SHEPHERD, MT (August 24, 2024) – One year ago, Jake Bubak pocketed $12,012 for winning Big Sky Speedway’s Harvey Ostermiller Memorial under the ASCS Frontier Region banner.
With the race joining the American Sprint Car Series National Tour calendar in 2024, Bubak had a field full of the best 360 Sprint Car drivers in the nation to fend off, but none of them could stop him from taking his second win in a row in the event.
“It was challenging, I’m glad I started on the front row,” Bubak said following his fifth National Tour win. “With this car the last two months, we’ve been really solid. We ran well at the 360 [Knoxville] Nationals. I knew we could compete with these guys.”
Bubak won his second Dash in as many nights to claim the pole for the 30-lap Feature. The bottom lane was dominant early, as Bubak made a beeline for the inside berm in the first set of corners along with the rest of the top five.
Jason Martin started second and was the first to try the top side on Lap 2. He briefly caught Bubak’s rear bumper before slipping up in Turn 3, allowing Bubak to drive away to a half-second advantage.
Half a lap later, Martin’s quest for his first podium finish since Dodge City Raceway Park on June 1 came to screeching halt when he got upside down in Turn 2. The incident gave the second spot to Zach Blurton, who kept pace with Bubak in the laps following the ensuing restart.
While Blurton was busy plotting a move on Bubak, Frontier Region point leader Phil Dietz was busy holding off two of the National Tour’s biggest stars in Seth Bergman and Sam Hafertepe Jr. for the third spot. He held on until Lap 12, when Bergman powered around Dietz’s outside exiting Turn 4 and Hafertepe followed him through three laps later.
With seven laps remaining, Bradley Fezard came to a stop while running 19th to bring out the caution. A perfect restart allowed Bubak to keep the lead, but trouble for Kory Wermling and Brandon Anderson two laps later ereased his advantage once more.
On what would be the final restart of the race, Bubak was off like a rocket through Turns 1 and 2 and drove away to a 1.5-second win at the checkered flag.
The Feature was marred by strong winds thoughout the race, something Bubak believes was critical to him securing the victory.
“The wind affected the track so much,” Bubak said. “The track was in good shape, I think without the wind it would have been really fun. Just the way it would blow you off the end of Turn 2, it was pretty difficult and just best to be in the lead at that point.”
Runner-up Blurton went through the first 16 races of the season without a top five, but has now picked up two podiums in eight days, completely flipping his outlook on the remainder of the season.
“Last night, we just struggled so so bad and I thought maybe the weekend before was just a fluke,” Blurton said. “I’m looking forward to next weekend and the rest of the year. I almost wish we could start the year back over with what we know now.”
While Bergman came up two spots short of sweeping the weekend in Billings, the third-place run extended his lead over Hafertepe to 103 points entering the second half of the Montana swing at Electric City Speedway next weekend.
“Sam’s a great race car driver, he’s got a great team, definitely doesn’t make it easy,” Bergman said. “We’re doing our job too to try and stay on top here, and to have weekends like this where you don’t finish off the podium is what we’ve got to do if we want to see this championship through.”
Hafertepe finished one spot behind Bergman in fourth to minimize the harm in the title chase, while Kyler Johnson drove from 17th to fifth to collect the Triple X Hard Charger Award and his first top five since the second race of the year at Red Dirt Raceway.
UP NEXT: The ASCS National Tour concludes its trip to Montana at Electric City Speedway in Great Falls with the Montana Roundup on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 30-31. Tickets are available for purchase in advance here, while those unable to make it to the track can catch every lap live on DIRTVision.
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 27B-Jake Bubak[1]; 2. 2J-Zach Blurton[4]; 3. 23-Seth Bergman[5]; 4. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[9]; 5. 45X-Kyler Johnson[17]; 6. 2C-Hank Davis[8]; 7. 2JR-Kelly Miller[16]; 8. 95-Matt Covington[13]; 9. 72-Phil Dietz[3]; 10. 5H-Harli White[14]; 11. 28-Joe Perry[6]; 12. 01-Rich Bailey[12]; 13. 88-Terry Easum[7]; 14. 6G-Bryan Gossel[21]; 15. 15D-Andrew Deal[18]; 16. 10-Landon Britt[19]; 17. 37-Trever Kirkland[10]; 18. 44-Damon McCune[22]; 19. 55B-Brandon Anderson[15]; 20. 938-Bradley Fezard[11]; 21. 16G-Austyn Gossel[20]; 22. 9K-Kory Wermling[23]; 23. 36-Jason Martin[2]