Finals night. Would Jerry sweep the weekend and become the first three time Belleville Midget Nationals champion, or would someone step up and end his domination? Brad Kuhn and Scott Hatton are always fast here. Rico Abreu and Casey Shuman looked really good in their first appearances on the High Banks. A lot of people had noticed Caleb Armstrong's strong showing Friday night as well. There were so many teams with a chance to win this that it might come down to the draw for pole dash starting positions.
Chris Windom won the first heat race and Zach Daum won the second. During the 2nd heat, spectators witnessed one of the oddest sights seen in a long time. Entering turn three, Rico Abreu's right rear exploded with a loud boom. Abreu kept the car out of the rail preventing further damage, but long after he had slowed, a large chunk of the tire was still over 100 feet in the air. Spinning like a frisbee, it drifted back to Earth about as fast as a leaf! With a new tire, Abreu was right back out and completed the heat.
After the heats, I went by Terry Goodwin's pit to congratulate him on a good run in his heat but he & his car were missing. I asked One of the Stasa crowd if he was up on the front stretch getting an award when someone reminded Patrick the he was supposed to be up there too. For the second year in a row, he was the recipient of the Hard Luck award!
When the feature rolled around, Coons was on the outside front row, so everyone knew it was his race to lose. He got around pole sitter Zach Daum at the start and led every lap. The only major incident was on lap 19 when Brad Kuhn and Caleb Armstrong were racing for second and made contact with Terry Goodwin who flipped. Goodwin, who was uninjured, had also flipped on the small track Thursday evening. He may be the first driver to flip on both tracks in the same weekend.
When the race got beck under way (without Brad Kuhn), Coons seemed to have the race well in hand, but the race for 2nd was heating up. Rico Abreu had moved up from deep in the pack to challenge Armstrong for the 2nd spot. When a yellow came out with 6 to go, it looked like Armstrong and Abreu still had a shot. On the restart, Abreu, who'd been staying pretty high in turn one dove down low to get around Armstrong, but Coons was just too strong and went on to win by a couple of seconds.
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| Chett Gehrke was really fast at Belleville! |
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| Terry Godwin had the dubious distinction of getting upside down twice. |
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| Don Droud Jr. |
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| Chris Windom |
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| Vance Lein |
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| Randy Boyer |
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| Zach Daum |
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| Scott Hatton |
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| Rico Abreu |
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| Casey Shuman |
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| Darren Hagen |
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| Jerry Coons Jr. |
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| Caleb Armstrong |
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| Brad Kuhn |
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| Heat one |
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| This ended Vance Lein's night. |
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| Heat two. |
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| Just before Rico's tire blew, he got up right next to the back stretch guard rail. |
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| He later said he didn't feel any contact, but... |
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| ...something could easily have nicked the sidewall. |
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| Just a a few seconds after this, the tire exploded with a loud boom. |
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| This chunk, or one like it, seemed to fly like a bird. |
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| Jeff Stasa |
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| Losing an engine on Thursday earned Patrick Stasa the Hard Luck award. |
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| I didn't hear what Darren said, but Chett Gehrke enjoyed it. |
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| Waiting to draw for the dash. |
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| Chris Windom |
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| Best Appearing Car contest. |
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| Rico clinched it when he pumped up the crowd. |
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| Rico and trophy queen Witney Sorell. |
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| Brad Kuhn shows what he thinks of the number he drew. |
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| Zach Daum seems pretty laid back for someone who just drew #1. |
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| Pole Dash. Daum & Coons are already gone. |
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| Getting ready for the feature & Chett Gehrke is still grinning. |
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| Almost ready to push off. |
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| Casey Shuman |
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| Scott Hatton |
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| Rico Abreu |
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| Don Droud Jr |
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| Time for the show. |
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| The front row racing into turn one. |
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| Behind the leaders, there was a lot of racing. |
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| Sometimes they get down REALLY close. |
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| Coons ran most of the race up here. |
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| As Coons was overtaking Jeff Stasa, he came down low just as Stasa wiggled a little and Coons narrowly missed him. |
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| Rico Abreu steadily worked his way toward the front. |
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| On the last restart, Abreu dove under Armstrong to take the 2nd spot. |
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| 2012 Belleville Midget Nationals Champion Jerry Coons Jr. |
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| The only three time winner in the history of the event. |
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| Jerry getting a bear hug from Rusty Kunz. |
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| Eric Allgood gets a big smooch from Jerry. |
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| Jerry celebrates with Rusty Kunz, Joe Dooling, and Witney Sorell. |
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| Kevin Doty Jr was one of the first to congratulate Jerry. |
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| Rico giving Kris Brown a hard time. |
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| Keith Kunz's runner up car was pushed up with the winner for a few pics. |
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| Rico and car owner Keith Kunz with their well deserved Hard Charger awards. |
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| The next generation of Belleville champions? |
This was the first Midget Nationals since the passing of Tom Davey. Almost anyone connected to the Belleville Midget Nationals since its inception knew and respected Tom. Tom, along with his running buddy GT "Jerry" Miller, were instrumental in the success and growth of the Nationals with their excellent photography and articles. Racing, and and all who knew him have suffered a great loss.
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