Seth Bergman’s two-month winless streak on the American Sprint Car Series National Tour came to an end Friday night when he took the checkers on the opening night of the Harvey Ostermiller Memorial at Big Sky Speedway.
“I’ve run second to Sam [Hafertepe Jr.] so many times, I get tired of looking at the back of that thing,” Bergman said. “It’s just a very rewarding feeling when you’re close and you’re in a championship hunt, the guy you’re racing is winning and you’re right there and you’re running second a lot. To finally cross over that threshold again and get a win, it feels really really good.”
Bergman’s fourth-place Dash run put him right next to the No. 15H on row two to start the Feature, with Jake Bubak and Hank Davis out front. Bubak and Davis swapped lanes through Turns 1 and 2 on the start, with Bubak riding the top lane to the early lead after one lap. While Bubak paced the field, Hafertepe looked to be a man on a mission once again, as he immediately got around Davis for second on the bottom in Turn 4.
One lap later, Bergman followed Hafertepe through to take the third spot away from Davis. Matt Covington then tried to send him back another spot, but the two made contact in Turn 2 and Davis went flipping over the banking to bring out the red flag.
When the race went back green, Bubak was off like a rocket and grabbed a half-straightaway lead over Hafertepe. He would only get to enjoy his advantage for five laps though, as Andrew Deal’s spin on Lap 9 reset the field once again.
Bubak’s restart was a mirror image of the prior one, but the battle was on behind him for the runner-up spot. Bergman looked low in Turn 1, pulled in front exiting Turn 2 and then defended against a challenge from Hafertepe on the low side of Turn 3 to hold onto the spot.
Once he cleared Hafertepe, Bergman went to work on running down Bubak, and on Lap 15 the No. 23 car made the winning move. The slower car of Zach Blurton blocked Bubak’s progress on the bottom in Turn 3, and Bergman seized his opportunity to dart to the top and take command of the race with 10 to go.
The spinning car of Austyn Gossel brought the yellow out seconds after Bergman made his move, but Bubak was unable to reclaim the lead on the restart. From there, Bergman went unchallenged in the final segment to take his fifth Series win of the year and his first since the Speedweek finale at Tri-State Speedway in June.
“I’ve been doing it long enough to know to just take a deep breath, take [the track] for what it is,” Bergman said. “There’s still an opportunity to win a race, so that’s kind of where my mind was. Just taking it for what it was and finding an opportunity to win the race. We had a really good race car, and it was able to make the right moves at the right times.”
Bubak’s victory in last year’s Ostermiller Memorial under the Frontier Region banner proved that he knows how to get the job done at Big Sky, and another podium run against the National Tour further confirmed his speed in Billings.
“Finishing between Sam and Seth, they’re the two dominant cars every year I feel like,” Bubak said. “I think we’re in a good position.”
Hafertepe’s third-place effort snapped a five-race win streak in full-points events dating back to Tulsa Speedway on June 28. While he was disappointed to miss out on the Friday trophy, he knows what he has to do to be in contention come Feature time on Saturday with $12,012 on the line.
“On a normal racetrack, I think we’ve got a really good race car,” Hafertepe said. “Tonight obviously wasn’t a normal racetrack. So we’ll see. There’s not a lot we can take from tonight and use, but we can use little small segments. Like in Qualifying, we can use something out of that. We can use little small segments throughout the night to try and get better.”
Jason Martin finished fourth for his third-straight top-six effort, while Landon Britt came home fifth for his first top five since 81 Speedway on July 20.
The Triple X Hard Charger Award went to Frontier Region star Trever Kirkland, who made the Feature through the Last Chance Showdown before driving from 20th up to 12th in the main event.
UP NEXT: The National Tour returns to Big Sky Speedway on Saturday night for the $12,012-to-win conclusion to the Harvey Ostermiller Memorial. Tickets are available online here or at the track on race day. Can’t make it? Watch every lap live on DIRTVision.
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 23-Seth Bergman[4]; 2. 27B-Jake Bubak[1]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[3]; 4. 36-Jason Martin[6]; 5. 10-Landon Britt[8]; 6. 45X-Kyler Johnson[10]; 7. 55B-Brandon Anderson[12]; 8. 2JR-Kelly Miller[11]; 9. 21-DJ Brink[7]; 10. 14-Blayne Brink[16]; 11. 95-Matt Covington[5]; 12. 37-Trever Kirkland[20]; 13. 6G-Bryan Gossel[15]; 14. 5H-Harli White[14]; 15. 72-Phil Dietz[22]; 16. 15D-Andrew Deal[18]; 17. 9K-Kory Wermling[13]; 18. 01-Rich Bailey[17]; 19. 938-Bradley Fezard[21]; 20. 28-Joe Perry[23]; 21. 2J-Zach Blurton[19]; 22. 16G-Austyn Gossel[9]; 23. 2C-Hank Davis[2]
