Lonnie Wheatley, FARMINGTON, Mo. (April 14, 2016) – So you want to race 200 times in one year?
Better come prepared with Plans B and C and then some in those cases when the original blueprint gets blown away.
That’s what Bryan Clauson and his teams managed to do this past weekend, salvaging a pair of races to run the “Circular Insanity Tour” season total to 38 races after the original plans of Sprint Car and Midget double duty at the Kokomo Grand Prix fell early in the week and then Plan B of an NSL 360-410 weekend double in southwest Iowa fell victim to Mother Nature as well.
Plan C called for turning the rig south with Clauson and Matt Wood’s Elk Grove Ford/Cancer Treatment Centers of America No. 17w Sprint Car taking in a Friday night ASCS Red River Region event at Creek County Speedway near Tulsa, OK, and then traveling back northeast up I-44 for some St. Francois County Raceway action at Farmington, MO, on Saturday night.
The efforts paid off with a pair of runner-up finishes, though the driver would have preferred to add another “W” or two to the ledger that already includes eight wins on the season.
“It was a successful week, I felt like we were in a position to win both,” Clauson comments. “We were in position but just couldn’t close the deal. When you’re that close the wins will start coming, especially when you’re racing 200 times.”
With temperatures beginning to climb, racing options become accordingly more abundant. Clauson and company have four races in three days on the slate for this upcoming weekend beginning with Friday night’s USAC Sprint Car event at Indiana’s Bloomington Speedway aboard the Cancer Treatment Centers of America/Jonathan Byrd’s Restaurant & Hospitality Group No. 63 non-wing Sprint Car. Clauson has topped the last three USAC Sprint Car events at Bloomington.
From there, the rest of the weekend will be back in the Elk Grove Ford/Cancer Treatment Centers of America No. 17w winged Sprint Car for double duty at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway on Saturday night in both 410-ci and 360-ci action and then Sunday’s $5,000-to-win ASCS Warrior Region season opener at Sedalia’s Missouri State Fair Speedway.
Race 37
No Kokomo, no southeast Iowa. Warmer temperatures awaited in Oklahoma where Bryan Clauson made his first Creek County Speedway start since 2008. After a convincing heat race win, Clauson started the feature from the pole position and chased Seth Bergman for the lead throughout, ultimately settling for second.
“Creek County was fun, it widened out some for the feature but the top was still so fast it was hard to make any real moves. If we could have got to traffic, I think it would have been a fun race between myself, the 23 car (Bergman) and the 52 (Blake Hahn). Every time we got to the tail of the field, a caution came out so we never got to make a good run for the lead.”
Race 38
Four hundred miles up the road and an engine switch from 360-ci to 410-ci power, Farmington’s St. Francois County Raceway awaited. A similar scenario played out, this time with Clauson working his way forward from fifth and coming up just short of a win after trying a slider to take it all on the final lap.
“It was similar to the night before, again the top was the fastest way around. We started fifth this time so it took about one-third of the race to get towards the front. We had a long run that let us get to him (Brad Loyet) in traffic. I slid it in there in three and four on the last lap but it didn’t stick. That was one that we needed 26 laps to get the win.”
At the doorstep of 20% of the way through “Circular Insanity”, it’s Indiana, Iowa and Missouri on the slate for this weekend.
2016 Circular Insanity Tour Quick Stats: 38 races, 8 wins, 17 top-fives, 28 top-tens.
Up Next:
Friday – USAC Sprint Cars at Indiana’s Bloomington Speedway (Cancer Treatment Centers of America/Jonathan Byrd’s No. 63 Sprint Car
Saturday – Knoxville (IA) Raceway season opener (Elk Grove Ford/Cancer Treatment Centers of America No. 17w in both 410-ci and 360-ci competition)
Sunday – ASCS Warrior Region at Sedalia’s Missouri State Fair Speedway (Elk Grove Ford/Cancer Treatment Centers of America No. 17w)
Keep Track: Keep track of Bryan Clauson’s 2016 Circular Insanity Tour at www.bryanclauson.com, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/bryanclausonracing/?fref=ts and on Twitter at @bryanclausoninc.
If you would like Bryan Clauson “Circular Insanity Tour” 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.
