OCALA, Fla. — Brady Bacon capitalized on a smashed header pipe and heavy lapped traffic to snare a $5,000 win in the opening round of the USAC Amsoil Sprint Car National Championship Winter Dirt Games at Bubba Raceway Park Thursday night.
The win marked his 47th USAC national series score.
CJ Leary and Emerson Axsom led the field to green with Thomas Meseraull and Bacon in the second row. Bacon immediately jumped to third, but then gave it back before a turn four melee brought the night’s first yellow on lap two.
After Jadon Rogers and Jake Swanson made quick pit visits, action resumed with Bacon again shooting to third on the green. Leary looked strong and led the leaders into lapped traffic on lap seven. By lap 12, Leary, Axsom and Bacon were under the proverbial blanket amidst never-ending traffic. When Justin Grant, up from fifth, got close to Bacon just after halfway, he turned up the wick.
By then, Axsom had gotten past Leary for the lead in heavy traffic, but his time in front was short. Bacon first disposed of Leary, then edged underneath Axsom just before the final yellow flew for another spin in turn four with six to go. From there, it was an easy run to the checkers for the Oklahoma native.
“Emerson got bobbled up with a lapped car and I sneaked by him on the bottom,” Bacon said. “I had a header problem with a smashed header, which limited the horsepower, so I went to the bottom which turned out to be where I needed to be. We were just lucky that it didn’t put me out of the race.”
Meanwhile, Axsom dealt with the tough blow in second-place.
“It was a tough loss,” Axsom offered. “I felt like we had the best car, the fastest car, but we got caught behind a lapped car and Brady got a good run on me. He doesn’t make mistakes, so getting back by wasn’t going to happen.”
Leary echoed the sentiment, adding that he “made a bad decision in lapped traffic and Axsom got around us. Then we had a tire going down, probably from a bad bleeder valve, so we were just hanging on.”
Grant was a close fourth ahead of Kyle Cummins, Meseraull, Matt Westfall, Logan Seavey, Chase Stockon and 24th place starter Robert Ballou, who’s strong run capped off a tough night. He had trouble on his first time trial lap and got just one lap at the end of the session, then had to outrun Kevin Thomas Jr. for the last transfer spot in his heat.
Jason McDougal turned fast time with a 13.791-second lap around the odd-shaped oval with Mitchel Moles, Jadon Rogers and Westfall sharing heat wins while Thomas notched an easy win in the semi-feature.
Boxscore
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Bubba Raceway Park, Ocala, Fla., Feb. 15, 2023
QUALIFYING: 1. Jason McDougal, 5m, KO-13.791; 2. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-13.842; 3. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-13.924; 4. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.955; 5. Thomas Meseraull, 20, Dyson-14.004; 6. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-14.052; 7. Kevin Thomas Jr., 17GP, Dutcher-14.067; 8. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall-14.081; 9. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-14.094; 10. Logan Seavey, 2B, 2B Racing-14.097; 11. Daison Pursley, 5p, KO-14.132; 12. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-14.149; 13. Tom Harris, 84, Harris-14.179; 14. Jadon Rogers, 5, Baldwin/Fox-14.257; 15. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-14.309; 16. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-14.383; 17. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-14.467; 18. Brady Short, 61m, Edwards-14.478; 19. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-14.673; 20. Cameron Smith, 96, Kauffman-14.674; 21. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-14.761; 22. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-14.836; 23. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-14.903; 24. Steve Irwin, 0, Flying Zero-14.977; 25. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-15.102; 26. Kevin Newton, 16TH, Benic-15.203; 27. Brian Ruhlman, 49, Ruhlman-15.852; 28. Eddie Vancil, 7v, Vancil-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Mitchel Moles, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Tom Harris, 5. Robert Ballou, 6. Kevin Thomas Jr., 7. Brandon Mattox, 8. Hunter Maddox, 9. Jason McDougal. NT
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Jadon Rogers, 2. Chase Stockon, 3. Emerson Axsom, 4. Jake Swanson, 5. Thomas Meseraull, 6. Daison Pursley, 7. Cameron Smith, 8. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 9. Kevin Newton. 1:57.78
ROD END SUPPLY / T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Matt Westfall, 2. Brady Short, 3. C.J. Leary, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Carson Garrett, 6. Kyle Cummins, 7. Joey Amantea, 8. Brian Ruhlman, 9. Steve Irwin. 1:56.76
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-7 transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. Daison Pursley, 4. Joey Amantea, 5. Brandon Mattox, 6. Hunter Maddox, 7. Steve Irwin, 8. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 9. Kevin Newton, 10. Brian Ruhlman, 11. Cameron Smith, 12. Jason McDougal. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Brady Bacon (4), 2. Emerson Axsom (2), 3. C.J. Leary (1), 4. Justin Grant (5), 5. Kyle Cummins (10), 6. Thomas Meseraull (3), 7. Matt Westfall (8), 8. Logan Seavey (12), 9. Chase Stockon (16), 10. Robert Ballou (22), 11. Carson Garrett (14), 12. Mitchel Moles (9), 13. Jake Swanson (6), 14. Kevin Thomas Jr. (11), 15. Daison Pursley (13), 16. Brady Short (17), 17. Joey Amantea (19), 18. Brandon Mattox (20), 19. Hunter Maddox (18), 20. Tom Harris (15), 21. Steve Irwin (21), 22. Jadon Rogers (7).