RPW Exclusive: ‘Sunshine’ Breaks Through Wet USAC Indy Speedweek Start; Tyler Courtney Wins Lawrenceburg

Column By: RUSTY RHOADES / RPW – LAWRENCEBURG, IN – Dirt racing fans around the country know that Mother Nature has been extra bothersome to everyone’s schedules this season, from travelling series’ to local regular shows.

The start of USAC Indy Sprintweek was no different, with Friday night’s lid lifter at Plymouth Speedway riddled with delays and stoppages before and during the night’s events. The following day, Kokomo Speedway never even had a shot to run after torrential morning and midday rains prevented them from even getting off the ground.

Luckily, a similar forecast for night 3 Sunday at Lawrenceburg didn’t come to fruition, and their crew was on the track very early in the morning working feverishly to erase the effects of the prior day’s weather and get the track in some sort of shape for racing.

Those successful efforts led to the racy highbanked facility on the southwestern edge of the state welcoming a large contingent of 42 cars into the pits. The show began under bright sunshine, and when the checkers fell on the 30 lap main event it was again “Sunshine” Tyler Courtney who ended the show in Victory Lane.

Courtney took advantage of his front row starting spot right away, blasting around pole-sitter Chad Boefsplug in the opening couple laps before an out-of-shape Brady Short in turn 4 caused Brett Beauchamp to tag him and roll over for the event’s first caution.

A couple more minor caution periods would lead to a restart on lap 8 with Dave Darland and Shane Cottle now filling out the top three.

on the restart Courtney continued to show the way in the Clauson-Marshall Racing #7bc, the “bc” standing for Tyler’s good friend and team owner Tim Clauson’s late son Bryan. Lap 19 saw Carson Short again have issues, this time losing it and turn 2 and ending up on the infield berm. He would tag the end of the field for the next restart, which had the same top 3 with CJ Leary now 4th.

When the next green flag flew, so did Leary. He always seems to enjoy highbanked facilities like “The Burg” most definitely is, and he rolled the higher side of that banking right around Cottle and Darland into 2nd by lap 21.

This would set the stage for a simply outstanding display of driving talent over the next few laps, as Leary and Courtney engaged in a back and forth battle for the lead filled with slide jobs at every turn and just clean hard racing. Nevertheless Tyler held his ground, pulled into the lead and began distancing himself from second place once again.

Carson Short’s misfortune would continue as he again caused a caution on lap 28 stopping inside turn 1.

Courtney took off following the next green flag and was going down the backstretch on his white flag lap with a comfortable lead when Isaac Chapple flipped wildly through turn 1 and 2 just as Cottle and Justin Grant got into each other and slid up into the Turn 1 wall.

USAC rules mandate a green-white-checkered finish in this instance, and Courtney would have some new company in the top 3 in the form of 7th starting Kevin Thomas, Jr. for this final restart.

The cool and collected Courtney wouldn’t be fazed by anyone though on this evening, as he again got a good restart and pulled away in the final two circuits for a big win during what is a very big week in the midwest sprint car region. Thomas, Jr. Impressively picked off Leary in the “overtime” segment to take second place and Brady Bacon managed to do the same, garnering an outstanding podium finish after starting way back in 15th place! Chris Windom snuck in for fourth at the line with the fading Leary rounding out the top five.

“I like the high-speed, banked places like this,” Courtney told me when I caught up with him after the race. “It seems to fit my style better and we seem to run good at these places like Eldora, Knoxville, I-80, also Grandview in Port Royal on Eastern Storm tour. I enjoy the places where momentum is a big factor and you have to keep the pace up.”

The win was the 6th on the 2018 USAC Amsoil National Sprint Tour for Tyler and his Clauson-Marshall team.

The competitors will enjoy a day off from the track Monday to regroup and refresh before the second leg of their racing romp through the Hoosier State begins with the rained out Kokomo show from Saturday utilizing a Tuesday make-up date.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 22, 2018 – Lawrenceburg Speedway – Lawrenceburg, Indiana – 31st NOS Energy Drink “Indiana Sprint Week”

