By USAC PR (Lawrenceburg, IN) — Zach Daum of Pocahontas, Illinois had endured a tough week before arriving at Lawrenceburg Speedway on Saturday night, but the slump turned around at the end of the Honda National Midget Series 30-lapper as Daum found himself in victory lane. It was Daum’s second win in the series, and the first since capturing the 2011 “Hut Hundred.”
Bobby East led the first lap from the front row, but Caleb Armstrong slid through turns three and four on lap two to jump to the lead. Armstrong, looking for his first National win on dirt, stretched out a big lead as he navigated a fast track with a big cushion around the high banks.
ProSource “Fast Qualifier” Rico Abreu was the man on the move, moving past East and Bryan Clauson just past the halfway point and setting his sights on Armstrong. The two ran a frenzied pace on the top-side and encountered traffic with ten to go. Abreu had a big run as they completed lap 22 and made a banzai move to the inside of turn-one, narrowly clearing Armstrong, who tapped him in the rear.
The duo kept racing as Michael Pickens, who had followed Abreu into striking distance, slid under Armstrong into turn-three. Pickens gained on Abreu quickly. Just a few laps later, Pickens slowed in turn-four with apparent engine issues.
On the restart, Abreu appeared to have lost the handle on his Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports #67K, eventually spinning just after Daum, who started eighth, scooted under him for the lead into turn-one.
Daum got a big jump on the restart, as Clauson appeared to be his only threat for the win. Armstrong was fading, but Brady Bacon came on strong utilizing the bottom groove to make it a three-car fray. With Bacon low and Clauson high, they closed on Daum but didn’t have enough as Daum won by .295 seconds in the Daum Crop Insurance – Toyota #5D Eagle/Stanton Toyota.
“This had been such a terrible week for us. We were in the non-qualifier’s race two nights ago. Last night, we had quick time and broke in the feature. It feels really good to come back and get a win. We got a couple breaks, but our car was definitely coming on. I like to run the bottom, and tonight it came to us. Those guys started racing each other, and we just were able to get right on through,” Daum said.
Bacon, who started ninth, narrowly edged out Clauson by .019 seconds for the runner-up spot in the Wilke-Pak Racers – Speedway Motors #11 Spike/Stanton Mopar.
“We were kinda racing with Daum throughout the race. He was able to get up there a little quicker. We were obviously better at the end, just needed a bit more time. It was nice to have a really good race track here at Lawrenceburg, where we could move around and put on a show,” Bacon said.
Clauson closed the gap on Christopher Bell’s “Indiana Midget Week” point lead, celebrating his 24th birthday with a podium finish in the Honeybaked Ham of Bloomington – Curb Records #39 Spike/Esslinger.
“We just needed a longer run after that last restart to be able to do anything with Zach. It took a while for things to play out for us. We’ve gotten things turned around this week, though, and with Bell’s troubles we have a chance at the title for the week tomorrow at Kokomo,” Clauson said.
East came home fourth in the Klatt Enterprises – Chevy Performance #4 Beast/Chevy, while Darren Hagen rounded out the top-five in the RFMS Racing – Liberty Village #3 DRC/Esslinger.
