WHEATLAND, MO. (Oct. 9, 2024) – Before the final week of action in the The Kubota High Limit Racing season arrived, Brad Sweet already had clinched the season championship. Now he’s added a couple of exclamation points to his title while in the Show-Me State.
ย Sweet followed up his Tuesday-night triumph at I-70 Speedway in Odessa with a convincing feature victory on Wednesday at Lucas Oil Speedway’s Diamond Classic. The Grass Valley, Calif., Winged Sprint veteran led 31 of 35 laps to earn $25,000 in the makeup of an event rained out at Wheatland on June 29th.
ย “I’m really excited that we got to come back to Lucas Oil and complete the event,” Sweet said after his ninth Kubota High Limit Racing feature win of the season. “Thanks to the crowd for coming out on a Wednesday night.”
ย Courtney, the Night 1 Diamond Classic winner on June 28 before severe weather wiped out the action the next night, couldn’t quite pull off the delayed sweep. The Indianapolis resident said a poor first part of the race left him too much work to do. He settled for $10,000.
ย “I think we were a little bit better here earlier in the year,” Courtney said. “We got good at the end of the feature. We went from the pole to sixth or seventh and just had to dig deep. That last yellow, it was nice to start behind Brad, but clean air was a huge factor. They’ve been on it, really all year. Congrats to Brad and their whole team.”
ย Sweet, starting outside Courtney on row one, sprinted to the lead as the green flew and set the pace through four laps, with fourth-starting Ryan Timms running second. A red flag came out after Brent Marks flipped his car on the backstretch to halt the action.
ย Action settled into a rhythm after the restart with Sweet holding on to a narrow lead until lap 10, when Timms took over the lead with an outside pass out of turn two. The 18-year-old Timms had a .069-second lead when action was stopped again on lap 13 as Kerry Madsen hit the wall in turn four.
ย During the caution, Timms pulled into the hot pits to surrender the lead back to Sweet for the restart on lap 14. Timms, winner of the 2023 Hockett-McMillin Memorial at Lucas Oil Speedway, had a side panel come loose and had to restart at the rear. He eventually rallied to 10th.
ย “We got a little luck there with Ryan,” Sweet said. “Sometimes it falls your way. I got control of the race and kind of changed my lines up and tried to carry more speed.
ย “This track’s really weird. You think you’re gonna slow down and get gripped up, but it doesn’t work that way here. Figuring this track out, it’s new to a lot of us, but it’s a beautiful facility.”
ย Sweet needed only three laps to open a 1.5-second lead over Tanner Thorson with Spencer Bayston third. The trio remained in that orderย until lap 25, when Courtney moved past Bayston for third, with Sweet having opened a two-second lead over Thorson.
ย The second-running Thorsonโs chances went up in smoke on lap 27 when he slowed, fluid pouring from the motor. That elevated Courtney to second and Bayston to third with eight laps remaining.
ย Sweet had a smooth restart and held off Courtney the rest of the way, earning the victory by .825 seconds.
ย “We slumped in the middle of the season, but we’ve been strong for a while now,” Sweet said. “It’s nice to get the wins. The hard work pays off. It’s such a grind throughout the year. We’re gonna finish the year out strong.”
ย Two series races remain, this Friday and Saturday at the Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track.
ย Bayston wound up third with Corey Day fourth and Kasey Kahne fifth.
ย “We’ve been clicking them off,” Bayston said after his fifth straight top-five High Limit Racing feature finish. “Everything is kind of flowing right now and we’re unloading fast. It’s been fun.
ย “We had a really good car on that last restart and had the top to myself, but (Courtney) took it away from us but we’ll be happy to take home a top-three and continue this streak.”
ย Cory Eliason of Visalia, Calif., set the fast qualifying time with a lap of 12.957 seconds, just off the track record of 12.829 set by Rico Abreu on June 29th of this year.
