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USAC, ROSSBURG, Ohio – A long night of racing for the “4 Crown Nationals” at Eldora Speedway makes Western Springs Speedway’s curfew seem very tame indeed. All the racing classes finally finished the race event after 5am the next day. Sunday morning’s USAC National Midget Car Series race saw some ups and downs for both Western Springs drivers Michael Pickens and Brad Mosen. Run in the early hours of the morning, Tracy Hines dominated the 25-lap Midget portion of the “4-Crown Nationals” at Eldora Speedway, fending off Pickens’s Australian team mate and regular Springs visitor, Adam Clarke for his first USAC Midget victory of the season. Mosen, driving for Keith Kunz Motorsport, has set quick qualifying times all season and he continued his fast, early race meeting form by posting a fourth quickest time on Friday before the event was postponed due to rain. In the Steve Smith 13 car, Pickens, with a rare “off-form” display, qualified nearly a second off the pace to place him in 32nd spot. All the heat races were rescheduled for Saturday afternoon after rain showers cut the meeting short. Both Kiwis started in the fourth Heat race on Saturday evening. Pickens off pole and Mosen back in 8th place. Pickens, back on form, stood on the gas and was never headed in the race. Mosen worked his way up to finish 3rd behind team mate Jay Drake after a spectacular slide job early in the race put the young Aucklander up into contention. Both the Auckland drivers’ heat race results put them directly through into the Feature race. The Friday qualifying times dictating the grid positions. Pickens started off row 11 in 22nd position and Mosen off the second row in grid 4. Hines took off when the green flag fell and left teammate and point leader Jerry Coons Jr. far behind by the time he crossed underneath the flag stand after the opening lap. He was already multiple car lengths ahead of Coons, who was quickly being challenged by Darren Hagen. Hines had led the field by a straightaway on Lap 10 and was lapping cars by the midway point. But two caution periods breathed new life into Adam Clarke’s chance for the five-digit payoff. On a Lap 15 restart – which followed a caution caused when 2003 series champion J.J. Yeley stopped on the backstretch – Clarke went right to the front. Starting seventh, Clarke leapfrogged four cars and planted himself into the third position. Then, with little effort, Clarke dived underneath Coons in Turn 3 and set his sights on Hines. Clarke began reeling Hines in when Jones stopped on the front stretch. Then, Clarke tagged Hines’s car’s tail tank before the pair crossed under the checkered flags. Hagen finished third, ahead of a spirited run by Davey Ray, who jumped from 14th to fourth. Coons slipped to fifth, but the Top-5 finish was a feather in his car as far as the weekend went. It was the first time in three races the series point leader finished in the Top 10 and only the second time in four races he finished at all. After a tough race Mosen finished in 8th place and Pickens moved up the field to finish 14th after a difficult start from 22nd spot. To add to his finish, it came in a race that lacked Dave Darland’s presence. Darland, third in series points, failed to make the race after he couldn’t transfer through the heats or semifeature. Hines won the 10-lap semifeature. The Eldora race meeting was Mosen’s last 2006 USAC race and he returns home early next week. Pickens will stay on in the and has another few drives after which he returns home to Auckland for the second October practice at western Springs.
