Bellm Rallies to Another Runner-up Finish
NIXA, Mo. (June 1, 2017) – Kyle Bellm and the Resource Asset Management Solutions (RAMS) No. 14k Sprint Car team have been at the mercy of Mother Nature in recent weeks. And she has shown little mercy.
After the events of the May 19-20 weekend were completely washed out, last weekend’s scheduled Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour double in Colorado was an early victim to weather as well.
Scanning the skies, Bellm and the PPG Automotive Finishes/Colorvision team opted for nearby ASCS Warrior Region competition at Lake Ozark Speedway and Double X Speedway.
Lake Ozark fell victim to rain, but Bellm finally got back on track on Sunday in the VP Racing Fuels/Schure Built Suspensions at California’s Double X Speedway.
“It kind of worked out for the best, that’s a race I was really wanting to be at,” Bellm said of the Salute to Jesse Hockett and Daniel McMillin event.
And, if not for a faulty valve stem, Bellm just may have posted the win in the event held in the memory of his fallen friends. He very nearly pulled it off anyway, rallying from eighth to post his second consecutive runner-up finish aboard the Christian County Collision Repair/Bybee Lawn Care entry.
“We had an issue with the valve stem in the right front tire in the heat race,” Bellm says. “It wasn’t completely flat, but it was close.”
Despite the deflating right front, Bellm climbed from eighth to fifth in his heat to earn the tenth starting position in the feature event. Bellm then moved up to eighth in the grid when another car went tailback.
The opening laps didn’t go as planned. “We were a little tight early,” Bellm recalls. “In fact, I biked it in three and four and fell back to around 12th or so.”
The car came around though, and Bellm soon had the Schaeffer Oil/Prater Designs/The Engine Heater machine on the move.
“We were up to fifth when there was a restart with about 12 laps to go,” Bellm says.
Bellm wasted little time charging up to second, but ran out of time to chase down eventual race winner Jonathan Cornell.
“Cornell had a lot of lapped cars between him and us,” Bellm says. “By the time I got to second, I still had about three lapped cars to get by. We just ran out of time.”
It was another strong night for Bellm with his fourth top-five finish in the last six outings. “We had to fight our way through, we have to feel good about a second-place finish,” Bellm says.
Tentative plans call for Bellm and the No. 14k team to be in ASCS Warrior Region action at Eldon, Missouri’s Lake Ozark Speedway on Saturday night.
2017 Quick Stats: 10 races, 4 top-fives, 4 top-tens.
Up Next: ASCS Warrior Region at Lake Ozark Speedway (Eldon, MO) on Saturday night.
Keep Track: Keep track of Kyle Bellm’s on-track action including schedule and results athttp://www.kylebellm.com/, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/
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Penning the recurring series of “The Wheatley Chronicles” articles onwww.sprintcarmania.com, Lonnie Wheatley provides media, public relations and more for select tracks, drivers and events. For more information, Wheatley may be contacted at lonniewheatley@gmail.com.
Sources: Lonnie Wheatley/Kyle Bellm PR