Bruce Bags O'Reilly ASCoT Honors

at I-90 Speedway!

 

Lonnie Wheatley, HARTFORD, S.D. (June 24, 2008) – Tony Bruce, Jr., of Liberal, KS, posted his second O'Reilly American Sprint Cars on Tour National feature win of the season by posting a wire-to-wire victory in Tuesday night's 25-lap feature event on the second leg of the ASCS Northern Swing at I-90 Speedway.

Bruce battled into the lead on the opening lap and then fought off several bids from Gary Wright along the way to secure the win aboard the Kistler-powered Best Well Service No. 18 Maxim.   Gridding the field inside the second row, Bruce emerged from an opening lap scramble for the point in front of second-starter Wright and polesitter Aaron Berryhill, with Brodix Rookie of the Year contender Eric Baldaccini soon making his way around Berryhill for third.   With Wright pressuring Bruce for the lead, action came to a quick halt on the fifth lap when Bryan Dobesh flipped wildly in turn four and took down a portion of the fence in the process.  Dobesh escaped injury, while the track crew made quick repairs to the fence.  "On that restart, I was thinking about Gary Wright passing me on the last lap at Devil's Bowl," Bruce commented, alluding to the final night of the Devil's Bowl Spring Nationals in March.  "I couldn't let that happen again, I had to keep him behind me." Wright turned up the heat soon after the restart, pulling even on the low side of turns one and two on the seventh lap only to have Bruce power back in front as they charged down the backstretch.   Bruce adeptly worked his way through lapped traffic over the final 15 circuits, opening up a half dozen car-length advantage over Wright, who was busy fending off Sam Hafertepe, Jr., over the final half of the race.

Tony Bruce, Jr., and company in O'Reilly ASCoT victory lane at I-90 Speedway in Hartford, SD.

"I saw his nose under me a time or two and knew I had to get my elbows up," Bruce explained.  "That old guy is still awful tough to beat."

Bidding for a fifth consecutive series crown, Wright gained some valuable points with his runner-up finish aboard the Wesmar-powered Richwood Construction No. 9 Maxim.

 

Hafertepe battled past Baldaccini for third by the midway point and battled with Wright before settling for the show position in the G-H Plumbing No. 15.  Zach Chappell made a late move to snare fourth in the Legend's Bar-B-Que No. 50z Maxim, while Baldaccini posted a career best ASCoT National finish of fifth aboard the Smiley's Race Products No. B4 Maxim.

 

Jack Dover crossed the stripe sixth, with Berryhill in seventh.  Jason Johnson's run of South Dakota perfection ended with an eighth-place run after four victories in as many tries over the past two years.  Johnson also lost a dozen points to Wright in the $50,000 championship chase.

 

Scott Winters raced from 16^th to ninth, with Jake Peters completing the top ten.

 

Hafertepe, Dover, Berryhill, Wright and Bruce topped heat race action for the 39-car field, with Wade Nygaard and Wayne Johnson winning the twin "B" Mains.

 

Rookie of the Year contender Kenneth Walker blew an engine on the final lap of his heat race and scratched for the night.  Fellow rookie Kathryne Minter used a provisional to start the main event.

 

O’Reilly ASCoT Results from I-90 Speedway: 

Heat Races (Top 16 in Passing Points to "A" Main; Balance to Two "B" Mains):

 

Brodix Heat One (8 Laps):  1. 15-Sam Hafertepe, Jr., 2. b4-Eric Baldaccini, 3. 11x-Garry Lee Maier, 4. 3-Donovan Peterson, 5. 94-Wayne Johnson, 6. 15s-Nick Smith, 7. 17v-Casey Abbas, 8. 92-Mike Sitzmann, Jr.

 

Wesmar-Shaver Heat Two (8 Laps):  1. 53-Jack Dover, 2. 77-Troy Vink, 3. 57x-Jake Peters, 4. 11-Gregg Bakker, 5. 7m-Chad Meyer, 6. 12-Brock Dump, 7. 99v-Gordy Vogelaar, 8. 76-Dustin Evink.

