Lonnie Wheatley, NIXA, Mo. (October 2, 2015) – Leading Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour Rookie of the Year contender Kyle Bellm finally gets a chance to catch his breath after a couple of busy weekends of racing action in Nebraska and Missouri.
Two weekend doubles aboard the PPG Automotive Finishes/Colorvision No. 14k Sprint Car included the “Fall Brawl” with double features at Greenwood, Nebraska’s I-80 Speedway on September 19 and then last weekend’s Hockett/McMillin Memorial event at Wheatland, Missouri’s Lucas Oil Speedway.
After finishes of 19th and 15th at I-80 Speedway, Bellm commented that, “It will be nice to get back to some tracks that we’re familiar with, where we’ve had some success.”
That familiarity began with Lucas Oil Speedway, where he raced to a seventh-place finish in the Schure Built Suspensions/Christian County Collision Repair entry on Friday night before finishing off the weekend with a 12th-place run on Saturday.
“There were a lot of good cars, we were the top finishing National car,” Bellm points out of the 50-plus car field.
Missing a lock-in position by just three spots, Bellm was on the move from the 13th starting position on Saturday aboard the Bybee Lawn Care/Dynotech Racing Engines machine.
“We were up to sixth at one point and got to racing with Herrera,” Bellm relates. “I got out of line and got freight-trained.”
“We probably should have tightened up a little more on both nights,” Bellm says. “We were competitive, we were in the mix both night, so we’ll take it.”
The Lucas Oil Speedway double came off I-80 Speedway’s “Fall Brawl” double that was compressed into one night after Friday rains.
“It got off to a bad start with probably the worst heat we could have drawn,” Bellm explains. “It’s hard to dig yourself out when it starts like that.”
Bellm made the most of it, making his way into the first feature and then racing into the second one as well through “B” Main action.
“The first feature we were fighting for position with some cars back there and ended up getting lapped,” Bellm recalls. “We raced into the second one and it was 30 laps of rubber.”
The net result of two weeks of action still has Bellm seventh in Lucas Oil National Tour points and in command of the Rookie of the Year points chase in the Scheaffer’s Oil machine with just the Devil’s Bowl Winter Nationals on October 16-17 and I-30 Speedway’s Short Track Nationals on October 28-31 remaining.
“We have high hopes for sure,” Bellm says. “We hope to end strong, I think we’re capable.”
Up Next: Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour action resumes on October 16-17 with the Devil’s Bowl Speedway “Winter Nationals” in Mesquite, TX.
Keep Track: Keep track of Kyle Bellm’s on-track action including schedule and results at http://www.kylebellm.com/, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/KyleBellmRacing?fref=ts or on Twitter at @kylebellmracing.
If you would like Kyle Bellm Racing press releases e-mailed directly to you, send your e-mail address to Lonnie Wheatley at lonniewheatley@gmail.com.
Penning the recurring series of “The Wheatley Chronicles” articles on www.sprintcarmania.com, Lonnie Wheatley provides media, public relations and more for select tracks, drivers and events. For more information, Wheatley may be contacted at lonniewheatley@gmail.com.
- Kyle Bellm on Oct 02, 2015
- Article Date: 10/2/2015 by Lonnie Wheatley