BELL HELMETS QUALIFYING: 1. Nick Bilbee, 17, Bilbee-13.970; 2. Dave Darland, 36D, Goodnight/Curb-Agajanian-13.989; 3. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-14.115; 4. Shane Cottle, 71p, Daigh/Phillips-14.132; 5. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 69, Dynamics-14.210; 6. Brent Beauchamp, 34, Olson-14.211; 7. Tyler Courtney, 7BC, Clauson/Marshall/Newman-14.236; 8. Chad Boespflug, 98, NineEight-14.244; 9. Jordan Kinser, 70, Hurst-14.294; 10. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR/Chapple-14.298; 11. R.J. Johnson, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-14.312; 12. Brody Roa, 91R, BR-14.319; 13. Carson Short, 21, RCM-14.355; 14. Jake Swanson, 92, Sertich-14.358; 15. Thomas Meseraull, 5B, Briscoe-14.365; 16. Tony DiMattia, 50, TDM-14.365; 17. Scotty Weir, 17G, On The Gass-14.374; 18. Brady Bacon, 99, Bacon-14.377; 19. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-14.435; 20. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-14.435; 21. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-14.444; 22. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-14.447; 23. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-14.454; 24. Jerry Coons, Jr., 17GP, Dutcher-14.476; 25. Kyle Cummins, 3c, EZR/Cummins-14.550; 26. Jason McDougal, 21K, Krockenberger-14.572; 27. Tyler Thomas, 2E, Epperson-14.623; 28. Koby Barksdale, 22, Barksdale-14.626; 29. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-14.672; 30. Dakota Jackson, 3, Jackson-14.739; 31. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-14.787; 32. Shawn Westerfeld, 89, Westerfeld-14.839; 33. Kody Swanson, 3R, Rock Steady-14.842; 34. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-14.962; 35. Tyler Clem, 21x, Pollock-14.970; 36. Timmy Buckwalter, 7, LNB-15.057; 37. Riley VanHise, 96, VanHise-15.226; 38. Tony McVey, 7m, McVey-15.372; 39. Brandon Mattox, 2v, Fitzpatrick-15.382; 40. Travis Thompson, 28, Mattox/Nigg-15.618; 41. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-15.846; 42. Joe Stornetta, 4m, Dawkins-NT.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to feature) 1. Short, 2. Weir, 3. Ballou, 4. Bilbee, 5. K. Thomas, 6. Grant, 7. Kinser, 8. K. Swanson, 9. Cummins, 10. VanHise, 11. Bell. NT

COMPETITION SUSPENSION, INC. (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to feature) 1. Bacon, 2. Stockon, 3. McDougal, 4. Darland, 5. Chapple, 6. J. Swanson, 7. Beauchamp, 8. Jackson, 9. Westfall, 10. McVey. 2:31.72

CHALK STIX THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to feature) 1. Simon, 2. Windom, 3. Leary, 4. Courtney, 5. Meseraull, 6. Johnson, 7. T. Thomas, 8. Mattox, 9. Andretti, 10. Clem. 2:31.05

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to feature) 1. Hodges, 2. Coons, 3. Cottle, 4. Boespflug, 5. Roa, 6. DiMattia, 7. Barksdale, 8. Buckwalter, 9. Thompson, 10. Westerfeld. 2:32.25

C-MAIN: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to Semi) 1. Westfall, 2. Andretti, 3. Buckwalter, 4. K. Swanson, 5. Clem, 6. VanHise, 7. McVey, 8. Thompson, 9. Bell, 10. Mattox. NT

SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to feature) 1. K. Thomas, 2. Roa, 3. J. Swanson, 4. Beauchamp, 5. Chapple, 6. Meseraull, 7. Grant, 8. Kinser, 9. Jackson, 10. T. Thomas, 11. Barksdale, 12. K. Swanson, 13. Cummins, 14. Westfall, 15. Andretti, 16. DiMattia, 17. Johnson, 18. Buckwalter. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps – starting positions in parentheses) 1. Tyler Courtney (2), 2. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (7), 3. Brady Bacon (14), 4. Chris Windom (15), 5. C.J. Leary (4), 6. Dave Darland (5), 7. Robert Ballou (21), 8. Scotty Weir (13), 9. Brody Roa (10), 10. Josh Hodges (16), 11. Jerry Coons, Jr. (24), 12. Jake Swanson (12), 13. Chase Stockon (18), 14. Justin Grant (22), 15. Shane Cottle (3), 16. Isaac Chapple (9), 17. Jason McDougal (20), 18. Carson Short (11), 19. Brent Beauchamp (8), 20. Chad Boespflug (1), 21. Landon Simon (19), 22. Nick Bilbee (6), 23. Thomas Meseraull (17), 24. Timmy Buckwalter (23). NT

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**Stornetta flipped during qualifying. Beauchamp flipped on lap 2 of the feature. Chapple flipped on lap 30 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Courtney.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS/B & W AUTO MART HARD CHARGER: Robert Ballou (21st to 7th)

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Chase Stockon

BELL HELMETS FAST TIME AWARD: Nick Bilbee

ROGER & BARB TAPY 13TH FASTEST QUALIFIER: Carson Short

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Courtney-1398, 2-Windom-1387, 3-K. Thomas-1381, 4-Bacon-1233, 5-Ballou-1193, 6-Stockon-1191, 7-Darland-1179, 8-Leary-1124, 9-Grant-1086, 10-Boespflug-894.

NEW NOS ENERGY DRINK “INDIANA SPRINT WEEK” POINTS: 1-Bacon-153, 2-Windom-146, 3-Courtney-138, 4-Darland-137, 5-Leary-130, 6-K. Thomas-127, 7-Stockon-105, 8-Short-92, 9-Ballou-91, 10-Hodges-87.