Belleville Midget Nationals Saturday 8-7-2010

Notice anything wrong in this shot? Look just above the rear tire. The quick disconnect on Scott Fennell's fuel line was a little TOO disconnected and fuel was spraying out. For some reason, the car wasn't running right and he stopped near me and I showed him the leak.

Bryan Clauson was a man on a mission Saturday. Intent on defending his title, he'd seen Friday that Brad Sweet was going to be very hard to beat.

I just happened to notice Jerry and Speedy Bill talking about...racing maybe? There is sure a lot of history represented in that pic.

The guy who wasn't. I was amazed at the difference between B.G. Woods performance in his heat and what I saw Friday. I didn't know he'd vacated the seat for Travis Berryhill. Yeah, he's kin to the guys from Oklahoma ya'll know. Wood is accustomed to the small tracks and was wise enough to know he wasn't ready for this monster.

That 11 car was fast. I mean the white one...uh, the one with the orangish red numerals. The Wilke-PAK car ! Concordia driver Garett Hood had a really good weekend here too, but the guys from Milwaukee have just a little more experience (and $) than Garett does.

Race boat pilot turned land lubber Matt Johnson led his heat for several laps and looked really good out there before finally getting passed by Brad Kuhn & Gary Taylor. After the heats, his grandfather told me he'd done it on a broken shock to boot.

Tony Rossi (14), Gary Taylor (12), Brad Kuhn (17), and CJ Johnson chasing Matt Johnson down the backstretch.

It took a while, but Gary finally got around Matt here.

In spite of the last name of some of the sprint drivers who've been here, Terry Goodwin (2) is the only kin of mine I can remember running here. He grew up here but lives in Arizona now. Shane Golobic has only run here once before and he does more sprint racing, but he was pretty fast here.

After the draw, Brad Sweet climbs in his car for the pole dash. As the Friday night winner, he had the option to draw or pass. He passed and Bryan Clauson drew the pole with the second draw.

Garett Hood's car won the best looking car award. Andrew Felker was in it too and as they were lining up I mentioned how Garett's car would be a sentimantal favorite because of Chad. Andrew just grinned & said that was OK.

Just another shot of Travis Berryhill, here in the process of running away with the semi.

A sight that was all too rare this year, Cody Brewer at speed. Starting ninth in the B, Cody was one of the two fastest cars and had worked his way up to a transfer spot when he blew up again.

Anybody who knows Jon Backlund will probably tell you he's very shy and serious (because they're likely to be as full of BS as HE is!), but tonight he was really on a roll. To show just how energy packed RevHoney drinks are, Jon poured some in the tank and some in himself during the break. Nate and Jerry Brown have done a tremendous job this season backing races and other events all around the area. Thanks guys.

Jon taking off in this sleek new racer. Take a look at the name of the power plant in it.

Cody Brewer after getting the Hard Charger award.

Dave Darland relaxes a moment before the driver introductions start.

As close as Brad Loyet is coming to me here, he was to come even closer a little later.

The Field

For some reason, the driver of that silver Camaro doesn't seem to be paying much attention to where he's going. There must be a compass in the roof or something; it DOES get confusing going around this place.

Pole sitter Bryan Clauson, Gary Taylor, C.J. Johnson, and Brad Sweet during the four-wide.

The way this thing developed, it was looking like a lot of cars might come my way so I bailed. Andrew Felker (11) clipped Loyet (who is coming straight at me) and flipped. Everyone else got by, but Loyet never veered. Look at the front tires.

The impact with Felker spun Brad around, but didn't really change his direction.

When he caught the inside banking, it tipped the car but he was now going too slow to flip.

With a shower of dirt, he came to a stop in the spot I'd just vacated..

I just caught Felker as he was coning to rest very close to where he'd almost flipped on Friday.

Josh Pelkey (12) and Ryan Cole ran together for much of the race. Pelkey finished 16th and Cole 17th.

Tracy Hines (11) had a better night that he did Friday and ran 10th. Kevin Swindell finished 9th.

This doesn't happen very often. Another flash went off while my shutter was open.

Matt Johnson (85) and Caleb Armstrong.

Matt Johnson had one of his better nights here, but Clauson was a rocket.

Garett Hood.

Twice it looked like Dave Darland's chances were ruined by tire problems that put him at the back of the pack. One of the better driving jobs I've seen here had him up in or near the top 5 again when he lost his engine.

