Series West Memphis Prelim results, report 2009-07-03

Crawley Covers Lucas Oil ASCS Field in Riverside Prelim!

Locks into Saturday's Rock 'N Roll 50 Championship Feature!

WEST MEMPHIS, Ark (July 3, 2009) -- The Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Car Dirt Series presented by K&N Filters made a dramatic return to Riverside Speedway with three-time series champion Tim Crawley charging to victory lane in Friday night's 30-lap preliminary feature.

Racing forward from six rows deep in the series first appearance atop the 0x00bc-mile gumbo clay oval in nearly four years, Crawley powered by early leader Tony Bruce, Jr., on the high side of turn two on the 18th round to take command en route to victory lane.

Crawley, the 2009 ASCS Speedweek champion, summed it up with, "That was balls to the wall!" after his second Lucas Oil win of the season but first in points-paying competition.

Crawley took the checkered flag in front of Travis Rilat, with Jesse Hockett and Bruce, Jr., also locking into Saturday night's $6,000 to win Rock 'N Roll 50 championship feature after finishing third and fourth, respectively.

"We needed this one tonight to make up some ground on the Lucas Oil points deal," Crawley commented. "We kinda struggled those first few races. That was probably my fault, I needed to step up my game."

Crawley stepped it up on this night aboard Mike Ward's McCarver-powered Boater Sports No. 88 Maxim, cracking the top five by the tenth round from his eleventh starting position and then making quick work of Ernie Ainsworth, Hockett, Rilat and then Bruce in succession over the next eight laps as he punished the upper reaches of the historic oval.

The only thing that slowed Crawley's pace as the laps clicked off was a caution for Danny Wood's stalled mount with 22 laps in the books. But, with a pair of lapped cars between himself and his pursuers, Crawley checked out and took the 38th Lucas Oil National victory of his career with a half straightaway edge despite reaching traffic again in the final pair of circuits.

Rilat and Hockett followed Crawley around Bruce, with Rilat taking runner-up honors in the Shark-powered F&J Construction No. 29 Triple-X, explaining that, "The main thing was to run top four tonight and get locked in for tomorrow, so we're happy."

Hockett posted his best Lucas Oil run of the year by taking the show position in the RMS-powered VKCC Motorsports/Tom Buch No. 13 JEI.

After starting from the pole position and pacing the opening 17 circuits, Bruce, Jr., held on for the fourth and final lock-in position aboard the Rider-powered Sundial Tee Shirts/AMC Plumbing No. 18 Maxim.

Gary Wright, who started alongside Crawley in the sixth row, climbed from 12th to round out the top five in Scott Brown's ASI-powered Lubbock Wrecker Service/Richwood Construction No. 9x Maxim, with front row outside starter Dale Howard, 16th-starter Jason Johnson, 22nd-starter Shane Stewart and Ernie Ainsworth competing the top ten.

With his seventh-place showing, defending series champion Johnson escaped the night with a two-point advantage in the $60,000 Lucas Oil championship chase over Stewart with Wright just six points off the lead pace in third.

After the initial three attempts to get the race under way were waved due to minor incidents, the balance of the feature event ran off with just two cautions including one after four laps for a Gavin Punch spin and then the lap 22 Wood stop. A dozen of the 18 laps run under green from lap four to 22 found the leaders working traffic, with Crawley surging to the front during that time.

Jack Dover made an early exit with throttle linkage woes, with Brady Bacon also departing before a lap was in the books with a twisted front axle after a skirmish in traffic.

Rilat, Ainsworth, Bacon, Eddie Gallagher and Dale Howard topped heat race action for the 44-car field, with Jeff Swindell and Dover winning the twin 12-lap "B" Mains.

Kathryne Minter got upside down entering turn one in the second "B" Main, hobbling away with a swollen knee.

Saturday night's Rock 'N Roll 50 championship event at Riverside Speedway is slated to get under way at 7:30 p.m., with the 50-lap feature winner collecting a $6,000 winner's share.

Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Car Dirt Series presented by K&N Filters
Riverside Speedway -- West Memphis, AR
Rock 'N Roll 50 Preliminary Event Results

Heat Races (Top 16 in Passing Points to "A" Main; Balance to 2 "B" Mains):

Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 29-Travis Rilat, 2. 81au-Gavin Punch, 3. 88-Tim Crawley, 4. 12d-Jeff Swindell, 5. 75-Don Young, 6. 53-Jack Dover, 7. 7-Darren Long, 8. 15s-Nick Smith, 9. 85-Jerry Bell.

Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 40-Ernie Ainsworth, 2. 13-Jesse Hockett, 3. 6-Raymond Stull, 4. 23-Seth Bergman, 5. 4x-Jan Howard, 6. 7n-Philip Faulkner, 7. 13k-Kathryne Minter, 8. 93-Dustin Morgan, 9. 51-Lee Sowell.

Heat Three (8 Laps): 1. 99-Brady Bacon, 2. 18-Tony Bruce, Jr., 3. 41-Jason Johnson, 4. 9x-Gary Wright, 5. 8z-Zach Pringle, 6. 11-Chad Corken, 7. 3d-Paul McMahan, 8. 91-Gary Taylor, 9. 22-Kevin Kilpatrick.

Heat Four (8 Laps): 1. 1e-Eddie Gallagher, 2. 39-Brad Bowden, 3. 2-Kenneth Walker, 4. 8x-Chris Williams, 5. 17-Tim Sites, 6. 58-Wade Oliver, 7. 1-Sean McClelland, 8. 97-Aaron Berryhill. DNS: 44-Ronny Howard.

Heat Five (8 Laps): 1. 45-Dale Howard, 2. 9-Justin Sturch, 3. 94-Danny Wood, 4. 57-Shane Stewart, 5. 3-A.G. Rains, 6. 95-Matt Covington, 7. 10a-Ricky Logan, 8. 12-Trey Robb.

"B" Mains (Top 3 From Each Advance to "A" Main):

First "B" Feature (12 Laps): 1. 12d-Jeff Swindell, 2. 94-Danny Wood, 3. 3-A.G. Rains, 4. 95-Matt Covington, 5. 3d-Paul McMahan, 6. 7-Darren Long, 7. 11-Chad Corken, 8. 15s-Nick Smith, 9. 17-Tim Sites, 10. 51-Lee Sowell, 11. 7n-Philip Faulkner, 12. 22-Kevin Kilpatrick. DNS: 4x-Jan Howard, 93-Dustin Morgan.

Second "B" Feature (12 Laps): 1. 53-Jack Dover, 2. 8z-Zach Pringle, 3. 57-Shane Stewart, 4. 8x-Chris Williams, 5. 1-Sean McClelland, 6. 23-Seth Bergman, 7. 10a-Ricky Logan, 8. 91-Gary Taylor, 9. 44-Ronny Howard, 10. 13k-Kathryne Minter, 11. 12-Trey Robb, 12. 85-Jerry Bell, 13. 58-Wade Oliver. DNS: 97-Aaron Berryhill.

Rock N' Roll 50 Preliminary "A" Main Event:

"A" Feature (30 Laps): 1. 88-Tim Crawley, 2. 29-Travis Rilat, 3. 13-Jesse Hockett, 4. 18-Tony Bruce, Jr., 5. 9x-Gary Wright, 6. 45-Dale Howard, 7. 41-Jason Johnson, 8. 57-Shane Stewart, 9. 3d-Paul McMahan, 10. 40-Ernie Ainsworth, 11. 3-A.G. Rains, 12. 2-Kenneth Walker, 13. 12d-Jeff Swindell, 14. 9-Justin Sturch, 15. 39-Brad Bowden, 16. 75-Don Young, 17. 15s-Nick Smith, 18. 6-Raymond Stull, 19. 94-Danny Wood, 20. 1e-Eddie Gallagher, 21. 8z-Zach Pringle, 22. 81au-Gavin Punch, 23. 99-Brady Bacon, 24. 53-Jack Dover.

Lap Leaders: Tony Bruce, Jr. 1-17, Tim Crawley 18-30.

Note: Paul McMahan and Nick Smith utilized Lucas Oil ASCS provisionals to start the "A" Main. It was McMahan's first of the year and Smith's second of the year.

Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Car Dirt Series presented by K&N Filters Points (Top 20): 1. Jason Johnson 860, 2. Shane Stewart 858, 3. Gary Wright 854, 4. Travis Rilat 783, 5. Paul McMahan 780, 6. Danny Wood 752, 7. Jack Dover 743, 8. Nick Smith 736, 9. Tim Crawley 731, 10. Tony Bruce, Jr. 723, 11. Brady Bacon 646, 12. Jesse Hockett 645, 13. Sean McClelland 606, 14. Kenneth Walker 569, 15. Trey Robb 557, 16. Aaron Berryhill 550, 17. Gary Taylor 528, 18. Gavin Punch 524, 19. Kathryne Minter 508, 20. Matt Covington 507.

-credit: ascs