8/7/2021
RacinBoys
Jason Martin Mauls Belleville 305 Nationals Prelim Field on Friday!
By Lonnie Wheatley (Belleville, KS) -- Jason Martin made the trek to the United Rebel Sprint Series’ Fourth Annual Belleville 305 Sprint Car Nationals on a mission.
And he made his way through Friday’s preliminary event in impressive fashion, earning the pole position for the feature event by racking up the most points in heat and qualifying race action and then leading all 20 rounds atop the ½-mile Belleville High Banks clay oval to collect the $2,500 winner’s share.
Slicing through traffic much of the way in the non-stop affair, Martin took the checkered flag with a gaudy 5.977-second advantage aboard the Myers-powered REZAC Concrete/Trucks Plus/Bybee Electric No. 5x Eagle with J.D. Johnson holding off a late bid from Luke Cranston for runner-up honors.
Despite the dominant outing, the Liberal, Kansas native now calling Crete, Nebraska home still spies room for improvement.
“We were a little too tight in the qualifier, so I freed it up for the feature and freed it up too much,” Martin explained afterward. “I felt like I was just barely hanging onto it at times.”
After outgunning fellow front row starter Tyler Drueke for the point on the opening round, lapped traffic proved to be the biggest obstacle with Martin putting all but the top 13 finishers at least one lap down as all 23 starters that took the green flag lasted to see the checkered flag after scheduled fifth-starter Dusty Ballenger suffered pre-race mechanical problems that cut his night short.
“Traffic was wild, especially off of turn two and then down the backstretch,” Martin said. “They would be going about the same speed and then it was like they pulled a parachute, I closed up on them so fast.”
While Martins successfully navigated traffic to stay in command throughout, Wichita’s J.D. Johnson battled past Zach Blurton for second in the opening handful of laps and held the position throughout aboard the Briley-powered Evans Building Co. No. 98 J&J.
“If we could have caught a caution at some point, I think we might have had a chance to make it interesting,” Johnson commented afterward.
Dicing through traffic, Johnson nearly lost his grasp on the runner-up position in the final corner. “I had to check up behind a lapped car and Luke (Cranston) about got by on the bottom.”
Ness City’s Cranston settled for the show position aboard the Myers-powered Southwest Family Farms No. 20 Maxim with Blurton and Drueke rounding out the top five.
Jeff Stasa crossed the stripe in sixth ahead of Ty Williams, 14th-starter Kyler Johnson and Stu Snyder with Taylor Velasquez turning in the feature’s top passing performance by racing from 21st to complete the top ten.
Snyder, Johnson, Drueke and Stasa topped Friday night’s heat race action for the 37-car field with Brett Becker, Toby Chapman, Martin and Drueke winning the qualifying races. Jordan Knight and Blake Scott bested the twin 10-lap “B” Mains.
The Fourth Annual Belleville 305 Sprint Car Nationals wraps up with Saturday night’s $7,000-to-win tilt getting under way at 7:30 p.m.
Fourth Annual Belleville 305 Sprint Car Nationals Night One
August 6, 2021 Results:
Heat Races:
Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 5-Stu Snyder, 2. 20-Luke Cranston, 3. 43-Adam Trimble, 4. 9-John Webster, 5. 74-Connor Atkinson, 6. 29s-Blake Scott, 7. 50-Jed Werner, 8. 88J-Jeremy Huish, 9. 17-Todd Plemons, 10. 66-Fred Holz.
Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 45x-Kyler Johnson, 2. 5x-Jason Martin, 3. 21x-Taylor Velasquez, 4. 2d-Dusty Ballenger, 5. 16-Scott Cochran, 6. 63-Randy Martin, 7. 17x-Jon Freeman, 8. 33k-Aaron Ploussard, 9. 75-Cash Beeson.
Heat Three (8 Laps): 1. 12-Tyler Drueke, 2. 911-Ty Williams, 3. 7-Shane Sundquist, 4. 8J-Steven Richardson, 5. 10-Jordan Knight, 6. 2b-Brett Becker, 7. 23-Brandon Bosma, 8. 11k-Tyler Knight, 9. 25-Gunnar Pike.
