Bacon
After starting seventh, Brady Bacon put in a hard charge to take the win. (Allen Horcher photo)

Bacon Wins Non-Wing Nationals At Lake Ozark

BELLEVILLE, Ill. — Brady Bacon found the fastest line in the Lake Ozark Speedway Non-Wing Nationals feature event and rode it to victory lane, notching his ninth career Lucas Oil POWRi Wingless Auto Racing Sprint League win. 

The league ran in conjunction with the Xtreme Outlaw Sprint Series for the 25-lap main event.

CJ Leary clocked top-time with 13.758-lap in a field of 28 competitors. Heat racing action saw Alex Bright, Jake Swanson, Robert Ballou and Matt Westfall head to the main event feeling triumphant, with Jack Wagner earning the semi-feature win.

Ballou and Swanson began to tangle early, heading into the first corner after the green flag.

Ballou lead Swanson, Westfall, Mario Clouser and Bacon in the early laps of the feature.

After a lap-five restart, Swanson would take the lead from Ballou in turns three and four with Westfall and Bacon behind the leading pair. Meanwhile, Leary, Kory Schudy and Xavier Doney closed in on the top-seven runners.

Halfway through the feature, Bacon stayed on the inside line to take the lead on lap fifteen and overtake Swanson and Ballou. Using low-line running to his advantage, Bacon remained out front with Swanson and Ballou following behind.

Leary would find top-shelf to his liking, moving into the runner-up position as Swanson and Ballou got into each other entering turn-one. 

Leading the final revolutions, Bacon held on to grab the feature victory as Westfall and Leary battled to the very end behind him for the runner-up spot. Westfall ultimately took the position, leaving Leary third. 

“We were really looking forward to getting in here and running this race, now we get to climb in the wing car and see if we can’t claim this bonus money,” Bacon said.

Shane Cockrum would emerge late to finish fourth with Bright rounding out the top-five.

Feature (30 Laps): 1. 98-Brady Bacon[7]; 2. 33M-Matt Westfall[3]; 3. 77M-CJ Leary[13]; 4. 66-Shane Cockrum[8]; 5. 20-Alex Bright[5]; 6. 28-Kory Schudy[14]; 7. 77-Jack Wagner[17]; 8. 6-Mario Clouser[4]; 9. 16-Anthony Nicholson[20]; 10. 1JR-Steven Russell[22]; 11. 11W-Wyatt Burks[18]; 12. 44-Wesley Smith[15]; 13. 74-Xavier Doney[9]; 14. 12-Robert Ballou[1]; 15. 17GP-Kyle Shipley[10]; 16. 4-Braydon Cromwell[21]; 17. 21AZ-Jake Swanson[2]; 18. 24-Landon Simon[16]; 19. 2B-Chad Boespflug[6]; 20. 91-Riley Kreisel[11]; 21. 9-Cody Baker[12]; 22. 32-Garrett Aitken[19].