PERRIS, Calif. — When Brady Bacon stands on the throttle, everyone takes notice.
In a similar manner, the same could be said for Brady’s grandfather, Ted Bacon. When Ted spoke, everyone listened. The Bacon family’s racing patriarch died on Tuesday.
Two days later, Brady strapped into a sprint car and ultimately pulled into victory lane on the opening night of the 26th Heimark Anheuser Busch Budweiser Oval Nationals at Perris Auto Speedway.
“It’s bittersweet,” Brady admitted. “You never want to lose anybody, but he wasn’t doing well with not being able to do everything he wanted to do. He was on the go all the time, and not being able to do that wasn’t ideal for him.”
Bacon reached the front of the field just six laps in, then raced away to his first USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship feature victory since June 19 – a span of 24 races and roughly four-and-a-half months – in his Dynamics, Inc./Fatheadz Eyewear – Cressman Sanitation – DriveWFX – Tel-Star/Triple X/Rider Chevy.
Bacon’s fourth career Perris feature victory was his 45th overall in USAC National Sprint Car competition.
Bacon and the Dynamics, Inc. team unloaded with a fast piece right from the get-go, first by recording the best lap during Wednesday night’s open practice. Starting sixth in the 30-lap feature, Bacon wasted little time in showing that they were up to the task.
Methodically marching up through the field one-by-one, Brady picked off one spot per lap throughout the first five circuits. On the fifth lap, Bacon used a drive to wedge a path into the lead entering turn three in front of Robert Ballou. However, Ballou defied the change of position for a moment as he turned down underneath Bacon to regain the position.
Bacon’s second try became the second verse, different from the first, as he roared past on the back straightaway on lap six to take over, retain and maintain the lead from there on out.
With the lap count dwindling to six laps remaining, Bacon controlled the remote, dialing up a 3.609-second lead over second-running Max Adams, who was in the midst of his best career USAC sprint car run.
But that advantage was wiped out when fourth-place Jake Swanson crashed in turn four.
Bacon scooted away from Adams on the lap-26 restart, while Ballou and Grant exchanged a bevy of sliders in a duel for third with Ballou escaping back into the spot just prior to the yellow flag for Kyle Edwards who climbed the turn-four wall.
Adams subsequently slipped above the cushion in turn two on the lap 28 restart, handing over two pieces of real estate to Ballou and Grant who promptly zoomed past. Grant surpassed Ballou for second at the entry to turn three with the white flag being waved just ahead on the horizon.
Meanwhile, Leary streamed a path past Adams along the inside berm in turns three and four to gain fifth.
Still, the race wasn’t over as Brody Roa tangled with the turn-four wall.
“I was getting nervous with all those restarts at the end,” Bacon relayed. “I just felt like something was going to happen – a tire going down or me messing up on the start and opening the door for somebody to slide me. But luckily, that didn’t happen.”
Bacon, the four-time USAC National Sprint Car driving champion, drove away on the final restart, beating Grant to the checkered flag by .959 seconds.
Leary rounded out the podium in third while Ballou landed fourth. Reigning Oval Nationals champion Kevin Thomas Jr. mounted an excellent charge from 13th to fifth to round out the top five.
