Lonnie Wheatley, NIXA, Mo. (June 23, 2016) – Kyle Bellm enjoyed his best run of the 2016 Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour campaign by racing to a runner-up finish in the second leg of last week’s Sizzlin’ Summer Speedweek at Creek County Speedway near Tulsa, OK.
And, after finishing out Speedweek in the Resource Asset Management Solutions (RAMS) No. 14k Sprint Car, the Nixa, MO, shoe jumped into David Korte’s No. 75 Sprint Car on Sunday night and picked off his second podium finish in as many tries in recent weeks at California, Missouri’s Double X Speedway.
Bellm and the PPG Automotive Finishes/Colorvision team will forego the initial portion of the ASCS National Tour’s Northwest swing, instead taking in a pair of Regional weekends closer to home before rejoining the Tour.
“There are two three-race weekends coming up close to home, we’re going to regroup this weekend and then focus on those before getting back to National competition,” Bellm commented. “We should be able to get some good finishes and hopefully some wins over the next couple of weeks.”
Bellm comes off an ASCS Speedweek in which he started all five feature events with a sixth night rained out early in the week at Devil’s Bowl Speedway.
The highlight of the week for Bellm and the Schure Built Suspensions/Christian County Collision Repair team was clearly the second round of competition at Creek County Speedway last Thursday night, June 16.
Bellm ran second in his heat race and then won his qualifier to earn a front row starting position for the 30-lap feature aboard the Bybee Lawn Care/Dynotech Racing Engines machine.
Bellm led the way into the opening pair of corners only to surrender the point to Bryan Clauson a half lap later. Bellm chased Clauson the rest of the way and kept a hungry host of chasers at bay to secure the runner-up finish.
“We had a really good car, I wish we would have had a good chance to get into traffic and see what we might have had for him (Clauson),” Bellm said afterward. “He was tough though, he was the class of the field all night.”
The initial caution after a dozen or so laps wasn’t what Bellm was looking for. “We didn’t need that, we were about where we needed to be to give it a shot,” Bellm explained.
A caution soon after benefitted Bellm. “The second caution helped, I made a mistake that let Sam (Hafertepe, Jr.) get by, so that one saved us.”
Bellm securely held the runner-up position the rest of the way in the Schaeffer Oil/Prater Designs/Racinboys entry.
Finishing off the Speedweek that started with Bellm’s first trip to Amarillo were events closer to home in Missouri at Sedalia and Lucas Oil Speedway with Bellm in the feature field each night, albeit lacking the best of luck.
“Speedweek was really the highest of highs and the lowest of lows,” Bellm summed up.
On Sunday night, Bellm jumped into the David Korte No. 75 for a second time in recent weeks for some ASCS Warrior Region competition at Double X Speedway and was in the mix for the lead before settling for a third-place finish at the stripe.
“We raced with Jonathan Cornell and Randy Martin the entire race,” Bellm said of Sunday’s battle. “It laid a little rubber late, I think we might have had something for them if not for the rubber. It was fun though, I always enjoy racing at Double X.”
Bellm and crew will take this weekend off before coming back at full force with next weekend’s ASCS Warrior Region “Red, White and Blue Tour” on July 1-3 at Callaway Raceway, Randolph County Raceway and Double X Speedway.
2016 Quick Stats: 21 races, 1 win, 6 top-fives, 7 top-tens.
Up Next: ASCS Warrior Region “Red, White and Blue Tour” on July 1-3 at Callaway Raceway (Fulton, MO), Randolph County Raceway (Moberly, MO) and Double X Speedway (California, MO).
Keep Track: Keep track of Kyle Bellm’s on-track action including schedule and results at http://www.kylebellm.com/, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/KyleBellmRacing?fref=ts or on Twitter at @kylebellmracing.
If you would like Kyle Bellm Racing 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.