USAC NATIONAL MIDGET CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: September 22-23, 2006 - Rossburg, Ohio - Eldora Speedway - Mopar Thunder @ the "4-Crown Nationals"
QUALIFICATIONS: (Held Sept. 22) 1. Darren Hagen, 97, Kunz-16.466; 2. Josh Wise, 20, Stewart-16.504; 3. Danny Stratton, 2s, Lein-16.506; 4. Brad Mosen, 3, Kunz-16.558; 5. Brad Kuhn, 71x, Love-16.570; 6. Steve Buckwalter, 25, Buckwalter-16.571; 7. Tracy Hines, 11x, Wilke-Pak-16.633; 8. Jerry Coons Jr., 11, Wilke-Pak-16.665; 9. Adam Clarke, 1A, Smith-16.684; 10. J.J. Yeley, 4, Klatt-16.692; 11. Levi Jones, 21, Stewart-16.725; 12. Cole Carter, 7, Carter-16.735; 13. Jon Stanbrough, 2x, Lein-16.769; 14. Michael Lewis, 2, Dearing/Fuhr-16.795; 15. Dave Darland, 9, Nine Racing-16.828; 16. Ryan Durst, 191, Kahne-16.847; 17. Tom Hessert III, 5, Hessert-16.887; 18. Russ Harper, 9H, Harper-16.904; 19. Teddy Beach, 125, Beach-16.906; 20. Jay Drake, 67, Kunz-17.004; 21. Davey Ray, 91, Nine Racing-17.050; 22. Brad Loyet, 05, Loyet-17.128; 23. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 52R, Rocket Motorsports-17.151; 24. Dustin Morgan 17, M & M-17.178; 25. Brady Bacon, 71, Kunz-17.206; 26. Shane Cottle, 44, Pace-17.237; 27. Jacob Slotten, 12, Slotten-17.261; 28. Joe Liguori, 28, Owen-17.304; 29. Don Droud Jr., 44p, Pace-17.325; 30. Tate Martz, 85x, Hollingsworth-17.369; 31. Shane Hollingsworth, 16, Sandy-17.372; 32. Michael Pickens, 13, Smith-17.373; 33. Leon Bacon, 991, TelStar-17-387; 34. Jimmy Light, 49, Givens-17.390; 35. Matt Westfall, 14, Bordner-17.462; 36. Dickie Gaines, 24. Parker-17.540; 37. Bryon Walters, 5x, Walters-17.846; 38. Lee Stark, 85, Hollingsworth-18.017; 39. #191x, Kahne-NT; 40. #05L, Loyet-NT; 42. #5H, Hessert-NT; 42. #97x, Kunz-NT.
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps - Held Sept. 23) 1. B.Bacon, 2. Droud, 3. Hessert, 4. Clarke, 5. Ray, 6. Stanbrough, 7. Hagen, 8. Kuhn, 9. L.Bacon, 10. Walters. 2:09.92
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps - Held Sept. 23) 1. Yeley, 2. Loyet, 3. Cottle, 4. Wise, 5. Lewis, 6. Harper, 7. Stark, 8. Buckwalter. 2:13.34
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps - Held Sept. 23) 1. Hollingsworth, 2. Beach, 3. Stenhouse, 4. Stratton, 5. Jones, 6. Hines, 7. Slotten, 8. Westfall, 9. Darland. NT
FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps - Held Sept. 23) 1. Pickens, 2. Drake, 3. Mosen, 4. Morgan, 5. Coons, 6. Liguori, 7. Durst, 8. Gaines. NT
SEMI: (10 laps - Held Sept. 23) 1. Hines, 2. Hagen, 3. Jones, 4. Stanbrough, 5. Ray, 6. Coons, 7. Darland, 8. Buckwalter, 9. Durst, 10. L.Bacon,11. Harper, 12. Slotten, 13. Stark, 14. Walters, 15. Kuhn, 16. Carter, 17. Lewis, 18. Liguori, 19. Westfall, 20. Gaines. NT
FEATURE: (25 laps - Held Sept. 23) 1. Tracy Hines, 2. Adam Clarke, 3. Darren Hagen, 4. Davey Ray, 5. Jerry Coons Jr., 6. Josh Wise, 7. Danny Stratton, 8. Brad Mosen, 9. Jon Stanbrough, 10. Brady Bacon, 11. Jay Drake, 12. Brad Loyet, 13. Dustin Morgan, 14. Michael Pickens, 15. Leon Bacon, 16. Teddy Beach, 17. Tom Hessert III, 18. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 19. Shane Hollingsworth, 20. Levi Jones, 21. Shane Cottle, 22. J.J. Yeley, 23. Don Droud Jr. NT
NEW NATIONAL MIDGET CAR STANDINGS: 1-Coons-859; 2-Drake-829; 3-Wise-800; 4-Darland-782; 5-Bryan Clauson-740; 6-Jones-679; 7-Loyet-613; 8-Hagen-600; 9-Dave Steele-519; 10-Kuhn-513.
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