ย LUCAS OIL SPEEDWAY RESULTS (Oct. 9, 2024)
Kubota High Limit Racing Diamond Classic
410 Winged Sprints
A Feature – . 49-Brad Sweet[2]; 2. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[1]; 3. 5-Spencer Bayston[3]; 4. 14-Corey Day[6]; 5. 9-Kasey Kahne[7]; 6. 24-Rico Abreu[10]; 7. 99-Skylar Gee[8]; 8. 83-James McFadden[22]; 9. 10-Ryan Timms[4]; 10. 13-Justin Peck[16]; 11. 87-Aaron Reutzel[17]; 12. 26-Zeb Wise[23]; 13. 27-Emerson Axsom[19]; 14. 55-Chris Windom[12]; 15. 1-Brenham Crouch[9]; 16. 8-Cory Eliason[21]; 17. 40-Howard Moore[18]; 18. 45X-Jace Park[15]; 19. 88-Tanner Thorson[5]; 20. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[20]; 21. 55V-Kerry Madsen[11]; 22. 12X-Kameron Key[14]; 23. 19-Brent Marks[13]; 24. 17GP-Scott Bogucki[24]
ย B Main – 1. 8-Cory Eliason[2]; 2. 83-James McFadden[1]; 3. 26-Zeb Wise[6]; 4. 17GP-Scott Bogucki[3]; 5. 23-Garet Williamson[5]; 6. 74-Xavier Doney[11]; 7. 21-Brian Brown[4]; 8. 24S-Logan Seavey[8]; 9. 16T-Cole Macedo[7]; 10. 1A-Jacob Allen[13]; 11. 9P-Parker Price Miller[9]; 12. 44-Chris Martin[15]; 13. 21R-Gunner Ramey[10]; 14. 36-Jason Martin[14]; 15. 14N-Kevin Newton[16]; 16. 73-Scotty Thiel[12]
ย Dash – 1. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[2]; 2. 49-Brad Sweet[1]; 3. 5-Spencer Bayston[4]; 4. 10-Ryan Timms[3]; 5. 88-Tanner Thorson[5]; 6. 14-Corey Day[8]; 7. 9-Kasey Kahne[6]; 8. 99-Skylar Gee[7]
ย Heat 1 – 1. 9-Kasey Kahne[2]; 2. 1-Brenham Crouch[3]; 3. 55V-Kerry Madsen[1]; 4. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[4]; 5. 87-Aaron Reutzel[5]; 6. 17GP-Scott Bogucki[7]; 7. 23-Garet Williamson[6]; 8. 9P-Parker Price Miller[9]; 9. 1A-Jacob Allen[8]
ย Heat 2 – 1. 14-Corey Day[1]; 2. 99-Skylar Gee[2]; 3. 19-Brent Marks[3]; 4. 45X-Jace Park[6]; 5. 27-Emerson Axsom[8]; 6. 83-James McFadden[4]; 7. 16T-Cole Macedo[7]; 8. 74-Xavier Doney[5]; 9. 44-Chris Martin[9]
ย Heat 3 – 1. 49-Brad Sweet[4]; 2. 10-Ryan Timms[2]; 3. 55-Chris Windom[3]; 4. 12X-Kameron Key[6]; 5. 40-Howard Moore[7]; 6. 21-Brian Brown[8]; 7. 24S-Logan Seavey[5]; 8. 73-Scotty Thiel[9]; 9. 8-Cory Eliason[1]
ย Heat 4 – 1. 5-Spencer Bayston[1]; 2. 24-Rico Abreu[2]; 3. 88-Tanner Thorson[4]; 4. 13-Justin Peck[3]; 5. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[6]; 6. 26-Zeb Wise[5]; 7. 21R-Gunner Ramey[7]; 8. 36-Jason Martin[9]; 9. 14N-Kevin Newton[8]
ย Qualifying Group A – 1. 55V-Kerry Madsen, 00:12.976[8]; 2. 14-Corey Day, 00:12.978[13]; 3. 9-Kasey Kahne, 00:13.002[2]; 4. 99-Skylar Gee, 00:13.074[10]; 5. 1-Brenham Crouch, 00:13.081[9]; 6. 19-Brent Marks, 00:13.102[3]; 7. 87-Aaron Reutzel, 00:13.107[14]; 8. 74-Xavier Doney, 00:13.199[11]; 9. 23-Garet Williamson, 00:13.241[4]; 10. 45X-Jace Park, 00:13.270[5]; 11. 17GP-Scott Bogucki, 00:13.287[12]; 12. 16T-Cole Macedo, 00:13.338[6]; 13. 1A-Jacob Allen, 00:13.414[16]; 14. 27-Emerson Axsom, 00:13.544[1]; 15. 9P-Parker Price Miller, 00:13.614[7]; 16. 44-Chris Martin, 00:14.046[15]
ย Qualifying Group B – 1. 8-Cory Eliason, 00:12.957[1]; 2. 5-Spencer Bayston, 00:13.013[10]; 3. 10-Ryan Timms, 00:13.032[16]; 4. 24-Rico Abreu, 00:13.160[6]; 5. 55-Chris Windom, 00:13.162[7]; 6. 13-Justin Peck, 00:13.175[3]; 7. 24S-Logan Seavey, 00:13.185[8]; 8. 26-Zeb Wise, 00:13.257[12]; 9. 12X-Kameron Key, 00:13.279[11]; 10. 3-Ayrton Gennetten, 00:13.308[4]; 11. 40-Howard Moore, 00:13.329[15]; 12. 21R-Gunner Ramey, 00:13.352[14]; 13. 21-Brian Brown, 00:13.380[5]; 14. 14N-Kevin Newton, 00:13.458[13]; 15. 73-Scotty Thiel, 00:13.715[2]; 16. 36-Jason Martin, 00:13.758[9]
ย Monster Trucks Eve of Destruction next: The final event of 2024 at Lucas Oil Speedway is set for Saturday, Oct. 19. It’s the O’Reilly Auto Parts Monster Trucks – Eve of Destruction. Ten of the nation’s top trucks will be on hand with a Monster Truck Backflip, Pit Party with a drivers’ autograph session at 4:15, Mighty Monster Bus Ride Truck and Trick or Treating included in the program. Fans of all ages are encouraged to dress up in Halloween costumes.
ย Gates will open at 4:30 with the program at 7.
ย Advance discount tickets are available at O’Reilly Auto Parts Stores or online.
ย *Advance Tickets:
Adults (13 and up) $27
Seniors (62 and up)/Military $24
Youth (6-12) $17
Kids (5 and under) FREE
*Applicable fees may apply
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Day of Show Tickets
Adults (13 and up) $30
Seniors (62 and up)/Military $27
Youth (6-12) $20
Kids (5 and under) FREE
Family Pass $80
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For ticket or camping information on any Lucas Oil Speedway event, contact Admissions Director Nichole McMillan at (417) 295-6043 or via email at nmcmillan@lucasoilspeedway.com.
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For information about Lucas Oil Speedway, including schedules, point standings and other news, please visit LucasOilSpeedway.com.