Garett Hood gets his chance to see Clauson fly by.

Josh Pelkey and Caleb Armstrong.

The only time I saw Sweet get a nose in front of Clauson, but it was just for a second.

The Brad & Davey show was worth the price of admission. In this shot they have a bunch of room between 'em. That wasn't usually the case.

Here, Henry Clarke (67) gets in on the act.

Kevin Swindell and Darren Hagen (3) both had good nights with top ten finishes.

Shane Golobic and Darren Hagen

Caleb Armstrong had a close call when he hit the rail pretty hard near the end of the race, but he saved it.

It didn't slow him down any. He went on to finish 14th and Julee Jamison (3) 15th.

In the last corner of the last lap, Brad Kuhn and Davey Ray really went at it. Brad got by for 4th and Davy got 5th.

Bryan let out a victory cry the folks at home could have heard.

Nikki Kuhlman, Bryan Clauson, and Adrianne Doyle.

Bryan Clauson shows off the winner's check.

Speedy Bill Smith and Hard Charger winner Julee Jamison.

Saturday really had its ups & downs. Cody Brewer's whole weekend went up in smoke (literally) after his second engine went. I really hated to see that. Cody's such a nice guy he deserves a better break that that! Even with all the problems, Cody was smiling...most of the time. He did deservedly get the hard luck award and was very gracious during his interview, but that's got to be small consolation after all the effort and anticipation that goes into coming to Belleville.
Don had told me he was running Knoxville Saturday and it wasn't much of a surprise to see Terry Klatt had pulled out after the beating his car took Friday night, but I never did hear what happened to the 38 car of Kyle Neal. That still left us with 33 drivers and it was a fast field. Talk around the pits tended to center on Sweet and Clauson, but guys like Davey Ray and Brad Kuhn were right there with them, not to mention past champions Jerry Coons Jr. and Dave Darland.
For me, the big mystery of the night was the way the 14 car out of Kenosha had taken off like a rocket! Friday, it ran down around the bottom of the track not going too fast. I thought he looked faster in hots, but didn't pay all that much attention to it because there were lots of cars to keep an eye on. In the first heat, though, the car was up on top playing rim rider like Jack Hewitt was in it and ran a fast second! I was standing near their pits, so I asked what the h**l they'd done and they didn't just said they'd made some changes. It wasn't until intros for the feature when I heard Travis Berryhill's name called that the light finally came on. I was probably the only person there that hadn't heard about a driver change. I got to talk to him after the show & found out it was the game plan to have him get in the car if the original driver B.G. Wood decided he wasn't ready for this place.
In the pole dash, Bryan Clauson showed everybody that Brad Sweet wasn't going to have anything given to him by turning in a pretty easy win. Bryan had said earlier his big goal was to win his second one this week and set himself up to pull off a third next year.
Because of a moderate south breeze that made my usual turn one perch a sandblaster, I returned to the apex of three and four where it was much clearer like it had been the night before. With a really pronounced inner bank, it seemed that nothing would come that far in like it can in turn one, but I stayed near a light pole just in case. Turned out to be a good idea! On the first lap of the feature, Brad Loyet had hit the rail just out of my view. I saw this car coming from up near the rail down through traffic right at where I was standing and couldn't figure out what he was doing for a second. With all the cars still flying by I had no idea what was about to happen so I started backing away from the track and when he just kept coming, I moved a little faster. I banged off a few shots kinda over my shoulder and, while they're way out of focus, the shots illustrate very well just how much of a rush this can be.
After that, it was more routine. Bryan led from the start and pulled out to a several length lead after each restart, but after about 6 or 7 green flag laps, Brad would reel him in and even got a nose in front of Clauson for a moment but couldn't make it stick.
Probably the closest race of the night was between Davey Ray and Brad Kuhn right at the end for fourth place. Coming through the final corner, I thought they were gonna take each other out because neither one was going to give an inch. That was fun to watch.
I'd told Berryhill before the main he was my pick for hard charger because he was starting so far back and looked so good in the heat and B. They ended up giving it to Julee Jamison, but I think they both moved up the same amount. Julee IS a little prettier though.
All in all, it was another show worthy of the Midget Nationals tradition and sets the scene for a great drama going into next year's event. Will Bryan make it three in a row?