Lonnie Wheatley, PARK CITY, Kan. (July 22, 2023) – Neither a field of American Sprint Car Series National Championship competitors nor Mother Nature could stop Jason Martin at 81 Speedway on Saturday night.
After the Liberal, KS, native narrowly beat Mother Nature to the stripe atop the 3/8-mile clay oval little more than a month ago, the current series points leader landed the pole position for the night’s 25-lap feature event.
And after pushing the show along with a pop-up storm approaching, the feature field that took to the track at 8:30 p.m. was shuttled back to the pit area when Mother Nature played her card by dousing the Speedway.
A determined track crew got the track race-ready after the downpour and three hours later Martin led the way to the green flag with Matt Covington alongside atop a juiced-up 81 Speedway. Martin won the drag race to the first turn and then denied a Covington bid for the point in traffic near the midway point to secure his seventh series win of the season and tenth overall aboard the Rezac Concrete/Bybee Electric No. 36 Sprint Car.
“The track crew did an amazing job getting this track back in such great shape after that rain,” Martin commented in victory lane. “It was fast. Traffic got tricky, there was such a big speed differential.”
With Martin pacing the early circuits, Covington nipped at his heels until lapped traffic came into play after a handful of rounds with Jake Bubak and Jordon Mallett within striking distance as well.
Covington poked his nose underneath Martin exiting turn four on the 11th circuit, but to no avail as Martin powered back into command.
A final batch of lapped traffic loomed in the closing circuits only to have a caution fly with six laps remaining. With nothing but clear track ahead, there was no stopping Martin the rest of the way as Covington settled for runner-up honors aboard the Missile Motorsports/Reece Construction Company No. 95.
“I needed to beat him to turn one on the start, but I got in there a little too high where it was still a little slimy,” Covington explained. “Then I had a shot there in four in traffic, but he shut the door on that.”
With leading points-runners Martin and Covington finishing one-two, Arkansas shoe Mallett took advantage of Bubak on the lap 20 restart to claim the final podium position aboard the Awakening Foundation No. 14.
“It was all about getting track position,” Mallett said of the late move into third.
Bubak crossed the stripe fourth aboard the Ochs Brothers No. 1x with Howard Moore climbing a handful of positions to round out the top five aboard the Rains’ No. 3. Brandon Anderson was sixth with Don Droud, Jr., 15th-starter Christopher Townsend, fast qualifier Tim Estenson and Whit Gastineau completing the top ten.
The feature went red on the second round when Fred Mattox lost a turn three encounter with the retaining wall and got upside down with the caution then appearing after 19 laps when Landon Britt spun to a stop in turn four after taking evasive action to avoid significant contact with a crossed-up competitor.
After Estenson established the night’s quick time 14.348-seconds in group qualifying, Droud, Jr., Britt and Martin scored heat race wins.
ASCS National Championship
81 Speedway (Park City, KS)
July 22, 2023, Results:
A-Main (25 Laps): 1. 36-Jason Martin[2]; 2. 95-Matt Covington[1]; 3. 14-Jordon Mallett[4]; 4. 1X-Jake Bubak[3]; 5. 3-Howard Moore[10]; 6. 55B-Brandon Anderson[7]; 7. 1M-Don Droud Jr[5]; 8. 6-Christopher Townsend[15]; 9. 14T-Tim Estenson[9]; 10. 2W-Whit Gastineau[11]; 11. 45X-Kyler Johnson[12]; 12. 10C-Jeremy Campbell[18]; 13. 10-Landon Britt[6]; 14. 9$-Kyle Clark[19]; 15. 2-Chase Porter[8]; 16. 7C-Chris Morgan[23]; 17. 31-Casey Wills[22]; 18. 31M-Eric Matthews[16]; 19. 10X-Jordan Knight[17]; 20. 97-Kevin Cummings[20]; 21. 23K-Mike Kleymann[24]; 22. 26M-Fred Mattox[14]; 23. 12-Jeffrey Newell[13]; 24. 13-Elijah Gile[21]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 1M-Don Droud Jr[1]; 2. 14-Jordon Mallett[2]; 3. 55B-Brandon Anderson[6]; 4. 2-Chase Porter[3]; 5. 14T-Tim Estenson[4]; 6. 10X-Jordan Knight[7]; 7. 13-Elijah Gile[5]; 8. (DNS) 23K-Mike Kleymann
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 10-Landon Britt[1]; 2. 1X-Jake Bubak[3]; 3. 2W-Whit Gastineau[2]; 4. 12-Jeffrey Newell[5]; 5. 3-Howard Moore[4]; 6. 10C-Jeremy Campbell[6]; 7. 9$-Kyle Clark[7]; 8. 31-Casey Wills[8]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 36-Jason Martin[3]; 2. 95-Matt Covington[4]; 3. 45X-Kyler Johnson[2]; 4. 26M-Fred Mattox[5]; 5. 6-Christopher Townsend[6]; 6. 31M-Eric Matthews[8]; 7. 97-Kevin Cummings[7]; 8. 7C-Chris Morgan[1]
Qualifying 1 (3 Laps): 1. 14T-Tim Estenson, 00:14.348[7]; 2. 2-Chase Porter, 00:14.455[1]; 3. 14-Jordon Mallett, 00:14.457[5]; 4. 1M-Don Droud Jr, 00:14.463[3]; 5. 13-Elijah Gile, 00:14.593[6]; 6. 55B-Brandon Anderson, 00:14.722[8]; 7. 10X-Jordan Knight, 00:15.082[4]; 8. 23K-Mike Kleymann, 00:15.082[2]
Qualifying 2 (3 Laps): 1. 3-Howard Moore, 00:14.479[4]; 2. 1X-Jake Bubak, 00:14.533[8]; 3. 2W-Whit Gastineau, 00:14.572[5]; 4. 10-Landon Britt, 00:14.583[2]; 5. 12-Jeffrey Newell, 00:14.654[3]; 6. 10C-Jeremy Campbell, 00:14.676[7]; 7. 9$-Kyle Clark, 00:14.723[1]; 8. 31-Casey Wills, 00:15.297[6]
Qualifying 3 (3 Laps): 1. 95-Matt Covington, 00:14.548[7]; 2. 36-Jason Martin, 00:14.634[5]; 3. 45X-Kyler Johnson, 00:14.756[3]; 4. 7C-Chris Morgan, 00:14.867[6]; 5. 26M-Fred Mattox, 00:14.996[8]; 6. 6-Christopher Townsend, 00:15.005[2]; 7. 97-Kevin Cummings, 00:16.095[4]; 8. 31M-Eric Matthews, 00:16.125[1]