The Pits were full on a late August Friday at Bloomington with 103 entries. 26 sprints came to Bloomington to battle it out for the final tuneup before the Josh Burton Memorial which is September 2nd. The fast times for the 3 groups were Matt Thompson (12.129), Max Adams(11.829) and Brent Beauchamp (11.544). The heat races had an invert of 4 and would be intense on a very fast track that was close to the 10 second bracket. The 3 heats were won by Brady Short, Harley Burns and Jadon Rogers. What is really interesting Brady at the draw told us on August 19, 2005 he won his first A main in a sprint car at the red clay. It is really great that 17 years later he won the heat race Friday night. The final chance to get in the A main was won by Braxton Cummings. The A main was set and they drew an invert of 3 which put Jadon Rogers on the pole with Harley beside him. This would be a great battle early but Jadon rocketed to the ledge and started to build a lead. He definitely looked as if he was growing that confidence back after the win the week before at LPS. Sure enough he was strong the whole 25 laps and did a great job even in lapped traffic. There were a few laps he would even run over the ledge right in front of the flagman and put it back on the track to setup his run in turn 1. Jadon took the win and made it 2 in a row from LPS the weekend before and at the line he beat Brent Beauchamp, Jordan Kinser, Ricky Lewis and Cody Trammell. Both Brent and Cody were the hard chargers and passed 10 cars headed to the top 5.
The UMP Super Stocks had 17 entries and the 2 groups were led by Jeff Allen(13.959) and Zach Sasser (13.708). The heat races were won by Troy Knorr and Greg Amick. The feature had an invert of 4 which put Zach Sasser and Jeff Allen on the front row. Zach would look like he was going to take another big win but with just 3 to go his car had a mechanical failure ending his night. This gave the lead to Greg Amick and the #0027 looked really strong and took the win in what I believe is his first visit to Bloomington since he ran a mod there years ago. Congrats to him and his big fan base that were cheering him on loud and enjoyed a happy victory lane. Following him at the checkers it was Austin Perry, Derek Groomer, Josh Litton and Troy Knorr. Austin Phelps finished 6th so he took over the points lead by 10 points from Zach with 2 races to go which is going to be an intense battle with 2 strong cars.
The 305 sprints had 15 entries and the fast times went to Bryce Norris (11.563) and Ethan Barrow (11.351). With only an invert of 1 this put both on the pole of their heats and they would go on to win their heats also. The feature invert was only a 1 also so it was going to be a battle between the 2 also. Bryce would get the upper hand on this night and he ran through the lapped traffic pretty smooth and held off Ethan Barrrow, Bradley Sterrett, Jeff Wimmenauer and John Paynter JR. Good luck to all the 305 teams that will be going to the IMCA 305 Nationals in 2 weeks.
The Hornets had 17 entries and the heat races went to Greg Garrison and Dale Hobbs. The invert for the feature was a 1 so Greg Garrison would take the early lead for the 15 laps feature. About halfway through battling hard there was contact between Garrison and Owens and both of them would have to restart in the back. Conner Garrison would look strong up front but Michael Brewer would take the lead and the win over Conner Garrison, Shannon Walp, Jeremy Shemwell and Matt Miller.
The MMSA would have a huge 28 car entries. There heat races were won by Kayla Roell, Scotty Bradley, Bryan Brewer and Brandon Coffey. Bryan Brewer would be a rocket in the A main and really put on a clinic slicing and dicing through lapped cars and picking up the big win over Kayla Roell, Scott Bradley, Brad Strunk and Samantha Alloway. Thanks to all the 103 teams that came out to Bloomington Speedway and we are really looking forward to the big Josh Burton Memorial on September 2nd with a huge fireworks show also paying tribute to an awesome person and family where we always remember the O4ever and love the orange tires and multi-colored socks. See you a week from Friday for the big show where Josh is always missed.
- Jill Spiker on Aug 23, 2022
- Article Date: 8/23/2022 by Kenny Clark