Clauson dominates Oval Nationals field for Night 1 victory

November 6, 10:36 AMSprint & Midget Car Racing ExaminerRichard Manfredi

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Jon Stanbrough (Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmakin/)

Perris, Calif. - Jon Stanbrough leads the points after the first night of the Oval Nationals at Perris Auto Speedway, after a second-place finish in Thursday night’s A-main following setting fast time in qualifying.

Bryan Clauson led wire-to-wire to win the 25-lap feature event, beating Stanbrough and Levi Jones to the line. Clauson jumped out to the lead from the outside of the front row and quickly built a straightaway lead by the end of the fifth lap. Several late cautions – including one for a hard flip by Austin Williams – closed the gap, but each time Clauson was able to get a clean jump on Stanbrough and begin building his lead again.

The tough luck driver of the night was Blake Miller, who entered the night third in USAC/CRA points. Miller flipped at least five times before catching the turn two catch fence during a qualifying lap, and then later flipped again after a qualifying lap in his back-up car. Miller was unhurt in either crash, but the damage to both cars led him to drop out of racing for the night.

One of the big winners of the night was Levi Jones, as his third-place finish helped him more than double his lead over Dave Darland in the USAC National Sprint Car standings from 29 points to 60. Jones had to battle through adversity to get into the A-main. While in a transfer spot, his left rear tire was shredded by the bumper of Tony Jones during a collision on a restart, knocking him out of the race. Levi Jones was able to easily win the B-main to earn his qualifying time back for the feature.

In other racing action on Thursday night:

- If Jason Meyers is going to win the World of Outlaws championship, he’s going to need to get it done on the track this weekend at the World Finals at the Dirt Track at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina. That’s because Donny Schatz did everything he could on Friday night to make the task as difficult as possible.

Thursday night was qualifying for both tonight and Saturday night’s races, and the three-time defending series champion Schatz took advantage of the opportunity, setting quick time in both qualifying sessions to earn an additional 10 bonus points and pad his lead over Meyers to 29 points heading into the final two nights of racing on the season.

“It was a great start to the weekend,” Schatz told the World of Outlaws Web site. “Those qualifying points are very important right now and that’s what our goal was coming in. As long as we get through our heat race we are locked into a dash spot. Going for quick times this year is what has put us a little bit ahead. We’re happy to go into the weekend with that. This car is awesome fast. These guys have definitely done their homework and they are pumped up right now.”

- Wayne Johnson held off a last-lap pass attempt by Sammy Swindell to take the opening preliminary night feature at the ASCS Short Track Nationals at I-30 Speedway in Little Rock, AR. Tony Bruce Jr. was third, as the top three drivers locked in spots for Saturday night’s $15,000-to-win, $2,000-to-start feature event.