 

Brodix Heat Three (8 Laps):  1. 97-Aaron Berryhill, 2. 6-Jody Rosenboom, 3. 50z-Zach Chappell, 4. 9n-Wade Nygaard, 5. 40-Clint Garner, 6. 5-Eric Lutz, 7. 94s-Natalie Sather, 8. 39-Greg Gunderson.

 

Wesmar-Shaver Heat Four (8 Laps):  1. 9-Gary Wright, 2. 7s-Jason Sides, 3. 23w-Scott Winters, 4. 9L-Micah Schliemann, 5. 28-Mitch Runge, 6. 4J-Lee Grosz, 7. 99-Shawn Van Wyhe, 8. 13-Kathryne Minter.

 

Heat Five (8 Laps):  1. 18-Tony Bruce, Jr., 2. 2d-Bryan Dobesh, 3. 41-Jason Johnson, 4. 8k-Butch Hanssen, 5. 21-Daryn Pittman, 6. 34tw-Jason Tostenson, 7. 2-Kenneth Walker.

 

"B" Mains – Top 3 From Each to "A" Main:

 

First "B" Feature (10 Laps):  1. 9n-Wade Nygaard, 2. 40-Clint Garner, 3. 5-Eric Lutz, 4. 3-Donovan Peterson, 5. 4J-Lee Grosz, 6. 9L-Micah Schliemann, 7. 17v-Casey Abbas, 8. 94s-Natalie Sather, 9. 13-Kathryne Minter, 10. 12-Brock Dump, 11. 76-Dustin Evink.  DNS: 2-Kenneth Walker.

 

Second "B" Feature (10 Laps):  1. 94-Wayne Johnson, 2. 7m-Chad Meyer, 3. 15s-Nick Smith, 4. 21-Daryn Pittman, 5. 99v-Gordy Vogelaar, 6. 34tw-Jason Tostenson, 7. 99-Shawn Van Wyhe, 8. 92-Mike Sitzmann, Jr., 9. 39-Greg Gunderson, 10. 28-Mitch Runge, 11. 8k-Butch Hanssen.

 

O’Reilly ASCoT "A" Main Event:

 

“A” Feature (25 Laps):  1. 18-Tony Bruce, Jr., 2. 9-Gary Wright, 3. 15-Sam Hafertepe, Jr., 4. 50z-Zach Chappell, 5. b4-Eric Baldaccini, 6. 53-Jack Dover, 7. 41-Jason Johnson, 8. 97-Aaron Berryhill, 9. 23w-Scott Winters, 10. 57x-Jake Peters, 11. 7s-Jason Sides, 12. 94-Wayne Johnson, 13. 40-Clint Garner, 14. 11x-Garry Lee Maier, 15. 9n-Wade Nygaard, 16. 7m-Chad Meyer, 17. 3-Donovan Peterson, 18. 5-Eric Lutz, 19. 11-Gregg Bakker, 20. 6-Jody Rosenboom, 21. 77-Troy Vink, 22. 13-Kathryne Minter, 23. 15s-Nick Smith, 24. 2d-Bryan Dobesh.

 

Lap Leaders: Tony Bruce, Jr. 1-25.

 

Note: Kathryne Minter utilized an ASCoT provisional and Donovan Peterson utilized a track provisional to start the "A" Main.

 

O’Reilly ASCoT Points

(Top Fifteen):  1. Gary Wright 1,827, 2. Jason Johnson 1,797, 3. Wayne Johnson 1,739, 4. Zach Chappell 1,685, 5. Garry Lee Maier 1,608, 6. Eric Baldaccini 1,437, 7. Travis Rilat 1,364, 8. Nick Smith 1,353, 9. Kenneth Walker 1,286, 10. Jack Dover 1,252, 11. Jason Sides 1,130, 12. Kathryne Minter 1,083, 13. Gary Taylor 1,042, 14. Aaron Berryhill 979, 15. Chris Tarrant 861.