LITTLE ROCK — Two top sprint car drivers without a Short Track Nationals victory each took a major step toward adding one to his resume Friday night.
Brady Bacon of Broken Arrow, Okla., and Danny Lasoski of Dover, Mo., claimed preliminary feature victories at the 24th annual Comp Cams Short Track Nationals at Little Rock’s I-30 Speedway.
The first preliminary card was stopped by rain Thursday night and was completed Friday. The top three finishers from each prelim automatically qualified for the main event, which was held late Saturday night, paying $15,000 to win.
Bacon, a regular on the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series circuit, led all 25 laps of the makeup prelim after starting on the outside of thefront row, but his race was not without drama.
In the early laps, Bacon’s engine began smoking heavily and even belched fire once. However, the smoke mysteriously stopped before the midway point.
“This motor, for some reason, will throw oil out of it,” said Bacon, who earlier blew his primary engine during hot laps. “I knew it would probably quit [smoking], but I can tell you it had me worried.”
Bacon held off Travis Rilat of Forney, Texas, for the victory. Seth Bergman of Snohomish, Wash., took third and the other transfer spot.
Tim Shaffer of Aliquippa, Pa., was fourth and Matt Covington of Glenpool, Okla., took fifth.
In the second prelim, Lasoski battled with early leader Jason Sides of Bartlett, Tenn .,during the middle portions of the race. But Lasoski took the lead for good on lap 15 and pulled away to win.
Lasoski, the 2001 World of Outlaws champion, is driving for a newly-formed team owned by Mark Burch of Lincoln, Neb.
“I’m just the lucky guy driving the car,” said Lasoski, who won last week’s ASCS Winter Nationals event at Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas. “We just put this together a few weeks ago, and we’re having a ball.”
Sides, the 2001 Short Track Nationals champ, took third, and Sammy Swindell of Bartlett, Tenn., who won the event in 1990, was third.
Benton’s Tim Crawley, the 1998 winner, finished fourth after starting 10th, and Sam Hafertepe Jr. of Sunnyvale, Texas, was fifth.
Sports, Pages 34 on 10/30/2011