Boxscore
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship and AMSOIL USAC-CRA Sprint Car Series, Perris Auto Speedway, Perris, Calif., Nov. 3, 2022
FATHEADZ EYEWEAR / WOODLAND AUTO DISPLAY QUALIFYING: 1. C.J. Leary, 77m, Michael-16.347; 2. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-16.459; 3. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-16.461; 4. Jason McDougal, 22AZ, Team AZ-16.559; 5. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-16.583; 6. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-16.606; 7. Damion Gardner, 1, Alexander-16.646; 8. Sterling Cling, 34, Cling-16.647; 9. Max Adams, 73, Ford-16.661; 10. Kevin Thomas Jr., 17GP, Dutcher-16.717; 11. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall Newman-16.786; 12. Matt Mitchell, 37, Mitchell-16.786; 13. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-16.801; 14. Jadon Rogers, 14, Engler-16.830; 15. Cody Williams, 44, Williams-16.836; 16. Austin Williams, 2, Williams-16.877; 17. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-16.901; 18. Brody Roa, 91R, BR-16.965; 19. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-16.972; 20. Chris Bonneau, 15, Bonneau-16.977; 21. Logan Seavey, 42, Cheney-17.005; 22. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-17.010; 23. Danny Sheridan, 12A, Allen-17.071; 24. Ricky Lewis, 41, Stensland/Halley-17.126; 25. Tommy Malcolm, 5x, Napier-17.159; 26. Chris Gansen, 4G, Gansen-17.168; 27. Austin Grabowski, 72, Grabowski-17.175; 28. Daniel Whitley, 3F, Finkenbinder-17.176; 29. R.J. Johnson, 51, Johnson-17.245; 30. Logan Calderwood, 6, Calderwood-17.321; 31. Matt McCarthy, 28m, McCarthy-17.358; 32. Verne Sweeney, 98, Tracy-17.366; 33. Kyle Edwards, 39E, Edwards-17.407; 34. Logan Williams, 5w, McCarthy-17.422; 35. A.J. Bender, 21, Bender-17.471; 36. Jake Neal, 214, Kracht-17.489; 37. Chase Johnson, 8m, May-17.569; 38. Troy DeGaton, 39T, DeGaton-18.050; 39. Nate Schank, 1$, Schank-18.063; 40. Dan Taylor, T5, Taylor-18.243.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS / FLOWDYNAMICS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Jake Swanson, 2. Max Adams, 3. Matt Westfall, 4. Justin Grant, 5. C.J. Leary, 6. R.J. Johnson, 7. Tommy Malcolm, 8. Logan Seavey, 9. Chase Johnson, 10. Kyle Edwards. 2:47.24
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) / BILLSJERKY.NET SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Brody Roa, 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Robert Ballou, 5. Eddie Tafoya, 6. Chris Gansen, 7. Jadon Rogers, 8. Logan Calderwood, 9. Logan Williams, 10. Troy DeGaton. 2:50.96
PIT STOP USA / IN MEMORY OF JIM & CHET GARDNER THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Charles Davis Jr., 2. Emerson Axsom, 3. Mitchel Moles, 4. Cody Williams, 5. Damion Gardner, 6. A.J. Bender, 7. Danny Sheridan, 8. Austin Grabowski, 9. Nate Schank, 10. Matt McCarthy. 2:51.69
ROD END SUPPLY / LASERWORX MANUFACTURING FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Matt Mitchell, 2. Austin Williams, 3. Jason McDougal, 4. Ricky Lewis, 5. Chris Bonneau, 6. Verne Sweeney, 7. Daniel Whitley, 8. Jake Neal, 9. Dan Taylor, 10. Sterling Cling. NT
C MAIN: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the semi-feature) 1. Verne Sweeney, 2. A.J. Bender, 3. Logan Williams, 4. Chase Johnson, 5. Nate Schank, 6. Kyle Edwards, 7. Jake Neal, 8. Troy DeGaton. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS / FACTORY WRAPS SEMI: (12 laps, top-8 transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Tommy Malcolm, 3. Jadon Rogers, 4. Damion Gardner, 5. Logan Seavey, 6. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 7. R.J. Johnson, 8. Chase Johnson, 9. Chris Gansen, 10. Austin Grabowski, 11. Logan Williams, 12. A.J. Bender, 13. Logan Calderwood, 14. Matt McCarthy, 15. Danny Sheridan, 16. Daniel Whitley, 17. Verne Sweeney, 18. Chris Bonneau. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Brady Bacon (6), 2. Justin Grant (3), 3. C.J. Leary (11), 4. Robert Ballou (2), 5. Kevin Thomas Jr. (13), 6. Max Adams (1), 7. Emerson Axsom (14), 8. Jadon Rogers (16), 9. Logan Seavey (19), 10. Jason McDougal (4), 11. Damion Gardner (12), 12. Matt Westfall (15), 13. Cody Williams (17), 14. Austin Williams (18), 15. Ricky Lewis (21), 16. Brody Roa (9), 17. Tommy Malcolm (22), 18. Eddie Tafoya Jr. (20), 19. R.J. Johnson (23), 20. Chris Gansen (25-P), 21. Kyle Edwards (26-P), 22. Jake Swanson (8), 23. Chase Johnson (24), 24. Mitchel Moles (5), 25. Charles Davis Jr. (10), 26. Matt Mitchell (7). NT