HONDA USAC NATIONAL DIRT MIDGET RACE RESULTS: June 15, 2013 – Lawrenceburg, Indiana – Lawrenceburg Speedway – “Indiana Midget Week”
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Rico Abreu, 67k, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.368; 2. Michael Pickens, 1nz,Buckley-14.733; 3. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-14.859; 4. Christopher Bell, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.889; 5. Brady Bacon, 11, Wilke-Pak-14.892; 6. Caleb Armstrong, 7c, C & A-14.932; 7. Jerry Coons Jr., 63, Dooling-14.932; 8. Taylor Ferns, 55, Ferns-14.956; 9. Bobby East, 4, Klatt-15.015; 10. Alex Bright, 17, RW/Curb-Agajanian-15.016; 11. Austin Brown, 7, Brown-15.046; 12. Tanner Thorson, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-15.048; 13. Bryan Clauson, 39, CTR/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-15.057; 14. Steve Buckwalter, 25, Buckwalter-15.068; 15. Darren Hagen, 3, RFMS-15.074; 16. Brad Kuhn, 10, Cook-15.084; 17. Ryan Criswell, 11R, R & C-15.150; 18. Brad Mosen, 7nz, Buckley-15.161; 19. Dave Darland, 2x, Lein-15.249; 20. Andrew Felker, 11a, Felker-15.254; 21. Tyler Thomas, 2s, Lein-15.350; 22. Tracy Hines, 24, Parker-15.400; 23. Dalton Armstrong, 7a, C & A-15.441; 24. Levi Jones, 56, 5IVE-6IX-15.455; 25. Matt Jackson, 97au, Jackson-15.493; 26. Brenden Bright, 92, Bright-15.507; 27. Dillon Welch, 98, CTR/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-15.571; 28. Seth Motsinger, 2M, Brown-15.664; 29. Jaimie McKinlay, 42ua, Fedrizzi-15.693; 30. Johnny Murdock, 0, Murdock-17.061; 31. Jimmy Glenn, 07, JG-NT.
FIRST HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Abreu, 2. Clauson, 3. T.Thomas, 4. East, 5. Bacon, 6. Criswell, 7. McKinlay, 8. Jackson. NT
SECOND HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Mosen, 2. C.Armstrong, 3. Buckwalter, 4. B.Bright, 5. A.Bright, 6. Murdock, 7. Hines, 8. Pickens. NT
THIRD HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Hagen, 2. Darland, 3. Coons, 4. D.Armstrong, 5. Daum, 6. Brown, 7. Welch. 2:03.23
FOURTH HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Felker, 2. Kuhn, 3. Bell, 4. Jones, 5. Ferns, 6. Thorson, 7. Motsinger. 2:01.64
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Daum, 2. Pickens, 3. Bacon, 4. A.Bright, 5. Hines, 6. Brown, 7. Thorson, 8. Welch, 9. Criswell, 10. McKinlay, 11. Motsinger, 12. Jackson, 13. Ferns, 14. Murdock, 15. Glenn. 3:05.77
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Zach Daum, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Bryan Clauson, 4. Bobby East, 5. Darren Hagen, 6. Jerry Coons Jr., 7. Caleb Armstrong, 8. Andrew Felker, 9. Alex Bright, 10. Tracy Hines, 11. Steve Buckwalter, 12. Brad Kuhn, 13. Levi Jones, 14. Tanner Thorson, 15. Dave Darland, 16. Christopher Bell, 17. Austin Brown, 18. Dillon Welch, 19. Tyler Thomas, 20. Rico Abreu, 21. Brad Mosen, 22. Michael Pickens, 23. Dalton Armstrong, 24. Brenden Bright. NT
**Pickens flipped during the first heat.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 East, Laps 2-20 C.Armstrong, Laps 21-27 Abreu, Laps 28-30 Daum.
NEW HONDA NATIONAL DIRT MIDGET POINTS: 1-Bell-223, 2-Clauson-212, 3-Felker-183, 4-Hines-175, 5-Hagen-173, 6-Coons-168, 7-Abreu-162, 8-Bacon-156, 9-Kuhn-155, 10-C.Armstrong-147.
NEW “INDIANA MIDGET WEEK” POINTS: 1-Bell-223, 2-Clauson-212, 3-Felker-183, 4-Hines-175, 5-Hagen-173, 6-Coons-168, 7-Abreu-162, 8-Bacon-156, 9-Kuhn-155, 10-Buckwalter-148.
NEXT HONDA NATIONAL DIRT MIDGET RACE: June 16 – Kokomo, Indiana – Kokomo Speedway – “Indiana Midget Week”