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Jones is Dynamite in TNT Opener at
Osky |
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OSKALOOSA, Iowa (August 9, 2005) – Illinois’ Levi Jones
is $30,000 richer after topping the opening leg of the O’Reilly
Sprint Bandits Tour ‘N Topless swing in Tuesday night’s 30-lap
Non-Wing Ultimate Challenge feature event at Southern Iowa Speedway.
After winning the 5-lap Dash to earn the pole position for the McTwo Promotions feature event, Jones outgunned Cory Kruseman to snare the lead at the drop of the green flag. Jones led the opening circuit with Jesse Hockett, Damion Gardner and Jon Stanbrough in tow, as Kruseman slipped back to fifth. Jones immediately began to build his advantage as Stanbrough climbed to second by the fourth round. Stanbrough held down the second spot until Gardner raced into the position on the 14th lap. By the time the race’s first caution flew on the 23rd lap for Bud Kaeding’s stalled mount, Jones had amassed nearly a half lap lead. Three lapped cars separated Jones from Gardner on the restart, with Gardner and a resurgent Kruseman disposing of the lapped machines by the time the caution flew with just five laps remaining when Jesse Hockett surrendered a top-ten position with brake woes. Set for a five-lap dash to the checkered flag, Gardner and Kruseman made a bid for the lead as action resumed, with the trio racing three-wide off turn two on the 26th lap. Jones successfully fought off the pair to lead the way into turn three then charged to the checkered flag unabated over the final circuits aboard Scott Benic’s Lucas Oil Products No. 2b Maxim. Kruseman out dueled fellow Californian Gardner for the runner-up slot, with Johnny Herrera charging from 17th to snare fourth. Jac Haudenschild rounded out the top five after defending race winner Dickie Gaines spun in turn two on the final round while challenging Herrera for fourth. Stanbrough crossed the stripe sixth, with Jay Drake, 16th-starter Justin Marvel, Kaeding and 19th-starter Matt Westfall completing the top ten. Tony Stewart retired to the pit area midway through the feature event with mechanical problems. Josh Wise stopped the clocks at 18.698 seconds in qualifying to top the 41-car qualifying field, with Marvel, Jones, Bill Rose and Critter Malone topping heat race action. Drake won the 12-lap “B” Main. Mitch Wissmiller’s night came to an early end when he flipped in hot laps, while Travis Rilat and Sean Walden both took hard heat race spills. There were no injuries. O’Reilly Sprint Bandits TNT action resumes Monday night, August 15, at Nebraska Raceway Park’s I-80 Speedway, before moving on to Oklahoma City’s State Fair Speedway on Wednesday night, August 17. The next night, the wingless warriors move on to Tulsa Speedway, before wrapping up the TNT swing with a Friday-Saturday double at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, KS, with the August 20 finale worth $10,000 to the winner. Results: Qualifying: 1. Josh Wise, 20, 18.698, 2. Jay Drake, 21, 18.783, 3. Jon Stanbrough, 