Bryce Bailey “Spins To Win” Enroute To Land Of Legends NY Nationals Night 2 Perfect Score

Story By: STEVEN OVENS / LAND OF LEGENDS – VIRTUAL LAKELAND, FL – Waverly, NY iRacer Bryce Bailey took the Night 2 New York Nationals field to the woodshed on Friday night at the virtual USA International Speedway in Lakeland, Florida.

Bailey started the night setting quick time with a time of 19.586 which just happened to be well over a full tenth of a second faster than the rest of the pack. The driver of the JIR Motorsports, BSN Sports No. 27 then followed that up by leading every lap of his heat race to qualify for the A-Main.

Setting fast time and winning the heat put Bailey on the front row for the 35-lap A-Main alongside Quinn Wallis. Bailey jumped out to the early lead but for the first time of the entire night- driver No. 27 was not ‘perfect.’

Bailey looped his ride coming off the rough cushion on the outside of the track, sending him into the slick part of the surface and into the spin cycle from the lead. Bailey kept the wheels pointed straight, saving the field from being slowed by the yellow flag. Unfortunately though for Bailey, he would slide back to the eighth spot on the track.

This handed the lead to Hanover, PA’s Troy Wagaman Jr. in his No. 19 machine sponsored by WB Motorsports and Newman Racing Engines. Wagaman and Land of Legends iRacing Series Race 2 winner Richard Murtaugh would start to battle for the top spot. Drivers raced hard and raced clean, knowing that even if they didn’t have a race-winning car that they were still scoring crucial event points that would try and qualify them for the Main Event Saturday.

The format for the New York Nationals is similar to that of a points-based system used at annual events like the Knoxville Nationals. Every time a driver hits the track for racing, they accumulate points. The Top 20 in combined points at this night’s end would transfer into the field of 50 for Saturday night’s New York Nationals Main Event, leaving the pressure squarely on the drivers to be solid in time trials, their heat and their Main race.

One driver that wasn’t being conservative was Bryce Bailey. Bailey started ripping the cushion with that large right rear Hoosier tire to break back into the Top 5 just past halfway. Bailey then went to work right through the middle of the slick racing surface, and found a big area of grip that no other driver had found up to that point.

Bailey got by Murtaugh for the runnerup position and quickly went to work on Wagaman, who had stayed true to the bottom lane. But as the laps wound down, Wagaman just couldn’t hold off the powerful high-momentum runs that Bailey was getting through the middle portion of the speedway.

Bailey completed the comeback by taking Scott Hixson’s checkered flag after leading a total of 15 laps and locking in a perfect event score of 350 points. He will now be the top seed going into Saturday’s New York Nationals Main Event, however points and seedings no longer matter.

Saturday’s Main Event will start fresh with Time Trials, Qualifying Heats, Consis and a 40-lap feature with caution flag laps counting.

The Top 20 qualifiers will now move on to Saturday night’s Main Event which will open with practice at 6:30PM, Live coverage on Facebook and LandofLegendsTV.com at 6:45PM, National Anthems at 6:55PM and Time Trials promptly at 7:00PM.

Positions 21 through 53 in Night 2 points will now have just one more shot to get into the big dance for the New York Nationals. The Three Nine Productions Non-Qualifiers Race will take the green flag at 3:00PM Saturday with practice, time trials, heats, consis and a 25-Lap A-Main taking the Top 5 finishers to the Main Event at 7:00.

Saturday night’s Main Event will consist of 50 drivers- 20 from Night 1 Qualifying, 20 from Night 2 Qualifying, 5 from the Non-Qualifiers Race and 5 from the Patriot Sprint Tour/CRSA 305 Sprint Tour Invitational taking place Saturday evening at 5:00PM.

Land of Legends Raceway New York Nationals Night 2 Qualifying official results 4/17/2020:

35 Laps, (starting position)

1. Bryce Bailey (1)
2. Troy Wagaman Jr. (5)
3. Richard Murtaugh (8)
4. Dakota Kuhn (7)
5. Alex Stoudinger (16)
6. Kody Hartlaub (21) *Hard Charger +15
7. Michael Rozendahl (13)
8. Travis Gagnon (3)
9. Jeremy Isabell (17)
10. Corey Heffron (19)
11. David Flick (9)
12. Justin Sick (22)
13. Alex Payne (15)
14. Trevor Williams (18)
15. Jason Giblin (12)
16. Zak Fogle (11)
17. Tyler Puchalski (20)
18. Nicholas Kellogg (4)
19. Matthew Veihdeffer (14)
20. Steven Fernburg (23) -3L
21. Quinn Wallis (2) -16L
22. Cory Cormier (24) -25L
23. Eric Tupper (10) -33L
24. Jayson Schoenbaechler (6) -34L

Heat Winners: Bryce Bailey, Quinn Wallis, Travis Gagnon, Nicholas Kellogg, Troy Wagaman Jr.

Consi Winners: Alex Stoudinger, Jeremy Isabell, Trevor Williams