Lonnie Wheatley, NIXA, Mo. (April 7, 2016) – Following an unscheduled idle weekend due to the rainout of last Saturday’s Rock ‘N Roll 50 at Riverside Speedway, Kyle Bellm and the Resource Asset Management Solutions (RAMS) No. 14k Sprint Car team get back to action this weekend.
Bellm and crew will tackle the ¼-mile Creek County Speedway near Tulsa, OK, for Friday night’s ASCS Red River Region card.
Pending Friday night’s results, the PPG Automotive Finishes/Colorvision team will either take in another night of ASCS Red River action at Superbowl Speedway in Greenville, TX, or make an annual venture to Little Rock’s I-30 Speedway for weekly competition on Saturday night.
Bellm’s most recent action was the March 25-26 Texas two-step that wrapped up the opening two weekends of Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour action.
Bellm raced into features both nights at Paige’s Cotton Bowl Speedway on March 25 and then Cleveland’s Bronco Raceway Park on March 26, posting finishes of 19th and 12th to escape the opening two weekends twelfth in series points.
While twelfth, last year’s series Rookie of the Year is still less than 100 points out of the lead.
“We were further up in points at this time last year, but we were a lot further behind the leader,” Bellm comments. “A lot of movement can happen over the next few races, the opportunity is there to move up quite a bit with just a little bit of luck.”
Bellm and the Schure Built Suspensions/Christian County Collision Repair team will have to wait until May 5 for the next Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour event at Kansas City’s Lakeside Speedway to make that move up the charts.
Until then, several Regional events will fill the docket beginning with Friday’s ASCS Red River card at Creek County.
Bellm continued to show flashes of brilliance in the most recent pair of events. “We have a lot of speed, we just couldn’t seal the deal,” Bellm explains.
The March 25 heat race at Cotton Bowl Speedway started in strong fashion. “We started last and got to fourth in the first lap. I let (Logan) Forler get by late though and that put as deep, starting 12th in the feature,” Bellm relates.
A missed setup forced Bellm pitside early in the feature event, resulting in a 19th place finish. “”We just didn’t tighten up enough,” Bellm explains.
The March 26 event at Bronco Raceway Park started strong for Bellm and the Bybee Lawn Care/Dynotech Racing Engines team making a run from fifth to second in heat race action to make the redraw.
Starting third in the feature, Bellm got a good run on the initial start and was in position to challenge for his first win of the year, only to have a caution negate the start.
“If that first start would have gone, we would have been in good shape,” Bellm says.
“We caught a rut and bicycled on the second start and fell back to about fifth,” Bellm explains.
Slight contact with Scottie McDonald soon after resulted in a rare occurrence, a broken piston in the right rear shock.
With the setup out the window, Bellm hung on the rest of the way to salvage a 12th place finish in the Schaeffer Oil/Pro Designs/Racinboys machine.
“We had a good night going, but with that shock not working we just held on for 12th, it was a fluke deal,” Bellm says. “We had a top-five car.”
It’s a top-five that should have been. Bellm will look to get that first one of the year beginning with Friday’s night’s ASCS Red River action at Creek County Speedway.
Up Next: ASCS Red River Region at Creek County Speedway near Tulsa, OK, on Friday night.
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.
- administrator on Apr 07, 2016
- Article Date: 4/7/2016 by Lonnie Wheatley