Heat Four (8 Laps): 1. 91-Jeff Stasa, 2. 2J-Zach Blurton, 3. 98-J.D. Johnson, 4. 7c-Toby Chapman, 5. 15-Jack Potter, 6. 75n-Nick Nichols, 7. 6-Mark Walinder, 8. 65-Richard Wilbee, 9. 23r-James Reed (DNS).
Qualifying Races (Top 16 in combined finishing/passing points from Heats and Qualifiers to “A” Main/Balance to two “B” Mains)
Qualifier One (8 Laps): 1. 2b-Brett Becker, 2. 2d-Dusty Ballenger, 3. 5-Stu Snyder, 4. 2J-Zach Blurton, 5. 7-Shane Sundquist, 6. 29s-Blake Scott, 7. 11k-Tyler Knight, 8. 75n-Nick Nichols, 9. 75-Cash Beeson, 10. 23r-James Reed (DNS).
Qualifier Two (8 Laps): 1. 7c-Toby Chapman, 2. 98-J.D. Johnson, 3. 8J-Steven Richardson, 4. 91-Jeff Stasa, 5. 63-Randy Martin, 6. 50-Jed Werner, 7. 21x-Taylor Velasquez, 8. 17-Todd Plemons, 9. 6-Mark Walinder.
Qualifier Three (8 Laps): 1. 5x-Jason Martin, 2. 20-Luke Cranston, 3. 16-Scott Cochran, 4. 10-Jordan Knight, 5. 45x-Kyler Johnson, 6. 88J-Jeremy Huish, 7. 43-Adam Trimble, 8. 66-Fred Holz, 9. 33k-Aron Ploussard.
Qualifier Four (8 Laps): 1. 12-Tyler Drueke, 2. 9-John Webster, 3. 74-Connor Atkinson, 4. 911-Ty Williams, 5. 23-Brandon Bosma, 6. 17x-Jon Freeman, 7. 65-Richard Wilbee, 8. 15-Jack Potter (DNS), 9. 25-Gunnar Pike (DNS).
“B” Mains (Top 4 from each advance to “A” Main)
“B” Feature One (10 Laps): 1. 10-Jordan Knight, 2. 23-Brandon Bosma, 3. 21x-Taylor Velasquez, 4. 50-Jed Werner, 5. 11k-Tyler Knight, 6. 17-Todd Plemons, 7. 15-Jack Potter, 8. 75-Cash Beeson, 9. 88J-Jeremy Huish, 10. 66-Fred Holz (DNS), 11. 23r-James Reed (DNS).
“B” Feature Two (10 Laps): 1. 29s-Blake Scott, 2. 16-Scott Cochran, 3. 43-Adam Trimble, 4. 65-Richard Wilbee, 5. 17x-Jon Freeman, 6. 75n-Nick Nichols, 7. 33k-Aaron Ploussard, 8. 63-Randy Martin, 9. 6-Mark Walinder (DNS), 10. 25-Gunnar Pike (DNS).
Belleville 305 Sprint Car Nationals Preliminary “A” Main
“A” Main (20 Laps): 1. 5x-Jason Martin (1), 2. 98-J.D. Johnson (4), 3. 20-Luke Cranston (7), 4. 2J-Zach Blurton (3), 5. 12-Tyler Drueke (2), 6. 91-Jeff Stasa (8), 7. 911-Ty Williams (9), 8. 45x-Kyler Johnson (14), 9. 5-Stu Snyder (6), 10. 21x-Taylor Velasquez (21), 11. 8j-Steven Richardson (11), 12. 7c-Toby Chapman (13), 13. 74-Connor Atkinson (15), 14. 23-Brandon Bosma (19), 15. 10-Jordan Knight (17), 16. 29s-Blake Scott (18), 17. 50-Jed Werner (23), 18. 9-John Webster (10), 19. 16-Scott Cochran (20), 20. 7-Shane Sundquist (16), 21. 2b-Brett Becker (12), 22. 43-Adam Trimble (22), 23. 65-Richard Wilbee (24), 24. 2d-Dusty Ballenger (5 – DNS).
Lap Leaders: Jason Martin 1-20.
Submitted By: Kirk Elliott
