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NOVEMBER
9, 2007--- Jerry Coons, Jr. of Tucson not only beat the top sprint car drivers in the nation in taking Friday night’s 25 lap feature race in the second night of Manzanita Speedway’s Checker Auto Parts/Budweiser Western World championships, he did it in dominating fashion.
Coons, who has already sewed up his second straight USAC National Midget driving title, showed the star studded field that he was equally as quick in an 800 horsepowered sprint. He came out of the third row and took the lead from USAC points leader Levi Jones of Olney, IL on the fifth lap and had a 6.540 second lead before the race was halted for a wild flip by Robert Ballou on the 17th lap. Ballou, of Rocklin, CA., was transported to St. Joseph’s hospital for observation. He was held overnight but was released Saturday morning.
Once the track went green Coons went back to work and Jesse Hockett of Warsaw, MO who was fourth when the red flag flew, moved past Dave Darland, the 2005 Western World for third then took second from Jones but was over two seconds back at the checkered flag. Darland of Lincoln, IN also slipped past Jones for third. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Jones’s team mate on the Tony Stewart Motorsports team, finished fifth. Rounding out the top ten were Brady Short, Bud Keading, Damion Gardner, Brady Bacon and Mike Spencer.
Jones virtually locked up the 2007 driving title. Darren Hagen, the only driver still in contention, had a rough night. The Riverside, CA driver flipped during the running of the fourth heat race but moved into the team car that had been driven Bill Rose. He finished 13th and fell 120 points behind Jones.
The 58 car field ran a ten lap "C" main with the top four out of the 15 car field earned positions at the back of the "B" main. Davey Pombo, Bret Mellenberndt, Cole Whitt and Mike Leslie made the "B" main.
The first of five heat races, 10 laps each, was won by Hockett who came out of the third row to take the win away from local ace Jeremy Sherman with Jones, up from seventh and Damion Gardner also earning positions in the main event.
Four more drivers locked up main event berths in each of the other four heats. The second heat went to Brady Bacon who beat Chris Windom, Brad Sweet and Danny Sheridan. The top four in the third heat were Jon Stanbrough, Coons, Josh Ford and Rick Ziehl. In heat #4 it was Matt Mitchell leading the way to the checkered flag. Ballou, Casey Shuman and Stenhouse were next across the finish line. The final heat went to USAC/CRA points leader Tony Jones with Darland, Mike Spencer and Rip Williams in pursuit.
With 20 drivers already qualified for the feature it left only four berths open for the main event with 24 drivers battling for those spots. When the 12 laps were completed two tome Western champion Bud Kaeding, Daron Clayton, Brady Short and Thomas Meseraull joining the main event field.
Checker Auto Parts/Budweiser/Parker Store "Western World Championships"
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Bud Kaeding, 29, BK-19.261; 2. Brad Sweet, 9, Kahne-19.455; 3. Jerry Coons Jr., 69, Dynamics-19.508; 4. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 21, Stewart-19.583; 5. Dave Darland, 44, Pace-19.591; 6. Levi Jones, 20, Stewart-19.593; 7. Jimmy Crawford, 51, Crawford-19.603; 8. Daron Clayton, 10, R & B-19,624; 9. Brady Short, 2B, 2B Racing-19.676; 10. Mike Spencer, 50, Chaffin-19.697; 11. Jesse Hockett, 75, VKCC-19.700; 12. Thomas Meseraull, 71x, Indy Race Parts-19.779; 13. Darren Hagen, 67, Kunz-19.788; 14. Casey Shuman 2az, Massey-19.788; 15. Rickie Gaunt, 94, Gardner-19.797; 16. Damion Gardner, 71, Leffler-19.818; 17. Shane Cottle, 10T, R & B-19.845; 18. Rick Ziehl, 33, Tutco-19.852; 19. Robert Ballou, 81, MPHG-19.861; 20. Tony Jones, 4, Alexander-19.901; 21. R.J. Johnson, 15, Martin-19.905; 22. Brady Bacon, 99, Kahne-19.917; 23. Mat Neely, 0, Price-19.963; 24. Matt Mitchell, 29k, BK-19.977; 25. Bill Rose, 67k, Kunz-19.989; 26. Charles Davis Jr., 50az, Massey-20.007; 27. Danny Sheridan, 18, Kittle-20.029; 28. Garrett Hansen, 7, Priestley-20.046; 29. Dustin Morgan, 11, Walker/Guiducci-20.073; 30. Rip Williams, 3, Jory-20.094; 31. Blake Miller, 93, Gardner-20.098; 32. Chris Windom, 17, Windom-20.122; 33. Josh Ford, 73, Ford-20.175; 34. Cole Carter, 77, Carter-20.196; 35. Michael Trimble, 21T, Kruseman-20.203; 36. Jeremy Sherman, 75a, Sourant-20.218; 37. Hunter Scheurenberg, 2J, Yeley-20.230; 38. Jon Stanbrough, 97x, Crossno-20.243; 39. Scotty Weir, 38, Crossno-20.253; 40. Matt Rossi, 02, Rossi-20.319; 41. Cole Whitt, 29w, CW-20.336; 42. Davey Pombo, 38T, Crossno-20.359; 43. Mike Leslie, 76, Montgomery-20.368; 44. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-20.495; 45. David Cardey, 83, Crossno-20.554; 46. Thomas Ogle, 5az, Turner-20.617; 47. Brad Noffsinger, 94G, Gardner-20.623; 48. Mike Martin, 16m, Martin-20.625; 49. Nadine Gardner, 16, Gardner-20.654; 50. Andrew Reinbold, 19x, Reinbold-20.686; 51. Justin Fisher, 61, Taylor-20.740; 52. Nathan High, 12, Allen-20.765; 53. Ronnie Smith, 16F, Mach-2-20.821; 54. Keith Williamson, 95, Williamson-21.276; 55. Kyle Bates, 397, Sick Fast-21.415; 56. Cory Kruseman, 21k, Kruseman-NT; 57. Kyle Wissmiller, 0a, Price-NT; 58. Jay Ervine, 5, Pritchett-NT; 59. #29x, CW-NT; 60. #20s, Stewart-NT.
