Jones is
Dynamite in O'Reilly Sprint Bandits TNT Opener at Osky
Lonnie Wheatley, OSKALOOSA, Iowa (August 9, 2005) - Illinois' Levi Jones is
$30,000 richer after topping the opening leg of the O'Reilly Sprint Bandits
Tour 'N Topless swing in Tuesday night's 30-lap Non-Wing Ultimate Challenge
feature event at Southern Iowa Speedway.
After winning the 5-lap Dash to earn the pole position for the McTwo Promotions
feature event, Jones outgunned
Jones immediately began to build his advantage as Stanbrough climbed to second
by the fourth round. Stanbrough held down the second spot until
By the time the race's first caution flew on the 23rd lap for Bud Kaeding's
stalled mount, Jones had amassed nearly a half lap lead. Three lapped
cars separated Jones from Gardner on the restart, with Gardner and a resurgent
Kruseman disposing of the lapped machines by the time the caution flew with
just five laps remaining when Jesse Hockett surrendered a top-ten position with
brake woes.
Set for a five-lap dash to the checkered flag, Gardner and Kruseman made a bid
for the lead as action resumed, with the trio racing three-wide off turn two on
the 26th lap. Jones successfully fought off the pair to lead the way into
turn three then charged to the checkered flag unabated over the final circuits
aboard Scott Benic's Lucas Oil Products No. 2b Maxim.
Kruseman out dueled fellow Californian Gardner for the runner-up slot, with
Johnny Herrera charging from 17th to snare fourth. Jac Haudenschild
rounded out the top five after defending race winner Dickie Gaines spun in turn
two on the final round while challenging Herrera for fourth.
Stanbrough crossed the stripe sixth, with Jay Drake, 16th-starter Justin
Marvel, Kaeding and 19th-starter Matt Westfall completing the top ten.
Tony Stewart retired to the pit area midway through the feature event with
mechanical problems.
Josh Wise stopped the clocks at 18.698 seconds in qualifying to top the 41-car
qualifying field, with Marvel, Jones, Bill Rose and Critter Malone topping heat
race action. Drake won the 12-lap "B" Main.
Mitch Wissmiller's night came to an early end when he flipped in hot laps,
while Travis Rilat and Sean Walden both took hard heat race spills. There
were no injuries.
O'Reilly Sprint Bandits TNT action resumes Monday night, August 15, at Nebraska
Raceway Park's I-80 Speedway, before moving on to Oklahoma City's State Fair
Speedway on Wednesday night, August 17. The next night, the wingless
warriors move on to Tulsa Speedway, before wrapping up the TNT swing with a
Friday-Saturday double at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, KS, with the August
20 finale worth $10,000 to the winner.
Results:
Qualifying: 1. Josh Wise, 20, 18.698, 2. Jay Drake, 21, 18.783, 3. Jon
Stanbrough, 10, 18.965, 4. Damion Gardner, 50, 19.000, 5. Mat Neely, 6, 19.029,
6. Tony Stewart, 20s, 19.076, 7. Jac Haudenschild, 83jr, 19.091, 8.
First Heat (8 Laps): 1. Justin Marvel, 2. Josh Wise, 3. Jesse Hockett, 4.
Mat Neely, 5. Casey Shuman, 6. Bud Kaeding, 7. Kevin Huntley, 8. Ryan Anderson,
9. Danny Jennings, 10. Mike Martin.
Second Heat (8 Laps): 1. Levi Jones, 2. Johnny Herrera, 3. Dickie Gaines,
4. Tony Stewart, 5. Terry Pletch, 6. Ryan Jamison, 7. Robert Bell, 8. Jay
Drake, 9. Travis Rilat, 10. Mike Miller.
Third Heat (8 Laps): 1. Bill Rose, 2. Charles Davis, Jr., 3. Dave
Darland, 4. Zach Chappell, 5. Jon Stanbrough, 6. Jac Haudenschild, 7. Michael
Woodruff, 8. John Scott, 9. Luke Cranston, 10. Dave Anderson.
Fourth Heat (8 Laps): 1. Critter Malone, 2.
B Feature (12 Laps): 1. Jay Drake, 2. Jac Haudenschild, 3. Bud Kaeding,
4. Ryan Anderson, 5. Brad Sweet, 6. Jake Peters, 7. John Scott, 8. Kevin
Huntley, 9. Michael Woodruff, 10. Chris Urish, 11. Mike Miller, 12. Ryan
Jamison, 13. Tyler Spath, 14. Mike Martin, 15. Dave Anderson, 16. Robert Bell,
17. Luke Cranston, 18. Danny Jennings. DNS: Travis Rilat, Sean Walden,
Mitch Wissmiller.
A Feature (30 Laps): 1. Levi Jones, 2.
Current O'Reilly Sprint Bandits TNT Points (Top Ten): 1. Levi Jones 150,
2.