Lonnie Wheatley, NIXA, Mo. (October 13, 2016) – With a fresh bullet in the rails, Kyle Bellm is set for the stretch run with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour aboard the Resource Asset Management Solutions (RAMS) No. 14k Sprint Car.
Just three more racing weekends separate Bellm from his second top-ten ranking in Lucas Oil ASCS National points in as many years after earning Rookie of the Year honors last year.
It all begins with this weekend’s Devil’s Bowl Winter Nationals in Mesquite, Texas, before moving on to Creek County Speedway near Tulsa on November 4-5 and then the season-ending double at Yuma’s Cocopah Speedway on November 11-12.
Bellm and the PPG Automotive Finishes/Colorvision team remain tenth in series points despite missing a portion of the Northwest tour.
Now, with a fresh powerplant, Bellm and the VP Racing Fuels/Schure Built Suspensions team look for some strong finishes to close out the season.
“We were just a little down on power the last couple of events, we had to do something to compete at the level that we need to be at,” Bellm says. “We’ve just been in a rut, we have to get out of that.”
Plagued by misfortune over much of the Jesse Hockett/Daniel McMillin Memorial at Lucas Oil Speedway on September 22-24, Bellm saved his best for last on the three-day show.
After taking a provisional for the September 24 main event, Bellm raced his way towards the front in short order. “We were really good,” Bellm recalls.
All the way up to 11th in the Christian County Collision Repair/Bybee Lawn Care entry, bad timing came into play when Bellm was collected by a spinning car.
“We were probably a seventh or eighth place car,” Bellm says. “It just wasn’t in the cards.”
I-80 Speedway’s “Fall Brawl” in Greenwood, NE, was next on October 1.
“It was a little on the heavy side, we needed a little more horsepower,” Bellm said of the night atop the 4/10-mile clay oval.
Bellm’s night ended with a fifth-place run in a “B” Main. “We just had no speed,” Bellm says.
With that problem addressed, Bellm and the Schaeffer Oil/Prater Designs/Racinboys team are ready for the final rounds of the season that has already included a dozen top-five feature wins including an April 22 triumph at Humboldt, KS.
And no better place to get started on the stretch run than this weekend’s Winter Nationals at Devil’s Bowl Speedway, the site of Bellm’s first National Tour win in 2013.
2016 Quick Stats: 42 races, 1 win, 12 top-fives, 15 top-tens.
Up Next: Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour the Devil’s Bowl Winter Nationals in Mesquite, TX, this Friday and Saturday.
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.
(Photo courtesy of John Lee - High Fly'N Photos)
- administrator on Oct 13, 2016
- Article Date: 10/13/2016