"C" MAIN: (10 laps) 1. Pombo, 2. Mellenberndt, 3. Whitt, 4. Leslie, 5. Ogle, 6. Noffsinger, 7. High, 8. Reinbold, 9. Fisher, 10. Martin, 11. Williamson, 12. K.Bates, 13. Cardey, 14. Smith, 15. N.Gardner. NT
FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Hockett, 2. Sherman, 3. L.Jones, 4. D.Gardner, 5. Kaeding, 6. Johnson, 7. Davis, 8. Miller. 3:26.26
SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. Windom, 3. Sweet, 4. Sheridan, 5. Scheurenberg, 6. Meseraull, 7. Cottle. 3:27.31
THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Stanbrough, 2. Coons, 3. Ford, 4. Ziehl, 5. Clayton, 6. Neely, 7. Hansen, 8. Hagen. NT
FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Mitchell, 2. Ballou, 3. Shuman, 4. Stenhouse, 5. Short, 6. Morgan, 7. Weir, 8. Carter. NT
FIFTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. T.Jones, 2. Darland, 3. Spencer, 4. Williams, 5. Rose, 6. Trimble, 7. Gaunt, 8. Rossi. NT
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Kaeding, 2. Clayton, 3. Short, 4. Meseraull, 5. Gaunt, 6. Johnson, 7. Cottle, 8. Hansen, 9. Morgan, 10. Scheurenberg, 11. Davis, 12. Rossi, 13. Whitt, 14. Trimble, 15. Weir, 16. High, 17. Mellenberndt, 18. B.Miller (#94G), 19. Ogle, 20. Pombo, 21. Leslie, 22. Hagen (#67k), 23. Neely. 4:16.72
FEATURE: (25 laps) 1. Jerry Coons Jr., 2. Jesse Hockett, 3. Dave Darland, 4. Levi Jones, 5. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 6. Brady Short, 7. Bud Kaeding, 8. Damion Gardner, 9. Brady Bacon, 10. Mike Spencer, 11. Chris Windom, 12. Rick Ziehl, 13. Darren Hagen (#67k), 14. Casey Shuman, 15. Thomas Meseraull, 16. Tony Jones, 17. Brad Sweet, 18. Josh Ford, 19. Daron Clayton, 20. Jon Stanbrough, 21. Scotty Weir, 22. Danny Sheridan, 23. Robert Ballou, 24. Jeremy Sherman, 25. Rickie Gaunt, 26. Rip Williams, 27. Dustin Morgan, 28. Matt Mitchell. NT
**Hagen flipped during the third heat. Carter flipped during the fourth heat. Mitchell flipped on lap 3 of the feature. Ballou flipped on lap 18 of the feature and was transported to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix for treatment of an arm injury.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-3 L.Jones, Laps 4-25 Coons.
NEW LUCAS OIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-L.Jones-1,389; 2-Hagen-1,269; 3-Darland-1,217; 4-Bacon-1,074; 5-Hockett-1,058; 6-Stenhouse-972; 7-Kevin Swindell-952; 8-Short-919; 9-D.Gardner-876; 10-Coons-849.
NEW LUCS OIL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-T.Jones-1,924; 2-Spencer-1,846; 3-Sheridan-1,729; 4-Gaunt-1,655; 5-Weir-1,570; 6-Williams-1,418; 7-Cardey-1,260; 8-Kruseman-1,206; 8-Miller-1,076; 10-Ford-967.
NEXT LUCAS OIL USAC NATIONAL & USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR RACE: November 10 – Pnoenix, AZ - Manzanita Speedway - 40th Checker Auto Parts/Budweiser/Parker Store "Western World Championships"
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