Bellm Back to Lake Ozark after Another Win
by: Lonnie Wheatley
NIXA, Mo. (July 29, 2017) – Eldon, Missouri’s Lake Ozark Speedway has been good for Kyle Bellm and the Resource Asset Management Solutions (RAMS) No. 14k Sprint Car team this season.
So, little wonder that he’ll be back for Saturday night’s weekly competition atop the 1/3-mile clay oval.
The Nixa, MO, racer racked up his fourth overall win of the year and third at Lake Ozark Speedway last Saturday night in ASCS Warrior Region action aboard the PPG Automotive Finishes/Colorvision entry. It highlighted another strong weekend that included a runner-up finish the previous night in ASCS Red River Region action at Oklahoma’s Creek County Speedway before Sunday’s ASCS Warrior Region go was cut short before it truly got going.
Last weekend’s triple-header got under way at the cozy confines of Creek County Speedway near Tulsa, OK, with Bellm racing from fifth to second in his heat race aboard the Kannady Racing Engines/Heidbreder Foundation Service Machine to land in the redraw where he pulled the six pill for a third row outside starting position for the 25-lap feature.
Bellm wasted little time working his way up to second by the time a red flag flew mid-way through the race and then pressured Seth Bergman for the lead the rest of the way.
After several challenges, Bellm made one last run in the final pair of corners aboard the VP Racing Fuels/Schure Built Suspensions machine but came up just short at the line as he settled for runner-up honors.
“Maybe I could have been a little meaner,” Bellm said. “But I try to race everyone clean, I could have bonsaied in there and we both might have been wadded up. We’ll take second and go on to the next one.”
The next one was Lake Ozark Speedway on Saturday night, a track that Bellm had piloted the Christian County Collision Repair/Bybee Lawn Care machine to victory lane in two of three previous visits.
Saturday’s card would prove to be more of the same with Bellm climbing from ninth to fourth in heat race action to get in the redraw which landed him on the pole of the feature event.
“We drew the highest number possible for the heat race and then the lowest number for the feature,” Bellm relates. “We were at both ends of the spectrum on that one.”
Bellm took advantage of the pole starting position by racing to the $2,500 victory.
“We probably weren’t quite as good as we have been there, but we were still pretty good,” Bellm says.
The victory didn’t come without a tense moment or two.
“The last corner of the last lap, I screwed up and almost spun it,” Bellm says. “We held on though, that place has been good to us so far.”
The weekend wrapped up with Sunday’s $3,000-to-win ASCS Warrior Region card at California, Missouri’s Double X Speedway with a third-place heat race finish aboard the Schaeffer Oil/Prater Designs/The Engine Heater machine putting Bellm tenth in the feature starting grid.
“I didn’t get a good start in the heat and it cost us some positions,” Bellm recalls.
The feature literally ended before it got started for Bellm with the No. 14k Sprint Car collected in a multi-car scrum as the green flag flew.
“I took off and all I saw was carnage in front of me,” Bellm says. “Someone ran over us in the mess and knocked the front end down. It’s just short track racing, it happens that way sometimes.”
While the Sunday finale didn’t go as planned, it was a weekend that included another pair of podium finishes including the team’s fourth feature win of the year.
Bellm looks to run that win total to five on Saturday night at Lake Ozark Speedway.
2017 Quick Stats: 24 races, 4 wins, 11 top-fives, 11 top-tens.
Up Next: Saturday night (July 29) at Eldon, Missouri’s Lake Ozark Speedway.
Category: Missouri
