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Bacon Cooks Up Sprint Bandits TNT Three-Peat in Lakeside Opener! by: Lonnie Wheatley KANSAS CITY, Kan. (August 15) Oklahoma's Brady Bacon just found victory lane in the "traditional" 410-ci Sprint Car ranks two nights earlier. Now, the third generation shoe seems to be unstoppable as he snared his third O'Reilly Sprint Bandits Tour 'N Topless Midwest Swing feature win in as many nights by topping Friday's 25-lap preliminary feature event at Lakeside Speedway. Bacon took full advantage of a late caution to overtake race-long leader and current TNT points leader Dave Darland on the 21st lap, ultimately beating Darland to the checkered flag with Damion Gardner and Bryan Clauson taking the final two guaranteed starting berths in Saturday night's $10,000 to win Ron Shuman Classic. "I made all the adjustments I could make on that last caution and it worked, this car is working so great right now it just seems like we can do no wrong," Bacon explained of Mike and Megan Eubanks' Wesmar-powered Tel-Star Communications No. 99 Triple-X. Working forward from the ninth position, the caution that proved to be Bacon's big break also negated Bryan Clauson's move around Darland on the high side for the lead and a possible win. Clauson still earned a lock-in position with a last-lap pass of R.J. Johnson for fourth in a wild scramble for position. "A win tonight would have been nice, but at least we're locked in for tomorrow night, that's the one we want," Clauson commented. While Darland outgunned polesitter Hunter Schuerenberg for the lead at the drop of the green flag, Bacon went to work from the fifth row and had cracked the top five after just a handful of circuits and was then fourth behind Darland, Clauson and R.J. Johnson after Schuerenberg spun to a stop along the frontstretch after ten laps. Johnson and Bacon both charged around Clauson on the restart, with Arizona's Johnson using the low side of the track to pressure the rim-riding Darland for the lead as the caution flew after 16 laps. Opting to protect the low line, Darland dropped to the bottom with Bacon surging past Johnson for second. With several front runners bottled up on the lower portion of the track, Clauson took full advantage by powering by on the top side of the backstretch on the 21st lap only to have a caution flag fly for Dustin Morgan's disabled mount on the backstretch. With Clauson back to third behind Darland and Bacon on the restart, Darland moved back to the upper groove and Bacon gobbled up the lead on the lower portion of the track, holding it to the checkered flag. Darland held on for second in Scott Benic's Gaerte-powered RWB No. 2b Maxim, while Damion Gardner gained three positions over the final five circuits to take the show position in the Leffler Racing Pace Lighting No. 71 Beast. Clauson edged Johnson at the line for fourth in Kevin Montgomery's Kenz & Leslie No. 76 with Johnson rounding out the top five in the Arizona Race Mart No. 15 Maxim. Cole Whitt notched a sixth-place showing in his first TNT outing of the week, with Darren Hagen, 14th-starter Gary Taylor, Charles Davis, Jr., and 20th-starter Chris Windom completing the top ten. Dustin Morgan, Darland, Gardner and Whitt topped heat race action, with Mike Leslie, Clauson, Jesse Hockett and Thomas Meseraull winning the qualifiers. Daron Clayton won the 10-lap "B" Main. The night ended early for several competitors, including Robert Ballou and Kevin Swindell (who both flipped on the final lap of the first heat race) and Zach Goulden (who flipped on the second lap of the fourth qualifying race). Dusty Murray took down some fence cables on the first attempt to start the "B" Main. The Fourth Annual O'Reilly Sprint Bandits Tour 'N Topless Midwest Swing concludes with Saturday night's $10,000-to-win Ron Shuman Classic at Lakeside Speedway, with heat races set to fire off at 7:30 p.m. OReilly Sprint Bandits Tour N Topless Lakeside Speedway Results: Heat Races: First Heat (8 Laps): 1. 67-Dustin Morgan, 2. 5*-Gary Taylor, 3. 92-Daron Clayton, 4. 10-Darren Hagen, 5. 81-Robert Ballou, 6. 1-Kevin Swindell, 7. 24-Alan Billings. Second Heat (8 Laps): 1. 2b-Dave Darland, 2. 11-Hunter Schuerenberg, 3. 14-Coleman Gulick, 4. 7c-Chris Morgan, 5. 75-Jesse Hockett, 6. 76bg-Mike Leslie, 7. 8-Jeff Wingate. Third Heat (8 Laps): 1. 71-Damion Gardner, 2. 15-R.J. Johnson, 3. 32-Casey Shuman, 4. 99-Brady Bacon, 5. 1k-Kim Kennedy, 6. 71x-Robert Bell, 7. 46-Dusty Murray. Fourth Heat (8 Laps): 1. 29w-Cole Whitt, 2. 76-Bryan Clauson, 3. 21s-Charles Davis, Jr., 4. 97-Bret Mellenberndt, 5. 10T-Thomas Meseraull, 6. 49-Zach Goulden, 7. 65-Chris Parkinson. Qualifying Races (Top 16 in Combined Passing Points from Heats & Qualifiers to "A" Main; Balance to "B" Main): First Qualifier (8 Laps): 1. 76bg-Mike Leslie, 2. 15-R.J. Johnson, 3. 67-Dustin Morgan, 4. 71-Damion Gardner, 5. 1k-Kim Kennedy, 6. 92-Daron Clayton, 7. 17-Chris Windom, 8. 24-Alan Billings. Second Qualifier (8 Laps): 1. 76-Bryan Clauson, 2. 2b-Dave Darland, 3. 97-Bret Mellenberndt, 4. 32-Casey Shuman, 5. 8-Jeff Wingate. DNS: 1-Kevin Swindell, 81-Robert Ballou. Third Qualifier (8 Laps): 1. 75-Jesse Hockett, 2. 99-Brady Bacon, 3. 10-Darren Hagen, 4. 29w-Cole Whitt, 5. 14-Coleman Gulick, 6. 46-Dusty Murray, 7. 71x-Robert Bell. Fourth Qualifier (8 Laps): 1. 10T-Thomas Meseraull, 2. 11-Hunter Schuerenberg, 3. 21s-Charles Davis, Jr., 4. 5*-Gary Taylor, 5. 7c-Chris Morgan, 6. 65-Chris Parkinson, 7. 49-Zach Goulden. "B" "Main (Top 6 Advance to "A" Main): |