10, 18.965, 4. Damion Gardner, 50, 19.000, 5. Mat Neely, 6, 19.029, 6. Tony Stewart, 20s, 19.076, 7. Jac Haudenschild, 83jr, 19.091, 8. Cory Kruseman, 67, 19.166, 9. Jesse Hockett, 75, 19.169, 10. Levi Jones, 2b, 19.175, 11. Dave Darland, 11, 19.268, 12. Darren Hagen, 71, 19.294, 13. Ryan Anderson, 71r, 19.304, 14. Travis Rilat, 29, 19.319, 15. Bill Rose, 10T, 19.324, 16. Critter Malone, 7, 19.362, 17. Justin Marvel, 47, 19.376, 18. Johnny Herrera, 45x, 19.427, 19. Zach Chappell, 50z, 19.519, 20. Matt Westfall, 54, 19.573, 21. Casey Shuman, 6s, 19.581, 22. Dickie Gaines, 21x, 19.662, 23. Michael Woodruff, 17, 19.673, 24. Jake Peters, 57x, 19.703, 25. Bud Kaeding, 29bk, 19.716, 26. Mike Miller, 82, 19.807, 27. Charles Davis, Jr., 21c, 19.822, 28. Brad Sweet, 1, 19.835, 29. Kevin Huntley, 21r, 19.842, 30. Terry Pletch, 29p, 19.854, 31. John Scott, 83, 19.907, 32. Chris Urish, 77u, 19.918, 33. Danny Jennings, 61J, 19.954, 34. Ryan Jamison, 51J, 20.119, 35. Luke Cranston, 20c, 20.145, 36. Tyler Spath, 35, 20.409, 37. Mike Martin, 57, 20.872, 38. Robert Bell, 71b, 21.030, 39. Dave Anderson, 53, 21.182, 40. Sean Walden, 14w, No Time, 41. Mitch Wissmiller, 7x, No Time. First Heat (8 Laps): 1. Justin Marvel, 2. Josh Wise, 3. Jesse Hockett, 4. Mat Neely, 5. Casey Shuman, 6. Bud Kaeding, 7. Kevin Huntley, 8. Ryan Anderson, 9. Danny Jennings, 10. Mike Martin. Second Heat (8 Laps): 1. Levi Jones, 2. Johnny Herrera, 3. Dickie Gaines, 4. Tony Stewart, 5. Terry Pletch, 6. Ryan Jamison, 7. Robert Bell, 8. Jay Drake, 9. Travis Rilat, 10. Mike Miller. Third Heat (8 Laps): 1. Bill Rose, 2. Charles Davis, Jr., 3. Dave Darland, 4. Zach Chappell, 5. Jon Stanbrough, 6. Jac Haudenschild, 7. Michael Woodruff, 8. John Scott, 9. Luke Cranston, 10. Dave Anderson. Fourth Heat (8 Laps): 1. Critter Malone, 2. Cory Kruseman, 3. Matt Westfall, 4. Damion Gardner, 5. Darren Hagen, 6. Brad Sweet, 7. Tyler Spath, 8. Chris Urish, 9. Jake Peters, 10. Sean Walden. B Feature (12 Laps): 1. Jay Drake, 2. Jac Haudenschild, 3. Bud Kaeding, 4. Ryan Anderson, 5. Brad Sweet, 6. Jake Peters, 7. John Scott, 8. Kevin Huntley, 9. Michael Woodruff, 10. Chris Urish, 11. Mike Miller, 12. Ryan Jamison, 13. Tyler Spath, 14. Mike Martin, 15. Dave Anderson, 16. Robert Bell, 17. Luke Cranston, 18. Danny Jennings. DNS: Travis Rilat, Sean Walden, Mitch Wissmiller. A Feature (30 Laps): 1. Levi Jones, 2. Cory Kruseman, 3. Damion Gardner, 4. Johnny Herrera, 5. Jac Haudenschild, 6. Jon Stanbrough, 7. Jay Drake, 8. Justin Marvel, 9. Bud Kaeding, 10. Matt Westfall, 11. Mat Neely, 12. Josh Wise, 13. Dickie Gaines, 14. Terry Pletch, 15. Bill Rose, 16. Critter Malone, 17. Casey Shuman, 18. Darren Hagen, 19. Jesse Hockett, 20. Charles Davis, Jr., 21. Ryan Anderson, 22. Tony Stewart, 23. Zach Chappell, 24. Dave Darland. Current O’Reilly Sprint Bandits TNT Points (Top Ten): 1. Levi Jones 150, 2. Cory Kruseman 146, 3. Damion Gardner 144, 4. Johnny Herrera 142, 5. Jac Haudenschild 140, 6. Jon Stanbrough 138, 7. Jay Drake 136, 8. Justin Marvel 134, 9. Bud Kaeding 132, 10. Matt Westfall 130. |
