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Stanbrough Gets First Win Of Year At Wilmot

Wilmot, WI – Jon Stanbrough of Avon, Indiana extended his AMSOIL
National Sprint Car point lead and picked up his first victory of the
season after outlasting the rest of the field on Saturday night at
Wilmot Raceway. The 44-year-old used a restart with just three laps to
go to dart under leader Kevin Thomas, Jr. in turn-three for the
deciding move.

“I had to keep myself patient and stay out of trouble in that one.
Those guys were racing hard early. We were lucky and didn’t get caught
up in those reds, although I did get into the second one a little bit.
(Crew chief) Daryl (Tate) got a chance to wrench on the car under that
one a little bit, and we just felt really good after that. Kevin
(Thomas) was getting into three pretty high, and that was my
opportunity to get by him,” Stanbrough said.

Thomas started the night by breaking the track record, set in 1995,
and appeared headed for his first-career National Sprint Car win. The
Cullman, Alabama driver, who is under the tutelage of sprint car great
Bubby Jones, extended a large lead after driving by early leader
Robert Ballou on lap eight.

Behind Thomas, a great race emerged between Ballou, polesitter Chris
Windom, and Hunter Schuerenberg for the second spot. Just after
completing lap 13, Ballou and Schuerenberg made contact in turn-one
with Schuerenberg flipping into turn-two. He walked away but was done
for the night.

From there, Dave Darland looked to be the major threat to Thomas, as
he knifed his way to the second spot and was reeling in the leader as
they entered lap traffic. With just six laps to go, Matt Vandervere
flipped right in front of the leaders in turn-three, leaving Darland
with nowhere to go. The Lincoln, Indiana driver plowed into
Vandervere, with Stanbrough also making contact before driving away.

Stanbrough and hard-charging Shane Cottle then took up the chase on
Thomas, who was continuing to run an extreme high line around the
third-mile oval. The final caution flag flew with three laps to go for
Tracy Hines, who stopped in turn-two. On the restart, Stanbrough cut
off turn-two and dove under Thomas into turn-three for a lead he would
not relinquish in the Roberts/Tate Racing – Leer Racing #21x
DRC/Speedway.

Thomas crossed just behind him with his best-career USAC finish in the
Black Jack Oil Company – Indy Metal Finishing #9K Spike/Kistler.

“We were good all night. We could run up through the rough on the top.
The car was stable to get through there better than everyone else. I
guess it just went away some or got too far around there, and Jon got
by us. We had two engines let go in the past couple weeks, so to
bounce back like this and almost get that win, it’s a good turn-around
for us,” Thomas said.

Cottle started 11th in the Curb Records – R&B Trucker’s #7
Maxim/Fisher while again substituting for Bryan Clauson, who was still
at Iowa Speedway to race with the Fireston Indy Lights. Cottle found
the bottom late in the race to briefly challenge for the lead before
finishing third.

“We really didn’t need that last caution, because we were rollin’
pretty good and finally got the bottom working. You give Jon
(Stanbrough) a caution that late and he gets a chance to adjust some
things, you’re in trouble,” Cottle said.

Levi Jones came home fourth in the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing
– Chevrolet Performance #20 Maxim/Kistler and Damion Gardner rounded
out the top-five in the DG Racing – Pace Lighting #71 Eagle/Shaver.

AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: June 23, 2012 – Wilmot,
Wisconsin – Wilmot Raceway

QUALIFYING: 1. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 9K, BlackJack-14.665; 2. Levi Jones, 20,
Stewart/Curb-Agajanian-14.680; 3. Jon Stanbrough, 21x, Roberts/Tate-14.797; 4.
Hunter Schuerenberg, 35, Byram-14.832; 5. Robert Ballou, 81, MPHG-14.902; 6.
Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-14.991; 7. Damion Gardner, 71, DG-15.037; 8. Dave
Darland, 11, Walker-15.065; 9. Chase Stockon, 32, Stockon-15.115; 10. Tracy
Hines, 4, Hines-15.187; 11. Shane Cottle, 7, Tucker/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-15.196;
12. Chris Gurley, 12, Team Automotive-15.219; 13. Darren Hagen, 69,
Dynamics-15.250; 14. Jerry Coons, Jr., 71P, Phillips-15.412; 15. Mike Hess, 51,
Hess-15.512; 16. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-15.520; 17. Wayne Modjeski, 14,
Mojo-15.572; 18. Steve Irwin, 1, Flying Zero-15.602; 19. Ryan Irwin, 56,
Irwin-15.764; 20. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-15.766; 21. Tommy Sexton,
83, Forplay-15.940; 22. Matt Vandervere, 10v, Vandervere-16.723; 23. Craig
Lager, 52B, Lager-16.957.

FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Schuerenberg, 2. Gardner, 3. Thomas, 4. Hines, 5.
Leary, 6. R. Irwin, 7. Vandervere, 8. Hagen. NT

SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Coons, 2. Darland, 3. Ballou, 4. Jones, 5. Cottle, 6.
Mellenberndt, 7. Modjeski, 8. Lager. 2:36.96

THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Stanbrough, 2. Hess, 3. S. Irwin, 4. Windom, 5.
Stockon, 6. Gurley, 7. Sexton. 2:40.13

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Jon Stanbrough, 2. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 3. Shane Cottle, 4.
Levi Jones, 5. Damion Gardner, 6. Chris Windom, 7. Darren Hagen, 8. Chase
Stockon, 9. C.J. Leary, 10. Chris Gurley, 11. Jerry Coons, Jr., 12.
Steve Irwin,
13. Robert Ballou, 14. Ryan Irwin, 15. Bret Mellenberndt, 16. Craig Lager, 17.
Tracy Hines, 18. Dave Darland, 19. Matt Vandervere, 20. Mike Hess, 21. Hunter
Schuerenberg, 22. Wayne Modjeski. NT

——————————–

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-7 Ballou, Laps 8-27 Thomas, Laps 28-30 Stanbrough.

NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Stanbrough-706; 2-Jones-685;
3-Gardner-655;
4-Darland-631; 5-Hines-623; 6-Windom-546; 7-Clauson-528; 8-Ballou-527;
9-Hagen-520; 10-Schuerenberg-509.

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