7/22/2016
Bryan Clauson
Clauson Races into the Final Half of Circular Insanity!
Lonnie Wheatley, KOKOMO, Ind. (July 22, 2016) – It’s an unheard of pursuit. Trying to compete in 200 events in a calendar year.
Bryan Clauson has surpassed the halfway point of “Circular Insanity” with the latest set of both winged and non-wing Sprint Car races pushing the total to 104 races completed.
All that remains to reach 200 for the year is a mere 96 races beginning with tonight’s All Star Circuit of Champions “Prelude to the Dirt Classic Indiana” at Kokomo Speedway aboard Matt Wood’s Elk Grove Ford/Cancer Treatment Centers of America No. 17w winged Sprint Car.
“It’s all downhill from here,” Clauson said of surpassing the midway point.
The latest slate of races included another Kings Royal feature start and Clauson’s 25th overall feature win of the year during the third leg of USAC’s Indiana Sprintweek.
Thus far, along with 25 wins, the initial 104 races of the year in nine different cars has netted 50 top-fives and 68 top-tens. Additionally, “Circular Insanity” has included stops at 53 different racetracks throughout 15 states as well as New Zealand.
Tonight marks the 51st race of the season aboard the winged No. 17w Sprint Car with the Cancer Treatment Centers of America/Jonathan Byrd’s No. 63 Non-Wing Sprint Car next on the “starts” list with 24 events.
The most recent in “Circular Insanity”…
Race 96
Clauson joined in on the initial three rounds of USAC’s Indiana Sprintweek aboard the Dooling & Hayward-owned Cancer Treatment Centers of America/Jonathan Byrd’s Restaurant & Hospitality Group No. 63 Non-Wing Sprint Car beginning at Gas City I-69 Speedway on Friday, July 8, where he just missed out on win number 25 of the year with a runner-up finish.
“We had a good early part of the night to put ourselves in position. I kinda moved around early in the race. I took advantage of a restart to get by Hunter (Schuerenberg) for the lead. We had a late yellow and had a miscommunication with my guys and didn’t get down to take away the line and let the 23 scoot by us there. It was kind of a bummer, all we had to do was moved down and stay on the bottom, nobody was gonna drive around us.”
Race 97
Sprintweek action continued on Saturday night, July 9, at Kokomo Speedway with Clauson getting caught up in a skirmish along the way and scored in 19th after running among the top five.
“We were running fourth of fifth with about ten to go. Something happened up in front of us, I’m not really sure what exactly, I think the two leaders got together and sent Windom spinning and Stockon was right in front of us and piled in and left us nowhere to go. I felt like we had a car that was coming to us and could have had a shot at the win, just a victim of circumstance."
Race 98
Clauson reached the quarter-century mark in the win column by racing to Sprintweek victory lane at Lawrenceburg Speedway on Sunday night, July 10.
“We had quick time and got through the heat race. I got a really good start and got to second early and then got the lead about five laps in. We kinda got rolling, had to fight off Hodges there in the middle stages, we were just trying to set a pace that was comfortable and not make any mistakes. That late restart, I was able to get back out and get away from those guys to get the win.”
Race 99
Action shifts to the winged variety in Matt Wood’s Elk Grove Ford/Cancer Treatment Centers of America No. 17w winged Sprint Car for the Tuesday night, July 12, World of Outlaws “Brad Doty Classic” at Attica Raceway Park with Clauson missing out on the feature against a stacked field.
“That’s one of the toughest races of the year honestly. We had a decent qualifying time but not quite good enough to catch the front row. So we started fourth in our heat and ended up running fourth. I was going pretty good in the ‘B’, got up to fifth then had a late restart and got caught in the wrong lane on a double file restart.”
Race 100
After a Sprintweek rainout at Terre Haute on July 13, the official midway point of “Circular Insanity” takes place with the beginning of Kings Royal weekend at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway as Clauson finishes out July 14 in 16th.
“We ended up fifth in our group in qualifying which put us starting third in the heat. I made a run at second early, I put a big slider on Jason (Johnson) and didn’t quite get it done and ended up running fourth which put us 14th in the ‘A’. We struggled the first ten or 12 laps, didn’t really going. We struggled on starts and restarts all night and ended up 16th.”
Race 101
The Knight Before at Eldora found Clauson improving three positions to finish 13th in the July 15 main event.
“We were third quick behind Donny (Schatz) and (David) Gravel so we felt pretty good about that. We started on the pole of our heat and ran second to Dale (Blaney) and then went sixth to fourth in the Dash. That put us seventh in the feature with the twin dash deal. It was kind of the same thing as the first night, I couldn’t really get going early and fell back. There was a pretty good battle there for 11th, 12th and 13th and came out on the wrong side of it in 13th.”
Race 102
Clauson raced into the Saturday night, July 16, Kings Royal at Eldora and was on the move before a tire woes cut his race short.
“We had a really good car in the feature. We started 16th and got to 12th or so, it felt like we had a really good car early on and then ended up having a tire issue that ended up putting us out of the race. A lot of the guys we were battling with there and that we had kinda chased down ended up finishing in the top ten. We were going the right direction and had really good speed early in the race, so it was really disappointing."
Race 103
With Kings Royal in the books, Clauson hustled back to the rescheduled Terre Haute event that put the wraps on Indiana Sprintweek on Sunday night. On the move and closing in on the leader, Clauson cut a tire before rallying back to salvage a ninth place finish.
“It was a good night, we had quick time and won our heat from sixth. About half way in the feature we got rolling and started picking ‘em off, we got up to third and got to Ballou for second. I think we ran over something and cut a tire because it was all at once going into three. I felt like we had a car that was the fastest car at that point in the race, I’m not sure if there was quite enough time to get to Chase (Stockon) or not but we were gonna give it a good shot.”
Race 104
It was back to World of Outlaws action at Pennsylvania’s Lernerville Speedway on Tuesday night, July 19, for Silver Cup action with Clauson finishing out the night in 17th.
“We qualified seventh in our group then had a good start in our heat race to get to third, that put us ninth to start the feature. We got going early, hanging in that seventh to ninth range early in the race. We got to racing with Joey (Saldana) and (Tim) Shaffer and just hung it off the end a little bit off of one and two and ended up spinning out off the track. I felt bad about that, it was probably as good a car as we’ve had in the slick in a long time, maybe ever. We were certainly a top-ten car, I didn’t do my part. We pushed back off and passed six or seven cars to finish 17th, even then we were pretty good, we just didn’t catch another yellow to bunch us back up. The finish didn’t reflect how well we ran."
2016 Circular Insanity Tour Quick Stats: 104 races, 25 wins, 50 top-fives, 68 top-tens.
Up Next:
Friday & Saturday – All Star Circuit of Champions at Kokomo (IN) Speedway (Elk Grove Ford/Cancer Treatment Centers of America No. 17w winged Sprint Car)
Keep Track: Keep track of Bryan Clauson’s 2016 Circular Insanity Tour at www.bryanclauson.com, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/bryanclausonracing/?fref=ts and on Twitter at @bryanclausoninc.
If you would like Bryan Clauson “Circular Insanity Tour” 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
