Abreu and Windom sweep to 4 Crowns Titles at Eldora

The build up to the 32 second running of the  Eldora 4 Crowns Nationals had everything covered except for mother nature who’s last minute change of mind forced the wash out of the World of Outlaws  show in the 4 Crowns Nationals on the Friday night.

The racing was left to the USAC Midgets, Sprints and Silver Crown boys to entertain and thrill the race fans.

There was a lot at stake in all the remaining three races, USAC Titles still to be decided and the points from the Eldora 4 Crowns will be the targets for all the drivers as their Title chase continues.

Rico Abreu had his right foot planted early when he posted the fast time during qualifying in his Kunz Toyota/Beast/Curb-Agajania from Tracy Hines and Darren Hagan.

The 25 lap feature saw Bryan Clauson jump out  to an early and what looked like winning lead until his race was done on lap 7 leaving the interest between teammates Bell and Abreu .The team mates have both been in super form during the season and have shared many a battle . The Four Crown Title would go the way of Abreu after a flawless drive. Bells second place consolidated his lead (737 ) in the USAC Honda National Midget Dirt Title from Bryan Clauson  663 points ,

Tracy Hines filled out the final podium placing giving Toyota a clean sweep.

FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Thorson, 2. Abreu, 3. Coons, 4. Darland, 5. Cockrum, 6. D.Armstrong, 7. Conover. 2:21.11

SECOND HEAT : (8 laps) 1. Bell, 2. Clauson, 3. Hines, 4. C.Armstrong, 5. Bright, 6. Grosz. NT

THIRD HEAT : (8 laps) 1. Windom, 2. Bacon, 3. Hagen, 4. East, 5. Ferns, 6. Briggs. 2:17.32

FEATURE: (25 laps) 1. Rico Abreu, 2. Christopher Bell, 3. Tracy Hines, 4. Bobby East, 5. Dave Darland, 6. Tanner Thorson, 7. Jerry Coons Jr., 8. Alex Bright, 9. Darren Hagen, 10. Caleb Armstrong, 11. Taylor Ferns, 12. Shane Cockrum, 13. Stratton Briggs, 14. Dalton Armstrong, 15. Chris Windom, 16. Brady Bacon, 17. Bryan Clauson, 18. Kellen Conover. NT

Driver quotes

Rico Abreu “Winning here, and after winning at Belleville too this year, is huge. Big-track midget racing is a blast, gotta keep your momentum and cut good laps. Racing Christopher was so much fun. I saw him coming on the board, and I knew I had to get up on the wheel to hold on. I didn’t want to take the chance of driving around the outside of him when he slid in, so I was trying to be patient and turn back down under him each time. After he didn’t clear me all the way on his last try, and I knew that kinda sealed the deal,” Abreu said

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-6 Clauson, Laps 7-25 Abreu.

NEW HONDA NATIONAL DIRT MIDGET POINTS: 1-Bell-737, 2-Clauson-663, 3-Hines-661, 4-Coons-612, 5-Hagen-589, 6-Abreu-536, 7-Andrew Felker-531, 8-Zach Daum-491, 9-Thorson-469, 10-Kuhn-416.

NEXT HONDA NATIONAL DIRT MIDGET RACE: October 3-5 – Pontoon Beach, IL – Tri-City Speedway – “Gold Crown Midget Nationals”

As the Midget feature podium celebrated their 4 Crowns Success the Sprintcars were ready for what was to be a wild feature that would see Chris Windom avoid disaster and capitalized on the opportunity to win for the first time at the vaunted high-banked oval. The Canton, Illinois 22-year old only led one lap, but it was good enough for the win. Later in the night Chris would again greet the checker first with his Silver Crown win while Tracy Hines would leave Eldora wondering how it was possible to lose both the Sprintcar and Silver Crown features due to crashes as he approached the final laps in both features.

Dave Darland was the first of the favored runners to strike problems being forced to use his backup car from the rear of the feature. Clauson, Bacon, Clayton and the unlucky Hines all were forced to exit the race. Darland put in another impressive drive winning the “Larry Rice High Performance Award” in the Phillips Motorsports – Racer’s Advantage #71P DRC/Foxco with his rear to third result.

After the Hines crash Windom survived the final lap with a good restart and no mistakes to take his first win of the year in the Jeff Walker Racing-owned, Jeff’s Jam-It-In Storage – Hoosier Tire #11 Maxim/Claxton.

Jac Haudeuschild   drove his Simon Racing – USI #22 Maxim/Claxton into second behind Windom.

