5g-Shane Cottle, 5.
50z-Zach Chappell, 6. 7s-Jason Sides, 7. 24-Terry McCarl, 8. 4-Danny Smith, 9.
66h-Ed Hassler, 10. 11x-Dave Darland, 11. 21x-Dickie Gaines, 12. 71-Darren
Hagen, 13. 36-Brady Short, 14. 67-Bryan Clauson, 15. 11d-Derek O’Dell, 16.
53-Jon Stanbrough, 17. 10-Mat Neely, 18. 2k-Roger Rager, 19. 16-Nick Adams, 20.
56-Kevin Briscoe, 21. 29-Kyle Nicholas, 22. 3R-Brandon Petty, 23. 92-Kenny
Carmichael, 24. 34-Luke Hall. Gulf Coast Produce “Strawberry Dash” Dash (7 Laps): 1. 57-John Heydenreich, 2. 4b-Tom Busch, 3. 11-Brent Beauchamp, 4. 5-Donnie Maxwell, 5. 5m-Arin McIntosh, 6. 69x-Mark Cole, 7. 51-John Sauermilch. |
