Lonnie
Wheatley, TAMPA, Fla. (February 2, 2007) – Levi Jones saved the best for last
in the third and final night of O'Reilly Sprint Bandits Tour 'N Topless Second
Annual Wingless Showdown at East Bay Raceway Park's 31st Annual
Winter Nationals, leading the final 16 circuits to capture the $10,000 winner's
share in Friday night's 40-lap feature.
Monday
night winner Jesse Hockett paced the opening 24
rounds, with Jones and Mike Brecht shadowing his
every move along the way. But the
slightest of hesitations in lapped traffic on the 25th lap was just
the opening Jones was looking for.
Jones
held off Mike Brecht and Hockett
the rest of the way to capture the second major victory in less than a month
for the Tony Stewart Motorsports team, as team owner
Stewart captured O'Reilly Chili Bowl Nationals honors on January 13.
"You've
really got to give a lot of credit to the track owners, Al (Varnadore)
and Todd (Hutto), at any other track in the country
this race would have been cancelled early this afternoon," Jones commented
of heavy rains over night. "I'm
glad we got to race and I'm going to enjoy their $10,000."
"The
team got off to a good start with Chevrolet by winning the Chili Bowl and now
we were able to get this one, it's a great way to get the 2007 season
going," Jones surmised.
After
the initial attempt to start the race was waved off for a turn two fracas that
eliminated four starters (Daron Clayton, Greg
Leonard, Cole Whitt and John Heydenreich), the
balance of the 40-lapper ran off with just one caution period for Washington's
Robbie Vaughn, whose disabled mount came to a stop in turn two.
While
Jones gridded the 24-car feature field fourth, it was
Brady Short leading the way to the green flag after earning the most points
through preliminary action on Monday and Wednesday. But Hockett shot
into the lead at the outset, with Jones taking second from Short by the fourth
lap.
Following
the lap six interruption, Jones kept the pressure on Hockett
as Brecht battled past Short for third on the ninth
circuit. Jones looked high and low for
several laps, but Hockett held steady to maintain the
lead as Brecht shadowed the lead pair.
By
the 17th round, Hockett opened up a slim
three car-length lead. That lead would
vanish in short order, as lapped traffic soon came into play. And when Hockett
moved up the track entering turn three and tried to thread the needle between a
pair of lapped cars, Jones pounced to the low side of the track and charged off
turn four with a slim lead.
Brecht followed Jones' lead through turns three and
four and, after racing wheel-to-wheel with Hockett
for a full lap, took over second place. Brecht and Hockett kept pace with
Jones over the final 15 laps, waiting for the error that never came.
Even
as the lead trio approached lapped traffic in the waning lap, Jones never
wavered and took the checkered flag two car-lengths ahead of
While
the top three raced together throughout, the trio of Short, Jon Stanbrough and Tracy Hines diced for fourth position
another ten car-lengths back. Short held
the fourth position at the line, with Stanbrough
rounding out the top five.
Hines,
Jones' teammate, crossed the stripe in sixth, with Shane Cottle,
Kaley Gharst, Zach Chappell
and 17th-starter Dickie Gaines completing
the top ten.
Cottle, Gharst, Billy Puterbaugh, Jr., and Clayton won Friday night's heat races,
with Tom Busch topping the 12-lap "B" Main.
A
total of 43 different drivers competed in the Second Annual O'Reilly Sprint
Bandits Tour 'N Topless Showdown at
O’Reilly Sprint Bandits Tour ‘N Topless East Bay Wingless Showdown
Finale Results:
Locked in from
Preliminary Events (Top six in cumulate heat, qualifier and feature races from
Monday and Wednesday:
2b-Brady Short (Bedford,
IN), 75-Jesse Hockett (Warsaw, MO), 97-Mike Brecht (Beaver Dam, OH), 20J-Levi Jones (Olney, IL),
21R-Jon Stanbrough (Jamestown, IN), 21-Tracy Hines
(Greenfield, IN).
Heat Races (Top 14 in
Passing Points to "A" Main; Balance to "B" Main:
First
Heat (8 Laps): 1. 36-Shane Cottle (
Second
Heat (8 Laps): 1. 3-Kaley Gharst (
Third
Heat (8 Laps): 1. 16-Billy Puterbaugh, Jr. (
Fourth
Heat (8 Laps): 1. 10-Daron Clayton (
"B" Main – Top
4 advance to "A" Main
"B" Main (12
Laps): 1. 4b-Tom Busch (
O'Reilly Sprint Bandits
“A”
Main (40 Laps): 1. 20J-Levi Jones (
Lap
Leaders: Jesse Hockett 1-24, Levi Jones 25-40.
O'Reilly
Sprint Bandits