10.27.14
Westfield, IN
Robert Ballou, piloting the 33M Ray Marshall Motorsports car, picked up the $5,000 check for the non-wing portion of Atomic Speedway's "Open Wheel Championships". In only his second week driving the Ray Marshall car; Ballou was locked into the "Dash for Cash" and Feature event from a previous qualification run and heat race transfer. Ballou drew a sixth place starting spot for the dash which would be used for determining the starting line up for the first five rows of the feature event. Running the dash with many other notable drivers Ballou crossed the line in fourth position to secure his starting place for the 40 lap main event.
Ballou started the race running a high line and quickly chased down second and third place cars to reign in Brady Short who had opened up an early lead. At lap 19 Ballou was able to make the pass and take the lead with 21 more laps to go. A late charge by Todd Kane running the bottom of the track pressured Ballou's solid advantage as lap traffic made it difficult at times for Ballou to continue to run the line that had worked so well for him throughout the race. With just a few laps remaining Ballou once again pulled away to build some distance between he and Kane and he took the checkered flag for the win.
This marks Ballou's 9th win of the season and first win at Atomic Speedway. "This was a great win for this family, there aren't many car owners out there that will still put a car on the track and it was awesome to get them all in victory lane. Fortunately, he let me do what I needed to do to the car to make it comfortable for me to feel confident in. The only downside was Ray (Marshall) was home not feeling well so he had to read it on the internet and missed seeing it in person. This definitely gives me a great feeling heading into next weeks west coast event where I will be back in my own car to finish out the USAC season." Ballou commented on his victory.
Ballou's next race will be at Perris Auto Speedway in California with the USAC National Sprint Car Series.
For full results from Atomic Speedway please visit: http://www.atomicspeedway.net/
- administrator on Oct 27, 2014
- Article Date: 10/27/2014