Tampa, FL … 2-10-10……..Damion (The Demon) Gardner of Concord, Calif. remained undefeated in 2010 Amsoil USAC National Sprint racing Wednesday night, leading all 30 laps to win the “Bubba Army Sprint Nationals” finale at East Bay Raceway Park. Gardner and his Pace Lighting/Eagle/Shaver have led all 60 laps of this season’s two feature events after winning wire-to-wire on Monday at the third-mile dirt oval. Starting alongside pole starter Dave Darland, Gardner grabbed the lead exiting turn two on the opening lap and opened up a comfortable margin. A yellow for Robert Ballou’s spin on lap 25 bunched up the field but on the restart Gardner again pulled away for the win. Darland took second ahead of fast qualifier Jerry Coons Jr., Brady Short and defending series champion Levi Jones, who came from 18th starting spot! Gardner takes a 15-point lead over Short into the February 19-20 “Copper on Dirt” at USA Race Park in Tucson, Ariz.
Front row starters No. 67K Dave Darland and No.71 Damion Gardner bring the 23-car field to the green for the 30-lap $5,000-to-win USAC finale.2-10-10 Photo by Mike Horne
In the battle for third, No. 69 Jerry Coons, Jr. held off No. 36 Brady ShortIn the USAC finale at East Bay Raceway Park. 2-10-10 Photo by Mike Horne
The “Bubba Army USAC Sprint Nationals” ended with winner Damion Gardner joined by members of the Bubba Army in victory lane Wednesday at East Bay Raceway Park 2-10-10 Photo by Mike Horne
AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: February 10, 2010 – Tampa, Florida – East Bay Raceway Park – “Bubba Army Sprint Nationals”
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Jerry Coons Jr., 69, Dynamics-15.039; 2. Henry Clarke, 67, Kunz-15.086; 3. Kurt Gross, 1x, Gross-15.126; 4. Jeff Bland Jr., 38, Bland-15.143; 5. Damion Gardner, 71, DG-15.159; 6. Shane Cottle, 10E, Edison-15.162; 7. Dave Darland, 67k, Kunz-15.169; 8. Brady Short, 36, Short-15.197; 9. Ricky Williams, 11w, Williams-15.264; 10. Thomas Meseraull, 4G, Cook-15.267; 11. Bobby East, 5, Klatt-15.270; 12. Shane Hmiel, 17, 56 Inc.-15.282; 13. Brett Burdette, 17B, Burdette-15.310; 14. Bryan Clauson, 2B, RWB-15.328; 15. Chris Windom, 11, Walker-15.339; 16. Caleb Armstrong, 7, Tucker-15.347; 17. Kent Christian, 1c, Christian-15.389; 18. Levi Jones, 20, Stewart-15.399; 19. Robert Ballou, 81, MPHG-15.412; 20. Jon Stanbrough, 53, Fox-15.424; 21. Casey Riggs, 37, Indiana Underground-15.433; 22. Kyle Cummins, 4u, Wild Ride-15.606; 23. Tracy Hines, 24, Parker-15.642; 24. Eric Smith, 14, Smith-15.688; 25. Justin Grant, 5B, Baldwin-15.695; 26. Alex Shanks, 39w, Wade-15.780; 27. Mike Weber, 22w, Weber-16.220; 28. Shane Wade, 66, Wade-16.641; 29. Dwayne Spille, 71s, Spille-16.798; 30. Rob Chaney, 9x, SC-16.959; 31. Shawn Lawler, 18L, Lawler-17.425; 32. Hunter Schuerenberg, 2, Epperson-20.813.
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Christian, 2. Williams, 3. Gardner, 4. Coons, 5. Riggs, 6. Burdette, 7. Grant, 8. Spille.
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Jones, 2. Clauson, 3. Clarke, 4. Meseraull, 5. Cottle, 6. Shanks, 7. Cummins, 8. Chaney.
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Darland, 3. Hines, 4. Gross, 5. East, 6. Weber, 7. Lawler, 8. Windom.
FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Hmiel, 2. Bland, 3. Short, 4. Stanbrough, 5. C.Armstrong, 6. Wade, 7. Smith, 8. Schuerenberg.
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Windom, 2. Cottle, 3. Burdette, 4. C.Armstrong, 5. East, 6. Cummins, 7. Riggs, 8. Smith, 9. Shanks, 10. Chaney, 11. Grant, 12. Weber, 13. Wade, 14. Lawler, 15. Spille.
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Damion Gardner, 2. Dave Darland, 3. Jerry Coons Jr., 4. Brady Short, 5. Levi Jones, 6. Jeff Bland Jr., 7. Bryan Clauson, 8. Robert Ballou. 9. Henry Clarke, 10. Brett Burdette, 11. Tracy Hines, 12. Jon Stanbrough, 13. Shane Hmiel, 14. Shane Cottle, 15. Thomas Meseraull, 16. Bobby East, 17. Ricky Williams, 18. Kyle Cummins, 19. Kurt Gross, 20. Kent Christian, 21. Casey Riggs, 22. Caleb Armstrong, 23. Chris Windom. NT-
**Spille flipped during the semi-feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Gardner.
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Gardner-137; 2-Short-122; 3-Clauson-118; 4-Jones-104; 5-Darland-101; 6-Coons-101; 7-Ballou-92; 8-Cottle-88; 9-Stanbrough-84; 10-Clarke-82.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: February 19-20 – Tucson, AZ – USA Raceway – “Copper on Dirt”