Chris Windom quote

“I don’t even know what to say. It was a crazy night. Really, the last two years have been pretty up-and-down for me, but I think (car owner) Jeff (Walker) and me have settled back into something nice here. He’s given me a great car, and we just haven’t been able to finish it off until tonight. I just was trying to be conservative with all the crashes those guys had ahead of us. I thought I could get a little bit closer to Tracy before I slid him, and he actually ended up getting away from me a little, so I was far enough back on the last lap to miss him when he crashed. It’s just great to finally get a win at Eldora,” Windom said.

 

FIRST HEAT : (8 laps) 1. Hines, 2. Brecht, 3. Westfall, 4. Haudenschild, 5. Hastings, 6. Weir, 7. Miller, 8. Coons, 9. Hall. 2:11.83

SECOND HEAT : (8 laps) 1. Clayton, 2. Windom ,3. Bacon, 4. Thomas, 5. McIntyre, 6. Farney, 7. Courtney, 8. Galajda, 9. Leary. NT

THIRD HEAT : (8 laps) 1. Taylor, 2. Stockon, 3. Stanbrough, 4. Cummins, 5. Andretti, 6. Cruea, 7. Hunter, 8. Alfrey, 9. Grant. 2:14.41

FOURTH HEAT : (8 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Rose, 3. Clauson, 4. Drake, 5. Hewitt, 6. Jarrett, 7. Whited, 8. Darland. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Hewitt, 2. Darland, 3. Hall, 4. Grant, 5. Andretti, 6. McIntyre, 7. Leary, 8. Miller, 9. Cruea, 10. Whited, 11. Farney, 12. Hunter, 13. Courtney, 14. Jarrett, 15. Alfrey, 16. Galajda, 17. Hastings, 18. Coons. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Chris Windom, 2. Jac Haudenschild, 3. Dave Darland, 4. Bryan Clauson, 5. Robert Ballou, 6. Jon Stanbrough, 7. Gary Taylor, 8. Justin Grant, 9. Kevin Thomas Jr., 10. Jarett Andretti, 11. Mike Brecht, 12. Wes McIntyre, 13. Kyle Cummins, 14. Bill Rose, 15. Matt Westfall, 16. Luke Hall, 17. C.J. Leary, 18. Nick Drake, 19. Tyler Courtney, 20. Tracy Hines, 21. Daron Clayton, 22. Mike Miller, 23. Chase Stockon, 24. Brady Bacon, 25. Dallas Hewitt,
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**Bacon flipped on lap 15 of the feature. Clayton flipped on lap 25 of the feature. Hines flipped on the 30th lap of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-24 Clayton, Laps 25-29 Hines, and Lap 30 Windom.

NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Clauson-1,634, 2-Darland-1,632, 3-Bacon-1,543, 4-Thomas-1,435, 5-Stockon-1,416, 6-Hines-1,318, 7-Ballou-1,287, 8-Windom-1,045, 9-Hunter Schuerenberg-1,000, 10-Shane Cottle-952.

NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: September 28 – Lawrenceburg (IN) Speedway

WINDOM DOUBLES UP AT “4-CROWN” WITH FIRST TRAXXAS SILVER CROWN WIN, EAST TAKES SECOND-STRAIGHT SERIES TITLE

Chris Windom of Canton, Illinois began the night without an Eldora win or a Traxxas Silver Crown Series victory to his name. By the end of the night, he became a two-time Eldora winner and finally broke through with a strong win in the 50-lap Silver Crown finale to close the “4-Crown Nationals.” While Windom won, Bobby East locked up his second-straight series championship by finishing sixth.

FEATURE: (50 laps) 1. Chris Windom, 2. Matt Westfall, 3. Shane Cockrum, 4. Taylor Ferns, 5. Dave Darland, 6. Bobby East, 7. Joe Liguori, 8. Kody Swanson, 9. Tracy Hines, 10. Patrick Lawson, 11. Jarett Andretti, 12. Jerry Nemire, 13. Robert Ballou, 14. Jerry Coons Jr., 15. Christopher Bell, 16. Tad Roach, 17. John Hunt, 18. Kellen Conover, 19. Mitch Wissmiller, 20. Chris Urish. NT
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**Ballou flipped during practice. Hines flipped on lap 49 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-3 East, Laps 4-50 Windom.

FINAL TRAXXAS USAC SILVER CROWN POINTS: 1-East-387, 2-Windom-381, 3-Hines-359, 4-Coons-359, 5-Swanson-349, 6-A.J. Fike-272, 7-Brian Tyler-249, 8-Ferns-213, 9-Shane Hollingsworth-182, 10-Cockrum-165.