Lonnie Wheatley, NIXA, Mo. (July 5, 2018) – Kyle Bellm and the No. 14k Sprint Car team picked up last weekend’s ASCS Warrior Region “Red, White & Blue” weekend championship, finishing off the three-race set with a second win of the year at California, Missouri’s Double X Speedway.
The Sunday night win atop the cozy confines at Double X came after a charge from seventh to second at Sedalia on Friday night and then a rally from 12th to fifth in Saturday night’s main event at Lake Ozark Speedway.
“It was a really good weekend for us,” Bellm says. “Three top-fives with another win, that’s the consistency that we’re looking for.”
With this Saturday night’s ASCS Warrior Region card at Moberly’s Randolph County Raceway canceled, the team will take a weekend off before returning to action next week.
Last weekend’s “Red, White & Blue” triple began at Sedalia’s Missouri State Fair Speedway on Friday night with Bellm driving the Greenworks Nursery/Landscapes Awarded Sprint Car to a heat race win and then redrawing the seven to start fourth row inside in the feature event.
Bellm drove the Christian County Collision Repair/Bybee Lawn Care entry from seventh to second despite some cautions that slowed his progress.
“We had a red flag and then two yellows back-to-back and that caused our tire pressures to drop off too much,” Bellm explains. “We just weren’t quite as good as we needed to be to get the win.”
Action shifted to Eldon’s Lake Ozark Speedway on Saturday night with Bellm gridding the feature field 12th aboard the PPG Automotive Finishes/Colorvision machine after a fourth-place heat race showing.
“We were in the first heat and the track was still fast and hard to pass on so we only got by one car,” Bellm says.
Bellm raced forward in the feature and cracked the top five aboard the VP Racing Fuels/Schure Built Suspensions/Schaeffers Racing Oil entry before running out of laps.
“We were going forward, I think we could have been a third-place car if the feature had been 30 laps,” Bellm says.
Looking for a second consecutive win at Double X Speedway on Sunday night, Bellm finished third in his heat race and then pulled the one to start the feature from the pole position.
After falling back at the start, Bellm worked lapped traffic to his advantage to recapture the lead in the late going en route to his second win of the year and the “Red, White & Blue” title.
“I didn’t get a great start,” Bellm recalls. “So I just waited and watched and pounced when I could.”
Lapped traffic made things interesting throughout.
“In lapped traffic you can try different lines and wait for the right moment,” Bellm says. “It got close at the end even after I got the lead. I came up on a car, I thought about trying something to get by but that cost me a couple of positions last weekend. So I just held my line and figured I would make him (Tyler Blank) try something crazy to get by.”
Holding his line proved good enough for a second win of the year among nine top-fives and a dozen top-tens.
Bellm is on a run of six consecutive top-five feature finishes and seven in the last eight races. It’s a trend he’ll try to continue next weekend.
2018 Quick Stats: 20 races, 2 win, 9 top-fives, 12 top-tens.
Up Next: ASCS Red River Region at Humboldt (KS) Speedway on Friday, July 13.
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.
Article Credit: Lonnie Wheatley