Cornell Unbeatable in NCRA/ASCS Red River Challenge at 81 Speedway!
Park City, Kansas – July 14, 2018 - It has been a memorable weekend for Jonathan Cornell as the Sedalia, Missouri driver completed a weekend sweep as he took the lead with four laps to go to claim the National Championship Racing Association of Park City, Kansas presented by Precise Racing Products/American Bank of Oklahoma American Sprint Car Series Red River region feature event Saturday night at 81 Speedway in Park City.
Danny Jennings and Jay Russell started on the front row for the thirty-lap-feature with Jennings jumping out into the lead aboard his Patterson Elite powered Maxim #1j sprinter. Russell, Cornell, Brandon Hanks and Zach Chappell were the top five after the first lap was complete before the caution quickly waved when current series points leader Jeremy Campbell and his familiar Schroeder Racing Engines powered Maxim; Dan's Cycle/Scott's Well Service/BEPC/Knoche Farms/JP Agronomy/HRP/DMI Penske #10c came to a stop on the front stretch with a broke bolt steering arm.
Jennings jumped ahead of the rest of the field on the restart while Hanks passed Russell for second, only to see Russell regain the position one lap later. Jennings lead was six car lengths by the time he approached slower cars on lap eight. However, while working the middle of the three-eighths mile oval, Jennings mount became unstable in the corners allowing Russell to close his deficit to three-car-lengths.
On lap thirteen, Russell drove low entering turns one and two and throttled in front of Jennings entering the back-stretch while Hanks followed into the runner-up position, dropping Jennings back to third.
At the races midway point, Russell opened a half-stretch lead over Hanks while eighth-starting Alex Sewell, Jennings and Cornell were the top five. Russell still worked his way through lapped traffic and that allowed the current ASCS Red River region points leader to close as Sewell quickly got on the leader’s rear bumper.
Sewell was able to make a strong run entering the middle of turns three and four and would pass Russell for the lead on lap twenty-two.
Lap twenty-two saw Mike Goodman bring out the caution as he came to a stop at the top of turn four allowing no lapped cars between the front runners. On the restart, Cornell passed Russell for the runner-up position and set his sights on the leader. Hanks strong run would come to an end on lap twenty-six when he broke on the front stretch after running in fourth.
The restart saw Sewell still out front, but Cornell would get a strong run down low in turns one and two and drifter up in an attempt to take the lead. However, Sewell maintained the lead entering the back-stretch – only to see Cornell get passed the leader exiting turn four to take the lead on lap twenty-seven.
The night’s final caution would wave with three laps to go when Don Droud, Jr. and his Don Ott powered Schnee chassis came to a stop at the top of turn four.
On the final restart there was no stopping Cornell as he would cruise the rest of the way for his second NCRA feature victory in a row and his third-straight ASCS Red River region $2000 victory after winning the previous night at Humboldt Speedway and Friday night in their stand-alone event at Caney Valley Speedway.
Russell settled for third while Zach Chappell steady performance during the thirty-lap event results in a fourth-place finish. Matt Howard of Lawrence, Missouri worked his way up from fourteenth starting position to round out the top five in his career-best NCRA feature finish.
The three-eight lap heat races for the twenty-three-car field were won by Hanks, Cornell and Chappell.
Next up for the NCRA 360-ci Sprint Car Series will be the annual “Mid-Summer Classic” as the tour heads to the 62nd annual O’Reilly Auto Parts Hutchinson Grand Nationals presented by Allen Samuels Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram on August 3-4. This year’s annual event atop the famed Kansas State Fairgrounds will pay $3000 to Saturday night’s championship feature finale.
NCRA/ASCS Red River Region
81 Speedway/Park City, Kansas
July 14, 2018
23 Cars
1st Heat (8 Laps) 1) 84-Brandon Hanks, [2]; 2) 1J-Danny Jennings, [7]; 3) 8-Alex Sewell, [4]; 4) 90-Lance Norick, [5]; 5) 98-J.D. Johnson, [8]; 6) 91Jeff Stasa, [6]; 7) 6-Kaden Taylor, [3]; 8) 5M-Charles McManus, [1]
2nd Heat (8 Laps): 1) 28-Jonathon Cornell, [3]; 2) 11G-Mike Goodman, [1]; 3) 1X-Don Droud Jr, [4]; 4) 10C-Jeremy Campbell, [5]; 5) 88-Ray Seemann, [2]; 6) 37H-Matt Howard, [8]; 7) 85-Forrest Sutherland, [6]; 8.) 2J-J.R. Topper, [7]
3rd Heat (8 Laps): 1) 50Z-Zach Chappell, [1]; 2) 76-Jay Russell, [6]; 3) 20G-Jake Greider, [3]; 4) 1-Jon Freeman, [7]; 5) 52-Cody Karl, [5]; 6) 26MFred Mattox, [4]; 7) 9S-Kyle Clark, [2]
A Feature (8 Laps): 1) 28-Jonathon Cornell, [3]; 2) 8-Alex Sewell, [8]; 3) 76-Jay Russell, [2]; 4) 50Z-Zach Chappell, [5]; 5) 37H-Matt Howard, [14]; 6) 90-Lance Norick, [12]; 7) 1J-Danny Jennings, [1]; 8) 88-Ray Seemann, [16]; 9) 98-J.D. Johnson, [10]; 10) 20G-Jake Greider, [11]; 11) 91-Jeff Stasa, [17]; 12) 26M-Fred Mattox, [18]; 13) 81-Jon Freeman, [6]; 14) 92J-J.R. Topper, [21]; 15) 52-Cody Karl, [15]; 16) 5M-Charles McManus, [22]; 17) 84-Brandon Hanks, [4]; 18) 1X-Don Droud Jr, [9]; 19) 11G-Mike Goodman, [7]; 20) 85-Forrest Sutherland, [19]; 21) 6-Kaden Taylor, [20]; 22) 10C-Jeremy Campbell, [13]; (DNS) 9S-Kyle Clark
Lap leaders: Jennings 1-13; Russell 14-21; Sewell 22-26; Cornell 27-30
- Mylisa Powers on Jul 16, 2018
- Article Date: 7/16/2018